Stone Valley

Good to see the AB's managed to salvage that win! Had me worried for a second here. It's quite nice that the games are in the early afternoon here, I imagine it's a bit hard to watch them back in NZ!

I had an interesting, very American weekend. On Saturday there was a big game in town for the college football team. I think I mentioned how there are over 100,000 seats in the stadium, so there were a lot of people milling about for a town of under 20,000! It was interesting because a lot of the people who were dressed to go appeared to be middle aged people or families, presumably alumni still faithful to the sport. It's amazing how much interest there is in college sports here. I don't know if anyone goes to see Victoria University rugby games except people who know those playing.

PSU football Stadium

Anyway while I didn't have a ticket, a few of my exchange friends did and one of them was invited to go 'tailgating' with an American in one of his classes so he invited a few of us along. It's essentially a giant party in the parking lot of the stadium and the area around it where everyone drives their 'truck' (ute that is) or RV to the area and cooks some grilled food and sits around drinking beer and playing drinking games. A bit like New Years back home it seems. They started fairly early- the game was at 8 and they started around noon, but we all showed up around 4 so we were a bit late! Still, got to experience one of the great American college traditions which was great. 

Today I went to a free outdoor activities expo at the local artificial lake at Stone valley. They dammed a river near the college and made a 70-something acre lake which people can go kayaking or boating in. I went kayaking there with a few of my friends, though we arrived quite late in the afternoon as we were all watching the rugby and the shuttle going back in forth got held up, so we didn't get to spend too much time there. There is apparently also tramping there which I'll have to check out, apparently they have free shuttles there every couple of weeks during the weekend so I'll be sure to go back. I've attached a few photos I took there, it was very pretty.

Stone Valley Recreation Area

My friends went rock climbing but my shoulder's been buggered up somehow (perhaps while I was playing basketball?) so I figured I shouldn't exert myself just yet. Apparently come winter they even ice skate and ice fish on the lake. That could be interesting (though a little scary having seen Bear Grylls go on about how dangerous ice can be!)

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Washington DC

Just returned from Washington DC last night where I spent the long weekend (as it is labour weekend). We drove there in a rental car which interestingly enough was cheaper than a bus, even though the guy who was driving us was only 21. There were 5 of us in total, all exchange students. 

We arrived Friday night and checked in to our hotel.  Saturday morning we got up and after breakfast headed out on the train to the White House.  It was smaller than I expected but still quite impressive.  There were a lot of crazy types standing in front of it protesting various things and warning us of the impending apocalypse.

The White House

After that we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  It was huge and we didn't have time to see everything, but they had a very impressive collection of various rocks and minerals and a taxidermy collection of pretty much every animal in existence. 

Library of Congress

Inside the Library of Congress

This took us through to dinner.  We ate at a nice Chinese restaurant and then went off to see the Washington monument at night- much bigger than I thought it was, and then the Lincoln memorial. Both were perhaps more impressive at night as they stood out more and were completely lit up.

The Lincoln Memorial

Six metre high Lincoln

We made it back to our hotel very late that night and I was feeling quite sick (I have somehow managed to catch a cold) so I opted out of the early morning trip up the Washington monument- apparently you can take an elevator up it and get some nice views of DC.  The others got up at 6 to go wait in line for it while I slept in a bit to try and feel a bit better.  The pictures they took were very impressive but I think it was worth it for me to have the extra rest.

The Washington Monument

We then had brunch and hopped in the car off to the zoo.  This was an absolutely massive free zoo with basically every animal imaginable (including a kiwi!) though a lot of them were asleep, understandably as it was incredibly hot (31-32 degrees C).  By the end of this I was feeling dreadful so they dropped me off at the hotel while they went off to another museum.  I got about 12 hours sleep which was nice but apparently the museum was really good so it was a shame to miss that.

Add caption

On Monday we stopped off at the Arlington National Cemetery, where over 400,000 US soldiers are buried, as well as many notable people such as JFK and his brothers.  It's also the site of America's Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and the Iwo Jima statue.

Iwo Jima Statue

After this we headed home and arrived about 9 pm.

All together a very interesting trip, though would have been much better if I weren't so sick!

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