East Coast Blues.

I just got back from my winter break, and boy was it good fun. It’s always great to be able to get away from a place that you’ve been spending too long in. Now all the fun’s over and my first class of the new semester kicks off tomorrow.

I spent my winter break in Washington, DC and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It’s strange, because both places are very significant to American history and I never considered myself to be a history buff. But once again, my interest in photography got the better of me and I ended up going primarily because of the great images the cities promised me.

Washington DC is aptly named the capital of the USA simply because almost every attraction there had the word “national” in front of their label. There was the National Zoo, the National Art Museum, National Museum of the American Indian, etc. But of course we all know better. It’s the nation’s capital because the White House is there.

Philadelphia, nicknamed the “City of Brotherly Love”, didn’t really live up to my expectations. The only kind of love I thought I would have felt would have come from a policeman helping me recover from a mugging. The historic district was fine, but the other areas were practically ghetto slums like inner city Detroit. Unfortunately for me, the University of Pennsylvania, which was where I spent my nights wasn’t any safer. In fact, it seemed like the university was placed smack in the middle of the ghetto.

I guess the most satisfying part of my trip was felt by my stomach. I feasted like a king. And as expected, most of my expenses went towards feeding myself. There are Penang restaurants in both Philly and Washington. Both cities also have Chinatowns which hosts authentic Chinese eateries. So yes, I was very spoilt when it came to food.

Apart from food, the only other expenses included my airfare and accommodation in DC, so the trip was relatively cheap…NOT! I realized when I came home that I wasn’t really wise with my expenses on food. But one very cool thing about Washington DC is that pretty much all the attractions, museums, monuments etc are free. Yes, no entry fees required. But there’s one caveat though…state tax is at an obscene 10%!

I fired off a good 500+ images on my aging digital camera. I’ve processed maybe 30% of them so far. It’s a laborious task, but I must say that I’m satisfied with the results. When I’m done they’ll be up on my Pbase site for sure.

Still very much in a holiday mood, I do dread having to face school tomorrow. I’m a veteran at burning off a whole day doing nothing academic right now. But circumstances require me to do a total about face. Thus is the life of a university student.

Shalom.