Pearl Harbor

I saw this movie for the first time today, and it was less terrible than I was expecting. This could have been due to several factors.

1. I was locked out of my room for about 5.5 hours today, and so the 3 hours it took away from my life would have been spent doing nothing else productive.
2. I had been told that the movie was horrible--like, completely and utterly terrible, and was thus expecting to be completely disapointed. Usually when that happens, I end up at least slightly surprised, and in this case, I was even pleasantly surprised.
3. My friend who I watched the movie with edited out a scene involving parachutes...apparently it would have been too much, and is pretty infamous. Whatev, I haven't seen it, and can probably put the pieces together on my own.

So, the movie at least made me think about a few things. First, isn't it interesting how we find ourselves rooting for the good old American flyboys, and comdeming those Japanese to the abyss from which they must have crawled? I thought it was interesting that the movie let you do that by only showing the Japanese fighters preparing for a sneak attack, and when they were determined to kill Americans. When those flyboys are shooting at the planes, you don't ever see their faces, you just see the planes blow up. Now, I'm certainly not stating that I think the Japanese should have won the war, or anything like that, it brings a whole new perspective to the horrors of war though when you think about the fact that EVERY death mattered to someone, and that both sides feel the pain of the war. Americans do a good job of synthesizing this information when we're talking about the Civil War, and that's because it was 600,000 Americans who died. Just an interesting thing to think about. I don't know if we're capable of comprehending that kind of human suffering. It's difficult enough to understand the suffering of just one person over the death of someone they care about, let alone comprehending the feelings of the collective family and friends of all those who died. It's an incredibly sad thought. It brings me back to All Quiet on the Western Front. There's a quote in there where he talks about the other side being seen as robots, and as faceless ghosts. I don't think it would be possible to fight against and kill other people unless you were able to make them less than human in your mind.

The fact that the movie spurred some of these thoughts made the ending seem a bit trite. Yes, it ended up cleanly, and she got to marry the man she really loved, the man who she loved, but not as much, was still a hero, and the friends reconciled. After all the suffering they showed, it was really hard to believe the "happily ever after" feeling the end of the movie had. It was all so terribly convenient. Sad, and terrible, but convenient. Overall, the movie was better than I was expecting, but still not something I would purchase. I might watch it again...sometime, in the future, which is not soon.

Foggy Bottom School of Art

Today I joined* the Foggy Bottom school of art. Having been completely full of Potomac Fever for the past couple of days, I decided to pour my illness out onto canvas. Actually, it was great. TheGoldenMean, Yarjka and I all went exploring. We went to Ford's Theatre, saw the box in which Lincoln was shot, and then looked at some pillows that he bled on. Hrmm, that sounds less reverent than I intended. The theatre was quite cool, and I really enjoyed looking at stuff. It does make me wonder about why we have such a fascination with death. We, being society at large. It's something you don't talk about a whole lot regularly, but it seems like American Society as a whole tends to visit people's graves and see the places where they died. Odd.

Anyway, after doing that, we also walked to an art store, which happened to be having a sale. We picked up acrylic paints, canvases, paintbrushes, pallets...it was great! We then walked to the Jefferson Memorial and painted. Actually, just Yarjka and I painted, and TheGoldenMean read his book. All-in-all, it was quite pleasant. I really enjoyed just sitting outside right as the sun started to set. The weather goes from hot to medium (that was a salsa joke), and the fireflies just start coming out on the lawn. It was so picturesque, and all of us captured a little bit of it in our own interpretation.

Once we got back home, we made some fried rice, ate some flavor-ice (it's like otter pops...but not.) and now I'm blogging. It's been a good day.

Oh! This morning, I also got a free bag from the EU, and while the speaker fairly droned on for about an hour and a half, I memorized the flags of the countries within the European Union, so the time was not a total waste, and the bag was, and is, amazing.

*TheGoldenMean wishes to correct this. He claims that I helped to found it. I didn't come up with the idea, Yarjka I merely went along with it.

Washington DC Has Been Good For Me

Well, the end is approaching. It's a little hard to believe that there are only a few more weeks left, and that I've still got so much left to accomplish. Between work projects, tourism, and hanging out with people, I think that I've got most of my time scheduled between now and the end of my stay here.

Actually, come to think of it, I've got my time scheduled basically until school starts...Meh.

Anyway, I thought I should make a list of things that I've done, and things that I still want to do before I leave. That way, if it's in some organized state, I might actually accomplish all those things.

Things I've done (and loved)
-Worked in the Museum of American History
-Seen all the monuments
-Gotten a library card from the library of congress
-surfed on the metro
-walked on the steps behind the Lincoln memorial
-served food to a homeless person
-watched many, many movies
-walked at night (not unaccompanied)
-seen the white House at all different times of day and night
-watched the fireworks on the fourth of July
-Went Canoeing on the Patomic
-Rode a Boat to look at the monuments at night

Places I've visited (and also loved)
-The Museum of American History
-The Air and Space Museum
-The Museum of the American Indian
-The Hirshorn Gallery
-The Freer and Sackler Galleries
-The Holocaust Museum
-The National Aquarium at Baltimore
-Ft. McHenry
-The OAS
-The Supreme Court
-The National Archives
-Independence Hall
-Rocky's Steps
-Gettysburg
-General Pickett's Buffet
-The Museum of the National philosophical Society
-China Town

Places I still Need to Visit
-The National Gallery of Art
-The Museum of Women's Art
-The Museum of Natural History
-The National Zoo (I've been told to go early in the morning...like 6:00 am...and the animals will be out and frolicking)
-The Dulles Air and Space Museum
-The Pentagon
-Mt. Vernon
-Monticello

Things I still need to do
-Go up to the top of the Washington Monument
-Watch a movie at "Screen on the Green"
-Play Ultimate Frisbee on the National Mall
-Revisit all the monuments on one long walk

Alright, I know there's probably more that I need to do, but I'm feeling like this is a pretty good list so far. Now to hire a DC buddy to accompany me. :)