DC - Take One

We had great intentions to be in DC by 9am, well we woke up at 9am promptly rolled over and went back to sleep. I guess that the jet lag still hasn't worn off. So we had a half day in DC instead. Today Aaron and I rode a train for the first time in our lives (unless you count Thunder Mountain in Disneyland). We took the MARC train from Penn station in Baltimore to Union Station in DC. Not a bad trip, we might do this train thing to New York next month.

Our first stop in Dc was the the National Art Gallery. At first we were disappointed, it was a four story building with some random swirrly paintings and strange modern art. Not quite the national gallery we expected. However, Aaron and I were wowed by our favorite painting of the day "Mound of Butter". Aaron thinks it speaks to man's inhumanity to man ( but he said that for every painting). I thought it looked delicious, like buttah.

So we got lost in this art gallery and ended up in the west building which was more of what we expected. Large marble statues, huge ancient tapestries, and, of course, lots of naked people. This gallery was really cool, but we ended up walking past so much amazing art that we kind of became immune to it all unless we found something truly famous (Rodin's 'The Thinker') or funny (Baptiste's 'Head of a Bull').

We then braved some of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It is amazing that this whole museum evolved over millions of years, complete with exhibit descriptions in several languages. Evolution's a crazy thing. We saw the Hope Diamond, gems, rocks, and a whole lot of other schist (thanks to both of you that got that joke). However, we got hungry and decided to brave the Smithsonian Museum of Overpriced Food. I don't recommend this exhibit as much.

We ended the day by listening to some jazz music in the sculpture garden. Very cool. More modern art, large strange statues (including a big, blank steel circle called "Steel"), and more of these strange plants with leaves. The statue to the right is not Rodin's "The Thinker" but rather Rodent's "The Thinker." We sat for about a half hour in front of a huge stagnant pond trying to figure out why there wasn't a naked cherub on a dolphin spitting water out of his lute in the middle of this thing. Someone next to us told us this becomes an ice skating rink during the winter. They then told us what an ice skating rink was.

We had fun and plan to go back a few more times to see everything. We're even getting braver and walking around downtown Baltimore at dusk. Maybe tomorrow we'll stay on the streets until 8:00. Ooooooh! That is if our boys in the Ethiopian mafia back us up.

Love, Aaron and Charity

Baltimorons

To answer a couple of quick questions that were posed.

1) Yes, Chan, there is no trip and this is all faked on a sound set. In fact, we're using the same one that NASA used to fake the moon landing.

2) Daniel, we've decided to be neither cryps nor bloods. Instead we will be part of the Ethiopian mafia.

I survived my orientation marathon, it was touch and go there for a while, but I made it. it was pretty much a mini nursing school all over again. Today I demonstrated my proficency in various nursing skills, including the care of a patient with a tracheostomy. If I have to take care of a laboring woman with a hole in her neck I am in big trouble. All and all it has been a long week and we are looking forward to a long weekend of exploring our new city.

So anyway, we just got back from an Orioles game at the famous Camden Yards. Very cool stadium. The team, not so much. But it was fun. We went to Boogs BBQ which is famous for various meats and flat beer, as well as the owner who used to be the third baseman. It was a great game, mainly because we left in the 5th inning. We knew we had seen enough when we saw the 9 month old with a mohawk. Really, what else is there to see after that?

We are well on our way to really knowing the city and being comfortable here. But don't worry, we don't have plans to move here for good. We're just enjoying learning our way around and becoming true Baltimorean . . . Baltimorites . . . Baltimorons? Uh . . . people who know their way around Baltimore.

We'll send lots of pics from DC and we plan to bring you all a small souveneir of the Lincoln Memorial.

And by that, we mean a penny.

Love, Aaron and Charity

Week One

Hi Everybody! So we arrived here in Baltimore and finally got ourselves settled into our apartment/hotel/dorm. It's an old renovated hotel right down to the tacky polyester bedspread (which Charity promptly threw into a closet). It's also full of college students making it seem like a dorm, right down to the elevator that smells different everytime you get in (and never good). But all in all it is incredibly . . . adequate for what we need.

No, seriously, God has blessed us with a good place in a great neighborhood. We walk outside our front door and we're at Johns Hopkins University which is a beautiful campus. They have huge, colonial mansion-type houses all around the campus and the campus buildings themselves are huge, ornate, marble and red brick pieces of history. Charity and I really enjoy just walking around the campus.

Baltimore itself is . . . well, it's kind of like an old mangy dog that even though it needs to be put down, you can still find reasons why it's worth keeping around. It's a really cool city, but it can go from really nice to really ghetto in 1 block. And I'm talking not just ghetto, but ghe - TOOOOH. But there are cool places to see. The Inner Harbor has cool restaurants surrounding the water (real, actual water). Oh, and there's trees here with (get this) LEAVES on them. Crazy, huh? We still need to go exploring and do more touristy stuff.

Charity has not had much timre for touristy stuff because she has been in a marathon hospital orientation session that is going on day 4. And she has yet to have any orientation on her unit. Nope, 4 days of policy, procedures, and computer skills from a 70 year old techno geek. She has had no L&D orientation and still might not unless she can set it up herself by forcing her way into a shift before Tuesday when she starts on her own. But, she continues to prove to me why she is the best wife ever.

I don't start til Tuesday so not much to say about my job, except that my hospital is cool and the few people I've met are great. I've spent most of my time wandering around the city getting lost in a car, on foot, and on the mass transit system. I literally spent 2 hours trying to find a Target 5 miles from our apartment. Stupid one way streets.

But life is good. We miss you all but we're temporarily filling the void with cool sightseeing like DC this weekend.

7 weeks to go; We love you all.

Aaron and Charity