Pretty Smells and Old Documents

Last night I had my first experience with Ethiopian cuisine. It wasn't my first choice, but I went with the crowd. We went with about 12 of us, and when they brought the food out, we were all a little confused at first. Everyone's order was on this big round plate. The waitress had to go around and tell which piles belonged to which person. We were also given this bread like substance-it was like a tortilla but kind of spongy-and that's what you ate with. This picture shows what the food looked like. Oh, did I mention none of this was my order? I found pasta on the menu and went with that-and was pretty satisfied too. I tried other peoples piles of varying color and consistency, it was okay.

This morning was glorious. The weather was in the 50s and for the first time I ran outside by the Capitol. It's still hard for me to believe that I'm here and all the amazing buildings are at my disposal. I could hardly keep from smiling as I circled around the Capitol and thought of how this is a nice change from running around OC and cornfields.

After lunch we headed West of the Capitol and to the Botanical Gardens and the National Archives. The gardens were pretty cool, it smelled wonderful in there. They had some pretty neat kinds of plants in there, like endanged plants, medicinal plants, and flowers and fruit producing plants. And what also made it so great was that it only took like 20 minutes to go through it all! Here are a couple pictures from inside.

The National Archives were pretty cool. It's hard to imagine that these are the documents that define us as a nation. As I looked at the Consitution especially I thought about how it has stayed relatively unchanged since it was written, while other nations have gone through many constitutions. I thought I'd try to snap a photo of me with the Constitution, but without a flash it didn't turn out great. So this is the best I have.

Okay, I know this is a long post, but I thought I'd also put up a picture of me and my roommates, I don't think I've put one up yet. Here we are in front of the Capitol. From left, me, Andrea, Mandi, Shanley, Christine, Eli.