New York to DC.

i left new york city yesterday. it was a whirlwind, to say the least. i was there for about nine days. my group stayed at a hostel in Manhattan called Hostelling International. the first floor/lobby was really nice and hip. there was a nice room with couches and a wii and a little cafe that sold breakfast and lunch foods. they also had coffee, but i was never brave enough to try it. i'm such a snob...that's what seattle will do to you. unfortunately, the next few floors were a different story. we were on the third floor and we all gasped as we walked into our room. there were 8 beds, 4 sets of bunkbeds. there were also 8 small lockers along the wall and a chair crammed in the corner. there was probably three feet of walking space in the middle of the room. it was so small that we didn't even have a place for all the suitcases. some girls had their suitcases at the end of their beds and others had them on top of the lockers. luckily we had one extra bed which we used for storage of luggage. even worse than the cramped room was the bathroom. there was mold on the sinks and in the showers, tiles were coming loose in the showers and they were clogged so when you showered, they overflowed and stuff was floating in the water. not to mention there was a sign hanging up that read "please notify us if the bathroom needs cleaning," meaning it was not regularly cleaned.

after all of that, on our first night in the hostel, we heard a mouse in someones bag at three in the morning. it had chewed a hole in a plastic bag and we all heard it. no one knew what to do, so we basically freaked out for a while until we called the front desk and they finally sent someone up with mouse traps. the next day, we got what we like to call "the mouserator." it sends out high frequency sounds to keep the mice and rats away. it has worked quite well and kept the mice at bay.

new york city is so large, that i feel like i barely saw anything, but i saw so much! we walked through central park to get to the metropolitan museum of art, which was so cool. there was so much to see there, but i only saw a little over half of it. i can't even list everything we saw, because i don't remember it all. i really enjoyed my time there though, for the most part. i definitely think i could live there, at least for a year or two, but not for much longer than that. it was so high energy, that it was almost draining, but it was still a lot of fun.

yesterday, we took the train from new york down to DC. we passed the train that Obama was on - from philly to DC. there were secret service guys standing at all the entrances to the train and there was a huge crowd just waiting to see the train he was on. it was really crazy. once we got here, we came straight to the hostel. luckily, it is much cleaner than the one in new york was, and the room is a lot bigger so we have more space. there are sirens going off constantly because of all the politicians and the like that need police escorts. there are cops everywhere! i went to a souvenir shop today and they have the most random stuff, like obama nail clippers, obama coloring book, pens, pencils, bells, spoons, mugs, posters, shirts, sweatshirts, banners, ribbons, and all sorts of other stuff. the only accurate way to describe it is 'obama madness.' the energy here is insane, but i love it! i am so excited that i get to be a part of this historic inauguration. i've been all for Obama since before he even announced his candidacy for president. i can't believe this date has actually come!