Month: January 2016

Last night I was doing laundry. That’s the process called ‘put it in the washing machine, pulled it out, hung it on a hanger.’ In the States, the pair ‘washing machine’ and ‘dryer’ is very common. In the hotel, they are coin-operated – $1.75 for 30 minutes of washing and $2.00 for an hour and a half of drying. Interestingly, after drying, the clothes don’t need to be ironed. I was absolutely thrilled) I pulled out all the shirts and tried to find the most wrinkled one to iron at least that one – fortunately, there was time. But judging by their condition, ironing is not needed at all. After a washing machine with a spin cycle, you can’t do without ironing.

In a typical American office, from what I’ve observed, the fist bump is outpacing the handshake. It varies across different regions of the USA, but in my circle, people almost never shake hands, instead compensating with smiles and a variety of verbal greetings.

Right under the hotel room’s ceiling (I had to stand on a chair to take the photo). Clearly, they took the incident with the Russian tourist into consideration 😉

I don’t know how accurate things are in American schools, but I will definitely check and write about it. Until then, I’m publishing someone else’s text, it’s just too brilliantly written 🙂

http://gradus.org/life/ребенок-и-американская-средняя-школа/

Today, I visited the Maryland side of Potomac. I was the first idiot to walk the most challenging trail in the area (Billy Goat Section A) in flip-flops. Had nothing else—got a nasty blister from a run in new sneakers. But I finished it, although not quickly, in two hours. Even managed to keep my feet dry. The weather finally improved—it’s almost 59 degrees Fahrenheit, good for wearing just a T-shirt again. Visiting the national park costs $10 per car, $5 for cyclists and pedestrians.

My phone shows I walked 17 kilometers today. There’s no other way to offset the local food. I’ve learned to ask for “half a portion” at restaurants. For instance, if you order soup at P.F. Chang’s, they bring a pot full of soup (literally) and a small plate—see the attached photo. Such soup costs $8.25.

Also went to the new Star Wars in a huge IMAX today. Interestingly, the tickets are sold without assigned seats, there’s no advertising before the movie, people clap in the theater before and after the film, and all 500 seats were filled. The cost of one IMAX ticket is $15.

By now, since the beginning of last year, I’ve visited about 10 US national parks. And here’s a common trait—they are all beautiful, but you hardly see any wildlife. Birds, squirrels, deer, and other creatures, if they appear, it’s never when I’m there. However, as soon as you drive a bit away from the park, there they all are.

In between all this, there was also a piano concert, but there’s not much to tell—just a regular concert. Except that it too was fully booked.

The piano concert at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC

https://www.swarmapp.com/r_aliev/checkin/5692be5a498ee20055572cd9?s=8GkpTFrEhwIirIQ7ywxgqXs4_6k&ref=fb&source=openGraph

At C&O (Chesapeake & Ohio) Canal National Historical Park – Great Falls Tavern Visitor Center in Potomac, MD

https://www.swarmapp.com/r_aliev/checkin/56929a4a498e4ff5f34daa6a?s=28ge4TW8eJmVlueRrCXq2V3acyQ&ref=fb&source=openGraph

Considering whether to buy a used bike and stumbled upon an interesting creature – http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/bik/5388496139.html It’s called a trail-a-bike. It attaches to another bike to make a tandem. Here’s where they sell new ones: http://www.trail-a-bike.com/products/trail-a-bikes/ first time seeing something like this

This is how I watch a series on three devices:) on the left – video in English, on the right – a dictionary at hand, and on my knees – a subtitle player, which I periodically find convenient to glance into if something sounded unclear. When that happens – I pause the video with the spacebar, read what was in the subtitles, and if needed, I dive into the dictionary.

By the way, just for laughs, Paypal advised me to set up a new email and create a new account in the States because using a Russian one here isn’t possible. Russian and American Paypal are like two different systems with different databases, capabilities, etc. So, migrating the account isn’t possible, nor is switching. You can only start a new one, which I did.