My time at the NRL passed fruitfully. My seminar came off very well. We had two meetings regarding our imminent collaboration which were perhaps the most productive I’ve ever attended, and I got lots of measurements done and may even have some tangible results! I won’t say more for fear of inadvertently revealing some kind of government secret or suchlike.
Adams Morgan, the area I’m staying in is really cool. A fair few of the young ‘uns from the lab live nearby and there are loads of restaurants and bars. On Wednesday night we ate at an Ethiopian restaurant, which was delicious, and then went to a bar that was memorably named Madam’s Organ, with a drawing of a pair of breasts as the logo. It was open mike night upstairs where we could find seats, which was rather reminiscent of the caterwauling on the beach in Goa. Downstairs they had an awesome bluegrass band, but we saw rather less of that!
The big news this week is the weekend snowstorm, which is in the process of setting in right now as I write this. It is forecast to be the worst for the last 100 years, even more devastating than the 2 feet that hit DC in December! The airport is definitely going to close, so I pre-emptively changed my flight from Saturday night to Monday morning, as there’s a temporary respite forecast then.
Tomorrow there is a massive snowball fight planned on the Ellipse right outside the White House, so if I can get out then I will definitely go and watch in the most touristy fashion possible! Although apparently last time it snowed a policeman drew his gun at someone who threw a snowball at his car.
Friday evening I went out with Phil from the lab, and Alex, another PV researcher who is in town. “Welcome to Snowpocalypse”, the barman said reassuringly once we got in. We played cutthroat billiards, at which I was absolutely terrible! I only won after they took 3 balls each off the table. Alex delighted in taking various awful photos of me contorted in all sorts of positions trying for impossible shots.
We then went out to dinner at an American restaurant! In the last month I have eaten Indian, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Persian, Mexican, Turkish and Ethiopian to name but a few, but I don’t think I’ve eaten much American (unless Subway counts). I had that famous American delicacy, pizza, as it transpires that American cuisine is highly beef based.
Walking the few blocks back to my hotel in the blizzard was quite an adventure. It was worse for Alex is the metro went down whilst he was on it, and he ended up having to stay the night in another hotel.
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