Saturday

Hey guys! Andy & I got here on Friday night, and spent all of yesterday taking in the sights. For both of us, it's our first time in Washington, and it's kind of surreal to see the nation's capitol for the first time - during the busiest event of the year. Obama fever has invaded the city, and everyone is really excited about our new president.

One indicator of this is all of the Obama merchandise that vendors around the city are selling at their stands all around the city. Yesterday we went to the northeast quadrant to check out the Florida Ave. shops and the Funky Flea Market, a makeshift flea market set up in the Gallaudet University parking lot on weekends. Among all of the goods that people were selling, Obama merchandise was definitely the most prominent - Obama's face was on every type of commodity available. We saw the usual apparel, like fake rhinestone-encrusted shirts and baseball caps, and then a few weirder things, too - a perfume with Obama family packaging, Obama belts, Obama hats, Obama scarves and even Obama earrings.

The only other place that I have encountered this much stuff with someone's face on it was during a trip to Rome. Outside the Vatican, there was no shortage of collectibles with the Pope on them, and to be honest, it's a weirdly similar ordeal here. Now don't get me wrong - I voted for Obama and everything, but it's just kind of weird to see merchandise usually reserved for sporting events or concerts being swiped up by huge crowds at the National Mall. If anything, it's just really strange to see a country that has spent years loathing the past president moving toward a mentality of extreme acceptance of a new one. Or maybe it's not strange at all, and I should lighten up. But no matter how you slice it, people here in Washington are definitely excited for what's to come.

And something else that's sort of strange is how advertisers have been taking elements from Obama's campaign to better their own. For example, in the subway, there's tons of Pepsi ads that look like ads for Obama from far away - until you realize that the "O" in 'HOPE" is actually filled in with the soft drink company's logo. And Ikea has started telling people that 2009 really is a time for change - a time to change your home's interior decoration. Now, this is kind of weird to me, but nobody else seems to think so. It's just another symptom of Obama fever, I guess.

My first impression of Washington is that it does a good job of showing extremes - by day, I watched black limos with important people in them speeding downtown, and by night, off the beaten path a bit, I watched a guy on the street try to break into cars by throwing bricks at them. But overall, this is a really cool place.

More updates later.

<sup>Photo by Kristin Majcher


Photo by Kristin Majcher</sup>