Lancaster & UK

The International Spy Museum

The International Spy Museum is definitely worth a visit for everybody who loves spy films, books or simply the gadgets James Bond had to play with. I took the combi-ticket for $25 for an interactive spy mission and the museum.
The interactive mission is kind of interesting (though I think all engineers and computer scientist are mostly figuring out how they did it which might spoil the fun. One hour of a mission within a group and you get even feedback how well you performed (in decrypting phone calls, or searching a room of an important person ;-)

The museum itself is made nicely. First, some basics terms of spying are explained followed by some really cool gadgets (lipstick revolver, secret message decoder suit case, bomb builder suitcase, microdot, ....
This follows then a long track of spying in the 'old times' starting with the Chinese, Romans, Middleage, Elizabeths and Mary Queen of Scots up to First World War. Impressive where the pigeons that flew messages from one side to the next (some of them taking photos behind the enemies line etc). One pigeon even saved a whole troop (brave little bird!)... Spying during World War II, and in the Cold War. The Cold War period feels a bit glorified as the "golden age of spying"... the museum pictures many stories of secret agents who got detected, and their fate. (and of course the 'How' and 'Why').
Together with the interactive mission, we spent five hours there and had a good time.

Washington National Cathedral

This is the 6th largest church building in the world. And twenty minutes walk away from my place. The outside of the Cathedral reminded my immediately of York's Cathedral (in England). Just a bit bigger. The interior feels huge. The architect chose English gothic style.. There are beautiful stained glass windows telling the story of humanity (from creation until going to space)

One of these windows is called the Space Window: According to my guide, the stained glass incorporates a sliver of moon rock from Apollo II. I think that is quite a cool idea for a window (see image... source taken from image22.webshots.com)

"I have a dream" was preached here by Dr Martin Luther King Jr on Sunday March 31, 1968... (just 4 four days later he was assassinated).

There are plenty of other noteworthy things to say about this building. I am sure a source like Wikipedia has plenty of details. A final interesting note: the building was completed in 1990; so quite a young building.

Relocated, finally!

After staying in the Mariott Wardman Hotel for three nights, I moved to my final destination. I don't like hotels and even five stars couldn't change my opinion on that.... but the new apartment is 'awesome' (a word loved and highly used by my American friends). BTW, they noted out my Britisch-German-Something accent (apparently I use words that sound 'so victorian'...)

Anyway, my place is great. I have no clue how big. The living-eating rooms has two sofas, a little desktop, a TV and a table with four chairs. Plus an quite a bit of free space. I do have a balcony! A little kitchen (having all the essential such as plates, cups, cutlery) A huge bedroom, a HUGE wardrobe (which is actually a little room). Another small storage room. And a bathroom.

All I expected was a room consisting of kitchen-bedroom-living-room and a corner designed to be the bathroom... but this one is HUGE. For the nice things: it has an air conditioner and dish washer. What a treat!
More pictures of the apartment can be found here.

I am in the uni news!

I had my 15 minutes of fame. I am in the Uni news (with picture). For my little teaching certificate. *huray*. The full article can be found here

Work Impression

Well there is not much to say after two days... but I do like it. It has a good atmosphere! And it feels good! Not just because of the nice goodies but mostly because of the people I met. The other five guys plus me are the first interns ever in washington DC (pioneer work :) ... Have I mentioned that I can play around with a Microsoft Surface?

I have one if this office cube; we all have proper name labels that look important. These cubes are really better than I thought; on one side, they give you a flexible little private corner, on the other hand it is easy to roll back and have a quick word.

I will really brushed up my tabletop football skills. We have such a thing in the kitchen and play one game after lunch. I am doing ok at the moment but that might change soon!

Relocation - part four

This relocation' adventure isn't over. The travel specialist addressed my housing issue today. Unfortunately, there isn't anything free until Friday (25th of July) in the cooperate housing. So the plan was to keep me in the hotel I am staying and then moving on Friday. Sounded nice and relaxing but BUT BUT the hotel is booked out :( ...
Tomorrow morning, I move to another hotel. And Friday I move yet again, to my final address. There are some good news too: I got a studio :D

Arrived in Washington

Right now, I am in Washington DC in a nice hotel just opposite where I am supposed to be tomorrow. The amount of space I have in my room is amazing! I mean, it is almost more than I had in my little house. On the photo you see the 'little living/working room' space. The door is the entry to the bed room...

Well, the travel was long with no problems (apart from the many shakes in the air - watching 'Lost' is definitely not a good flight preparation. At the border I was nervous; the officer asked me 'how long are you staying in the US?' for which I head had three answers:
1) I don't know, I wanna go home straight *tired-and-homesick-feeling-already*
2) As long as my visa lasts (He: When does the visa end?) Mh, 19th September...
3) Talk about the extension for October that got filed up and on its way to England.

And the same applied for the questions 'where are you staying?' Again, I head three answers to give
1) I don't know (where my permanent address is going to be - will be sorted out on Monday)
2) the address which is listed on my visa as my US address
3) the hotel I have actually booked to stay (the Plan B solution)

Well, the answers I gave were good enough to let me into the country! My luggage made it as well. And the airport shuffle found the hotel straight away. Plus my mobile phone seems to work in the US. So far everthing is fine.

Have I mentioned the heat? It is hot. Really hot. Devastatingly hot if you come from freezing England? 33C humid warm air outside and super cool rooms inside. Seems like, I am getting a proper summer :)

Relocation - part three

Right, I have packet almost everything... I am ready to go... I still haven't heard about back about the housing. So I am not sure where I am going to stay (bridge be my friend!). Of course, I have a back up plan (book a hotel)... This is going to be fun. To be honest, I feel a little nervous about tomorrow.

Relocation - part two

This morning (Saturday, minus one day before taking off). I check again the email. After all, I need a place to stay. And there were three emails in my inbox. One, telling me I have a little place and should read carefully the procedure to get keys and check in (about 0.45 last night).
Another one, from travel, telling me, housing is confirmed (about 1.00am).
And the final one from travel specialist (at almost 4pm English time). She realized when she was at home that she had booked me housing in Redmond. Poor travel specialist (must have been a bad day for her). Anyway, she tries to get things switched over to DC. Hopefully, things get sorted out in time *fingers crossed*. I don't have space for a tent.

Relocation, part one

ok, with this little visa complication, things push the deadline for 'starting-on-this-monday'. After sorting things out with the visa, the travel specialist got informed to relocate me. Right, as my good luck keeps going on, the person had an emergency and was not in office this week :) [took some more precious hours to find out].
The back-up person needed to be find. I expected a push back to the next week but they were optimistic.

I received the flight reservation, I checked the reservation. And thankfully, I realized I had a ticket to the state of Washington, (Redmond). It is not quite the same place. Ok, again, forwards and backwards, the ticket for DC got issued for me. Yesterday (Friday, 18th, almost midnight in England)... As I don't have internet at home, I was sitting in a pub with free WiFi, reading a book, and checking every 15minutes my emails. Right, Now I have a flight to DC.