6/30/11 Friends

I am back in Pierce, Nebraska and it feels like I never really left. I LOVE seeing my friends again! Seriously, I don't know what would I do without these amazing people!


Fun at the park!

6/29/11 Nebraska!

Wednesday I flew to Omaha, Nebraska. I was a foreign exchange student at the Pierce High School for the school year of 2009-2010, and I lived in Norfolk, Nebraska. In these 2 weeks I'll be spending time with friends I met 2 years ago. It is really exciting to see them back!

Nebraska may not be the most interesting state of America, I do love it though. It is hard for me to describe why. I am always amazed by all the space, the endless cornfields, the beautiful nature, the weather, the starry skies at night.. and for sure the hospitality of the people who live in Nebraska.

I was driving around in the countryside with a friend the other day, and I captured this on my camera, I thought it was so beautiful!

6/28/11 Washington DC revisited

Tuesday was my last day in the DC area, so I decided to go back to Washington DC and try to see a bit more than I saw on Saturday. We walked through some museums. You can seriously spend a couple of days in 1 museum, and since I only had one day, we kind of rushed through..

This is inside the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum:

The first plane, from the Wright brothers:

This is the Hirshhorn Museum:

The beautiful National Museum of the American Indian. I absolutely love the architecture of this building!

Then we went to the National Gallery of Art, where we saw old and new art. 

Here are some of my favorite paintings:

Target

Rubens!

We also saw the Smithsonian Institution, better known as "The Castle". The Smithsonian not only manages a lot of museums located on the Mall in DC, but also manages other museums located elsewhere, even in NYC.

Because there was a huge barbecue festival in DC on Saturday, we couldn't get to the Old Post Office Building because we were stuck on the other side of the street. This time we did go inside and went up to enjoy the great view!

Just a view from the street:

When we were going home, we bought a Starbucks frappucino. I couldn't resist posting this picture with our beautiful 'American' names, haha! :)

6/27/11

I didn't really do anything special on Monday. It was a day with lots of food and shopping! We ate at iHop in the morning, then went shopping at the mall, and at night we just had to go to Five Guys since I'd never been there. This is what it looked like, haha!

6/26/11 Arlington National Cemetery & Great Falls National Park

Sunday I went to Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington is the 2nd largest cemetery in the United States. It is a military cemetery. More than 300000 people are buried there, including some famous people like president J.F. Kennedy. The cemetery is huge, but beautiful. It is shocking though when you see all the graves, and think about all those people who died during/after they served for their country.
Here are some pictures:

Lee's House

Rows of graves

View from Lee's House

JFK's gravestone

One of his famous speeches

For the unknown soldiers

There is a more famous monument for the unknown soldiers too. There you have the change of the guards every 30 minutes. It was really impressive to see:

Later that day I went to Great Falls National Park. The falls are in the Potomac river, and that is the border between the states Virginia and Maryland. There are many overlooks where you get a great view:

6/25/11 Washington DC

Saturday I visited Washington DC. I am staying with a friend who lives in the DC area, so it was really nice to have someone who knows how to get around.
I think Washington DC is a really nice city, and there are so many things to see! We tried to do as much as possible, but I'm hoping I can return to see more!
Here I have some pictures:

The Capitol

Washington Monument

The White House

Korean War Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

Lincoln

Arlington - Lee's House

Nebraska! ;)

Navy 

The Old Post Office Building

Street