The Center of Power

Last weekend we visited Washington. We stayed there from Friday until today (Monday) and had a wonderful time there. Guess which building is in the background....

...It's the white house! Unfortunately we didn't see our friend George W.

This is the Washington Monument. Actually it is not as small as it looks like on the above picture ;) It is a very large and tall obelisk that was constructed to commemorate George Washington. It rises above the whole city and is very impressive. There are about 100 US-flags around the monument.

This is the United States Capitol, which serves as a seat for the US government. It has two wings: the north wing is the Senate chamber and the south wing is the House of Representatives chamber.

We have seen many other sights in Washington too, but unfortunately after the second day my camera broke, so I couldn't take more pictures.

Besides all the sightseeing we also explored the nightlife of Washington...
We were at a really nice bar in the city center. There was a live band and they played AC/DC (I can't imagine why this picture is so blurred actually ;)!!

On Monday we saw a huge military parade, because the 26. of May is the Memorial Day in the US which is dedicated to war veterans and victims.

All in all we had a great time in Washington D.C.! I was really impressed by the capital of the United States.

The License to... Drive!

Today I got the New Jersey drivers license!

Compared to Austria it is relatively easy to get it... It cost only 18 bucks and I only had to do a vision test and a short multiple choice test on the computer.

Fortunately I didn't had to do a driving test ;)

Princeton University

Today we finally visited the Princeton University. In the afternoon we took a guided tour through the whole campus. The campus is located on 2 km² of landscaped grounds and features a large number of Neo-gothic-style buildings. We even saw some places where the movie "a beautiful mind" was shot.


In fact the campus really impressed me and I think that Princeton must be a lovely place to study (beside the fact that you have to pay 30.000$ tuition fees per semester ;).


Above you can see the tiger, the mascot of the Princeton University. In fact there are two tigers located beside the steps of the Nassau Hall, the the university's oldest building. I was astonished by the fact that Princeton was once the capital of the United States for four weeks (the Continental Congress convened in the Nassau Hall in the summer of 1783).

And of course - where students are you don't have to look for parties a long time ;)
The campus was all but empty today. There were parties everywhere and bands were playing :)
Some students told us that there are many parties every weekend on the Princeton campus. Unfortunatelly we didn't get in, because most of the parties are apparently for members of certain fraternities only.


All in all I really like the Princeton University and we will certainly visit the campus again soon.