Why American Airlines is on my No-Fly List… And my Wonderful Experience CouchSurfing in D.C.

Demonstration at the US Capitol Building

My first blog, how exciting…  I am going to try to make these short and sweet so hopefully I can keep interest.

I hate to say this, but it finally feels good to be out of Austin.  I don’t know how many more days I could have survived celebrating my departure.  It seriously took me a couple of days in D.C. to fully recover.

Ok, so why the mal feeling towards American Airlines?

1. To check my luggage it cost $160, as much as the flight itself.
2. On my flight from Dallas to Reagan National they stuck us on a plane whose engines weren’t fully operational.  I am just glad that they figured it out while we were about to take off and not while in the air.
3. The employee checking my bags was not in the least bit friendly, this is nearly an industry standard.

Now on  to the good stuff.  I could not have asked for a better experience CouchSurfing in D.C.

My host is a saint among men; he picked me up from the airport, fed me homemade Vietnamese curry (he is Vietnamese), took me to a Vietnamese market in Virginia – I actually felt I was back in an Asian country, everyone there was speaking in their native language, menus and goods were only in Vietnamese, and the FOOD was incredible.  All I have to say is you haven’t fully lived until you tried a Vietnamese sandwich, and fresh, homemade tofu.

On the way back home from the market my host, Michael, and I saved a family of ducks!!  they were waddling across the on-ramp for Highway 66.   Michael stops his beautiful Mercedes convertible on the ramp, backing up traffic while I stepped out and herded the momma duck and her two babes back into the park where they wandered out from, what a sight.

What else, what else.  Oh yes, I also learned how to cook a couple of traditional Vietnamese dishes including bitter melon stuffed with meat, onion, cilantro, and cooked vermicelli noodles.  This makes one excellent soup.

On my last day of freedom Michael let me borrow his bike and I rode to downtown D.C. to meet up with my old roommate Andrew and his girlfriend Paige.  The ride was excellent, 6 miles south along Rock Creek until it runs into the Potomac.  The path was shaded, cool and lush.  I rode to the Capitol building.

The world works in funny ways.  At the Capitol building I came across a crew of two protesting male circumcision.  And I actually agreed with them!! I was reading  Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You Only Ask Your Doctor After the Third Martini on the plane and there was a short piece on male circumcision.  I didn’t realize that in so little a cut we lose so much.  This was also my first experience actually seeing footage of the process…disgusting.  Anywho, I will not bore you with the statistics, please research this for yourself!

www.stopinfantcircumcision.org

First blog complete, Mitch signing out.