DC

thursday 1113 washington DC

i never fail to be surprised by how at home i feel in cities other than my hometown. every time i go back to singapore, i get the feeling that i'm home, just because of the ease of navigating, and knowing where to find stuff. and every time i go back to america, i feel the same way. it's the chinese city where i was born and raised that i do not recognize, or feel at home in. too many things changed and are still changing in china in general and suzhou in specific, ripping the parts i know bit by bit from the thousand year old city. after my parents had moved, i had a great deal of difficulty orienting myself when i did go home. it makes me a little melancholy sometimes, and sometimes a little at loss, but there isn't anything i could do about it, except maybe staying abroad.

so today, i woke up, googlemapped all the places i need to go, rode the t to airport, boarded a small american eagle plane, landed in DC, took the metro to metro center and found my hostel. checked in. rested. came back out, found the venue of the conference, read the program. then i felt the need for a hot drink and some solid food, so i cross the street into the starbucks, got a hot caramel apple spice and some chicken salad sandwich. (and congratulated myself for being completely comfortable.) other than being unchanging, one more thing makes the developed cities easy to adapt to. that is its uniformity. we criticize chains all the time for their streamlined operation, uniformity, lack of individuality, but we couldn't live without them. when i go into a strange american city, i'm assured that i can always find hot drinks and snacks at starbucks, that particular brand of cough syrup at walgreens and cheap shoes at payless. even if i go into a non chain restaurant, the menu is pretty as much expected. easy living.


so now i'm sitting in the starbucks opposite the royal suite where the MCCS meeting is going to be held. poster session is in about 2 hours, and there's a day of meeting tomorrow.

the thought of finally getting to the capital of america is still exciting me. especially after the election last week. for years i thought about the applicability of democracy, america being its most devout executer. unfortunately, democracy in america has been tainted with various things: easily swayed voters, lobbyists, corporations, a lack of transparency in government mechanisms, etc etc. and of course the glass ceiling. obama's victory first of all broke the glass ceiling for race to some extent. obama is not a typical african america, so it's debatable how progressive america has become. also the pressing economic issues probably played a bigger part than any other factors in this election. nevertheless, he's not a white man, and that alone still says something about this country. and of course he's smart. the change he promised brings at least some hope for the solution to the other problems. i look forward to what america is capable of in years to come. i'm counting on america to restore my confidence in democracy in reality. only when democracy can work properly here, there's a chance for it working in china. at this point i am reminded of what rickless said about democracy. " there's nothing beautiful about democracy itself", he said, "democracy only means the rule of the people. and when the people are ugly, democracy is ugly". what's america's problem? is it not enough people being educated enough to make informed choices picking their government or apathy to doing so? at least in the most recent election, apathy doesn't seem too much of a problem. i hope education in america becomes even better, and the government becomes more transparent. which are both hopeful in obama's term(s). sometimes i am a little frustrated by the nature of politics, and wishfully hope for a more synergistic political scene.

washington looks very much like new york. broad french boulevards, with large blocks of neoclassical buildings along the sides. except maybe it looks slightly more orderly, less crowded, and with many more snappily dressed executive looking people. there are more african americans and fewer latinos than all the other cities i've been to. the mix of people is what i would visualise if i had been asked to imagine a crowd of american people before i came to america, except maybe with a few more asians than i had imagined. i walked and wondered how many people i randomly run into in the streets were aspiring politicians. i wont be surprised if many of them were. what a fascinating life.