Hello Toronto: Washington DC

I had the fortune to go for a few days to Washington DC, where the Dutch embassy and the Regional Support Office for North and South America are. Since I am responsible for all the financial administration in our office I am working closely with the RSO in Washington. They took over some tasks, which have been done before at the Consulate and therefore I am doing a lot of back office support with Washington. The purpose of my trip was a two day training on some programs we are using for the financial administration as well as training in all the rules the Foreign Ministry has.

I flew on Tuesday in the afternoon and had the whole afternoon time to explore DC. My hotel was downtown and since the city was surprisingly compact, I was able to walk everywhere. I saw the White House, numerous beautiful old buildings, the Washington Monument and the green parks with all their flowers. It was very warm, around 20 C and all the trees were already very green. I just missed the cherry blossoms, which DC is famous for as well. I had no idea that DC is such a beautiful city with so much green.

The Embassy is a little bit north of downtown in a very nice area where a lot of residences of Ambassadors are. Two other men from the Hague were there at the same time and were staying at the same hotel, so on Wednesday after work I went with them and some other colleagues out for dinner. They went to a basketball game afterwards and I decided to go to Georgetown to shop a little bit. Georgetown is known for its restaurants and shops and very popular among tourists.
When I walked back to my hotel, I passed a couple looking very familiar. I shouted the girls' name and she recognized me as well. The girl was my high school girlfriend, whom I haven't seen for more than 10 years. We were both so surprised by the fact that on all the places in the world we bump into each other in Washington. The world is really a small place!

I didn't have time to go to Capitol Hill or visit the National Mall, where all the museums are. At least, now I have a good reason to visit Washington again, cause I really liked the city.