Washington, D.C.: our nation's hub

By Daniel Muñoa

I recently ventured off to our nation's capital on a weeklong journey to attend the 103rd General Assembly of the American Society for Microbiology. A recipient of the Society's research fellowship at Tufts Biomedical Research Center in summer 2002, I was invited to be a presenting author at this year's assembly of great scientific minds from the world over. MDs, post-docs, professors, and students were present for a record number of 18,000 in attendance at this year's conference at the new Washington Convention Center from May 18 to 22.
The newly built five-story convention center occupies a city block of downtown D.C. and was beautifully designed and well-built. The exterior is virtually all glass, which allows enough light to enter the building so that the main corridors, hallways, entry, and exit points are solely illuminated by natural sunlight. The Center's first level was set up with vendor exhibits and displays of posters set up by presenting authors. Symposia and colloquia were held on a daily basis in virtually all rooms on the 2nd and 3rd levels. You had to do your homework the night before to decide which talks to attend and what posters you wanted to visit to make the most of every day during the conference.
Thousands of Society members attended the opening reception, which featured a live band. I attended several symposia on topics related to viral research and spoke to several presenting authors of posters about DNA microarrays and other molecular-based methods of analysis. I attended a symposium at which Dr. Eddie Goldberg, the professor with whom I did research at Tufts, was going to speak. Wednesday morning was the big day for me because I was scheduled to present a three hour-poster session from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Poster sessions were held everyday and on any given day, there were at least 500 people presenting posters. The poster sessions allowed an opportunity for members interested in your research to ask questions and share information. Dr. Goldberg had generated some interest in his field of research the day before when he spoke to a crowd of about 300, which resulted in a consistent stream of people visiting my poster and asking all kinds of questions. Fortunately, as wise as Dr. Goldberg is, he had somewhat anticipated this and showed up 15 minutes after my poster session began. He helped me deal with what at times were two or three completely different questions being asked at the same time. By noon, I was mentally exhausted. I had verbally repeated 15 times what I had done in the last year in a three-hour window and answered many questions. It was the afternoon, however, that held a surprise in a league of its own.
After my poster session was complete, I went to the YMCA in downtown Washington for a mid-day swim. Afterwards, I had lunch on the street and returned to the assembly around 3:00 that afternoon to visit a friend during his poster session. By 4:00 I started seeing signs that were being posted everywhere reading, "George W. Bush, The President's Dinner." At the same time, I noticed levels three and up were no longer accessible to the public and that the second level was slowly being sectioned off and controlled by security. In the meantime, guests to the president's dinner began to arrive and entered through the main entrance of the Washington Convention Center, making their way toward the third level where the banquet hall for the dinner was located. At the escalator exit way on the third floor stood a well-dressed woman holding a sign reading "Inner Circle." She guided guests towards the banquet hall. By 4:30, the conferences had ended for the day, but hundreds of attending members stuck around after the buzz that the president was going to be having dinner in the same building at 6:30! For a little over an hour, guests continued to arrive whose total number had to be at least a thousand. I took pictures of some of the guests, hoping to get someone famous, and at around 5:20, I noticed that Secret Service agents had instantaneously dispersed throughout the crowd and were positioned strategically throughout levels two and up. The earpiece in the left ear and receiver in the right hand of a well-dressed, machine-like human provided unmistakable clues. In addition, I noticed some agents would from time to time speak to individuals who were in plain clothes, but definitely had a military clandestine look to their face. I was standing halfway up the main staircase with at least another hundred people, talking to several students who had been awarded the same fellowship as the one I had received.
I noticed an agent on the third level had begun to stare at me intently and to speak to someone dressed in plain clothes from time to time. At that point I thought nothing of it and continued to take pics, erasing the ones I didn't like. I was talking to a young lady named Karolina Skibicka who does research at the USF Center for Biological Defense, College of Public Health at the University of South Florida. I noticed that the agent on the third floor that had been staring in my direction for a little more than 15 minutes, began to make his way toward the main staircase where he was joined by another agent. They then both began to walk in my direction, staring right at me. At that moment I thought to myself, this is going to be interesting. Three seconds later, the Secret Service agent that was staring at me from the third floor placed his left arm on my right shoulder and at the same time placed his face about 12 inches away from mine staring directly into my eyes and telling me, "Excuse me, sir, we are from the Secret Service, may we have a word with you in private please." It's not as though I had much of choice, so I said, "Sure!" They took me aside to one of the main corridors on the second level and began to ask me a barrage of questions. Where are you from, what are you doing here, etc. The one question I remember quite vividly was, "You seem to be quite interested in the events that are transpiring this afternoon. May we ask, what were you taking pictures of and may we see them, please." Seeing that I had nothing to hide, I cooperated like a good citizen and reviewed every pic I had taken with the lead agent. I told him, "I was simply taking random pics of the guests going up the escalators in hopes of catching someone famous." The agent's reply was like something out of a movie and started to test my patience with their persistent search for something wrong with me: "Don't you find it rather odd to be taking random pictures of guests you don't even know?" The worst thing about it is that he emphasized random and guests in a somewhat dark and condescending manner, as if I were hiding something. Just when I felt that I should stop being so cooperative and start having attitude, I quickly came back to my senses and realized that if they wanted to waive my rights as a U.S. citizen for the slightest negative reason, they could do it in one second flat, no thanks to the new Patriot Act. So I played off his response by simply stating, "What's so odd about wanting to get a picture of someone famous? The papparazi do it all the time." I then offered my backpack for inspection and was asked if I could be patted down. All I can say is that Secret Service men do not play around when they do a pat down. They check every nook and cranny with firm, consistent pressure not once, but twice just in case something got by them the first time. After a 10 minute interrogation that felt like an eternity, they thanked me for my cooperation and let me go. I kept looking over my shoulder for the remainder of my stay to see if men in black were on my tail.
Aside from the Convention Center, I became quite familiar with downtown D.C. and the surrounding areas by going on runs and road biking. Several weeks before I left for D.C., I had ordered maps of the area and studied them intently so that when I ventured off, I could quickly field-orient myself. It paid off. I saw so much in such little time. I was staying at the Hotel George near the Union Station subway and train stop and about five blocks north of the Capitol. I planned my run route so that I could see as many historical buildings and landmarks as possible. During my stay in D.C. I attended the conference from morning to early afternoon, and afterwards, if it wasn't raining, I would either run or bike. I used historical landmarks as my guide to avoid carrying a map. When I would run, I would leave the hotel headed south towards the Capitol. Once at the Capitol, I would hang a right at the Capitol Reflection Pool headed west-bound either on Jefferson Dr. or Madison Dr. in area called the Mall. Either drive was loaded with Smithsonian Museums of varying sizes and exhibits. On Madison Dr. you have the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History and the National Gallery of Art. On Jefferson Dr. you have the Museum of the American Indian opening in the summer of 2004, the National Air & Space Museum, and a group of galleries collectively referred to as "The Castle" consisting of the Freer Gallery, Sackler Gallery, African Art, and the Hirshhorn Museum.
The west end of the Mall unites with the Washington Monument. From here, I had several options. My favorite and most scenic route was to keep running straight past the Reflection Pool where the Vietnam, World War II, and Korean War Veterans memorials are located. Once past the Lincoln Memorial, I would cross the Arlington Memorial Bridge and run by the Arlington National Cemetery. From there, I would jump on the George Washington Parkway, a four foot-wide path (very much like the one on Laredo's Loop 20) that connects to other paved trails all collectively running alongside the Potomac River 20 miles in either direction of the Memorial Bridge. From here, I could run to my heart's content. I biked close to 140 miles during my week's stay in D.C., mainly on the George Washington Parkway and associated trails that are interconnected to many parks and green spaces throughout the area. Green spaces are well maintained in the D.C. area and there are always people utilizing the trail system throughout the day and night for biking, walking, jogging, and running. Every once in a while, I would pass by small areas where the vegetation was considerably younger than surrounding habitat and a sign was usually posted in plain view reading, "Warning: Revegetative Zone! Do Not Disturb!" I thought it was pretty cool to see a community that took their green spaces so seriously. Aside from trails for commuting, public transportation in D.C. is remarkable. Unlike Boston's subway system, the one in D.C. is always clean and can place you within a 10-minute walking distance of about 70% of the D.C. area. For areas that are not near a subway station, you can always take the metro, which is also very clean and on schedule. I was in D.C. just days before Memorial Day, so the nation's terror alert status was at Orange for the majority of my stay. The only thing that would bother me from time to time in the subway system was the constant announcements of the nation's terror alert status over the intercom system with statements such as "The Nation's Terror Alert Status is currently orange. If you observe any suspicious individuals and/or packages please contact a metro official. All unattended baggage will be confiscated and thoroughly searched. If you suspect you may have left an article behind, please contact the nearest metro official for guidance."
Of the many museums there are to see in D.C., I was only able to visit one so I chose to see the National Museum of Natural History. I spent three hours inside, yet I was constantly recalling four years worth of undergraduate study as I moved from exhibit to exhibit once inside. The majority of the exhibits throughout the museum portrayed what life was like on earth during different periods according to a geological frame of reference. There was a geological timetable on display in the form of a Washington Memorial-like statue in the center of the Museum. It reminded me of the mammalogy course I took with Dr. Tom Vaughan at TAMIU because that was one of the first things we had to learn before we could study the history of mammals. I began with the exhibit hall entitled "The Earliest Forms of Life." One exhibit visually portrayed elemental atoms, principally nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, phosphorous, hydrogen, and sulfur randomly colliding with one another in pools of water on the surface of the earth billions of years ago with a climate portrayed as far more unstable and volatile than what we are accustomed to seeing today. This setting was believed to be where the first organic molecules necessary for the earliest forms of life, collectively referred to as single-celled organisms, evolved. The exhibit conjured other of my TAMIU instructors, including Dr. McReynolds, who taught an evolution course, and Dr. García Rios, who taught some of the biochemistry courses I took. Moving onward, I passed through several exhibits portraying plant beginnings. One exhibit entitled "The First Flowers" reminded me of lessons taught by Dr. Sushma Krishnamurthy on plant structure and function in an organismal biology course. The insect biodiversity exhibit was really cool. Half of the insects on display were butterflies of all colors and sizes. It reminded me of the entomology course I took with Dr. McReynolds. There was a section in the museum dedicated to the portrayal of past civilizations. One exhibit that interested me was on King Darius, ruler of the Archaemenian Empire located in what is now Northern Iran around 500 B.C. There were so many other exhibits focused on topics such as sea life, geology, astronomy, taxonomy, and dinosaurs, to name a few. The lab where dinosaurs are reconstructed is viewable by visitors and was interesting to watch. Science majors traveling to the D.C. area should put the Museum of Natural History on their list of museums to visit.
My mother Pilar and a good friend of hers, Cristina Valdez Prada, had accompanied me to D.C. During the morning and daytime hours we went separate ways. They saw many museums, including the United States Holocaust Memorial, and visited surrounding cities like Bethesda via train. During the day, I would eat whatever was cheap and convenient on the streets of D.C., for there were plenty of delis of different nationalities to keep me busy. At night, I would meet up with mother and Cristina at a restaurant we selected from the Official D.C. Dining Guide. Dining in D.C. was absolutely fabulous. The most memorable dinners were at a Spanish tapas bar called Jaleo. By and large, it was the best tapas I had eaten. In Boston, I had tried out three different tapas bars. The best one was Taberna de Haro, which happened to be a few blocks down from where I lived in Boston on Beacon street, but Jaleo is at another level. They serve over 80 different tapas, either cold, temperate, or hot. Their sangria was great and they have live flamenco dancers on Wednesday nights. The manager had recommended for us to try a Greek restaurant owned by the same owners of Jaleo. They served Greek food tapas-style and I must say, after visiting Greece last summer their chefs were right on the money. We had terrific seafood at a Legal Seafoods in downtown D.C. and at Reagan International Airport waiting to catch our flight back to Houston.
As I sat in the airport waiting for the flight, I thought of everything I had seen during my week's stay and quickly realized that there is still so much more I have yet see of D.C. I plan to return one day with the sole intention of visiting the great diversity of museums the District of Columbia has to offer and explore the surrounding national forests and parks.