Looking for Dick in DC (Cheney that is)

South Africa Journal: Day Two - Washington DC observations:

1. There are far many more blacks in DC than SF. Blacks seem to be hanging out with blacks and whites seem to stick with whites here. At least from my observations during my 24 hour stay in Dupont Square and my walk around the Mall.

2. People dress up much more here than on the west coast. Dress shirts and ties seem to be the minimal dress code for men. Many wear a suit. And women are smartly dressed.

3. Women make eye contact here. In fact, they often instigate it. So different than San Francisco were you get the look-of-death if you dare look into the eyes of a passing female.

A funny thing about being in the Passport Office this morning: there were framed photos of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. Bush and Rice had their name and position printed beneath them but Chaney did not. Such a secretive guy.

I have a friend from San Francisco who just took a job with the White House, photographing Dick Cheney. I called him to see if he could join me at the Brickskeller in Dupont Circle for a beer and a bite to eat. He said he was going to be working late, past 9pm and I needed to be up early to wait in line at the Passport office so a rendezvous didn't look good. I asked him what he was doing so late and he said he couldn't discuss it.

After getting my $60 additional visa pages at the Passport Office, I walked passed the White House on my way to the subway. They were building bleachers outside the White House for Barack Obama's inauguration. After lunch, I went to the airport early to make sure there were no more surprises.

South Africa - Not Yet!

South Africa Journal: Day One - They wouldn't let me on the South African Airline flight in Washington DC's Dulles International Airport. Actually, the white guy with a scar where his forehead meets the top of his head, almost from one ear to the next, told me he would let me on the flight but that I would be turned away in Johannesburg. The reason: I don't have a full blank page in my passport. Actually, I do, but they are in the Amendment Pages. The Visa Pages are broken up into four sections for visa stamps and though I have many stamps, I also have a few empty quarter-page sections. But the scar head dude said I needed a full empty page. He wrote on a scrap piece of paper where I needed to go in the city to get extra pages in my passport... at 7:00am the next day!

DC is not a cheap city. My friend Van helped me get a room at the Beacon Hotel, just blocks from the Passport Office in Dupont Square for $100 a night. Carajo! Left my backpack with South African Airlines and walked, underdressed for the East Coast winter, in the 35 degree rain from the underground, after a $10 bus ride and a $3.85 subway fare from Dulles, to my hotel. Went to the Brickskeller for beer and a vegiburger and fell asleep watching the car bailout fail on CSPAN.