Mornings, attending Congressional hearings (easy for those of us on the Hill), visiting the Library of Congress, and walking along the Mall to see the war memorials. I was able to explore the the Natural History Museum, one of the many Smithsonians, and see the gorgeous Hope Diamond (left).The other fellows soon realized that I am not the most adventurous person, especially when it comes to food. When we went to Chinatown our second week here to see the National Portrait Gallery, one of the fellows decided it would a good time to experience suishi in DC. He recommended a restaurant named Sei just down 7th Street, and we all followed his lead. Little did we know that while Sei is one of the best suishi restaurants in DC, it it also one of the most upscale. Needless to say that one particular fellow was in the dog house for a few days, as we showed up in tshirts and jeans. Some of the other fellows, who were not suishi rookies as I was, promptly ordered their favorites while I picked a random sashimi dish off of the menu, which turned out to be raw scallops- ew. A few weekends later I decided to be adventourous again when we went to a different suishi bar just next to the Verizon Center, and had a much better suishi experience!
We also ventured to Georgetown to pay a visit to the Famous Georgetown Cupcakes, featured on the TLC show
DC Cupcakes! Instead of waiting in line for hours, we ordered online the night before and were able to jump right to the front and enjoy our delicious cupcakes. Georgetown was a beautiful place, right off the water with many shops and restaurants, but found myself with a pang in my heart for High Street...A few weeks later, two of the other law school hopeful fellows and I decided to visit the Supreme Court for oral arguments. We arrived at the Court at 8 am, only to find that were were 118th in line! The police officers let us go home with our place markers, and we returned at 8:45 to wait to be let into the Courtroom for the hearing at 10 am. As we waited, we saw several school groups bypass our line and walk in ahead of us, as well as a group of men and women from the Navy. By the time these groups made their way into the courtroom, the police announced there would only be room for 50 more observers, which sadly did not include us. We were offered 5 minute tickets, which meant that we could walk into the courtroom and sit in temporary seating behind a set of drapes for a five minutes before leaving and allowing the group behind us to get their moment before the highest court in the country. We did not anticipate the high demand for the arguments- the poor 51st person in line had been waiting since 6:45 am!- but were happy to be able to go into the courtroom for just a few moments. We went through security, had to check all of our belongings into lockers, and then go though another metal detector before lining up quietly outside the room. We were ushered in, and lucklily I was seated with a good view of Justice Scalia, although of no one else. We heard five minutes of argument from the case William H. S
orrell, Attorney General of Vermont, et al. v. IMS Health, Inc., et al. The attorneys were able to get in a few words, but were quickly interrupted by the Justices who wanted to have their own opinions expressed and points proven to the rest of the Court. Sometimes they bring new logic to light, and sometimes they point out weaknesses in the attorney's previous arguments and written briefs. In a prior trip to the Supreme Court, Justice Scalia revealed that he almost always has his mind made up before oral arguments, and that it is rarely ever changed by what is said that day, which is interesting to me. Attorneys spend months and even years leading up to their 30 minutes before the court, and often they are arguing a lost cause to a court that has already been decided.ED
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