Dear Anne Frank,

We had to be out of our hotel room at 10am to meet the hotel shuttle at the front doors to be carried to the metro. While on the metro, I thought of Arwen as the voice over the intercom says “step back, doors closing.” I remembered that she wrote an answer to a Formspring question that she’d like to be that voice.

So, we got off the metro at the zoo stop and rode an escalator that took 2.5 minutes to go up. Once we got half way, I couldn’t look down. Someone was wanting me to move over so they could get through and I told them to find their way to the center because I my hand and body was NOT leaving the side rail, since I am afraid of heights.

As soon as we got there we followed the signs and went in the direction to the Panda Station. We ate lunch there and it was actually not too expensive for it being in Washington, DC and the zoo. 

After resting a while after eating our food, we went to walk around the zoo for a bit. The most we got to look at in the zoo was a panda eating bamboo, the back end of a zebra, an elephant, a few random birds on the bird trail and flamingo fights of a flock of flamingos.

After walking there and back around, we passed an exhibit that’s being worked on from ground up. It completely looked like they were not projecting it as an exhibition for animals but an area for my #bedclothes, #fajb and Pitchmen group to have one amazing ball pit party. I thought of all of my Twitter friends while there, at the zoo, passing by that area. I would have tweeted that, hadn’t my cell phone completely junked out and died….like it purposely did the entire trip.

The most interesting part about the zoo, for me, was seeing the flamingos. However, my whole childhood has been masked a lie. Why, you ask? I found out that flamingos are not pink – they are actually bright orange. Whoever said they were pink (other than the feet and very back tail feathers) were colored blind and/or seriously deranged. Orange is NOT the new pink!

I must say I have never seen animals carry on like they did. The whole group, at one point, was standing on one leg trying to bite and fight with one another. Also, the song De Animals a-Comin’ was going through my head the entire time of this zoo visit. It was a song that the guys group sang in choir. 

Oh, and to end this note… One funny thing did happen, though, while at the zoo. There was this woman that wore a shirt saying  “You’ll never get lucky with me.” Yes, indeed; you wouldn’t have wanted to. Just.. saying.

Your Friend,
Karen-Maeby 

Dear Anne Frank,

I love riding the metro. I have no idea where it comes from, but I just enjoy it. Rode my first train in Chicago in year 2007 and it’s been love ever since, I think. It’s a big part of “the city life” because it’s a main way to have access to everywhere, easily avoiding the horrible traffic that has become of the cities.

There’s also something about thinking back to the days of travel where mainly did by train. Again, I wasn’t “in” those days but I think back on them like I was. It’s sometimes like I pause my life and daydream about being on a train, reading and writing with twelve more hours to go until reach the destination. It’s jus t something else I feel.

In addition: It’s kind of ironic that the beginning/ending main stop for us was the Vienna metro stop. Every time I hear “Vienna” I think Austria, Mozart AND the 1700s. Why else is this ironic? Because I often think about being in one of the big cities (Philly or DC) when it’s snowing and riding throughout the city in a horse and carriage. Of which, the horse and carriage ALSO reminds me of Vienna. I know this has nothing to do with metro trains – but, since we were already on the subject of a form of travel…

Your friend,
Karen-Maeby 

Dear Anne Frank ,

People watching on the metro is amazing. Everyone should try it at least once.

There was this younger girl on our first ride that looked like she had walked out of “In the Heights” musical. Out of the corner of my I could see her twirling her hair and lip singing, possibly to something she was looking over in the pamphlet in her hand.

There was this Asian couple that shared ear-buds to an iPod. They reminded me of the Asian couple on Secret Life of the American Teenager. I wondered if they were the clone couple.

When the metro was packed, there was this 40ish year old guy dressed really nice standing up in the center in front of us. He looked important and I wondered if he was. He looked mighty familiar.

On one of the rides, when it was our turn to stand up because it was full, we stood behind this guy that was working on his Mac. He was probably a student. He had closed out of one of his programs and I almost shit seeing his desktop all a mess with icons everywhere, even worse than mine.

We also stood by this African American woman that had a broken arm. She had three kids, two sitting with her and one across the way. The little girl was wanting to sleep and she kept yelling at her, telling her not to sleep on the metro. I can imagine with that small of kids, it’d be nerve wrecking to have on the metro with that many people, let alone by herself.

On the last ride back, there was this mother with three kids and a grandmother. I wondered what their story was because they seemed like odd folks, but generally happy and friendly. I wondered if their dad was in their lives by the way the boy was sort of acting up. They also had disposable cameras. Who uses those anymore? I thought disposable cameras were extinct by now!

On that same ride, there was this white guy with a black girl standing in front of us holding on to the center pole. From the way they were talking and never once took their eyes off each other, you could just tell they were in love. This huge cloud of amazing aura was ringing around them.

There was also this elderly woman who was by herself. It looked like she had a few groceries in the cloth bags that she was carrying. When she got off at one of the stops,  she hopped off the metro like she does it quite often.

I “studied” tons more people but that’s the ones I took mental notes of the most. Just something about each one of them, all of the families or individuals or stories being different.

The whole time I was wondering what each person did and how they play a part in America. At one point, of each ride,  my mind kept going back to this scene in Rent. The one where the group was on the train singing “Santa Fe.” 

Several times throughout our ride today… There were times where the metro was so full that everyone was huddled together. I smiled to myself, thinking, this IS America. There are all kinds of people with all kinds of differences and likes, packed together, not minding and stuck in their own conversations in their own life while around complete strangers.

This is America. And, above all, I simply love the diversity.

Your friend,
Karen-Maeby 

Dear Anne Frank,

Today, Sunday, wasn’t the day to do a metro watch at all, so I decided to do a ‘city’ watch as we walked through the city from station to station and museum to museum.

There were people just walking and talking on cell phones, runners running, groups of folks talking and walking down the street, big groups of school tours, people dressed nicely walking to or from work, and the general tourists.  I just took notice of everyone around us, no one in particular.

I can probably speak for everyone when I say that I, more than usual, take moments like that for granted. We are always in such a hurry to get to point A to point B in our life that we never really stop to take a look around us and appreciate it. And, you never know when you’re going to make a stranger’s day by saying hi or smiling at them when you pass by.

Standing at the Vienna metro station, waiting for our shuttle to pick us up, I looked back upon the good time that we had Saturday and today. I hated to leave.

Your friend, 
Karen-Maeby

"In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death." 
— Anne Frank