In 1912, to celebrate the nations’ then-growing friendship, Japan gave 3,200 cherry blossoms as a gift to the United States. Planted along the tidal basin and only blooming for 2 weeks of the year, the Cherry Blossom Festival is one of the best times of the year in Washington DC. Last week the weather was terrible, with hail and snow still hitting the city; however spring has now finally arrived! One of the events to celebrate the festival was a huge pillow fight held under the Washington Monument. 
After taking a few photos, I knew I had to get involved so grabbed a spare pillow and got involved! 
The only difficulty I had was hitting certain people like this 8 year old boy who nearly knocked me off my feet! 
Albert and I also decided to hand out free hugs which was a lot of fun.
Walking back home, every monument was swarming with people trying to enjoy the Capital. 
It is always interesting to listen to the tour guides tell the history of each monument and its significance, particularly when listening to Vietnam veterans discuss the wall. Saturday evening was the fireworks festival, so I went down with Albert, Adam and David to get a good spot by the water. Some of the cherry blossoms have started to bloom a little, but the best site of the night was the beautiful sunset we got to see. 
I love being down by the Jefferson memorial, and have decided that it is my favourite monument of them all (although it is the furthest walk which is annoying!) 
Unfortunately we weren’t in the perfect spot for the fireworks, and they only lasted 15 minutes, but we were still able to see some great ones above the trees. 
Although the main area for the cherry blossom trees is by the tidal basin, GW is lucky enough to have a few on its campus, and on Sunday morning I managed to find a few of them already in bloom: 
For dinner this evening we headed into Virginia to get some Korean Barbeque 
which was delicious, but always leaves me wanting to lie down for an hour or so – luckily its Sunday! It can be really difficult to really enjoy being in DC when I am bogged down with papers, work and exams, which is why I was glad this weekend I was able to relax and have some fun!