A little background on all of this: I was at the Eastern Market in DC one spring morning, and there was a man there selling these amazing polaroid emulsion transfers that he had taken in Paris, Rome, and right here in DC. The prices he was charging for them could buy me lunch at Burrito Brothers for a week, but like most people there, he seemed just as happy to talk as to sell his wares (though I realize the connection).

It felt like I was hearing some sort of creepy secret story as he told me about this girl's seminary that had shut down in the 1940s, and was now used by the army, but otherwise left to decay. It has a rich history which I read up on before leaving. Anyways, outside the metro station, I began to walk through the streets with evenly spaced houses and large front lawns that could have just as easily been back home in new jersey. After a few wrong turns, I crossed over the beltway, and had my first taste of the surreal that would characterize this day when I saw a bonafide castle that reached far above the distant treetops that lined both sides of the five lane highway (as I've passed this every time charlene and I drive home, could someone tell me what it is?). >