Hello my name is...NOT a tourist

DC is covered in tourist. I have quickly got the impression that locals are extremely irritated by them. Washingtonians recognize that the tourist are a huge economic engine for the DC economy, but that doesn't mean they can't be annoyed that they slow up the metro every weekend. Being a new resident I am essentially a tourist. I am frequently lost, know little about DC, and am constantly looking around at all of the odd things happening around me. My goal on a daily basis is to not look like a tourist. Below are a few things I do to try to fake my way into being a resident:

• Walk with purpose. Even after realizing I am going the wrong way I walk with purpose back in the correct direction. Is this a waste of time? Absolutely. But stopping and starring at my iPhone for 45 seconds will reveal my lack of street knowledge.
• Wear ear buds. Everyone has ear buds in, especially on their commute. 
• Look slightly angry and look straight ahead. 
• Learn to text/BlackBerry/etc while walking. I have no idea how people do this. It's amazing.

Of course a resident would never go to a monument and take pictures. However, because I haven't been to DC (except for 7th grade) I want to do this. I solved this problem tonight by going on a jogging tour of the monuments in my area.

First stop- Washington Monument. iPhone photo actually turned out OK on this one. 

Next, WWII Monument. I tried to get a picture of the Iowa and Missouri statues but dang kids kept blocking my light. Why are children out at 8:30PM on a Wednesday anyway?

This is a picture from the WWII memorial with the Washington Monument in the background.

My last stop was the Lincoln Memorial. I had to break my "I'm a jogger who occasionally stops to mess with his phone" routine with this monument. I wanted to run up the steps like Rocky but I was afraid I would trip in front of hundreds of people so I decided to walk up the steps.

On my way back I saw many of the alphabet soup of government buildings (EPA, DOJ, DOI) and accidentally stumbled across a far view of the White House. All in all a good stealth tour of a small part of DC.