My Adventures in Washington DC

I told you to prepare for a long blog post, so here it is! I had the time of my life back in DC, it was the opportunity of a lifetime! I made SO many new friends and learned a TON. I find my self increasingly more interested in politics, maybe because I understand it slightly better now. Like I knew it would, it changed my life for the better! I don't even know where to start- I tried really hard to write in a journal while I was there. I'll type out the best parts of each day to the best of my ability. :)

Sunday, June 24, 2012

I'm on the plane to DC! I'm SO excited. Mom drove me to the airport this morning at ~7am.  We went downstairs in the airport and finally found the other Fast Pass members- we all have on identifiable t-shirts; white with red and blue writing. It took a while to finish taking pictures and getting through security, but I've already made SO many friends! At first it was awkward going up to people and asking them their names and where they're from, but we all did it, and pretty soon we were playing name games and laughing with each other. It felt weird saying goodbye to mom, she was sad-ish in the car and I felt bad jumping in and meeting new people when she was standing there with my luggage. I love her so much! I went and stood with her a few times but she told me it was okay and that she wanted me to go have fun. She wasn't like, sulking in the corner, mind you, but I still wanted to make her happy.  I kissed her goodbye quickly; I'll definitely call her tonight and make sure she's okay and holding up with all the girls camp prep she's working so hard on.

Right now, I'm not sure, but I think we're somewhere over the Midwest- I can see amazing fields down below :) I've never been anywhere like it! We're also watching a hilarious show called "This Means War" on the plane. It's great.

It's been REALLY windy in the Salt Lake Valley, which is not good for tall the fires we've been having. It was scary (okay, not really)... It was fun and funny because the plane swooped up and down in the turbulence :) We all laughed and smiled and made excited exclamations in unison that made us laugh more.It was so fun! I'm sitting by Sadie and Collin- we've had fun. Poor Sadie gets headaches in the elevation change, but I think she's okay.

Guess What!? Ashley Eyring, one of my friends from Bountiful High, is totally on this trip! It makes me so happy! She his HILARIOUS! The kids I've met so far are so friendly and nice! I cant wait to see who I'm rooming with! No matter what though, one thing is for sure, and that's that it'll be great to meet and get to know all of these kids! I've got a week- this trip will be one to remember for sure!

I can't say I know what I'm most excited for on this trip- it all looks SO amazing. We get to tour the Congress Building and meet Senators and Representatives. We get to tour Williamsburg, the Smithsonian, and amazing monuments in DC. I think we'll make it to Arlington, the Lincoln Memorial, and so much more...

I really hope I can be myself on this trip too- I don't want to act like I'm trying to impress anyone or be stupidly flirtations or put myself down- I love sharing my geekery with others :) But sometimes I get embarrassed by it, which I shouldn't ever do. If I'm passionate about something, I never need to apologize! It'll be good for me to get out of my box and be a better friend and leader; It'll be good to prepare for next year's leadership I'm doing too. Okay, I've been putting it off, haha but I'll just say it, some of these guys are SUPER cute! and nice too! hehe I will try not to be weird, I promise, but my guy talk NEEDS to improve- I stink at talking to boys! THAT will be a good thing to learn this trip too ;) I think we've still got 2 more hours till we arrive in DC :P  I love history SO much, let along learning and traveling and getting out there! There has been many content sighs already today- THIS is what summer's all about baby! woot!
                -btw: listening to the Star Trek sound track above the clouds? Ummmhmm! That's right. Epic.
We made it to the hotel!!! I get to room with Ashley Eyring (what are the chances! :D there are no coincidences, this was just plain amazing and wonderful meant to be), Cierra Mullins (SO nice and HILARIOUS! She's like a little sweet gangsta hip hopper) and Jasmin Ojeda (an AMAZING artist! Super nice too!) We have SO much fun! It took us quite some time to choose beds- which was funny and awkward :) Cierra kept saying: "Who wants to sleep together?" then "oh! oh gosh! wait! who wants this bed?" :) It was so funny! We've got an orientation and work shop right now, I'll write more later...

OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA- It's SO pretty here! I love the old town homes, they're beautiful. We got to walk down the Potomac Waterfront. It's getting dark, I wanted to spend the day taking pictures- I got a lot of good ones. I heard beautiful colonial-style piccolo music off in the distance and desperately wanted to find the musician and take pictures! But alas, we didn't have time.  The homes are beautiful and the shops and restaurants are positively charming :) There are pretty lights around the light poles and in the trees. I want to look up more about it later, we got so little time here. Dinner was DELISH! Lemon Chicken and rice, salad, and brownies- gourmet. We're headin to the Pentagon now.

PENTAGON MEMORIAL of 9-11:  The memorials here are benches with the names of the people who died written on them. It is categorized by age; the youngest person killed was 3. If you look up from the name on the bench and see the Pentagon, that's where they died, when you look up and see the Air force Memorial they died in the airplane that crashed there. We're not allowed to take pictures of the pentagon, but I'll do my best to take a pic of the memorial in this darkness.
      - That was SO amazing. I cried- It was just so beautiful. To visually see that so many people died and to see our country honor these civilians and heroes was truly humbling. I'm so grateful for the way our country has honored them.   Mr. Peterson lost a college room mate in the Pentagon that day; he was a civilian. Words really can't begin to explain the feelings of tonight- It was truly amazing and humbling and the patriotism was strong. It really is true and I love the quote on the memorial, illuminated by soft light:
                                                 "WE WILL NEVER FORGET"



Please notice: I got this from the Internet :) I wasn't illegally taking pictures of the Pentagon...



Mr Petersen with his friend

AIR FORCE MEMORIAL:  This was incredible. Three HUGE spires shoot up into the sky symbolizing the "bomb bust" maneuver done by the air force where three jets converge and before colliding pull up into the sky and backwards away from each other. It is positioned in the place that would have stopped the plane that crashed into the pentagon. It is raised hundreds of feet in the air; huge metal spires bending backwards away from each other illuminated by gentle lights from below. It the center are triangle arranged into a star that light up. It truly is beautiful. It would have been cool to get a picture, but it was REALLY dark. Clouds made the sky look heavy in the blackness. It was an impressible and strange scene to see these two memorials in the humid dark with lightning illuminating the horizon with occasional, soundless, veiled, flashes.
This memorial, built in 2008, was the first memorial to represent a woman on the original time of building. She is a member of the color guard on a statue near the spires. We didn't have much time there, but it was still wonderful to pay tribute to the men and women who protect our country.



This one I actually took- It is SO big and very dark.



 Time for bed- GOODNIGHT! :D

Monday! June 25, 2012

It's been a great day so far! Granted, it's 9:00 am... I'm pretty sure Ashley and I annoyed everyone in our room because we had so much fun talking and catching up. I feel really bad about that. Breakfast was Delicious!

WHITE HOUSE- This was really cool to see! Although, there were TONS of little kids around so it was hard to get a good picture or to even see it- haha they were all lined up along the fence in bright red and yellow uniforms like some kind of cult... ANYWAY. I went to the Jackson statue and got some cool pics. There were a couple of full time protesters there who talked to us in front of their tents at Lafayette Park about Nuclear Warfare... I got some good pics! I got one with a black man named Elijah Natureman who was wearing shorts (more like a loincloth) with a staff and white dread locks and a beard :D I said "Thank you Sir for the picture!" and he responded with: "Not sir, brother. we are all equal, I'm not in any way above you, nor you me."  haha- that made me happy- I responded- "you're right, thanks brother!"

JEFFERSON MEMORIAL- This was absolutely beautiful! I love the wonderful quotes (worth looking up) and got beautiful pictures of the architecture. We had good discussions in our workshops about the "let them do" philosophies of Jefferson, it was fun and I learned a lot! But I often find myself hating debates. I don't like it when people close their mind to opportunity and blatantly or stupidly push their own points, or worse, their parents points that they know nothing about. But, I suppose it can be the gateway to future discovery and research on my own part! I still got lots out of it :)

FDR MEMORIAL: I loved the quotes and fountains. The statues and tributes were beautiful. There were 4 different rooms for his 4 terms in the presidency.  It was fun! We had a debate about national health care afterwards. I don't yet know exactly what I am, but so far I find myself a mild conservative by wanting people to be educated about the health care we already have so they can help themselves and not let the government give it to them. ANYWAY.



Because of the work that FDR did for the disabled, there is braille, pictures, and statues that the blind can "see"



MARTIN LUTHER KING MEMORIAL: This memorial was really cool! there were two "mountains" with a middle cut out of it standing a little ways ahead with the quote "out of the mountain of dispair, a stone of hope" and MLKJ was on the opposite side carved into it with his arms crossed- many people find this controversial because the depiction seems imposing and unpeaceful- un-MLKJ like. I got some beautiful pictures :)

There was a really cute little boy we saw from the "Make a Wish Foundation". He had a couple of Secret Servicemen and family and a motorcade- It made me sad when someone told me he doesn't have very long to live, but it was really neat to see people doing that for him.

This strange guy was funny and asked to film some of us and on the camera was like: "I'm here at the Martin Luther King Memorial with Morgan and Kitty- her real name is Katie but I call her Kitty... I tried to tell them that this isn't a rock climbing monument, they wouldn't listen. Lets go check it out!" We were extremely creeped out, but er, whatevs... :) haha

SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY:  It was cool to be there! We stayed for way too long though; there were SO many people there! and it was HOT. We went to the evolution part of the museum and had "discussion" about it which was pretty awkward... We saw a HUGE blue "cursed" diamond- the Hope Diamond I think. It was fun! I walked around with Quintin (who plays the French Horn too! :D he's from a small town called Dugway) and Sadie, and Allie, and Sarah! We had fun seeing it all! Like: the GIANT snake and stuffed animals and butterflies and Egyptian Mummies. We talked to some natives during lunch which was fun! The man's wife grew up in Utah! What a SMALL world... Lunch was nice and fun too!

Oh the mammal exhibit- haha!



The cursed Hope Diamond



WWII MEMORIAL: This was SO cool! I took tons of pictures to help me be able to fully describe how peaceful it was here. The giant fountain in the middle sprayed us gently with the breeze in the hot sun. Huge metal chains linked pillars with the names of the states and territories in the US during WWII. On each pillar there were two metallic wreaths- one with Oak Leaves to symbolize strength and one with Grain Stalks to symbolize agricultural and industrial growth and aid. It was beautiful to look over the fountain and to see the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. There were two HUGE flags a half mast with the American flag and the POW flag under it. I'm so grateful to all of our veterans, and I'm really glad that there is a peaceful place like this here to honor them.

LINCOLN MEMORIAL: It was SO amazing to actually see this! when we got there, there was a brass quintet and a color guard from the Military. The music was beautiful and it was SO cool to see! there was an Aggie University ceremony of sorts. The Lincoln Statue left me speechless- I'm so grateful for what he did for our country.

The man third from the left has AMAZING concentration.

VIETNAM MEMORIAL: I don't think I realized how many people sacrificed themselves for our country and the sake of Justice- there were SO many. It was humbling to see our reflections on the names of those who died and served. It was a beautiful place- I'm grateful that we have it here.

KOREAN MEMORIAL:  It was humbling to see this too. Even the expressions on the faces of the statues captivated me and made me feel solemn, sad, and grateful. There were a lot of tourists there from Asia, and one gave flowers to the memorial- it was beautiful. I loved the inscription on the ground in front of the memorial. It said: "Our nation honors her sons and daughters who answered the call to defend a country they never knew and a people they never met".

I hope we remember to honor these men and women every day as well as these memorials do- they helped me to see what we only learn about in history books and feel what a picture can't always explain. I've said it before, but it truly WAS beautiful.

Ashley and I had a little time to wander through these monuments after we'd seen them- and BOY did we have fun. I'm pretty sure we had heat exhaustion- my legs were about to fall off. While walking, I said "cute dress!" to one of the Asian girls at the memorial, haha she just stared at me! ...After a while, she quickly said "thanks" and ran away... Ashley thinks I need to learn how to say "cute dress" in every language so I don't run into this problem again. I don't need to know anything else... just cute dress. :)
We were pretty delirious due to the heat by the end of the trip... we NEEDED water, so we wandered aimlessly around the national mall and tried to find this thing called "Philadelphia Water Ice" that we had seen other people eating- supposedly it was a frozen lemonade... We walked ALL over deliriously like drunken sailors until we found a little hut with open holes for a door and window. Ashley started walking towards it, but it looked like a shanty souvenir shop to me- so I said: "ummm, just because it's inside... doesn't mean... it has.. frozen stuff in it.." We both burst out laughing and couldn't stop for the longest time! I didn't mean it to be so funny! haha but eventually, we found the lemonade- the lady didn't really listen to our order, but we ate it greedily! It was wonderfully cold and terribly sticky. WE had to chip it out with little wooden "spoons" while we watched little friendly squirrels eye us from every tree and bush.
We had TONS of fun with Miss Laub and Kris our chaperones too! They try to get us in trouble, and we have sarcasm battles :) It's SO fun!

CURRENT ISSUES WORKSHOP AND DOMESTIC ISSUES DEBATE:
This is SO interesting! We have the opportunity to listen and participate in a domestic issue debate with a self proclaimed liberal and a conservative (educated adults) who have come to debate our questions. In our workshop we considered and learned about the Loose vs Strict interpretations of the constitution- SUPER interesting, I loved it!
It's hard to pull truths out of this debate because the liberal makes his points sooner and extravagantly with examples to support him, but he often misses the point and tries to wow us with other things instead of staying on the topic of our question- very effective, and annoying. He keeps talking about which pres was right or wrong and misses a lot of points about the differences in policy between liberals and conservatives.
What I liked best though about this, was being able to start to develop my own policies because I was learning so much. I took REALLY good notes about it in my notebook. WE stayed after and talked to the two debaters- I DEFINITELY agreed with the Conservatives logic more than I did with the liberal. I try to keep my mind open as best as I can. The Liberal was convinced that he had changed my mind about the Individual mandate- "Obamacare". But he completely failed to explain how we can justify giving taxpayer's money to those who simply "pay as much as they can" (in his words). It was hard for me to try to talk to him because he got so heated and excited and passionately... well, scary. ANYWAY- It was funny and interesting to see how even us in the audience have such different views between liberals and conservatives- although, us being from Utah, conservatives heavily outnumbered the 4 liberals present. My friend Peter and I had fun giving each other contending looks and holding up opposite cards to represent if we liked or didn't like what was being said: red = disagree, green = agree. They were USUALLY opposites- which was hilarious AND annoying :) I have to doubt I would have gotten so into that debate if it wasn't for Peter sitting next to me. At first I tried to quietly sit back and take notes and enjoy myself- but when Peter started throwing those cards in the air, I had to get mine out too to make sure both sides of the argument were seen in the audience too- he is a very loud liberal. :) hehe! It was so much fun! We liked poking fun at each other and asking each other educated questions and learning from each other- don't get me wrong, we didn't do this the ENTIRE trip, but enough to have fun, and other times we talked about more fun for 'teenager' things like us nerdy teens do.

I learned SO much today! It was ABSOLUTELY incredible.


BREAK for a second, this isn't about the trip: as you can tell, I have a TON to write. I'll write out my other days too as soon as I can! But duty calls and I'm out to do some gardening! I'm so grateful I had this trip- and i DO NOT want to forget it. Thanks for reading! :)