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So, the reason that I've been kind of absent from LiveJournal over the past couple of days is because I was in Washington, D.C. for a school field trip.
01. I've already been to Washington, D.C. before, but it was about a bazillion times better to go with friends than with my family. For one thing, we didn't drive there. We flew, which was awesome, even if we had to get up at 3:00 in the morning.
02. On the first day (Thursday), we went to the Vietnam, Korean, and Lincoln memorials. Those were ridiculously boring, especially since I had seen them all before and no one in my family has fought in either of those wars. Plus, it was freezing cold out, and my hands were numb, so walking around all those memorials wasn't exactly helping.
03. We also went to the International Spy Museum. It was okay in the sense that some of the stuff they did to escape detection was really interesting, but after awhile all of the gadgets started to look the same and you were just wandering around, trying to figure out how to get out. One thing I did see was the name of Giacomo Casanova, whom if you don't recall was played by Heath Ledger in the film Casanova. Apparently he was a spy for the French, which was not mentioned at all in the movie.
04. My back seriously could not handle all of this walking. It was sore pretty much the entire trip. My left knee and left ankle were also acting up, which was not good.
05. The Pentagon City Mall (which was near where we were staying) was just okay, because even though it had four floors it didn't actually have that many stores. The only one I was interested in was Auntie Anne's (they had two of those!). I wanted to find a PacSun, but unfortunately there were none. Also, the trip leaders told us to get breakfast there, except there was no food place except the food court and we had to walk to this random pharmacy in order to get it. Luckily, me and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lanie__rose managed to go behind three tall guys in our grade, so we weren't so worried about getting mugged. =)
06. The World War II memorial was amazing. I've seen it before, in the summer (which is a better time for it, because it has the water), but it was still gorgeous. I can't believe there are some people who were unhappy with it. Pretty much all of the pictures I took were of it.
07. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt one was less good (I always thought his middle name was Delanor, for some reason), because it was basically some walls that formed a path through which you could walk, and they had some of his quotes along them. I think it would have been better if they had the fountains turned on.
08. I didn't enjoy the Holocaust Museum again. At that point, my back was about ready to fall off, but after reading about the fiftieth placard my attention started wandering and I was pretty much just trying to get through it as quickly as I could.
What really annoyed me, though, was how at one point these girls from my grade were sitting about halfway between two exhibits and talking/laughing really loudly on their cellphones. I was going to go over and tell them to shut up, but some guy beat me to it and started yelling at them about how they're surrounded by exhibits of people getting gassed at Auschwitz and how disrespectful they were being.
Then, not too far from that, a group of kids were lounging in the rememberance room (the one lit with hundreds of candles) and chatting to their friends. This was especially annoying because there was a lobby right down the stairs where they could have done that without offending people who were actually there to reflect on the Holocaust.
09. Georgetown was amazing. It's this big shopping center outside of Washington, D.C., and even though the buildings are old the stores are modern and definitely not those stupid trinket shops. They had a Barnes & Noble there, which was very exciting. I got four books:
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
- Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
- The Bargain by Julia Templeton
- Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory
You pretty much can't find a more different set of books. I've already finished The Bargain, which was so hilariously bad and yet so addicting that I pretty much couldn't put it down. It's one of those trashy romance novels with a half-naked guy on the front cover. The plot (such that there is) is about a girl named Aleysia who makes a bargain with the guy who conquers her lands. Basically, he has her brother captive, and in order to keep her alive she agrees to give him (Renaud) her body. Naturally, she starts falling in love with him. Surprise, surprise.
I thinklanie__rose's was better, because her guy (The Cowboy) was much hotter, and they actually managed to make it through forty pages at one point without having sex.
ETA: Oh crap, I just discovered that there was a book before Virgin Earth. Shit.
10. The last thing that we did as a group was go to the Arlington National Cemetary. The changing of the guards was cool, though I bet it's so much better in England. There was some random green tent that the soldier walked into about halfway through his duty, but none of us could figure out what he was doing. At first we thought he was going to the bathroom, except I don't think the tent had four sides. It was very odd. We also saw where Kennedy was buried, which was interesting.
11. After Arlington, we had about five hours of free time. Me,lanie__rose, Heather, Rose, Amanda, and Marie (other girls from our grade) went back to Georgetown and did some shopping. I ate at Johnny Rocket's for the first time, and it was actually pretty good--except the waiter seriously had hearing problems, he didn't understand a word we were saying. After that, we walked to some of the stores and went to this underground mall place, which was really cool.
Later, we went back to the Pentagon City Mall, except we overestimated how long it would take us to get there and wound up with an hour of free tiime after we had checked out the one store that we wanted to go. I ended up finally buying something from Auntie Anne's, and after that we went to Lindt and Godiva to get samples. Finally we went to the Gap, where I got this (Red) bag that had been originally fifty dollars, but was marked down to just under thirty. I'd been wanting it for awhile, so I ended up getting it. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture, but it's tres cool.
12. One of the leaders brought his adorable three-year-old son along. *squishes* He was so adorable! Everyone was pretty much watching him whenever we were sitting down. He had an endless supply of energy, too. Most of us were dead on the first day after getting up at 3:00, but he was running around and everything.
13. McDonald's fruit salads are amazing.
01. I've already been to Washington, D.C. before, but it was about a bazillion times better to go with friends than with my family. For one thing, we didn't drive there. We flew, which was awesome, even if we had to get up at 3:00 in the morning.
02. On the first day (Thursday), we went to the Vietnam, Korean, and Lincoln memorials. Those were ridiculously boring, especially since I had seen them all before and no one in my family has fought in either of those wars. Plus, it was freezing cold out, and my hands were numb, so walking around all those memorials wasn't exactly helping.
03. We also went to the International Spy Museum. It was okay in the sense that some of the stuff they did to escape detection was really interesting, but after awhile all of the gadgets started to look the same and you were just wandering around, trying to figure out how to get out. One thing I did see was the name of Giacomo Casanova, whom if you don't recall was played by Heath Ledger in the film Casanova. Apparently he was a spy for the French, which was not mentioned at all in the movie.
04. My back seriously could not handle all of this walking. It was sore pretty much the entire trip. My left knee and left ankle were also acting up, which was not good.
05. The Pentagon City Mall (which was near where we were staying) was just okay, because even though it had four floors it didn't actually have that many stores. The only one I was interested in was Auntie Anne's (they had two of those!). I wanted to find a PacSun, but unfortunately there were none. Also, the trip leaders told us to get breakfast there, except there was no food place except the food court and we had to walk to this random pharmacy in order to get it. Luckily, me and
lanie__rose managed to go behind three tall guys in our grade, so we weren't so worried about getting mugged. =)06. The World War II memorial was amazing. I've seen it before, in the summer (which is a better time for it, because it has the water), but it was still gorgeous. I can't believe there are some people who were unhappy with it. Pretty much all of the pictures I took were of it.
07. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt one was less good (I always thought his middle name was Delanor, for some reason), because it was basically some walls that formed a path through which you could walk, and they had some of his quotes along them. I think it would have been better if they had the fountains turned on.
08. I didn't enjoy the Holocaust Museum again. At that point, my back was about ready to fall off, but after reading about the fiftieth placard my attention started wandering and I was pretty much just trying to get through it as quickly as I could.
What really annoyed me, though, was how at one point these girls from my grade were sitting about halfway between two exhibits and talking/laughing really loudly on their cellphones. I was going to go over and tell them to shut up, but some guy beat me to it and started yelling at them about how they're surrounded by exhibits of people getting gassed at Auschwitz and how disrespectful they were being.
Then, not too far from that, a group of kids were lounging in the rememberance room (the one lit with hundreds of candles) and chatting to their friends. This was especially annoying because there was a lobby right down the stairs where they could have done that without offending people who were actually there to reflect on the Holocaust.
09. Georgetown was amazing. It's this big shopping center outside of Washington, D.C., and even though the buildings are old the stores are modern and definitely not those stupid trinket shops. They had a Barnes & Noble there, which was very exciting. I got four books:
- Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
- Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
- The Bargain by Julia Templeton
- Virgin Earth by Philippa Gregory
You pretty much can't find a more different set of books. I've already finished The Bargain, which was so hilariously bad and yet so addicting that I pretty much couldn't put it down. It's one of those trashy romance novels with a half-naked guy on the front cover. The plot (such that there is) is about a girl named Aleysia who makes a bargain with the guy who conquers her lands. Basically, he has her brother captive, and in order to keep her alive she agrees to give him (Renaud) her body. Naturally, she starts falling in love with him. Surprise, surprise.
I think
lanie__rose's was better, because her guy (The Cowboy) was much hotter, and they actually managed to make it through forty pages at one point without having sex.ETA: Oh crap, I just discovered that there was a book before Virgin Earth. Shit.
10. The last thing that we did as a group was go to the Arlington National Cemetary. The changing of the guards was cool, though I bet it's so much better in England. There was some random green tent that the soldier walked into about halfway through his duty, but none of us could figure out what he was doing. At first we thought he was going to the bathroom, except I don't think the tent had four sides. It was very odd. We also saw where Kennedy was buried, which was interesting.
11. After Arlington, we had about five hours of free time. Me,
lanie__rose, Heather, Rose, Amanda, and Marie (other girls from our grade) went back to Georgetown and did some shopping. I ate at Johnny Rocket's for the first time, and it was actually pretty good--except the waiter seriously had hearing problems, he didn't understand a word we were saying. After that, we walked to some of the stores and went to this underground mall place, which was really cool.Later, we went back to the Pentagon City Mall, except we overestimated how long it would take us to get there and wound up with an hour of free tiime after we had checked out the one store that we wanted to go. I ended up finally buying something from Auntie Anne's, and after that we went to Lindt and Godiva to get samples. Finally we went to the Gap, where I got this (Red) bag that had been originally fifty dollars, but was marked down to just under thirty. I'd been wanting it for awhile, so I ended up getting it. Unfortunately, I can't find a picture, but it's tres cool.
12. One of the leaders brought his adorable three-year-old son along. *squishes* He was so adorable! Everyone was pretty much watching him whenever we were sitting down. He had an endless supply of energy, too. Most of us were dead on the first day after getting up at 3:00, but he was running around and everything.
13. McDonald's fruit salads are amazing.
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