February 25, 2009

Hello everybody!
Today we woke up at 7am (4am your time) and went to the Ash Wednesday mass. The cross formed from ashes is still on my forehead. Then we ate breakfast and went down to the house/dorm/place where the boys live and played a really stressful game of cards called, you guessed it, "Stress." Then we received "good and bad news." The good news was that "Jesus loves us," of course, and the bad news was that we would walk to the Metro Station, a mile or so away, to ride the Subway. I guess you can call me a wimp but that was tough. We played around in the station, against Mr. Harvey's wishes (although sometimes I think he wants to try to go up the "down" escalator too). The subway was really fun, but I fell once, much to the astonisment of the poor innoent passenger on whom I landed. Anyways, I think I may be giving a little too much information here. When we got to the heart of DC, we walked to the American History Museum. The size of that place amazed me. did you know that it would take 100 years to see everything in that museum? I had no idea. In three hours, I felt as if I had barely touched on all of the amazing things there. We saw Lincoln's top had and, although this may sound disgusting, it was really cool to see Laura Keene's cuff which his blood dripped on to. The First Lady's dresses were gorgeous. We probably spent forty-five minutes in the big gift shop. I bought something for my family! The man who worked the cash register was probably one of my favorite parts of the day. He started out asking us where we were from, and, upon hearing that we live near Seattle, he informed us on something we did not know: It rains in Seattle! I had no idea. We all laughed and he gave us a magazine about the museum for free and a new quarter made in 2009! I brought out the items I wanted to buy, which were a T-shirt, post-cards, and playing cards. Then we had a long conversation about how he didn't want me to start gambling. We talked about our favorite card games, and let me tell you, his favorite card game is very complicated. Actually that is all he told me, "It's complicated." But he was super sociable and I think I've made a new friend. O yeah, I forgot, we had lunch at the big cafe in the Museum. (Everything is big in the museum). Madeline and I split a pizza and chips. the class made a new friend here. Miss Dolores who was from Pine Bluff, Arkansas. She had gone to the Ash Wednesday service that we went to and from then on, we all took a liking to her as she started talking. Actually, Madeline and I could barely hear her, being at the opposite end of the table, but the animation with which she talked was amazing. we took pictures with her and she told us about her aunt from Louisiana. Now, I am on the computer in the National Cathedral talking to you!

Hailey