Since I haven't posted in a few days, I have a lot of pictures from different activities. I am posting my favorites of the bunch. Saturday and Sunday were very long but fun days. Saturday we went to Old Town Alexandria and Georgetown, and Sunday was spent in DC looking at monuments. On Monday we went down to Pentagon City Mall to do some shopping and eat dinner, and tonight we did a Washington Post tour and a trip to the Shoppers supermarket. At Shoppers, the students picked out lots of candy, cookies, crackers and chocolate to take home to friends. Some of the boys bought toothbrushes because apparently they are bigger here! For dinner we went to Hard Times Cafe, which is known for their chicken wings. In order to sample them all, we chose to get 120 wings (30 of each 4 types). Celery came with the wings so at least we ate something green! :) At dinner I gave Yoshinori a kiss on the cheek. Everyone went crazy about that, and I ended up with a line of people wanting me to kiss them on the cheek and get a picture of it. I didn't expect it to be such a big deal, but I learned today that in Japan it is not common to kiss on the cheek as a greeting as it is in other countries that I am used to.

 


 


 
Today we had a field trip to the Washington Post printing plant in College Park. We took the bus from campus to the Post.

They have a turtle sculpture! Fifty of these turtles were decorated in 2006 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the University of Maryland charter. They were sold at auction in October 2006, and this is where one of them ended up!

Jim Shirlen, a retired printer who worked at the Washington Post for more than 30 years, showed us a video about the newspaper and then showed us around the plant. The newsprint manager, Rex Potts, also talked to the group and came with us on the tour. We saw four gigantic printing presses (made by Mitsubishi!), each 5 stories high and 160 feet long (more than half the length of a football field). Each press weighs over 750 tons and can print, cut, and fold 18 complete newspapers per second. Huge rolls of newsprint (paper for newspapers) are brought by train from Canada (we saw the railroad cars and tracks right inside the plant!) Robots are programmed to load and unload the rolls of newsprint. When the presses are running, it must be an amazing sight. They don't give any tours when the presses are running, though, because they make too much noise; you wouldn't be able to hear what the guide is saying.

After lunch, we had two hours in the lab. First we worked on the blogs and then we had our first chat at Tapped In. It was fun!

Lunch at the Dairy

We had lunch at the Dairy today. The Dairy is located in the Turner Lab building on Route 1, which also houses the UM Visitor's Center (where the turtle statue is). They have burgers, hot dogs, pizza, salads, sandwiches and wraps, sushi rolls and the best ice cream in Maryland!

 

 

 

 

U.S. Diplomatic History lecture

Dr. Marie Hallion, Course Chair of the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland University College, was our guest lecturer today. Dr. Hallion's areas of specialization include homeland security, terrorism, organization theory and globalization. In addition to her work for UMUC, Dr. Hallion has worked for the U. S. government in various capacities for the White House and the Department of Energy. She spoke to us about the history of United States diplomacy, from the Colonial period until the present. She created a beautiful powerpoint presentation with many pictures to help the students understand the topic, and she gave each student a packet with a copy of the powerpoint to take home. In addition, she included some other information and two gifts for each participant: a souvenir clothing patch and a Mount Vernon First Day Issue of a stamped postcard! Philatelists (people who collect stamps) collect first day issues, and in a few years, this one could be worth quite a lot of money--so keep it safe!

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Memorials and the Monument

I met the group in DC today, having left my car at the Quality Inn yesterday. We walked around the Tidal Basin and visited the Jefferson and FDR memorials. Then I went ahead to the Washington Monument because we were supposed to be there at 3:45. The group got there about 3:55 and everyone rode the elevator up to the top. Unfortunately, it was very hazy, but we could still see quite far.

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On our way back to College Park, I managed to get my group on the wrong metro, but we eventually made it back to CP and had a quick meal at Plato's Diner. Then there was a thunderstorm! I drove eight students in 2 groups to CSPAC for a read-through of Brahms' German requiem. We found Richard Evanoff and his family there as well. They all left after the "rehearsal" part ended, but I stayed until 10 and sang with the group! It was awesome.

Today, we visited various memorials as well as the Washington Monument, enjoying the pleasant views and taking memorable pictures. After seeing the entire D.C. area from the top of the Monument, half of the group decided to go back to College Park for a concert. The other half stayed with the mentors and visited the Lincoln, World War II, and the Vietnam War Memorials.

Monuments Cruise

At 3:30 pm, we boarded the Miss Mallory for a 45-minute cruise to Georgetown, the oldest neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hallion saw us off, waving from the dock as the boat pulled away. We were happy to find a big air-conditioned room on the boat, and some of the group stayed there, playing cards or just resting; but some of us preferred the view from the Miss Mallory's upper deck, where the sun was strong but there was a beautiful breeze!

When we got to Georgetown, our first stop was Urban Outfitters, a giant clothing store on M Street. I hate to shop, so I went home soon after that. I got home at 7 pm, exhausted, but I found out that the group stayed on in Georgetown, shopping and eating, for several hours, getting home at 11:30. Fortunately, Sunday morning is free time so we can all sleep in!

Here are my pictures from the cruise, plus a few from Georgetown:

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