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Where is...?

After four years of ACSA we are finally here. Today was our 5th day of Washington DC April 16th, 2012. It was a really strange day, It started off with a wake up call at 5;30 in the morning so we could get ready to head to the white house. We were not able to go because there was an event going on so it was suspended until 11:00 but we decided not to go.

After a long walk to the White house we went to the international spy museum. I ended up going through the museum instead of a super duper fun mission that my friends went on. When I was done going through the museum I bought a lot of stuff from the gift shop. At the gift shop there were trick shock pens, so of coarse all of us NEEDED to buy one. We all left the spy museum with good memories and shock pens. After that we went to the National Museum of American history. There was a lot of neat things there like Dorothy's shoes and the Scare crow's hat from Wizard of Oz, there was also the original Hermit the frog.

Later that day we went and got off the subway not knowing one of our classmates didn't get off the metro. Can you guess who it was? most people might assume June, but no it was Ethan. Thanks to Mark Kelso for asking everyone where Ethan was or else we wouldn't have known he was gone. Mrs. Leeper and a few more people went to pick him after he called Kim Knudsen telling her where he was.

We got Ethan and headed to George Town Cupcakes. It is a cupcake place that has its own TV show called DC cupcakes starring two girls named Sophie LaMontagne and Katherine Kallinis that make cupcakes for large events. It turns out that George town is the place where the priest fell down the stares and broke his neck and died from the Exorcist movie in 1973. All of us stood on the stares and took pictures. Then we went to Häagen-Dazs Ice cream shop for some ice cream. After that we went to a light show at the Hirshhorn museum. Every one was really confused because the light show was a projection on a wall of people singing the same song over, and over again. We soon found out that it was different artists perspective on a song. That same song was supposed to go on for about four hours but we left after the first 30 minutes. We all started to head back to the metro to come back to the 4h Conference center we are all staying at. So after a long, tiring, crazy, weird day we finally got to go and sleep.

April 24, 2012


Washington DC
ACSA Fieldtrip

"Time to wake up!" DR. Kelso urged. I rolled out of bed groggily and tried to remember where I was. Ethan, on the other hand, knew where he was. He just didn't want to get up. "Get out of bed Ethan! It's time to go!" Dr. K was trying his best, but it took a while before Ethan would budge. "AWwwwww!" Ethan was less than hardy. Maybe he could have just another hour of sleep, no? Ha! When pigs fly! I gathered mula ($$$) and supplies, then headed... um stumbled out the door. It was then that Mr. Hindman briefed us on what would happen to us on this particular day. However, no amount of briefing could prepare me for what would happen that day.

We didn't eat our usual frenchy toast or eggies as I would have expected. No. We took a metro to the Reagan International Trade Center where I indulged myself upon a breakfast biscuit and a cinnamon roll. As I was leaning back in my chair, Mr. H pulled together all of our class senators to vote on whether to go to the White House or the Spy Museum. It was an almost anonymous vote towards the Spy Museum. I kinda wanted to explore the White House, but hour-long lines just don't get me excited. You know what I mean? So we embarked upon a journey through many metro stops to a place called a Spy Museum.

Our group walked in through double doors into a wide reception area, got in line for tickets, and tried to make up our minds on whether we wanted to Operation Spy or General Admission it. Word reached my ears that operation spy was the way to go, so I shrugged, forked over the cash, and received my ticket. Easy as that. Our group of Leif, James, Nolan, Ethan, Katy, Tori, Ian, June, and Kevynn, wait... and me (Degnan) huddled in a side reception area awaiting our operation. It was short-waited for before anyone could say "Bubbles", an African-American tour guide came up, told us her name, and urged us to follow her up the stairs. We did.

The whole exhibit was a series of twists and turns and elevator rides and creaky floored alleyways where you hide and disable cameras and hack electronics and a whole lot of other stuff I can add to this run-on sentence. The tour guide instructed us on how to operate things and then we did the rest. We were showed how to use certain gadgets like brains, metal detectors, and lie detectors to use against crime-lords and their associates. We didn't die or anything, but we did catch Bitar (an evil dude) who was trying to sell ultra-sonic, plasma-bubble operated, nuclear, Z-88 prototype bombs. Then, with all the loose ends eliminated, a former CIA agent told us that these situations were based on real-life events and scenarios.

The Spy Museum was fun, but it was time to head to a new museum called the American History Museum. As we were heading to the American History Museum, we were all busy being fascinated on a gadget from the Spy Museum called a Shock Pen. It's a pen. Guess what it does. It electrocutes unsuspecting victims with a sudden-cramp/shock mechanism which gives that victim a certain case of the spaz-mode disease. BZZZZZZZZZOWWWWWEEEE. What a shocking experience. These vile pens were used throughout the day randomly. It was kind of scary.

The American History Museum was good too. It showcased a lot of exhibits from old movie-making to the development of the World Wars. The most interesting thing was the development of guns from the civil war to the present. The manufacturing exhibit with the modeling of cars, trains, and aircrafts also caught my attention. It was also interesting to see an exhibit on the Greensboro sit-in since I did a project on that and I knew what they were talking about.

The last exciting thing of the day was the epic, all-out, shock-pen, wrestle scrimmage... make that war. It was to be played out in the vast fields near the base of the Washington Obelisk Thing. Nolan, Jeremy, and I ganged up on Leif while James and Ethan Wrestled around. All of a sudden, James fakes out Ethan and tackles him.

Then James stands up and charges at Nolan with brotherly challengingness. James catches Nolan unsuspectedly and jabbed the shock-pen into Nolan's calf. "OWWWWWWWWWW!!! JAMES!!!!" Nolan chases after James with vengence in his eyes. The cool thing was that there was a live band playing in the background, so we could listen to some epic tunes while being organized/civilized hooligans. Nolan bellowed like a raged gorilla and raced after Leif who had just scythed Nolan in the stomach.

Oh wait... There was another thing that was interestingly artistic. At dusk, after our bellies were stuffed with ice-cream and burgers, we all met at this chubby cylinder that was about 50 feet tall and it was made of concrete. Projectors were set up so that they projected a music video on the concrete wall. We all sat in the grass around it and watched.

It was a shockingly, interestingly, bright, sunny day and I enjoyed it.


MADE BY DEGNAN
DEGNAN
DEGNAN

As you may know, today is the last day of our awesome D.C. week. We woke up and started our short walk to the famous "Olympia Coffee Shop." The lady there was very generous and nice. Once everybody was done eating we walked to a grocery store right by the coffee shop to buy breakfast products for tomorrow morning. After that we headed for the bus that leads to the metro station. The metro station is actually a fairly speedy way of transportation compared to walking, although we did do a lot of walking too.

We took the metro to Woodley Park, this is where the National Zoo is. We saw a bunch of interesting and cool exhibits ranging from frogs to the blue whale. Well at least for the girls. Degnan and I told them that we saw a blue whale in a huge tank. You probably assumed this already, the girls took the bait way too easily. "Quit bragging," said Rayne since she really believed us, she was mad that she missed the imaginary exhibit. What was real was a couple of pandas. I thought that they were cool since only the San Diego and the National Zoo has them.

After the fake animal crisis, we walked to the metro to go to "Union Station." There, everybody parted ways to go to the food court and eat some yummies. After that, Degnan and I stopped at some hat place to buy some hats. I got a Boston Red Sox hat (the best baseball team). After a lot of convincing, Degnan finally got a Jordan hat. Jordan is his signature brand, everyone cracks jordan jokes with him about it. After that, we aimed our direction to the meeting spot.

We then went to the Capitol building to talk to the senators Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski. It was an intriguing experience. Jeremy was the only one brave enough to ask them a question.

If you have seen the movie "National treasure," then you should be familiar with the Declaration of Independence. Well, we went to the archives and saw it. There, we also saw the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. It was interesting to see all of those famous documents. After the Archives, everyone went to the metro and rode it all the way to "Friendship Heights."

After the metro, everyone went wherever their stomachs told them to go. After the satisfying meal, we headed back to the 4-H Club to get some refreshing sleep. Overall, this was a great fun-filled trip! All you seventh-graders who just read this should be very excited and antsy for your next year trip.

At the Capitol building before we entered we had to take out all of our snacks and beverages sharp objects out of our back packs. Mr. Kelso had a pocket knife and he could not enter the Capitol building with it so he put his pocket knife in an empty water bottle and placed it in the trash can, hoping to get it later. We were all able to go inside the Capitol building. We stood in line to a theatre to see a movie about our Nation and the civil war and the Act of 1964 where African Americans were able to get the same rights and privileges as a white person does and the women got the right to vote.

After that we had a tour guide and he taught and showed us paintings, statues, and art work. There was a painting and looked 3D and one of the artists painted his face in a tree. He also showed us where George Washington was suppose to be buried but the tomb wasn't finished by the time he died. Congress asked his family if they wanted him to be buried in the tomb but his family said no and that he should be buried with his wife at their farm.






Then we got to go to the United States Senate and hear them debate about employee rights. Security was pretty strick there. Mrs. Erickson was reading a pamphlet and I showed her on our tickets that we aren't even allowed to read. We also could not take pictures, no food, no kids under 6, and definitely no sleeping.

After we were done touring the Capitol building we went outside to the main entrance so Mr. Kelso could look for his pocket knife. It was pretty funny. He climbed into the trash can and eventually found his pocket knife. We were laughing pretty hard. Then a security guard came up to us and asked Mr. Kelso, "Are you part of this group?"
Mr. Kelso replied, "yes" and the security guard said, "you do realize that all of you are going to be on Facebook?"
We all were laughing pretty hard.



Then we took the Metro to the NBA basketball game to see the Washington DC Wizards vs. Charlotte Bobcats. When I walked into the stadium it was HUGE! This was definitely not what I expected, I've only been to Nome basketball games and this was very different with stoplights, a jumbo tron, lot of lights. During the game Mr. Hindman was screaming and yelling during the game to try to embarrass us. In the end the Wizards scored 101 and the Bobcats 73. I'm glad I got to got to my first NBA game it was pretty cool.





Blog by Jeremy Knudsen