Field Trip!

I felt so bad for my Washington Seminar friends on Saturday morning. We had to get up early (considering that it was the weekend) in order to board a bus to Gettysburg, Pennslyvannia, and while everyone else was still waking up, I was wide awake and had the song "Stuck Like Glue" in my head. Luckily, our professor brought the movie "Gettysburg" for us to watch. That calmed me down, I stopped singing, and we watched the movie for the duration of the day, every time we were on the bus. I'm so glad we did, because it really helped me understand the events of the battlefield we were touring. While we were in Gettysburg, we went to the museum there, drove around the area with a tour guide, and stopped at the Soldiers National Cemetery where thousands of Union forces are buried. This is also the location where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address back in 1863, four months after the battle. It was extremely sobering to be at Gettysburg, and it gave me a lot of perspective on the extent of the sacrifices both sides made during the Civil War.

Cannon at Gettysburg Battlefield

At the Soldiers National Cemetery in Gettysburg
The monument marks the location where Lincoln gave his speech
Left to right- me, Megan, Kameron

After stuffing our faces at a local buffet, our group got back on the bus, and drove down to Harpers Ferry in West Virginia. This was the location where abolitionist John Brown tried to lead a raid on a federal armory in order to gain access to weapons he could use to arm slaves. I didn't really understand what was so cool about Harpers Ferry before we went, but after arriving, I loved it! If anything, I wish we could have had more time to explore the little town that's situated on the banks of the Shenandoah River. People still live in Harpers Ferry today, but it's so small! We visited a church on a hill, found some ruins of a previous church that had burned down, hiked to a beautiful cemetery, and stopped at a place called Jefferson's Rock where Thomas Jefferson visited. Apparently Jefferson said that the view from the rock was "worth a voyage across the Atlantic." It's probably nicer in the summer, but it was cool to overlook the river and see where the Shenandoah met the Potomac. 

In front of the church at Harpers Ferry, WV
Left to right: Alison, me, Megan, Tanner, Wade, Kameron

At Jefferson's Rock

It was such a great day, and it was nice to venture out of DC for a while and see what the countryside looks like. Too bad I ended up being in a terrible mood around half-time of the BYU-SDSU game that night.  At least we beat New Mexico on Friday and watched Jimmer score 52 points in that game! By the way, I filled out my first bracket ever last night, so I'll finally be watching March Madness attentively this year. It's also been extremely interesting to be outside of Utah with Brandon Davies no longer playing for the team. His suspension got so much media attention, and I've lost track of how many people have questioned me about the team and BYU's honor code whenever they ask me where I go to school.

Before the New Mexico game on Friday, my friends and I went to the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars to hear a briefing by Canadian astronaut, Julie Payette.  She flew two mission to the International Space Station, once in 1999 on Space Shuttle Discovery, and again in 2009 on Space Shuttle Endeavor. I loved listening to her talk, and she showed us some very cool footage of the ISS! While I was there, I decided that I either wanted to be an astronaut or watch an episode of Star Trek. The astronaut thing probably wouldn't work out at this point since the government is ending the space shuttle program. :(

Anyway, it was certainly an educational weekend-it's crazy how much you can learn when you're away from school!