Monday Night, 4-6-09

Austin: Today was amazing, we had a tour of the capitol and I learned a lot of things I didn't know about it. The best part about the whole day was being able to lay the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier I was excited and scared at the same time but when I started walking down the stairs all of that went away and it was the best expereance I have ever had and I can't wait untill tomarrow :)

Dakota: today was really busy but it was probably the best one yet, it was rainy for a while and then it got nice out, we first went to the national archives with the constitution, and declaration of independance, the documents there were really interesting. After the archives we made our way to the united states capitol. the capitol was very up tight with security. the capitol was very interesting and i liked it a lot. after the capitol we went to the arlington cemetary for the wreath laying ceremony. austin, haleigh, jodie, and libby did a great job laying the wreath and everybody else was very respectable while at the cemetary this one guy came up to me and asked me what school we were all from and i said aplington-parkersburg middle school in iowa, then he told us a great story about how the arlington cemetary came about. he left, and ms. davis who was a very important person for this trip and we wouldnt of been able to have this, and she told us that that man was a fire fighter at the pentagon during 9-11, and he was the first one to react. before we were going to get on our bus for a sight seeing and the man came back and told us the rest of the story about arlington and his memories from 9-11, and it was the highlight of this trip because he was very humble, and when he came up to me i thought he was just going to tell us some weird things that was worthless, but his story was the thing that i wont forget ever.

Jodie: I think the most interesting part of my day was supper at Jaleos. It was a major culture shock. There were many foods that I had never even heard of, and watching people try new foods was fun because the faces they made were hilarious. I think we all bonded and got closer just by being open to trying new things. I think that's one thing most of us have in common, we are all willing to try new things. Some of us were more adventurous than others, but by the time we were done passing the plates we had all tried something new. I think the one thing I'm really going to remember about this trip is placing the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. I was REALLY nervous when we were presenting the wreath, but just knowing how important the tomb is and knowing i got the chance to present the wreath and show honor and respect to our troops is a great feeling. This trip is awesome experience and I hope I can come back again sometime!

Olivia: Today was so exciting! One of the most exciting things that I did today was going to Arlington Cemetery. We got to Arlington and we met Lisa Davis, the lady who  helped us get a time to lay the wreath, she was very nice! We also met this guy there who was a very nice too. He told us the story about the cemetery. He also was at the Pentagon on September 11. He was a fire rescue man and he saw the plane coming and his fire truck was hit, and he was injured. When we left to lay the wreath, Haleigh, Jodie, Austin, and I all had to change. We were already late for getting there and we had to dress VERY quickly. I was very nervous about laying the wreath because I had no idea what we had to do, and I didn't want to mess anything up. The guard told us what we had to do, and he also told us about when he visited Arlington when he was in 8th grade. I was very honored to lay the wreath, because it is an opertunity a lot of people don't get. It was a lot of fun.  Tonight we went to Jaleo's and we got to try some INTRESTING foods. I tasted many neat foods like Pallas, lamb chops, callimari, pigs feet, and even octopus that had the suckers still on! It was a lot of fun tonight, we also went to Coldstone for dessert. The guys who worked there could do some very neat tricks with the ice cream! It was a lot of fun! Today was full of new experiences!