National Museum Day: Newseum

Me in front of the Berlin Wall

Today is National Museum Day.  That means I was able to go into any of 1,200 museums across the country.  Most of the museums in DC are free anyway, but I had wanted to go to the Newseum last week until I found out that it cost $20 to get in.  Since it was free today, I decided to go.  I was there shortly after it opened at 9am.  I started at the bottom level for a short introductory video.  Then I saw the Berlin Wall, or pieces of it anyway.  They also had a watch tower.  I wasn't expecting them to have artifacts along with the news, so that was a pleasant surprise.
I spent the next 7 hours or so looking around the 6 levels of the museum.  They have an exhibit on Katrina and 9/11.  They also have various other themed exhibits.  There is a 4D movie (not real long, but interesting), and an exhibit devoted to Elvis.  One exhibit has the front page of newspapers from various events around the world.  They go back to the 1600s even.  It was interesting.
For the Newseum, you can get in two consecutive days in a row, but I think one day was enough.  I didn't read everything in the museum, or watch every documentary, but I think another day would be too much.

Old Peanuts cartoon

After I had looked through the museum, I headed back home.  I was going to go shopping . . . but I'm just too tired.  Oh well.  I guess I'll have to go Monday.
Oh, another thing . . . the Newseum basically processes news from all over the globe every day, recording videos, receiving copies of newsprints, etc.  They even have a display outside the museum with the front page of a newspaper from each of the 50 states, plus a couple other newspapers that are changed every single morning.
I have a lot of information to process now, and there are some older news stories that I want to look up and get more information.  I think I'll wait until later, though, when my brain isn't so full of info.

They even had news on the bathroom walls!

Great view from the terrace of Level 6

Small news article talking about the death of Jews during the holocaust

That article was much smaller than an ad on the same page

Women can now VOTE!

The evolution of the telephone

Segregation of women and men

Tribute to 9/11, there were many more front pages, but I couldn't fit them in one shot.

Sad commentary on the education of our nation

The Woods

My room

I got back from my class trip to the woods in Hedgesville, WV a couple hours ago.  It was a lot of fun.  Basically the woods is an off-site activity kind of like a company retreat.  We worked with a company on various activities to form teams and accomplish specific tasks designed to create unity and teach us valuable lessons about ourselves and the dynamics of teamwork.
Yesterday morning, we met at FSI and took a couple buses to the West Virginia.  Upon arrival, we quickly got our room keys, dropped off our bags and assembled for the beginning of the team building exercises.  We were split up into teams.

The woods were right out my back door

Throughout the day we had various activities that were designed to help us learn to communicate and work as a team.  Some of them were more challenging then others, but they all had specific and valuable lessons to learn, which is why, I suppose, that we were doing them.
That night we had our class's Follies.  I was on the Follies committee and had a couple parts in the show.  It was really funny (I gauge this not by my own measure, but by the laughter from the audience).  I was in a couple comedic skits, and then danced/sang in another.
After the Follies, there was much drinking and karaoke.  I joined in the karaoke, of course, and was up until after 1am.

The Torch of Knowledge

This morning we had our final activities.  All the activities for the final day were designed to help us work together to achieve larger goals.  In fact, the final mission (grand finale, if you will) brought all of our groups together, working to accomplish a single goal.  That was intense.  It was great.  Not only did we succeed (our prize was the Torch of Knowledge as shown here), but they told us that we didn't make any errors in the task.  Apparently, this hasn't happened in about two years.  We felt pretty amazing when they told us that.  But we only did that because all of us worked together.  If even one person had made a mistake, it would have affected the entire group.
After the final activity we got on the buses and headed home.  It was an intense couple of days, but I think it really helped us to grow together as an A-100 class.

Hiking Great Falls

Today was a long, but interesting day of class.  After class, a bunch of my A-100 group drove out to Great Falls for a short and easy hike.  It was a lot of fun, and was very beautiful.  One of the guys in my group used to be a tour guide in DC, so he knew the history of the area.  It felt like we had a private tour.  It was great.  Enjoy some pictures from the hike:

After the hike, we all headed back home.  In the vehicle I was in, someone really had to go to the bathroom.  I decided to relieve myself, as well, since we were stopping anyway.  We stopped at a Wendy's somewhere in Courthouse, VA.  I was a little confused by the two toilet option:

I did not edit that picture...  There really were two toilets and no stalls in that bathroom.  Both toilets are connected and as far as I could tell (I didn't use both of them) they both work.
We started talking about food on our way back to Falls Church, so we decided to stop and get some food.  We stopped for Vietnamese (it's really close to where I live, so it made sense).  This time we did family style, so I tried a lot more different kinds of food.  It was all really good.  So far, I have definitely been impressed with Vietnamese food.

Night Out

Tonight after work I met up with Jamie again to hang out.  We went to a dramatic reading of a play about Lincoln.  It was interesting, and not what I expected.  Aimee was there, too, so it was good to see her.

Me and Jamie with the actor who read for Lincoln

Other than that, I also think I figured out why my apartment is making me sick.  One of the ladies in my class told me that the carpet in her apartment is off-gassing.  I guess new carpet does this.  I researched it a little, and it seems to be a common problem.  It makes sense to me.  I don't know how long it takes for it to clear, but I'm going to leave the window and balcony door open for awhile.  I hope that will fix it quickly.

Unexpected Run-ins and Museums

Inside a mail cart in the Postal Museum

Jamie and I went into Maryland for church today (that's where the DC Singles Ward meets).  It is close to a metro stop, so it was much easier to get to then the church I'll be going to regularly.  There, Jamie saw several people that she knows.  I told her, I don't know anyone here.  Then at the end of church, I was surprised to see my friend Aimee!  She is here for the Washington Seminar, so will be in DC at least until December.  I'm pretty excited about it.
After church, Jamie and I went downtown and went to a couple of museums.  We went into the Postal Museum, and then to the National Gallery of Art.  It was interesting and very fun.  I will definitely have to take some time later to go through the other museums of the Smithsonian!

Inside the Art Gallery

 I had to leave to go to my Follies committee meeting (I'm on the Follies committee for my A-100 class.  The Follies is a program that is done at our "company retreat" which is known as our Offsite experience at The Woods Resort).  We did read-throughs for the skits/performances that were ready, and made some other important decisions about the show.
Then I headed home.  After getting off at my metro stop, I was surprised to see Jamie walking ahead of me!  It was funny because she had texted me from the bus she was on while I was walking to the metro after my meeting.
This was a good weekend.  Now I have to get back to work for tomorrow!