I’m combining these two weeks because I’m leaving on Friday and don’t think I’ll have time to update it at the end of this week.
These past weeks have provided me with the perfect combination of fun, productivity and excitement. On Monday I didn’t have a lot of homework and neither did a lot of the other pages so we all went ice-skating. Amanda and I had garden duty before because we forgot to do kitchen duty so we had to rake leaves for an hour (my first time raking leaves and it’s not fun.) But then after we went straight to ice skating and the trip home was particularly breath taking. We decided to walk and talked a lot about our experiences here as we passed through the National Mall. It was really sad coming to the reality that we would our adventures here in DC would soon be coming to an end. At that moment, I felt so blessed, here I was a sixteen year old on a Monday night, walking with friends and going by the Capitol and to think that we work there is unbelievable.
On Wednesday I worked late and it was a very exciting night with congress. The Dream Act, which was heavily debated, got passed, allowing immigrants to gain citizenship through joining the military or going to college. My job that day was votes, so I got to deliver the final votes to the House floor once the electronic version was affirmed. The House was filled with applause, and cheering as the yeas increased and when the vote was over the congressmen passed by with large smiles and made comments like “We did it!”
On Friday during history class there was a sudden interruption to the lecture and everyone crowded around the window to witness the first snowfall of the season, for some it was the first time they had every seen snow. It was a beautiful sight, almost everyone walked outside to get to work. It was really light and there wasn’t enough to see it pile on the ground, but it was cool to see it glisten on our hair and jackets as we walked to the Capitol. The snow stopped falling and after school almost all of the pages hurried to get ready to go ice-skating. It was a lot more crowded this time and many people had never even skated before so it was fun for everyone who had and hadn’t skated before.
On Saturday a group of girls and I went to Cirque de Soleil which was an acrobatics show that is preformed in many places and we saw it at the Kennedy Center. It was especially entertaining because it was the Christmas special so they had holiday themed music and costumes. That night, Amanda, Javi, Derek and I went to Pentagon City Mall for dinner and to take a picture with Santa. The picture hangs on my keychain and it came out really good.
On Sunday, a group of us went on a lunch cruise on a boat called the Spirit of Washington. We enjoyed a buffet lunch and a little dancing as we went around the Potomac River. When we were walking home it was raining so we rushed home to do laundry and finish up homework.
On Monday, it snowed again and when I stepped outside the dorm to go to school I was mesmerized and blurted, “It’s like a giant snow cone machine in the sky!” It was freezing that day but we still went to Georgetown in the evening for dinner and a little Christmas shopping. It was quite the experience to have to withstand that much coldness. We huddled together when we went outside and you could always see your breath whenever you opened your mouth. Yesterday we spent the morning going on a White House tour, where we had to wait for an hour and a half in the twenty-degree weather. We were all frozen but when we got inside we wrote short notes to the troops and saw the White House decorated for Christmas. I spent my evening at Starbucks for a few hours with a couple friends preparing for the history test that we had today. It really paid off and part two of the test is tomorrow. Today my job was flags where you deliver flags that have been flown over the Capitol in honor of someone and deliver them to the appropriate congressman’s office and after you’ve delivered them all you can go home early. Congress went into session at 10:00am so we got off of school at nine. There were no flags to deliver so everyone with flags got to leave. We stopped for some breakfast and were home before 11. I’ve had the day to myself so I called my friends, as they got ready for school and my mom at work. Then I packed and finished up a few things. I come home on Friday night and it’s basically all down hill after these two weeks of break. This city is magnificent, every time I step outside I find myself in awe of the gorgeous weather, leaves and people that I get to interact with everyday.
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:17
