Inauguration Slideshow 1

Great job Kris!!

America's Song

This is a song that was written specifically for this event! :)

A Day of Goodbyes

Thursday was our final day of getting delegates to the airport and saying goodbye to a wonderful staff of adults. Every trip I go on and the more people I meet and friends I make... this day becomes harder and harder. I can honestly say the people I have worked with and met on this program have become some of my best friends, including my wonderful co-author of this blog (MWAH!!). It's amazing to me how people from the opposite coast can show and share support, friendship, and love that I feel will last a very long time.

This was such a momentous week and something I feel so blessed that I was able to be a part of. My only regret is not getting more of an opportunity to talk to my delegates regarding what the inauguration and the week meant to them. I know it is something they will never forget, and they are the reason I love doing these programs over and over again. As a special education teacher who deals every day with struggling students who have dreams I fear they may not be able to attain because of their disabilities, working with these wonderful students here through People to People gives me hope. The naive eyes of these students give me inspiration and help with my own continued desire to learn. I have an enthusiasm for this program, unlike any I have ever had before, a definitive belief in the mission of People to People to find "peace through understanding," and I love how much I have learned from my delegates over the past 3 years. I am counting down the days for April to come and I can embark on my 10th trip with this wonderful organization in a brand new role as primary leader!

Wednesday, January 21

Wednesday was by far the best touring day since we didn't have to deal with nearly as much road closures and such. After breakfast at another buffet place, we were off to explore memorials and museums for the day. Our first stop was the Korean Memorial. I have to say it is an eerie memorial, but very meaningful as well. The looks on the soldiers faces are so real and serious to a point where it is almost scary. I love you can look into the engraved wall and see the reflection of the soldiers.

After this we headed to the Lincoln Memorial. Our DM said this is her favorite memorial because she feels like when she goes to see Lincoln he can see into her soul. hmmmm.... don't think I've ever gotten that from a man built from rock. :) It is a memorial I love to see and walk around because of how massive it is and the message that is surrounding it. Delegates were amazed at how small it made them feel.

Before we headed off to our appointment at the Spy Museum, we walked the students through the Vietnam Memorial. I think they were overwhelmed and shocked to see all the different names on the wall. One student knew of a friend of her grandfather whose name was on the wall and was brought to tears. Memorials like these can be eye opening and fill your heart with sadness, but also appreciation for what our troops do for us and I send them a personal thank yous all the time.

The Spy Museum was a big hit with the delegates, as it always is. They love climbing through venting systems, seeing the James Bond car and all other kinds of fun spy gadgets. You can't take any pictures there so that is why you won't see anything of it on this blog.

We left the spy museum and headed off to the VERY busy Union Station for lunch. I was afraid to the let the kids go off on their own, but they did very well and everyone showed up at our meeting spot without getting lost!! (even my wanderer Ben!) About a half hour after leaving lunch and heading to the American History Museum, we got a phone call that Union Station had briefly been closed for a suspicious item in the station. Luckily we got in there when we did and out safe and sound.

At the American History Museum and the Newseum we let the kids explore these museums on their own. Both the museums were newly reopened either from renovations or relocations. For anyone looking to go explore the city of DC, I highly recommend these two museums to anyone. Of course, I particularly love the pop culture area of American History to see Kermit, Oscar, the actual top hat of President Lincoln and also love the room with the First Ladies dresses. Absolutely BEAUTIFUL. There were dresses in there from Martha Washington's to Laura Bush. The Newseum also has a wonderful exhibit on 9-11. It has a special place in my heart since I live so close to the city there are many people I know that were affected by this tragedy/attack.

I think by this point the students were pretty wiped out. We headed off to dinner in Chinatown. For many students this was a new experience and they LOVED it! Our Dm informed us that the Chinatown in DC used to be a lot bigger, but now it is sadly only 2 city blocks long.

To end the night, we drove by the Capitol and walked around the World War II Memorial. The students enjoyed getting the opportunity to see and stand by the part of the Memorial that represented their home state.

As a fun way to close our time with everyone on our bus and the amazing experience in the city of DC this week, our bus driver lead a karaoke session with the entire bus! WOW! What a great week!

Tuesday, January 20th

WHAT A DAY!!! This is defnitely a day I won't soon forget, and I think the 2 million other people that were there in the city with me would agree. I had to wake up at 4AM this morning and our bus was finally on its way by 5:30 (was supposed to be 5, but some students on other buses "slept in"). A trip that normally would have taken us half an hour, it took us 2 hours to get into D.C. I have never seen so much traffic in my life at that hour of the morning! By 7:30, we had found a place to stand on the mall with our 48 students. The view at 7:30 was absolutely beautiful!! We were not too far away, but luckily we were close enough to a screen where we could see everything. At the beginning, it wasn't too cold, but even with three pairs of sox and a pair of Uggs.. my feet were still pretty cold. At first, it was easy to get to the port-a-botties, or as my friend Rachel from Idaho calls them, honeybuckets. We took a few kids to use them right away, but a short time after we took them, you could not even move to get to them and be able to find your way back. Students got pretty cold, but thank goodness for hand warmers! After about an hour of standing there we realized that our DM, Jo Ann had lost us. It was easy to do with the amount of people that rapidly showed up after 8AM. The experience of being there is nothing I can explain. The cheers from the crowds were contagious, and even if you weren't an Obama supporter at some point, it was hard not to get lost in the enthusiastic moment. It was an extrememly exciting time and I felt like there was such pride in the country. Below are some videos of a few small samples of what we saw and heard.

Once everything was over, in an effort to keep all of us together and safe, we waited for the crowd to disperse a bit. Since we had lost our DM and she was not able to get cell service that day, I had to lead our group back to the bus.... somehow with 2 million people dispersed everywhere throughout the city, we were able to keep everyone together and get back to the bus safe and sound.

By this point, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for our own little inaugural ball in the hotel. The students were able to have a sit down dinner and dance to the music of a live band. The hotel also provided a cardboard cutout of President Obama, so students (and the adults) took lot of pictures with the new President. Overall... A WONDERFULLY EXHAUSTING DAY!!!

Monday, January 19th

This was the beginning of many early morning days for all of us. Wake up call was at 5AM to get to breakfast at a mall food court called Crystal City. They had a pretty good breakfast buffett set up for the kids, and we only had one kid pass out and needed a 9-1-1 phone call. haha! (the student was fine by the way... think she was just dehydrated)... which seems to happen quite a bit.

Anyway, after our morning meal, we were off to Arlington. I love going to Arlington and teaching the students all about the services they have there, watching the tomb of the unknown soldier, seeing Kennedy's grave... the list goes on... there is so much history there. One of my favorite parts was when it started snowing... some of the delegates had never seen snow before so, it was awesome to see their reactions to it. The picture below shows them trying to eat it, but you can't really see the snow.

I think the students got a lot out of their experience at Arlington and seemed to really appreciate everything that was there, which is not always the case from the delegates.

After Arlington we went to one of my favorite Memorials, the FDR Memorial. This is the first time I had seen this memorial in the winter... all the waterfalls were frozen, but it was still absolutely beautiful. I do hope I get there again in the Spring when I come back over Spring break for my next People to People trip. Students said with all the quotes all over the memorial, they felt they learned a lot about FDR and what he stood for. I did learn that he really did not want a memorial built in his honor, but there was an organization representing the disabled who raised money in honor of him and had this built anyway.

Once we finished touring the FDR memorial, we had lunch at the Ronald Reagan building where students had to go through security just to get into the building. They didn't quite understand why we had to do that, so I just told them it was a top secret-security lunch. They seemed satisfied with that answer! :) Once we were finished with lunch, we went to the National Portrait Gallery. My favorite picture was the one of the liscense plates... see if you can make out what they are saying.

Mount Vernon was our next stop on the tour for the day. This is another favorite site of mine. The line to get into the main house was too long, but we walked around the estate. our first stop was the greenhouse where "Dr. Craig" talked to us about being General Washington's doctor and his best friend. Our DM asked him, "Well, I hate to bring this up, but how do you defend yourself when it seems you are the one ultimately responsible for Washington's death?" Talk about AKWARD!! Well, he went on to explain how he cut open Washington and bled him. First one pint, then two, then three, then four. Well by the time her got to four one of my boys went completely WHITE and I had to remove him from the Greenhouse. In fact, we thought he had passed out, but he swears he didn't. Made for an interesting afternoon. The view from the back of the estate is beautiful!!!

To end the day, we ate at the old Country Buffett, which really excited the kids for some odd reason and then we went to the Iwo Jima Memorial. It was pretty cold out so the students only lasted about 5 or ten minutes before they were ready to leave. The picture that this memorial was based on was a Pulitzer Prize winning photo. You can try to make out the explanation of it all below.

Hail to the Chief