I have a lot to talk about, because yesterday my blog was deleted when working at the hotel business center. I will be telling some stories about D.C., and how our first day at the jamboree went.
Yesterday began with a lot of movement, because in a very short space of time, we had to pack and load our gear into the bus, and drive to D.C. Many slept on the bus ride simply because they were so tired. My roommate hung up the phone while our automated wakeup call attempted to get us out of bed. We woke up about 45 minutes later.
When we arrived in D.C., we first visited Arlington National Cemetery. Not only did we tour the cemetery, but our tour guide explained much of the history about why the cemetery is where it is, and what certain symbols mean on the gravestones. At 2:00 PM, we attended a Changing of the Guard Ceremony. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded "24/7” and the guard changes every 30 minutes. There is a ceremony each time this happens and it was very interesting to watch.
After another bus ride, which ended all too quickly, because nobody wanted to leave the Air Conditioning, we toured the Smithsonian, beginning with lunch at the Air and Space Museum. We were imprisoned for about a half-hour by heavy rain, but we used the time that remained to see the many exhibits all over the mall.
We attended dinner at Buca di Beppo, which is an Italian restaurant that served us salad, bread, and chicken parmesan. Dinner was both interesting and funny. Zak Boix of Colchester and Andrew Van Steenbergen of Durham created a drink comprised of each course of our meal mixed with Pepsi, water, and a napkin. The two both tried their creation hesitantly, and neither found it enjoyable!
After visiting several war memorials, we headed to our hotel and went to bed.
The following morning, my roommates hung up the wake-up call again. However, we managed to wake up slightly earlier. For a 5:00 wake-up call, we finally got out of bed at 5:38. We left at 6:00 and watched National Treasure on our way to A. P. Hill.
When we arrived, we set up camp, took a tour of the commissary, and grabbed a quick chicken salad sandwich lunch. Fort A. P. Hill will be home to 44,000 people for the next 9 days. Now, 44,000 is obviously a large number, but I’d like to give you an example of just how big it really is. The town of Enfield, CT has attained a population of about 44,000 over the past 331 years. Fort A. P. Hill was almost equally populated in just over 8 hours!
We had the chance to leave the site and take a look around the camp later tonight. I was unsuccessful in getting into the Hometown News Tent as they had already closed, so technically, I’m not supposed to be writing this yet!
We had a long day, and even 9:45 seems extremely late. I hope you guys are enjoying this blog, and I am open to any suggestions you have. Email ectscouts@gmail.com and we will get your message next time we use the blog updater. We can’t respond, but that’s just because we’ll be so busy with everything to do here at the National Scout Jamboree.
-RJ
No comments:
Post a Comment