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Man,
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Close Up and unpersonable
:
The daily journal of Close Up student Jim Bennett
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| Senior
Jim Bennett |
Sunday,
Feb. 18
I left my house early to get to the airport. As I wait in my cramped airplane
seat, I ponder all the possibilities that this trip has to offer to me.
Then my tray table hits me in the knees, and I stop thinking.
We touch down in D.C., and are immediately transported by out dated charter
bus to our home base, and wait in an extremely hot, narrow hall to receive
our room assignments... yee haw!
We went straight from a light dinner to our first workshop, a smaller
group of kids from different schools.
Monday, Feb. 19
How do students on Close Up celebrate Presidents' Day in our nation's
capitol? We don't!
However, let's begin the day with a breakfast that includes food from
a 1970s Hollywood prop shop. No seriously, the food wasn't that bad, for
aftershave-flavored bacon and dusty cardboard pancakes.
We heard a speech from Weston Kosova, the Washington news editor of Newsweek
who did a great impression of former President Bill Clinton operating
a secret White House "hoagie button."
We were then forced to listen to a debate on domestic issues. The discussion
was centered around student questions, most of which sounded like this:
"My Dad says Republicans steal money from sick babies, is that true?"
or "My folks say that Democrats want to take away our rights while
we sleep at night, what is your response to that?" All I could do
was chuckle.
Tuesday, Feb. 20
Our first activity was to take a tour of Capitol Hill within our workshops.
If my workshop is the future of America, I'm moving to Fiji. After a rousing
tour, it was Round 2 at the D.C. Jewish Community Center, this time with
a lawyer and expert in the field of trade laws, and apparently nothing
else.
We heard from another speaker on international relations, and then ate
dinner at Planet Hollywood (didn't they go bankrupt?). And finally, we
view the play "Tom Walker," a stage adaptation of the classic
tale 'The Devil in Tom Walker.'
Wednesday, Feb. 21
Today is Capitol Hill day. The day that we go meet the office staff of
Sen. Burns and Rep. Rehberg, for the representatives themselves were out
of the area. The saving grace of the day for me was the tour of the capitol.
We actually got to go out on the floor of the Senate and the House of
Representatives.
From there, we hopped back on the bus to Williamsburg, Va., where we took
a short tour. At our hotel we participated in a simulation of a parliament.
Yay.
Thursday, Feb. 22
Hmm... the breakfast is good, something must be wrong in the kitchen.
Oh well, I got my favorite: meat, bread, and O.J.
We were taken back into the colonial area of Williamsburg, and were greeted
by our hysterical, sorry historical interpreter. After an over-glorified
tour of the colonial town, it began to snow.
We were immediately rushed back to D.C., because apparently Virginia just
shuts down when any sort of precipitate falls from the sky and the citizens
find it rational to either leave their cars in the middle of the road
or drive them into other cars.
Friday, Feb. 23
Free day! We got to go anywhere we wanted to, most tried to cram the entire
city into one day. I however took it easy, and went to the National Gallery
of Art and the National Archives.
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