another day on capitol hill

We had another speakers day today, a bunch of weirdos came and it was pretty boring… I had a meeting with our representative Elton Gallegly, He was actually in his office at that time.. contrary to Billy’s statement that I probably wouldn’t get to talk to him : ) Oh yeah I saw him again today, I was walking looking for Ron Paul’s Office (in the wrong building) and he just happened to be walking by, it was cool.

Speaking of Ron Paul, I finally got to meet the man himself. He was very interesting…. Yep thats all I pretty much have to say about him.

Gallegly was really nice, and not just because we made fun of Jill Martinez (he started to laugh when I told him that she came to Buena, he said he’d like to visit next year personally) :] We also talked quiet a bit about Tenenbaum. It was sweet because he took me to the House of Reps. to watch him vote; we went through this underground tunnel and saw all of the Representatives rush in to cast their final decision… I met dennis kucinich!!!! He’s such a little guy, hahah I think he might be Anna’s height, that’s how short he is. I got to meet Pelosi again too, i guess that’s fine?

We left pretty early so I didn;t get to eat breakfast, then I had my congressional appointment so I didn’t eat lunch, and then I had Congressional Workshop so I didn’t eat dinner.. It sucked, I was super drained and tired, now im enjoying french fries and vitamin water at 9:30PM

CW— Ew, I lost my debate. But when you argue Kyoto to a crowd of liberals, well how do you do that? My opponent made it seem like if we didn’t, the world was going to end.. No it isn’t, but it’s hard to change someones opinion… I don’t mind, at least Juan Carlos made a subs. speech for my side (it kicked ass and he pulled out his pocketbook constitution.. plus he recited Federalist Paper No. 51 by memory… HOT!!)

I didn;t update yesterday but that’s only because I was busy and I slept early (sleeping early, under our standards, is at 12:20AM) It was nice, but at least now you have something to read!!

PS. I am running out of money!!! :O

Mid-term

me and my roomie are delirious right now, we argued for half and hour about which is better: cats or dogs (I won) and then started going off about disney movies. We probably have been studying too much.. it’s almost 2 AM and we are not done (well we are, but our standards are so high that we overstudy just because we want to)

Some girl got stuck in the elevator again, apparently now we are not allowed to use em’, bitch. She was suppose to go up to the 4th floor and when the doors opened there was just a brick wall, she freaked but we laughed.

Oh yeah, energy drinks are banned on our floor. Yesterday (well saturday) some kid walked into House D for Congressional Workshop after drinking 4 in a row.. he almost had a heart attack. Our RA told us it happens pretty often.. we are not surprised.

We complained a lot at our floor meeting. It’s only been a week and we’ve done more here than in a month at regular school, we signed up for it though.. i guess, geeze what a bitch (not really)

The hottie that im eye-ing turned out to be a Ron Paul supporter… ehhhhh that’s a bad thing? Well he likes to ballroom dance, does that even it out? He’s so nerdy geeze (i say that too much)

ok i need to focus!!! i’ll update later when im not soo busy! oohh yeah excerpt from Reagan Diaries:

Monday, March 30 (After assassination attempt)
” I opened my eyes to find Nancy there. I pray I’ll never face a day when she isn’t there. Of all the ways God has blessed me giving her to me is the greatest and beyond anything I can ever hope to deserve”

I’ll put up whatever I deem cool (everything basically) as I am reading through all of his entries..

Coolest things about Georgetown!!

The library is HUGE!!! Not only did I check out three books today (reagan diaries, Israel Lobby, and US-Israeli foreign relations {I changed my mid-term topic to Israel}) but I prob won’t get to read them all!! It doesn;t even matter anyways it just cool to check out books?

This is the front of the library.. as you can tell it’s very pretty

This is the inside where all the books are stored! OMG RIGHT?

 

This is some random building but it looks nice! haven’t gone in yet..

I couldn’t forget about the nature!! there are a lot of squirrels too, if thats your thing and all

  ohhh georgetown…..

The dance was pretty lame, I know what Jon was talking about now. Everyone dances in a corner with no personal space whatsoever and just… well I don’t need to explain I think you are aware of what happens. The hottie I like wasn’t even there (I guess he is too cool, prob not like that but w/e he’s too intelligent). I learned that soulja boy dance today… It wasn’t worth it

yepppp

My roommate has her debate tomorrow night (hahahah im laughing bcz shes freaking out).. It’s “Protecting global human rights is more important than respecting national sovereignty” she and three other people on my floor are for that… I think it’s BS!!! I helped them anyways though, just with historical background and plenty of arguments against it.. seems like they are too idealistic about it, how could human rights be globally enacted.. I don’t even give Anna her basic human rights

I didn’t realize that I knew so much. Maybe they know little? I am cool.

I’m not freaking out about my debate (kyoto) I did some research today and Japan hasn’t even fulfilled their requirements (they are actually 9% Above) and most nations ignore it. haha how do you even argue for it? I mean, I should know what she’s going to say so I can counter her arguments huh? well I should probably study for mid-terms (there already on monday holy crap!!) and start on my paper (it has to be 13-15 pages long and I have to turn it in July 1st )

 

goodnight America

PS. There is apparently some weird stuff going on in our room. The other night my roommate said I was up at 4AM doing work (at my desk) and she asked what I was doing.. i just said work, so then she falls asleep. The next morning she tells me and I have completely no recollection of that.. I did wake up kinda weird but that soooo did not happen! hahah I think the heat/not sleeping or eating/soo much work is catching up to us… its still so much fun so its not like we are going to stop!! hahaha

My day today…

Yeah so, the speakers at the Dept. of State were really cool. I met this guy, Charles S. Shapiro, he used to be the US Ambassador to Venezuela and is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary at the State Department. He was the only REALLY cool guy, we talked about Hugo Chavez.. he told me he should replace Don Francisco on Sabado Gigante hahahaha We totally got each other, I asked him about internships and said that they were totally available if I wanted to apply (SCORE!!) But it’d have to be next summer (not sure if im going to DC during winter break yet).

This girl told me about a program she does every couple of years, you pretty much volunteer 1-11 weeks in foreign parts of the world either teaching english, making food, helping out at orphanages, and aiding schools in stuff… Theres India, China, Ecuador, Peru, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Guatemala, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. I kind of want Russia, I bet i could find a good program too. Well I really want to do this.. It might be over the school year though :/ It’s a lot cheaper than JSA too, and I would get to learn a new language (hopefully at least an into)… it would seem like something Natalie would do but I guess im finee with that.. Oh yeah I did a really hippie thing today!!! I sat outside on the grass and appreciated nature/squirrels

We spent like 4 hours going over Liberalism today (not the Left!!! it’s actually wrong to call someone a liberal if you are referring to a Democrat). Conservatism actually equals a classic liberal… But not in a good way, more like a feudalistic I don’t want to break from tradition religious bigot way. I’m not like that, i don’t think im a neocon either. Just normal. It was ok i guess, I picked my mid-term essay topic!! It’s Russia (Comparing Clinton, HW Bush, Bush’s administrations regarding US-Russian Relations, Boris Yeltsin’s economic policies, and the majority focusing on Putin’s Administration and currently Medvedev’s presidency

The Dean of Yale

We got to meet Peter Salovery (he is not part of our speakers program he just happened to be in the area) he chairs the Yale College Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid Policy, then all this other crap. It doesn’t really matter what he does, all we wanted to know was how to get into Yale hahaha. Well, if you really want to know….

ITS NOT ALL ABOUT GRADES!!!!! He told us that he picked kids with 3.8’s over other students with 4.5’s or 4.7’s because they had no real interest or passion! It’s just academics that they offer… yep he said a lot of the yale alumni’s are accomplished in practical areas.. for example one student who was accepted organized a trip to central america with habitat for humanity, there he found his passion for public policy, he has a purpose yay. Of course academics are a component.. you can’t be retarded.. but you should at least love to do something (sports are lame)… soooooo find a hobby if you don’t have one?

Yeah, perspective is priceless. I would have probably written lame college essays comparing myself to holden caufkdasfield or some dumb emily dickinson poem (Yeah no I wouldn’t have… but its an example).. I know now what my purpose is, well I did before but actually being here reassures me that there is nothing possibly better in life that I could achieve… SCORE!!! Plus I’ve met some really smart people that make our valedictorians look really… well, not accomplished at all.

We go to the state department today, which Im most looking foward to, it deals with foreign policy all over the world… and not to mention Condi always hangs out there! yeah I have to leave now, bye

Capitol Hill

So today we went to capitol hill for 8 hours.. the first 5 hours we were allowed to go wherever we wanted.. So we first went to the rayburn/longworth/cannon buildings to get gallery passes from our congressmen/women or senators.. it was pretty cool, I stood outside baracks office (already met him tho), hillary’s, and many other babes. Elton Gallegly gave me my gallery pass to the House and Senate so I left.. At the senate I saw John Kerry (he was speaking at the time) and other random ppl like barbara boxer (she had a pink suit so she stood out), Feinstein, joe biden, tom tancredo, etc. Oh yeah!! I was walking (I got lost) and came up on Pelosi’s office, i decided to stop by and she was just on her way out (they were debating the war budget today) so I met her too i guess… got to shake hands and be like, sup bitch? I saw Billy too.. we only talked for a while though but it was good to see someone that I actually knew! Oh yeah since they were discussing the war a bunch of code pink people showed up out of nowhere!!! It was scary but funny.. you could tell that no one wanted them there, yep they talked to us though

After that we wanted to go see the supreme court, which wasn’t that far from where we were.. so we did and got to see John Roberts (chief justice), Scalia, and Alito. When we went to the Congressional Reception at 5pm I met donna christensen (Virgin Islands Rep.) she was on the Colbert Report so we just talked about that haha..

Some of our other speakers:
James Sensenbrenner

Judy Biggert:

I have other pictures but I dont feel like putting them on… ehh too much work. Well here is my favorite picture.

Oh and this one too…

This is the United States Botanic Garden Conservatory.. i guess thats cool

other stuff:

Secret hallway where I was prob not suppose to take pictures of.. oh well it’s where all the reps. have their offices

and finally the washington monument!! yyayayayay

It was really fun, now that i know my way around I kind of want to come back for the inauguration of the president (which would be better w/ ppl from school!) I love DC Oh yeah if I didn’t explain congressional workshop i will…. well it’s a one-on-one debate, one speaker affirmative the other Against whatever resolution you are assigned, I have my debate oon Wednesday and got my first pick Kyoto Protocol (which of course is SOOO easy to talk about) i am against joining and my opponent is for (duhh)… I already met her/him (i know her but she looks like a he, she/he is transsexual) It shouldn’t affect my debate at all but she’s ultra liberal, I have to hold back… uhhhhhh I’ll be nice, but I have an hour to do some damage!

I don;t really know what to say now, We are just doing normal stuff.. like class and then Congressional Workshop. It’s suppose to rain for the rest of the week though, im not looking foward to that because it almost always means that there is going to be thunder.. which kind of scares me to death.
The Pentagon was pretty cool from the outside.. we couldnt go many places on the inside though (obviously) but we did get to stand exactly where Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on 9/11.. def. uncomfortable.

Today is Capitol Hill, which should be a lot funner.. I didn;t get a meeting w/ my sen./rep. for tomorrow though :/ But I saw the white house is the distance yesterday.. today i get to see it up close : )

Today we went to the Pentagon. it wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be… well from the outside it was. We had four speakers (Timothy Keating, Michael Linick, Thomas Hall, and Christopher Miller) and a tour. I guess the only impacting thing was the 9/11 memorial and standing right where the plane crashed into. Definitely very uncomfortable..

On the way to the pentagon we passed the Iwo Jima memorial, it’s one thing hearing the number of casualties but seeing individual crosses for each individual is really impacting. We passed the washington memorial and saw the white house from a distance (i though it was super cool.. i mean i had never seen it before).

I like the people, doesn’t matter what we are talking about either because it always has to do with politics. Every conversation one way or another always goes back to politics there are some reallly really intelligent people too, its intimidating but they are nice about debating.

Tomorrow is capitol hill with some free time! yayayay!!

Today was the first real day of class, 6 long hours and I think I feel asleep through half of his lectures. He finds a different way to say the same thing on one topic, one meaning!, so it just goes on forever. He spent at least an hour and a half of soft power v. hard power, it’s not that complicated..

Then everyone wanted to have a debate about U.S. aid to maintain a worldwide living standard for all human beings. I guess most people in the class wanted the rich to voluntarily give up a large part of their hard earned money (most of the time) to people who don’t always deserve it (there are exceptions though, one of the students in our class lives below the poverty line, he was actually against aid though). I dont know, our professor seems like a socialist. (of course im not going to provide an in detail explanation of why, considering all the homework I freakin’ have.

It’s kind of like APUSH but instead of an entire year you kind of have 3 weeks of it with 6 hour lectures everyday. We heard from some Princeton kids (the freshmen) and they have to do all of AP US History in those 3 weeks! (it’s 10 hour lectures per day for them).

Georgetown kind of lost its novelty already, except every morning when I walk by Healy’s hall, then I just remember how great it is. But Anna is going to have a hard time when she leaves to Dartmouth, she might say she is totally ready to leave California and everything.. but so did I. After you get here you’re just like.. oh I really miss everyone. You don’t notice it so much during the daytime, since theres so much work to be done and we’re walking here and there, but at night.. it’s pretty much all you think about (unless you’re watching The Office with the girls down the hall). Maybe I only think this because its been four days but I can’t 100% be happy until i’m well adjusted.

We are going to the Pentagon tomorrow morning.. wait I have to leave ill update when I get back! We have a congressional workshop mock to go to : )