Sunday Funday

I wrote this on Monday, but I have been super busy here in Richmond, VA doing the READesign at Greene Elementary and it has been AMAZING! I will fill you in on this incredible week later, but first here is a great Sunday I had this past weekend!  


 On Sunday, my morning started out with an intern, Erica from Alabama, and myself walking a few blocks down from AU to go to church. We went to the National Presbyterian Church, and it was beautiful and VERY traditional. It was a nice service, the church reminded me of Miami Shores Presbyterian to a tee. Between the stained glass windows, and the organs playing, I felt like I was back at Christmas Eve service, minus the silent night candles we hold up every year. Next week we are going to find a church geared a little more towards our youth. We were the only couple there that was under 40, and I was the only male not wearing a jacket and tie...but overall a great service on 1 Corinthians 13.



After that, about 6 of us met up for lunch down by the capital and we did some exploring! We headed to the capital building first, one of the interns works for Speaker of the House John Boehner and tried to get us inside, the security guards were not having it. So then we tried a few "underground" entrances (the rest of us thought this was so stupid, I mean it's the freaking capital, HELLO I think their security is up to par) needless to say we didn't get inside, but the outside was magnificent.

We were walking around to the Senate side, and another intern, Kristen from Duke, pointed out 'Bill' from School House Rocks! I don't know if any of you know what I am talking about but school house rock was a tv program we watched in elementary school to learn about the Government, grammar and such. "Conjunction junction...what's your function" anyway we saw Bill the bill that tries to get passed! Here is a video clip of what I am failing at trying to explain.

So we of course had to get a picture with Bill!!

Bill the Bill

We thought it was kinda neat... childhood memories!

After this little flash back to the 3rd grade, we headed down to see the Canadian Embassy. James from UBC born and raised in Vancouver, has an internship at the embassy, crazy right?! He gave us the tour of the outside, "We built the embassy to intimidate the US" he said. The embassy was....cute, as Erica put it. They had an echo dome out front which was pretty cool, and a garden in the back. It's the largest embassy with over 500 people working there, as well as one of the greenest.

The Echo Dome-It actually echoed!

Just a block or two down was the National Archives, holding our Nations founding documents. We saw the three big ones; the Declaration of Independence which was so faint as I'm sure you are all aware, the Constitution which has held up remarkably, and the Bill of Rights. I learned a few fun facts while there but only remember two of them. 1- the Constitution has one misspelled word...Massachusetts (it's missing an S). 2- The bronze doors on the outside of the building are the largest bronze doors in the world. Oh and I remember a third, in the 1920's Congress approved the 6.9 million dollars to build the National Archives building. 

After this, we headed down to the Washington Monument. It was about 545 on Sunday and all the museums close at 530 on Sundays so we made do. We ran into another intern, Jeremy from MIT, and he met up with us for a bit. From this monument you could see everything, it was amazing! There is SO much to see and do in the District, it makes me feel so small.

Washington Monument

View of the White House from the monument

Some interns and I with the Capital in the background

The weather got bad real fast with lightning headed in from the North changing our route from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House instead. The whole front was blocked off, police everywhere and you were out too far to see anything from the main street, one of the men waiting behind the police cars said "he was taking the pooch for a walk" whether he was or not, it definitely gave the crowd a laugh. so we headed around to the back of the White House.

Some really awesome inters right there!

There is a woman and a man who take turns sleeping out back behind the White House every day since 1981 in protest. It was crazy.... The man was there today and we had his little tent set up. I didn't want to be a total creeper and take a picture inside, though I'm sure it's been done before, but here is the outside.

SINCE 1981!!!

The rain started coming down pretty hard, so we booked it down to the metro. Kristen, from Yale, brought an umbrella so the girls were fine, however, us guys got SOAKED!

We ended the day with Chipotle and all went back to AU to watch the hockey game and unfortunately the Heat lose.


This is Derek from little, good ol' UNF signing out (I'm hanging out with people out of my league...MIT, Yale, Duke....) 


It's okay I am one proud Osprey!