Days 3 & 4 - Washington DC Sights and another Travel Day

I know I am behind with my blog. Actually, I have had most of it written out a while already, but it has been so busy that I have not been able to finish it.

On Wednesday, we woke up to a sunny morning and after breakfast and some compulsory photos of snow outside for our colleagues from warm countries, we had our morning session on IREX policies and rules.

 

 This is a photo of Kellogg Conference Centre - our home while in Washington DC.

  

In the session about IREX policies we were tested on whether we knew and understood the rules. Everybody who gave the correct answer was given a warm fleece hat. These ones are modelled by a teacher from Russia and a teacher from Argentina.

Then we split into four groups and were taken to four different museums in the centre of DC. I had previously indicated that my first choice was Museum of American History and fortunately, I got my first choice. We were greeted by Heather Paisley-Jones who is an education specialist. I thought that she would take us around the building and show us exhibits, but instead, she took us into a room and what followed was truly interesting, for teachers at least. She told us about making collections and gave an example in the shape of different means to play music over time. We also learned about different ways of looking at data and working with data with students. It was an exciting hour we got to spend with her. 

  

Heather Paisley-Jones

  

A 1950s advertisement in a magazine.

Following our meeting with her, we had some time to eat lunch at the museum restaurant and then we went to see a special performance of Freedom Songs from the 1960s Civil Rights movement. It was an interactive presentation exploring the role music played in the struggle for freedom.

This performance was in honour of the 50th anniversary of the student sit-in that began on 1 Feb 1960 at Woolworth's lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. The museum has a section of the actual lunch counter. The two performers were excellent singers and treated us to renditions of We Shall Not Be Moved and This Little Light of Mine alongside with some lesser known songs and showed how students changed the words of popular songs to suit the occasion.

 

The two performers singing and getting people to sing along. 

These four men began the sit-in that spread across the nation and encouraged other sit-ins in other places. On that evening they were at the museum to be honoured for their part in the freedom movement.

After 3 hours at the museum, it was time to go and explore DC on our own. Maive and I were hoping to meet up with Tiiu and Margit and went to look for them around town. Kind of hopeless, I know... The weather was gray - it was a pity as the photos do not show the beauty of the place with no contrast to the white buildings and monuments.

  

Washington Monument

 

The Capitol from afar. There will be close up photos later on.

  

There were different statues around. This one looks prettly cool on the street.

  

We made our way to the Air and Space museum. Tiiu had taken a tour there. It was late enough that we knew she was no longer there, but we decided to go round it quickly anyway, just to get a feel of the place.

  

This is Maive with the Wright Brothers. There was a large exhibition dedicated to them. It told how they invented the airplane and why they did it and gives details of their first flight.

  

Upon leaving the Air and Space Museum, we hopped on a tour bus as this offered us the best way to see most of the sites in DC. Quite few of the other teachers participating the TEA orientation were also on the bus. We passed the Capitol close by.

  

Franklin Monument

  

Franklin Monument

  

Lincoln Monument

  

Korean War Veterans memorial - there are 19 figures which reflect off a wall next to them. This means that there are 38 figures visible, representing the 38th parallel.

  

Another cool look of the Washington Monument. It is possible to go on top, but we did not have time to do that. Next time...

  

We asked the bus to drop us off near the White House as we wanted to walk a little and see it close up. This is a photo of some cool houses just on the corner before you get to the White House.

  

The White House from behind, like it appears on most photos... except on the photos it is green. It is well guarded with secret service everywhere.

  

We did a circle round a house, but it was a rather large circle. We then saw this group of policemen on the square in front of the White House, also guarding it.

  

This is a street off the square in front of the White House. I really liked the houses on it. To me, these are so typical of the States. Just beautiful!

  

This is the front of the White House. It was already late in the day, but the clouds started to clear off and the setting sun shining through the holes in the clouds made a dramatic sky backdrop to the building.

  

...and from another angle....

  

An interesting building with a clock tower.

  

This is a picture for Liina. :) I was thinking of you when I took it. There are cycle police in DC.

  

This is St Patrick's church. It looks really old among the modern buildings.

  

The infamous Ford's theatre where President Lincoln was assassinated. It is possible to get inside too, but it cost some money, so we did not attempt that.

  

Next door there is the Hard Rock Cafe.

  

The National Archives

  

It was getting really dark by now. This is another street corner where there is the old and the new architecture seen together.

  

We passed the Newseum - a museum dedicated to news. They have some special exhibitions as well. Unfortunately, we could not go inside as it was too late. I resolved to do it on Thursday as we had quite a long time to wait between the end of the morning session and the shuttle to the airport.

  

Some night time shots of the Capitol. As you can see, the House of Representatives is still working as the flag is still up. The Senate has gone home for the day already.

  

...and another photo from the other side....

  

...and just one more.... It is a beautiful building. The dome is iron cast and is the 3rd largest dome in the world after St Peter's in Rome and St Paul's in London. The figure on top of the dome is Freedom.

  

The Supreme Court is just across the road from the Capitol.

 

On the way to the railway station we passed a building that had an enormous wall of glass panels and as it was lit inside you could see two huge trees growing in there. I thought that was kind of interesting.

It took us about 35 minutes to walk back to the hotel from the railway station as we did not have a map and went according to the streetnames that we knew. It would have been possilbe to do it faster with access to a map, but neither of us had taken the folder with us as it was too heavy to carry all day.

Thursday began with the final session of the orientation. We were told to find somebody from another country and tell them about our goals. Then we had to agree a frequencey to write to them during the program and to keep them updated with our progress towards our goals.

Then the different groups started departing for their flights to their university destinations. Our group was the last. The other three groups went to California, Georgia and Florida. We had a four hour wait, but we were forbidden to go to town "just in case we got lost and did not get back on time for the shuttle to take us to the airport". I felt like we were treated like kindergarten children instead of the adult teachers that we all were. But, I did not feel it was right to rebel either, not just yet... So we stayed there on campus, just sitting around. We did not even have access to our bags which were locked away in a room.

Finally, as the shuttle came early, we left for the airport an hour earlier than planned, but since we arrived there too early and there were other flights leaving before us, we ended up waiting that hour first in a queue and then next to it to allow those who were in a hurry to get through first. I held my breath when the bag got weighed as I did not want to pay excess. It weighed 49 lbs; the allowance was 50, so I was ok. In the USA, you have to pay for any luggage that you check in. So, the cost for the first bag was $20. Second would have been $30. There was a lovely Indian lady, whose bags were too heavy and she was forced to repack there. Margit and I offered to take some of her paperwork to help make her bags lighter. Then we could finally go to through security to the gate, where we had another 2 hour wait.

When it was time to board the plane, an announcement was made that the plane was going to be full and anybody with a bigger hand luggage bag would be able to give it away to be put in the hold free of charge. I took my laptop and some breakables out of the bag and was glad to get rid of the heavy paperwork I had been carrying around. I advised Mamta, the Indian lady to do the same, which she also did. However, our Polish colleague, Anna, who also had a rather large suitcase for hand luggage, decided to ignore my advice and try her luck and take the case in. Unfortunately, it was a small plane and it did not fit in the overhead bins nor below the seat. An air hostess took the bag from her, but there was nowhere to stowe it inside the plane, however, when she took it out to be placed in the hold, it transpired that the hold doors were already closed and it was not possible to put it there any more. An announcement was made over the loudspeaker that her bag would catch the next plane out of DC, which was on the following morning.

When we landed in Omaha, Nebraska, all our luggage was there, except for Anna's hand luggage. She waited for it for a while before filling in the paperwork for a lost suitcase. Outside, it was cold and snowing. It felt like home to me, but the people from Latin America were shocked.

The bus took it slow and we were finally in Lincoln around 2 am. We had been given our hotel keys in the bus, so we just went to our rooms. Margit and I decided to unpack the same evening and did not get to sleep until around 4 am.