Hello. I’m Sujeong Yu in Vermont. How are you guys doing today? Here is my 11th report.
How did you guys spend the time during spring vacation? Guess what I did! I went to Washington, D.C. from April 17th to 23rd. It was already spring there. I had fun time in Washington, D.C. with blossoms. Would you like to know how my trip was?

First day: All day long car drive
It usually takes 10 hours to go from Bennington, Vermont to Washington, D.C. We took 14 hours, because of the traffic jams. It’s almost the same as coming to United States by plane. Anyway, our first destination was Williamsburg, Virginia. Williamsburg is 2 hours away from Washington, D.C. from the south. We don’t have many opportunities to go down to Williamsburg in Virginia. That is the reason why we put Colonial Williamsburg into our plan. On the way to get there, we passed 6 states including Vermont. They were Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Isn’t that stunning? Finally we arrived in Williamsburg around 9 o’clock.

↑ During break with the flowers (Left), cherries (Top) & a field in Pennsylvania (Bottom)

Second day: Colonial Williamsburg
Colonial Williamsburg was a very interesting place. Colonial Williamsburg is the place that was remade like the 1700s period. Colonial Williamsburg is still in the 1700s when the United States was a colony of Great Britain. There is a bridge between the visitor center and historical area. When we crossed the bridge, we felt weird and cool, because we were going back to the past. Colonial Williamsburg showed exactly how people lived that period. Everyone was wearing old-fashioned clothes except the visitors and every single place had old-fashioned. It was filled with too many people who were enjoying the spring vacation. We had to line up to tour the old houses, church, courthouse, etc.

↑ The garden and the maze

I saw a speech from Thomas Jefferson. He presented the speech well. He was as good as Thomas Jefferson. I don’t know much about Thomas Jefferson, but his speaking skills held me there for a long time. He was surrounded by many people, who also stayed for a long time.

↑ Enthusiastic speaker, Thomas Jefferson!

I also saw an interesting kitchen. The kitchen was use to make the governor’s food in that period. Three ladies were making food and displaying it. I couldn’t recognize what some of the dishes were. One of the interesting foods was a rabbit. That sounds pretty disgusting, but that is food anyway. They made many delicious foods with special recipes.

↑ Smoke House (Top left) & Kitchen (Top right, Bottom left and right)

Above all, my favorite place was the silversmith. He showed how silverware was made. He just melted pewter for a long time and scooped melted pewter up and poured it on that to a metal board and it became a piece of pewter in for a minute. Isn’t it amazing? I couldn’t believe my eyes. It looked like magic. That produced a piece of pewter. That’s not all. He put the piece of pewter into the hot melted pewter, and it was melted immediately. Pewter is very cool stuff. I learned that it takes a very long time to make shiny silverware with that piece of pewter.

In addition, I had a fun time at the gift shop. My host sister, Meegan and I went just to see what was in there. We tried on an old-fashioned hat and took some pictures. I bought a hat, which is called bonnet. That was a cool experience.

↑ Shoemaker (Top left), Court house (Top right), Jail guy (Bottom left) & Jail (Bottom right)

Third day: National Zoo, Potamac River, FDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial and World War ΙΙ Memorial.

We started touring Washington, D.C. In the morning, we first went to the National Zoo. It has various kinds of animals and insects. I haven’t been to the zoo for a long time. It was good opportunity to visit the zoo again. It was also filled with too many people.

↑ Seal (Top left), Amazon exhibit (Top right), Hippo (Bottom left), Panda (Bottom right)

We moved on to the Potamac River. We could see the Washington Monument from the river and other buildings including the Jefferson Memorial. That was such a great view.

We walked to the FDR Memorial nearby the river. It was a brand-new memorial with FDR statues, water fountains and some quotes from him that could remind me how good a president FDR was.

The Korean War Memorial was neatly decorated. Some soldiers were made as stone statues and embossed carving. Also, I found some Korean letters there. A diplomat sent some flowers, and it says his name in Korean and English. While I was looking the statues, I thought of our sorrowful history again.

The Vietnam War Memorial is similar to the Korean Memorial. A wide wall had many names of people, who fought in the Vietnam War. The list of names was enormous and made me pitiful and mournful.

World War Ⅱ Memorial was also awesome. Every small wall, a kind of statues, has the 50 states names on it and a water fountain was spouting water out to cool down for hot weather. Even 5 years ago, that memorial wasn’t there. It is also a brand new memorial and has a great view. It was pretty different from other memorials. Other memorials have dark and grievous feeling, but the World War Ⅱ memorial has a pretty bright and cool feeling.

Unfortunately; I spent all of my camera battery in the zoo, so I couldn’t take any pictures in other places. I’m upset, because I can’t show you guys.

Fourth day: The Capitol, Supreme Court, Museum of the American Indian, National Air and Space Museum, Washington Monument, the Reflection Pool and Lincoln memorial
Our hotel was close by the Capitol building. We could see the building from the hotel room. It was such a magnificent view. We walked to the Capitol building and saw it up close. The building was surrounded by strong security guards. The Capitol was a great building except security guards.

↑ The Capitol building

On the way to the Museum of the American Indian, we passed the Supreme Court. It was also surrounded by security guards to prevent terror attacks. I usually see the Supreme Court in the TV or newspaper. It was good experience to see with my own eyes.

A few years ago, the museums in Washington, D.C. start opening for free to the public. I’ve went to the Museum of the American Indian. The museum was about Native American people and their cultures. I learned things I didn’t know. The time when they got social rights is not far from the present, and they still have a hard time to get jobs in a racist society. That sounds sad. The museum has many things interesting about Native Americans. Especially their art works were great. The other thing is the museum’s cafe was so cool. Most of American museums have a cafe. This museum cafe offers Native American food according to the different regions. I would like to recommend this museum if somebody like to know about Native American culture.

We moved to the Air and Space museum, which is one block from the American Indian museum. The Air and Space Museum was about space shuttles and flights, including their history. If we looked up a little bit more, we could see the various kinds of space shuttles, which were displayed above our heads.

↑ Wright Brothers (Top Left), Space shuttles (Bottom left, and Right)

The Next place we went was the Lincoln Memorial, including the Reflection Pool and the Washington Monument. To get to the Lincoln Memorial requires a little bit of walking by the Reflection Pool. The pool has little ducks and a great reflection of the Lincoln Memorial. After walking by the pool, I came to the Lincoln statue. Although the Lincoln statue was good, the view from Lincoln Memorial to Reflection Pool was great.

↑ The Washington Monument

Fifth day: White House, Museum of American History and Technology, Renwick Gallery, Museum of Natural History

This was the first time I’ve been to the White House. I could see the security guards in the Capitol building and the Supreme Court, so the White House would definitely have the security guards, I thought. I was correct; the White House had strong security guards, and mass communication to catch big issues whenever they will happen.

↑ The White House & the mass communication

The Museum of American History and Technology was a real history museum about everything, including house styles and First Ladies. The museum was so big and extensive so, we skipped some of exhibits. One of the things in the history part was about the First Ladies. That section showed the biographies of all the First Ladies. One fun thing in technology part was the streetcar. It was decorated like real streetcar even the feeling. A screen showed the 60s people.

↑ The bathroom in that period & the first ladies

The Renwick Gallery was the first art museum in Washington, D.C. When I got there, the museum had a special exhibition by Grant Wood. He made many cool art works. The entire museum was filled with awesome art. I was so happy that I could see some great paintings with my own eyes.

↑ Renwick gallery

We were all fatigued with our trip of 4 days. 2 days out of 4 days, we just walked without any transportation. And we knew we didn’t have many opportunities to come back there. We tried to see as much as we can. We looked for a new way to avoid tiredness. That was watching an IMAX movie. The IMAX movie was on in the Museum of Natural History. In the movie, the lives of some safari animals were shown, that was fun except it made me get a carsick. After the movie, basically we were done with our schedule.
We went to Chinatown and went sightseeing. Chinatown is always cool wherever it is. There are many Chinese characters on the streets that make me confused where I am. I love CHINATOWN!

↑ The FBI building

Sixth day: Homecoming!
Finally, we completed all our plans in Washington D.C. We left there early in the morning. On the way to come home, we visited my host sister’s great grandma, my host mom’s grandma. On Thanksgiving Day, 4 generations were gathered in one place. Anyway, she is already 97 years old. She looks still healthy except for hearing. She could recognize even me. That was nice to see her again after Thanksgiving.

That’s it! Was it too long? I have more things to tell you guys, but I need to finish. I don’t know how many times I can visit Williamsburg and Washington, D.C. in my life. I had a fun time there and learned so much outside of school. It was a good experience and a study in history and government. Thanks to my host family about taking me down there. Have a good day!