has anyone done a program in hs in DC? Because it seems I kno a lot of people who have gone to DC, and my brother did a leadership program there and now I got a packet to do one too, has anyone else done one? The one that sent me stuff was Presidential Classroom, and its really weird, I have no idea how they sent me stuff, and none of my other friends information..

I got information about Presidential Classroom as well.

I've never done that but I did do a seminar called Close Up Washington which was 5 days last winter learning about the government and policies from inside DC, we had speakers, wandered around senate buildings, debated, etc.... amazing experience.

my moms going read the packet over tomorrow, but I am prob. going to do it they have different programs and its betweens Global Business and Public Policy Program and the Future World Leaders Summit, the thing about the Future World Leaders Summit is that its during March which is school for me :(

I did the Close Up program my state had (the first year I was in it, I went to the capitol building for the state Close Up program). I did that my sophomore year, then when I was a junior, I went to the Close Up in Washington DC and LOVED it. I went from April 7 to 13, 2002. Every day was a 16 to 17 hour day, which left me VERY exhausted at the end of every night, but it was SO worth it. I got to visit Washington DC for real! It is VERY beautiful. I definitely recommend taking part in the DC Close Up program. :)

Originally posted by PZelda: VICKI!!
I did the Close Up program my state had (the first year I was in it, I went to the capitol building for the state Close Up program). I did that my sophomore year, then when I was a junior, I went to the Close Up in Washington DC and LOVED it. I went from April 7 to 13, 2002. Every day was a 16 to 17 hour day, which left me VERY exhausted at the end of every night, but it was SO worth it. I got to visit Washington DC for real! It is VERY beautiful. I definitely recommend taking part in the DC Close Up program. :)

Awesome! I was at Close Up in February of 2003.

I agree, the days are really long and exhausting, and rooming with people from other schools was kind of strange at first. But I made so many great friends, learned so much, and had the best time

Originally posted by Titania
Awesome! I was at Close Up in February of 2003.

I agree, the days are really long and exhausting, and rooming with people from other schools was kind of strange at first. But I made so many great friends, learned so much, and had the best time

Yep! That is SO true. I got used to the heavy security everywhere...It's really not that bad. I did have my bag searched a few times whwnever my group went somewhere, though, but other than that, no problems. I hated having to start my day between 6 to 6:30 (after getting to bed at 11pm or midnight), and I hated the seminars (at first), and I hated the LONG days because we barely got any rest (except on the buses), but OMG it was worth every minute. I fell asleep at the first seminar we went to :blush: and somebody had to wake me up but I figured out how to stay awake in the seminars by doodling in one of the books we got. :lol: I got to see everywhere, it was so awesome. At the time I went, it was just a mere seven months after 9/11, and you know how one of the planes struck the Pentagon...Well, my bus took us past the Pentagon (the side where the plane crashed) and we took pictures of it. It was just mind-numbing to be there in person. :eek:

Which hotel did your group stay in? Mine stayed in Holiday Inn in Silver Springs, MD. Two other girls and I went to DC (3 total), so I got to room with one of the girls and two of our other roommates were also from our state and lived about two hours from us so we became fast buddies. :D On the few breaks they let us take, I was a MAJOR tourist. :cool: I brought something from every place I went to. LOL I have a mini-Lincoln bust from when my group visited the Lincoln Memorial. ;)

Hey, did the entire group at your hotel do the HUGE group picture? I'm not sure where I put mine anymore, but ours did that and I brought one. LOL

Originally posted by PZelda: VICKI!!
Yep! That is SO true. I got used to the heavy security everywhere...It's really not that bad. I did have my bag searched a few times whwnever my group went somewhere, though, but other than that, no problems. I hated having to start my day between 6 to 6:30 (after getting to bed at 11pm or midnight), and I hated the seminars (at first), and I hated the LONG days because we barely got any rest (except on the buses), but OMG it was worth every minute. I fell asleep at the first seminar we went to :blush: and somebody had to wake me up but I figured out how to stay awake in the seminars by doodling in one of the books we got. :lol: I got to see everywhere, it was so awesome. At the time I went, it was just a mere seven months after 9/11, and you know how one of the planes struck the Pentagon...Well, my bus took us past the Pentagon (the side where the plane crashed) and we took pictures of it. It was just mind-numbing to be there in person. :eek:

Which hotel did your group stay in? Mine stayed in Holiday Inn in Silver Springs, MD. Two other girls and I went to DC (3 total), so I got to room with one of the girls and two of our other roommates were also from our state and lived about two hours from us so we became fast buddies. :D On the few breaks they let us take, I was a MAJOR tourist. :cool: I brought something from every place I went to. LOL I have a mini-Lincoln bust from when my group visited the Lincoln Memorial. ;)

Hey, did the entire group at your hotel do the HUGE group picture? I'm not sure where I put mine anymore, but ours did that and I brought one. LOL

We stayed in Chevy-Chase, MD at a Holiday Inn- It was me and my friend (from PA) and two girls from North Carolina who were pretty cool. The best was one night the 4 of us ordered pizza to the room and sat up half the night chatting and watching the Disney channel because we felt like it. lol. The girls next door were from North Carolina and Georgia. I also became friends w/ a few guys from Conneticuit and Nebraska.
Yup, those 6 AM mornings were killers, luckily I dont need a lot of sleep, my roommates were dying by the last day! I loved the debates and seminars. Our small group was the best. We had them on the 12th floor of the hotel and were staying on the 5th...so we were supposed to use the stairs because there were so many of us, but they were outside stairs and it was February! So we just piled upwards of 30 people in the elevators- total safety hazard but it was fun.
Everyone wanted to sleep on the busses but they guide people kept talking! Did yours "bus surf" that was the best. And going to the Kennedy Center for the show was so much fun, and the dance.
We did the group pic! Did you do the thing where one guy ran from side to side to be in the pic twice? LOL, it was so funny.

Wow, now I miss it! I'm hoping to go back this winter * crosses fingers *

Originally posted by Titania
We stayed in Chevy-Chase, MD at a Holiday Inn- It was me and my friend (from PA) and two girls from North Carolina who were pretty cool. The best was one night the 4 of us ordered pizza to the room and sat up half the night chatting and watching the Disney channel because we felt like it. lol. The girls next door were from North Carolina and Georgia. I also became friends w/ a few guys from Conneticuit and Nebraska.
Yup, those 6 AM mornings were killers, luckily I dont need a lot of sleep, my roommates were dying by the last day! I loved the debates and seminars. Our small group was the best. We had them on the 12th floor of the hotel and were staying on the 5th...so we were supposed to use the stairs because there were so many of us, but they were outside stairs and it was February! So we just piled upwards of 30 people in the elevators- total safety hazard but it was fun.
Everyone wanted to sleep on the busses but they guide people kept talking! Did yours "bus surf" that was the best. And going to the Kennedy Center for the show was so much fun, and the dance.
We did the group pic! Did you do the thing where one guy ran from side to side to be in the pic twice? LOL, it was so funny.

Wow, now I miss it! I'm hoping to go back this winter * crosses fingers *

:lol: I was on the 7th floor, Room 702 (see, I still remember my room number :lol: ). My room was directly across from the elevators and stairs so I only had to walk 8 feet and there I was in the front of them. I hated the elevators, though... They only had one up and one down button and 3 elevators so you had to wait for one to open up. ;) The seminars were OK but I liked the debates, too! It was about 150 to 200 kids total in my group that stayed in the hotel. The advisor teachers got 5th floor, the girls got 6th and 7th and the boys got 8th and 9th (out of a total of 16 floors).

OMG, I have the funniest story to tell you. You know how everything is bolted down to the floor? The girl from my school that I was rooming with wanted to set her alarm clock for the last night we were there (we had to get up at 5 in the morning to get to go to Dulles so we could get home. We came down to DC via Reagan). She couldn't find an outlet anywhere, so she thought she would try behind the bed of the 2 other girls we were rooming with. I kept telling her that it wouldn't work because something would happen, but she wouldn't listen to me... She kept saying "Nothing will happen!" and what happened when I tried pushing the bed? The headboard came clean off the wall! I was like :o and then the girl making me push the bed started laughing really hard then I started laughing really hard too and THEN the two other girls came in and they were all shocked and then they started laughing really hard and then they got several other girls that they went to school with to come in and look...there were lik 5 of them and they all did the exact same thing the four of us had just done...Shocked looks on their faces and then they started laughing! I don't remember who my roommate called, but she called a lady down at the front desk and when she explained to her what happened, THAT lady started laughing too! It was NOT my idea, it was the other girl's. ;)

OMG, tell me about the guide people...:rolleyes: I know how to tune them out and the bus I was on had reclining seats so I could recline my seat back a little and get some shut-eye (I usually got the window so I could also look out the window while relaxing). As in bus surfing, do you mean as in they just drove around so we could check out some of the sights? Yeah, we did that. That's how we got to see the Pentagon, by bus-surfing. :)

I went to Ford Theater for the show on Thursday night and it's a really creepy place. Everything is so 1800's because of course it was built in the 1800's and Lincoln himself was actually in there! I saw the balcony where Lincoln was shot, too. When the play had a 15 minute intermission, I went downstairs and there was a small muesum about Lincoln and they had the ACTUAL clothes he was wearing the night he got shot. His clothes were HUGE (not fat but really REALLY big!). He must've been one heck of a giant. :eek: It was really creepy down there, too, so I got out as fast as I could.

Yep, the guy in my group did that, too, when we had ours taken (the running to be in both places twice). We had to have ours taken twice - the first time, the photographer forgot his film :rolleyes: so we had it taken a 2nd time two days later.

Hey, did you get to go inside the Library of Congress and the Capitol building? I think both are very beautiful. :)

I was room 504! ;)

:lol: everything in our room was bolted too. Our roommates lined the headboard w/ soda cans and by the end of 5 days the whole thing was covered. So many memories from that hotel! Me and my friend/roommate picked up two guys from another state, while on our own, and it turned out they were roommates too. What are the odds...we met them wed evening and didnt find out they were roommates until the dance on friday! And I chased my one friend up the hall and out the outside steps because her mother had called my cell phone looking for her and she refused to talk to her. :lol:
I loved our hotel..there was an old cafe downstairs where we all would go after seminars to play cards and talk. The girls had the 5th floor and the guys had the 4th, chaperones on the 6th.

Ive always wanted to see Ford Theater!! Maybe this year...
We saw the Capitol, Library of Congress, and SUpremem Court building. Then we had lunch in the senate building. I was going crazy looking around "AHHHH I recognize him from the news!! the one eating the ham and cheese sandwich!!!"
I also LOVED the Folgers Shakespeare Library- the recreated Shakespeare stage and the museum was AMAZING. (Im a Shakespeare freak so I was in heaven)
"Bus surfing" was when the guides would stand up while the bus was moving. The girl on ours was a "pro bus surfer" but the guy would always fall down in the aisle, they were both pretty cool even if they talked too much when we were all exhausted!