Thursday 12th June----MY BIRTHDAY
J.O Elementary Wilson school was an amazing event, we all taught the children for an hour. Everyone did a fabulous job and the kids loved it. It humbles you to see these kids in what is a quite run down school just the day after our private tour of the library of congress with its Consul General. I believe this is very important as after all, the whole ethos of the program is about leadership AND service. As it was my birthday, which I possibly hinted about 324 times and sent 56 emails about, the group totally surprised me with a huge cake, card, presents and hair gel! Everyone sang me Happy Birthday and it was really special to me having been so far away from home on my 21st. They all made such a big effort and I thank then, the Management team and Megan for doing that all for me!!!..t'was Brilliant
We then hastily changed into our suits in the library of the school (although I was annoyed at the lack of mirrors to use my new gel) and headed to Capitol Hill to meet Senator Leahy on Capitol Hill. We stood for ageeessss in the heat and the only way to deal with it is to utter the words, what doesn't kill you will make you stronger!!! It was very kind of him to give up his time for 26 Irish kids and we all got that famous WIP photo on the Capitol steps!!! The tour guides were interns and I personally know more about the sheep farming techniques of Northern Finland than they did about their own US Capitol. It was funny to watch them stress and make up stuff and listen to their lack of knowledge about Europe, "Do they get American Movies in Ireland?"
NB: Ensure I use all the wikipedia resources I can find when I have to do Capitol tours on my internship
That night alot of us went out for a meal and a few drinks at Jury's, as it was my 21st I left a while later a bit more 'merry' than what I had been. It was soo much fun and we all had a good chat about everything that was going on. It feels like the time is passing soooo quickly here.....
