Apparently Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania

This is for everyone at home who has been teasing me about being the California girl facing the east coast.

This was my first day in the snow, heading to Capitol Hill. Apparently my apartment-mate felt it needed to be documented. My friends calls this the 'sad panda' look.


Today Krisse, Alex, Jessie and I went to Gettysburg (with 50 or so other people we don't know). And it took me until I was on the bus to realize that we were going to Pennsylvania. It took about an hour and a half to get there, and after we watched a film (during which I kept falling asleep thanks to Slumdog MIllionaire last night), we spent over 2 hours on the battlefield. I can't even tell you. It was so crazy to be there standing there. This included a completely inaccurate reenactment of the battle, including us shooting Alex with a cannon and nearly falling off the side of Little Round Top. No big.



If there's one thing I've learned since moving here, it's that this country is amazing. It sounds so corny, but I really mean it. There's no where like this in the world, and despite the last 8 years of crap we've dealt with, the basis of the United States is nothing short of remarkable. I go running past the Washington monument, through Jefferson, FDR, the Korean War, and Lincoln memorials--and I can't help but think about how lucky I am. Here I am, going to work in the U.S. Senate every morning. A biracial, young woman and today, I can make a difference. Life is good.

On a less serious note, we had two hours to explore the town on our own, so we went to an Irish pub (proud, Mom?), and ate our weight in french fries (notso proud, Mom?). We saw a man wearing a confederate flag. And I'm 99.8% sure he was serious about it. We named him Joe Six-Pack. Apparently he didn't get the memo his side lost.

It was getting near the time we needed to get back to the bus, but we decided ice cream was far more important than being timely. We ran like crazy (on ice and snow), running through blocked off areas, and accidently breaking a chain (way to go, Alex). Yea, we were last to the bus. But in a year from now, we'll be the ones remembering what an amazing day in Gettysburg we had, and all the well-behaved kids will forget the bus left late :)...and I'm in denial about having homework. The end for now.