Exploring Washington, D.C.

Thursday was our "free day" in D.C., so after the WJMC group photo at Capitol Hill, my friend Emily and I started the day off at the beautiful Botanical Gardens. The Botanical Gardens is virtually a giant greenhouse filled with every kind of plant that you could possibly imagine. Walking through the lucious foilage gave the feeling of being in a tropical rainforest in South America. We had a wonderful time there. After leaving the Gardens, we had some time before my meeting with my Congressional Representative, Dan Burton, so we spent about 30 minutes in the National Museum of the American Indian. We saw artifacts on the first and second floors and ate lunch at an Indian cafe. The food was delicious, and after we finished eating we started walking toward the Rayburn House office building. Once we found Mr. Burton's office, we were introduced to the Congressman and led inside his office. The interview lasted maybe 30 minutes, and in that time I learned a great deal about the man elected to represent my area of Indiana. During the interview he had quoted some of his favorite poetry, and at the end of the interview I asked if he could give me the name of those poems. Not only did he give me the names, but he gave me an entire book of poetry, The Best Loved Poems of the American People. I was very pleased with the interview. After Emily and I left Rayburn House, we went back to the National Museum of the American Indian and explored as much of it as we could before we had to meet back with our group at the Air and Space Museum. At 3:30 we loaded the busses and went back to George Mason to prepare for the gala later that evening.