Home of the White House

Today Summer Discovery went to Washington D.C. It was a two and a half hour ride there and I slept the whole time. We were then dropped off at the Smithsonian Institution. My friends and I first ate at the museum cafeteria, which was pretty expensive. It cost $7.00 for one slice of pizza, which I thought was a bit pricey. It made sense though because the museum probably gets most of its money from donations, the cafeteria, and their gift shops.

My friends and I spent most of our time at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. We saw a display of all the 44 presidents and a timeline of events that have occurred throughout time, such as the founding of YouTube in 2005. There was also a part of the museum displaying the first ladies’ famous gowns that they had worn. It was interesting seeing the change of styles throughout the years, but it was disappointing that such a big part of the museum was dedicated to displaying their gowns. Many of these women have done great things, but instead of being praised for that they are being recognized for their fashion choices. After exploring the museum some more, we walked around outside enjoying nature.

Afterwards, we were taken to Georgetown University and were allowed to explore the surrounding area. Georgetown University has a beautiful campus. I wish we could have had a formal tour of the school, but since we didn’t, I did some research of my own.

I found out that Georgetown University was founded in 1789 and was originally a Jesuit and Catholic University. According to their website, they are a technology advanced school and have even began to participate in EdX, which is a new free online way of taking classes at a private university. Georgetown provides about over half of their students each year some sort of financial assistance and try to meet 100% of their student’s financial need. Georgetown has eight schools and believes strongly in educating the whole person, which is a Jesuit tradition.

When we were done gaping at the Georgetown campus, my friends and I explored the surrounding areas. Next to the campus is a shopping plaza and we spent most of our time at the Nike store and Sephora. We were able to get cupcakes from D.C. Cupcakes, which has its own show on TLC. The line was extremely long, but we got our cupcakes! I shared Hannah’s Salted Caramel cupcake and Peanut butter Chocolate cupcake. They were so good!

It was really hot, 85 degrees Fahrenheit, but it was beautiful in D.C. They places we were taken to had blooming flowers everywhere, it was very clean, and the architecture was beautiful. We were at Washington D.C. from 11 AM to 6:30 PM. We passed through Maryland and Delaware and were finally back to the UPenn campus at 9:30 PM. I slept for most of that bus ride as well. I woke up the last hour and watched Beverly Hills Ninja which was playing on the bus mini TVs.

Today was fun and relaxing. It was my first time being to Washington D.C. and I was impressed. I really liked it and had a lot of fun spending my time there with my new friends.