There's no place like home!

Just got home!  Official reports say that yesterday was 25 degrees but with the wind chill it felt like 12 degrees!!  No wonder I was so cold!  Also they say that there were about 1.5 - 2.5 million people there!!  What an amazing feeling to be a part of it all!  It is something that I will always remember and look forward to sharing it with all of you in person!!  By the way if you are reading this today, ask your parents to save the front page of any newspaper they receive.  It will be your piece of history!! Plan of attack for today is to sleep!  In the past 3 days I have only slept for about 8 hours :(  I'll see everyone at school tomorrow!!  Students please bring your questions for the final that I can answer for you!!  See you all bright and early!  

Poor Bella was very cold too!  She did not come prepared to the inauguration!!  See you tomorrow :)

Someday Happens...

Do you ever tell yourself, "Someday I believe that (fill in the blank) will happen!"  Well Someday happened today!  My day started off with a 3 am wake up call, breakfast at 3:30, and bus by 4:00!  We drove into the city (10 miles) and it took an hour!  There were many road blockades set up.  We got off the bus at 5:00 and made our way for a mile and a half walk to our seats.  Once we got there (5:30 am) all that was left to do was wait.  Wait for history to be made!  It was SOOOOOO cold.  At one point I thought that I lost my toes!!  I had so many layers on it was hard to move but when you are just sitting there it can get very cold!  The inauguration was scheduled to start at 11:30 am.  So while we were sitting there we were talking to everyone around us.  It was just a sea of people!  At around 9:00 they replayed the concert.  That was fun to watch again!  Everyone was dancing, singing, and trying to stay warm!!  When the special guests started to arrive the crowd went crazy!  There were so many people that were a part of this inauguration!  When Vice President Biden took the Oath of Office everyone was so excited!!  When President Obama (how cool is it that we can now call him President!!) took his oath, I have never heard a crowd scream and cheer so loud before!!!!!  When President Obama gave his speech, you could have heard a pin drop!  Every person of every race, gender, and religion was hanging on his every word!  It really was something! I'll leave you with some pictures.  Enjoy!

I wish our new president the best of luck!  What a time we live in!!

P.S. Did you see me?  I was the one waving an American flag!! :)

Lessons from Clinton

During his speech to us, Clinton was asked what advice did he have for the youth of America.  This is what he said.

"If you know what you believe, don't listen to other people's advice.  Listen to yourself.  Have a dream!  Imagine the life that you want to live.  Those with the largest imagination succeed the most.  President-elect Obama had that dream and imagined himself as president.  Do what makes you happy.  But most people are happy at what they do best.  The Failure you try is not a failure.  The people who are sad are people who had dreams that they never acted on.  So remember two things during your life.  1. Dream 2.  Fear of failure is more toxic to your future than failure!!"

Some pretty good advice if you ask me!!

President Bill Clinton!!!!

  So we had an amazing honor today!!  Former President Bill Clinton came to talk to us today!!!!!!!  He spoke for an hour and then took some questions from the audience!!  It was so cool and I can't believe how close he was!  

Brrrrr, I feel like a penguin!

IT SNOWED TODAY!!!!  Well not a lot but it was very cool to see snow fall!  I was also so cold because today we were in classes all day so I had to wear a skirt (more on the classes to come!!)  But before we went to the classes we went to the 9/11 Pentagon memorial!  It was very, very, very, cold but it was such a moving memorial.  If you look at the benches there are names of those who died here on September 11th.  If you are looking at the names and can see the Pentagon then they died in the Pentagon, if you are looking at the name and see the sky they died on the plane.  They have the benches organized by the year they were born from oldest to youngest.  It was really quite moving.  It was the first time that I have seen this memorial so I was so overwhelmed with emotion.  You can see where the plane crashed into the Pentagon.  The lighter color is the newly rebuilt portion of the Pentagon.  We can never forget!!

A True American Hero!

Last night was the 40th aniversary dinner of Presidential Classroom!  All the Alumni got together to celebrate and reflect on youth in politics.  We had a speech by the CEO of Geico who is a big supportor of Presidential Classroom.  Anyway a man sat down next to me at dinner and we started talking.  He is a member of the board for PC.  He is an older gentleman and as the dinner went on I learned more and more about him.  His name is Ambassador Bruce Laingen.  Ambassador Laingen served in the US Navy in World War II and in the US Foreign Service from 1949-1987.  His tours of service included assignments in Germany, Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.  He helped take the Philippines for the US during WWII.  He served as the US Ambassador to Malta from 1977-1979.  In mid 1979 he returned to Iran for a second tour as charge d'affaires of the American Embassy before being held hostage in the Iran hostage crisis from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981.  I asked him how he was able to get through being held hostage during the Iran hostage crisis.  He said, "They beat me up, they threatened my life, and tried to take away my hope.  But through it all I knew that I had people back home praying and thinking of me everyday I was held hostage.  I had to go home to them.  And I did!"  I enjoyed my time talking to him and I can wait to see him again and talk to him for some more time!  He IS a true American hero and I'm so glad that I got a chance to meet him!  

Did you know...

So here is a history lesson for you.  Do you know what makes this photo of Lincoln's second inaugural address so different than any other inaugural photo?  Take a close look at it. 

I'll give you a hint it was right at the end of the civil war.  And a certain actor was there who had a plan?  Now take a look at this zoomed in picture I took at the Lincoln exhibit at the American History Smithsonian.  

That's John Wilkes Booth who later assassinated  Lincoln on April 14th, 1865.  Today I'm going to a class on Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and Barack Obama.  I'm looking forward to learning about these 3 men and how they have and will change the world!  When I get back tonight I'm going to blog about a great man that I had dinner with last night.  He is a true American hero and I can't wait to share his story with all of you!  So stay posted...

Ain't that America...

What an amazing day!  We spent the day downtown and the feeling amongst all the people was excitement!  The majority of the day was spent at the "We Are One" inaugural concert.  It was just a sea of people and of hope!  When songs such as "Ain't that America," "Lean on Me," and "My Country Tis' of Thee" came on the crowd was singing and dancing!  It's just hard to explain what an amazing feeling it was to be there and to hear president-elect Obama and vice president elect Biden to speak (Sorry I don't have a video of either of them speaking!  I was so taken that I forgot to start my camera!)  When Obama got up to talk the crowd was silent and all eyes were on him!  Whether you like the man or not you can't deny that he is an amazing speaker! I got chills so I can only imagine what will happen on Tuesday!

When Jamie Fox reminded us of Obama's speech the crowd when crazy!! 

So here are just a few of the pictures that I took for you all!  I met up with some friends so I took some pictures of them too!

    crowd going to the concert Obama cupcake!!

I'll post more pictures later!  We have a dinner celebration tonight to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Presidential Classroom!

All bundled up!!

I'm getting ready for my day out on the town right now!  I'm thinking of this as my practice run!!  After today I'll know if I'll be warm enough or if I should add more layers for Tuesday.  Right now I feel like a marshmallow because off all the layers and warm clothes but I guess we'll see if it works!  I also thought I would post a picture of my hotel room!  It seems everyone always wants to know about that.  Also it will give me practice on how to post pictures!It's a very nice hotel and the bed was Amazing!  I slept right through the night!  We'll going to go to breakfast and then downtown!  I'll post more before we go to dinner or when I get back from dinner!

P.S.  With all these layers I'm really hot in the hotel room!  That's a good sign that I'll do o.k. outside...right??

the United States of Texas???

So I made it to D.C.  Left my house at 5:20 am!  Nothing a little caffeine can't fix :)  Made good time to LAX and got checked in and through security with no problems!!  The flight was amazing!  Slept for a good portion of the trip and then watched WALL*E!  What a cute little robot!  (almost as cute as my favorite little mouse Despereaux!)  When I got to D.C. the airport wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be!  But...my shuttle left without me :(  So I had to get on the shuttle with the high school program and then take a taxi from their hotel to mine!  That was an interesting ride.  Some student was talking about how Texas was it's OWN country, that he read that in his textbook!!  So being a history teacher I had to step in because he was convincing all of the other student on the bus that it was true!  All of my 8th grade students should know that it was it's own country (the Lone Star Republic) but then became a state!!  Anyways the hotel I'm at is lovely and I have met some very nice people already!  We leave tomorrow to tour D.C.  And I'm hoping to get some great pictures to upload here for you all to see!

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go!  The taxi's waiting it blowing it's horn..."  So I'm set!  I leave for LAX at 5:20 AM!!!  So early yet at the same time so worth it!!  I don't know if I will be able to sleep tonight but I'm going to try!  

Last minute preparations....

So I'm in the final stretch of getting ready to leave for D.C. Almost done grading all of my student's work, all packed except for the last minute items, and... I just got the email confirming my flight!! :) It looks like this is really going to happen! Check back for more information/stories as they come!!

P.S. For all you Twilighters out there (especially Mr. Stephenson!) check back often! I have a feeling we might get to see Edward and Bella somewhere in D.C.