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26/08/10
In the morning today we walked down to a whole host of monuments and memorial sights like the Washington monument before we went to the World War 2 memorial and then onto to the Lincon memorial and the Vietnam Memorial. These were all very interesting but for different reasons. The Washington Monument is probably best known for being in the Forrest Gump movie when Forrest returns from the Vietnam war and the anti-war protesters are holding a big rally and the monument is in the background. The World War 2 memorial was really interesting to read all the famous quotes from the generals in command at the time of the war. The Lincoln Memorial is a wonderful building with a statue of Lincoln sitting in a chair within the building. This is a very famous sight as this was where Martin Luther King made his very famous ” I have a dream” speak and that quote is inscribed in the ground where he made it. The Vietnam Memorial was very sad because it listed the names of all those who were killed in the line of duty during the war. The list was extensive and lots of people were there to pay tribute to friends and family members whose names were on the wall. After this we went to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum this was amazing because it took us through the evolution of flight and space travel. We got to see the first airplane and the first space shuttle and all the others in between. We saw various lunar rovers and lunar Landers along with space suits and even space food. We also looked at early commercial passenger planes and how the air stewards had to go through a very rigorous screening process before they were allowed to become air stewards. We also looked at how flight was used during the world wars and how it was used to drop the various bombs that had been designed at that time. The whole exhibition was very interesting and we spent many hours looking at the different planes and aircrafts.
27/08.10
We went to the Holocaust Museum today and this museum tells the story of how Hitler took over Germany and began his reign of terror over the world and especially the Jewish population. Sadly the museum did not allow us to take pictures or we would have had lots cause it was so in depth and interesting. We saw how one Jewish boy who lived in Germany before Hitler took over how his life changed dramatically over a very short number of years. Going from being a normal Jewish boy playing with his friends to being an outcast sent away from the town to a Ghetto and ultimately being sent to a concentration camp. How he and his father were reunited after the liberation of Germany but sadly how his mother and sister were killed by the German’s. We were also given a passbook of a person living in Europe during the Second World War and as we went through the exhibition we found out a little more about the person in our passbook. We saw how the German’s set up there death camps and how they used propaganda to change people’s views on the Jewish populations. They also had a set of measurements to see how German you were including measuring the width of a person’s nose amongst others. The exhibition showed very dramatic photo’s taken at the time of Jews being killed and thrown into mass graves whilst members of the Hitler Youth watched on and some even participated. We saw how the prisoners were transported in trains to hide the fact that so many were going to the concentration camps to be killed and how the selection process was so swift if you were to live or die at the camp. The Exhibition was very interesting but very sad at the same time and what was even sadder was that just as we were leaving we noticed a memorial to a security guard who had worked in the museum. It was erected after an old man that felt aggrieved that they had a memorial to the holocaust in Washington approached the museum and shot the guard dead. The old man died before he could appear in court for this crime.
28/08/10
Today was our last full day in Washington so we went to the Crime and Punishment museum to see how gangsters and criminals have been caught by the police and how developments in police work have improved the rate of capture. The first exhibit was John Dillinger’s car and this was very cool because he is one of the most famous criminals in the world. We looked at how law enforcement and the laws themselves have change through time. For example a general was locked up for 8 months for kissing his wife on the head on a Sunday. This was considered lewd behavior at the time and was not allowed on a Sunday. We got to read stories about the wild west and such characters as Billy the Kid and other famous cowboys. It then moved onto the Mob era with Al Capone, Baby face Nelson, and Bonnie and Clyde to name but a few. The stories of great escapes and near death experiences were gripping but ultimately they all got caught in the end for some sort of crime. We got to see what Al Capone’s cell looked like and due to his bung’s and bribes it was a very swanky place to be. We also saw the car that Bonnie and Clyde died in after they were ambushed by police officers littering the car with bullet wounds. The various developments in guns was interesting looking at how the simple hand gun can be changed to become a automatic weapon was quite scary. We then looked at the various serial killers that have been caught in America from Ted Bundy to the Boston strangler and the Night Stalker of LA. Before we left we got to see what it was like to be involved in a crime scene and try and solve the crime ourselves using the techniques that real crime scene investigators use. That was cool because it felt as if we were in an episode of CSI. Our final task was to take the police training which involved driving a car and shooting at suspects. Kirsty was better at the driving since I crashed my car into an oncoming car whist Kirsty arrived safely at the crime scene. However at the shooting I prevailed as a managed to shoot the bad guy in the head. Take note Ardfern kids I now know how to shoot a gun . After the crime and punishment museum we went out to Arlington Cemetery and this is where all the military victims killed in wars, or acts of terror, or disasters are buried along with some past presidents. It was unbelievable to see all the grave stones in this cemetery. The cemetery covers over 642 acres of land and can hold up to 100 burials a day. We saw the grave sight of J.F.K and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. This tomb was set up after the First World War when a solider could not be identified and it now holds bodies from the First and Second World Wars, The Korean War, and it did have a body from the Vietnam War but the that body was dug up and DNA proved who he was. There is a guard that stands outside the Tomb all day everyday holding a vigil for the bodies inside, he stands for 21 seconds before turning and taking 21 steps to the other side of the tomb and waiting for 21 seconds before he repeats the process. We managed to see the changing of the guard whilst we were there and it was very impressive to see and the precision in which it was executed. After this we went and saw the memorial sights for the various space shuttle disasters, navy disasters and the September 11 terrorist attacks. The cemetery was a very quiet place where people barely spoke and most were having various moments of quiet reflection.
29/08/10
Today we left Washington to head back to New York for a second time but we got some great news late last night we have managed to secure tickets to the US Tennis Open which is very exciting.
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