Week 5: Independence Day

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Friday, July 5, 2013

By:

Jamie Garrett

Dinner with the SPS Executive Committee was delicious. It was delivered to ACP and we ate in the conference room on the fifth floor. It was a quick meal before we went to the Capitol Steps show in DC. The show was full of hilarious political satire that mocks everyone. It was quite a riot.

Saturday we made a trip to the Hungarian Folk Festival that was held in the Mall. There were entertaining booths set up that displayed a wide variety of arts and crafts along with musical instruments, textiles, and games. We spent several hours at the festival, making sure we visited every booth. Everyone tried walking on stilts, which is much harder than it looks. In order to cool off from the sweltering heat I stopped into the National History Museum. It was by far my favorite museum so far! I love dinosaurs!

The next day we went to the Smithsonian Zoo; however, mid-day when the temperature is 90+ is a bad time to visit. Most of the animals were hiding. The zoo is on my list to go to again, and maybe I’ll make my trip in the morning next time.

The first week of July flew by at work. Becky gave me a few new topics that I need to study. Toni is lending me a book, Understanding Quantum Physics, by Michael Morrison. Surprisingly, it is intriguing and an easy textbookto read. I am reading about Rotation and Angular Momentum. I have an idea about the direction I should head. The work week was cut short as we were given Thursday, July 4th and Friday, July 5th off for Independence Day here at ACP!

Thursday one of Ro’s friends invited us to a pool party/BBQ at her house. We took the metro and she kindly picked us up at the stop. The food was amazing, and the day was very relaxing. We left her house around 6 pm that evening to head back to DC for fireworks. We grabbed our diffraction grating glasses and blankets and hit the road to insure a good spot on the ground outside theWashington Monument. Never have I been to quite a large Fireworks display! The presentation was beautiful, and the diffraction grating glasses only improved the spectacular show, as shown in the video below.

Jamie Garrett