- Day Six .

POLITICAL / SOCIAL :
The main thing today was the Holocaust Memorial Museum. After an hour long prep, we headed off to the museum. In comparison to the Hiroshima museum in Japan that was absolutely amazing, the holocaust museum met my standards for sure. The layout through 4 floors of the progression of Hitler’s rampage was effective and I found that the information was properly distributed and didn’t carry on for two long. With wicked mood lighting, dimmed and bronze, it allowed us to get into the story right from the beginning. Some of the artefacts they had were incredible because they told each story beside it. There was a bible they found in one of the camps that belonged to a man that was killed a week before the camp was liberated. They also had a bridged walkway where underneath the walkway stood about 100,000 pairs of shoes that people wore into the crematories on their way to their death. I’m pretty sure that hit hard with every single person that walked over it. At the end of the museum, there was a place where you could make a pledge on your effort to never let that happen again, and so Yael and I both wrote one and placed it into the box of thousands of pledges already made. “I pledge to never stay silent.”
After the Holocaust memorial museum, Abi, Holly, Monika, and I decided to head out and speed-explore the Smithsonian. We chose to hit up the Smithsonian National Museum first, to eat and see the exhibits. Time was limited because we had spent so much time in the Holocaust museum, so we only had 2 hours to explore all we had to explore. After getting food , we were able to get through all 4 stories of the Smithsonian National in 25 minutes, including pictures and reading information of the exhibits that interested us. I saw/got a picture with Michelle Obama’s inauguration dress, as well as Jacquie Kennedy’s. I just about died when I saw Dorthy’s shoes and I got the most stunning picture of them. There was a dumbo statue thingy too ! Ahhh , so Morgan . After that we went to The National Gallery of Art and saw some amazing collections. The gift shop in that place was like Christmas. So many amazing things. I bought two Andy Warhol pictures that say “The world fascinates me” and “You have to be willing to become happy about nothing”, and they’re going straight on my wall when I get home.
We headed over to The Fashion Center at Pentagon City to shop for a bit and get some food. The States version of “Edo” was so sub-par, though in comparison to hotel fried chicken, it was delicious. I bought myself another pair of knock-off Ray Bans though they’re not black, they’re tortoise shell, or whatever you call the speckly brown.
Back at the hotel, we were given 40 minutes to pack, which with formal clothes and my cleanliness habits, is SO not long enough, so I ended up having to finish packing after room check.
We began the cultural exchange at night, and since it was Canada Day, the Canadians (4 ppl) insisted on going that night rather than tomorrow. After presenting both sides of the country, from Toronto to Calgary, we proudly sang the national anthem in French and English. I brought my Olympic mittens to show to people, and Simon, one of the Australian boys told me he’s never put on mittens before , so I passed them around the room after laughing a little. Claire brought maple candies, and Holly brought Canada pins. I got 3 Keychains, 2 from South Africa, and 1 from Trinidad & Tobago. We’ll finish the rest of the presentations after we arrive in NEW YORK TOMORROW !