  Yes, I survived my trip to the Armpit of the World (a.k.a. West Virginia) and 10 days at the National Young Leaders Conference ( urlLink NYLC ) in Washington D.C. We had to wear these NYLC namebadges around and a bunch of people thought NYLC stood for "New York Lesbian Club" or something, lmao. Even though I wasn't excited about going beforehand, I have to admit that Washington was awesome. I got to do lots of cool things including having breakfast while listening to a panel of journalists at the exclusive National Press Club. And we were addressed by Representative McCarthy (D-NY) while sitting in the seats on the House of Representatives floor.
Library of Congress and the National Archive were cool. I saw original copies of the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence at the National Archive. And a Gutenburg Bible worth 6 million dollars at the Library of Congress. We did normal touristy things too, like visiting several of the monuments, including the new WWII memorial. I was surprised by the FDR memorial... the quotes carved into the wall were very touching and significant, but not the ones that are normally associated with him like the "a day which will live in infamy" bit.
All in all, one of the best trips ever. While in Washington I had the opprotunity to see a comedy called the urlLink Capitol Steps . They were hilarious !! I ended up buying three of their CDs afterwards, which are also available on amazon if you're interested. Right now I'm listening to Between Iraq and a Hard Place. The people I met were the best part. There were some annoying rich kids there, but for the most part the people that came were there because they were interested in politics and leadership.
I discovered that there are actually other intelligent liberal-minded youth in the nation, which was very refreshing. Probably the most interesting person I met was a speed-reading liberal; he was an atheist, but loved studying religion and the philosophy of Frederick Nietzsche. I first bumped into him while pouring myself some diet coke at dinner. He commented on my choice of beverage and then I remarked that John Edwards has a diet coke addiction as well (he normally opens 4 cans before noon.
) Then this guy, Austin Mobley, replied, "Time Magazine, right? " ...I'd read it in Time during the airplane ride from Atlanta. I also met this guy named Kevin from Miami who is just like me, except for being male (all the same clubs, all the same interests, same bedroom motif... we even looked kind of similar). Now I have lots of new contacts, although now that I'm back home I'd feel kind of weird emailing them... we all have several traits in common but nothing to say important enough to warrant a personal email.
By the way, I know you all got your AP scores! I wanna know what you guys got so leave me comments. (As for me---Euro: 4, Stat: 5) More than an end to war, we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal, inhuman and thoroughly impractical method of settling the differences between governments. urlLink Franklin D. Roosevelt 
