Washington DC visit 2010 - Snowmageddon

On Saturday 13th February, fifteen students and two teachers went to Washington. After a pep talk on punctuality, Mr Boardman and Mrs Woodgate turned up at Bristol Airport later than every pupil. We had a seven hour flight (just made bearable by Sam’s continual jokes and WHSmith’s entire stock of gossip magazines), and when we arrived we were greeted by the abundance of snow we’d all seen on the news.  

We had a brief walk back to our lovely, warm hotel and then went out to traditional style diner Johnny Rockets, at Union Station. Throughout the week we became professionals at using the metro, as walking in the snow was near to impossible, although when we did, we had brilliant snowball fights. We also became experts at consuming burgers and ‘fries’ in a very short period of time, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The whole week was thoroughly enjoyable, but exhausting! We did more shopping than a WAG can normally manage, at Potomac Mills, Pentagon City and general street stores. By the end of the week we’d all decided on our favourite take-in Chinese and pizza place, which we enjoyed whilst laughing at American TV. It was a very funny week, full of memorable moments like when we all tried to fit in one elevator, and when Mrs Woodgate and Mr Boardman took too much interest in reading the American Cosmopolitan!

Of course, we did some History as well. The museums we visited, including the Air and Space, Natural History and the American History, were interesting, and really useful for our A Level course. There were some emotional times too, like when we visited Arlington cemetery and the Holocaust Museum, which were two stunningly evocative places. It was really astonishing to see the many memorials of late presidents, such as, JFK, Lincoln and the Washington Monument, which on the windiest day of the week, we travelled 169 metres up to the very top! It was worth it to see the breathtaking views over D.C. We were there whilst it was Abraham Lincoln’s 201st birthday, and took the opportunity to visit Ford’s theatre and the place where he eventually died.

Overall it was a fantastic experience in America, and an incredibly enjoyable week, which everybody who went, really benefitted from. We had fun, took some brilliant photographs and learnt a lot of history as well. It was arguably the best school trip we’d ever been on.