District of Corruption, and Thanksgiving

Well, because I have not posted since August(?) I have mountains of info to give to everyone... From my trip to DC, to tons of school work, to Mock Trial finally starting up, to a great trip to Ruidoso, to Woodsock, to Thanksgiving, things have been going on, times have been busy.

I will start with my trip in the D of C; I decided back in June to go with my parent's urges and just take a trip to get to learn all about our amazing - albeit sometimes corrupt - form of government, in-person. The trip was sponsored by the NYLC through the CYLC (Congressional Youth Leadership Council) and while there I was able to meet great people from all around the country... a few come to mind: Katie from Hawaii, Chris from Colorado, Leeron from New York (she asked for a "hawt dawwg" from the vendor... haha), Jacob from North Carolina, Mary from North Carolina, Araceli from California, Christian from Utah, Hannah from North Carolina, Julie from New York, Stephen from Mississippi, and Kanin from Tennessee all come to mind... but SOOOO many people, that is the essential point.

From left to right on top row is: Paula (WV), Chris (Colorado), Stephen (Mississippi), Me

Lower row: Hannah (NC), Leeron (NY), Katie (Hawaii)

Below is another pic of mostly the same group... we hung out together the most...

What was really cool about the whole thing was just how each of us was so different, and how we all had very firm beliefs in different ways. We each wanted to make our mark on the other by letting them know just what we believed in, and many times we found ourselves in some pretty cool debates in all of the program's simulations...

Ive got so many pictures of the trip, I cant decide what to post... Lets see, below is a pic of the capital building and a pic of the congressman from El Paso talking to me about some issues...

Still so much to go...

So, due to the magnitude of this whole post... I will leave you for now with a cliffhanger to be finished tomorrow yes, I promise!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Zach