Finally in DC. 1/23-1/25

Hey everyone! I'm Lesley, and this semester I will be studying in Washington, DC at the School for Ethics and Global Leadership. I'll be here in DC for 4 months with only a short 2 week spring break back at home in Cleveland. With my incredibly busy schedule, it's been tough keeping in touch with everyone back home. But crisis averted, thanks to the blogging world. I started this blog at the urging of my very smart friends who all want to be updated about my life here in the capital. So here I am now, writing to you, from my new home on Constitution Ave.

I arrived to DC on January 23rd around 12. For once, the Wellener's were not late to something. It was very surprising considering how difficult it was to leave that morning. Anyhow, once at the residential building on Constitution my family and I unloading my many suitcases and brought them to my room, which thankfully is on the first floor. I have 2 roommates whose names are Megan, from Michigan, and Caitlin, from Massachusetts. We get along really well, which is great! Okay, so after unpacking and kind of organizing my room, I headed with some other members from my class to the academic building which is about a 40 minute walk/metro ride away. We walk to Union Station and board the metro towards DuPont Circle, which is where the academic building is. The amazing thing is that the residential building is basically neighbors with the Supreme Court building. I'm literally in the heart of DC. Okay, so once we arrived at the academic building we met all the other people in the program. There are 17 of us in total. We are all really geographically diverse. There are 2 boys from Seattle who love recycling and compost. I guess it's a Seattle thing. There is a boy from Atlanta, who claims that he isn't southern enough to like sweet tea. There are 2 boys and a girl from Texas who all say "ya'll." I just can't get over that. There is one really reserved boy from New Hampshire, and then there's me the Clevelander.


One of our orientation activities was to decide, as a group, what we were going to do that afternoon. Our options were to go the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery to walk around and to also see the Elvis impersonation contest, to tour our neighborhood around the residential building and to get some ice cream, or to take a walk to the Mall and to see if there were any major protests going on. We chose the latter, but unfortunately there were no protests going on, but it was cool seeing my backyard. Basically, DC is the coolest city out there. I used to be obsessed with NYC, then Hong Kong, and now DC, and I really think DC will be my absolute favorite.


After our walk around DC we returned to the academic building for a dinner of Baja Fresh. We returned to the residential building after a long and exciting first day in our capital. We had our dorm meeting and just hung out. Our RA, or resident adviser, is named Robbie, and he graduated from Harvard last year. He is one of the coolest and funniest people I have ever met. Henry is one of the staff members at SEGL, and he also acts as an RA sometimes. He lives below us. He seems kind of mean and scary at first, but he is really awesome as well. He's a recent Columbia grad. Finally, after a long day we were able to go to sleep.


On Sunday morning, we were allowed to sleep in because we didn't have anything to do until 11:30 brunch, which was really nice. As most of you know, I love to sleep whether it is at home or in class. ;) I'm always sleeping. For breakfast, we had a hearty brunch of pancakes, bacon and eggs. From there we walked/metroed to the academic building for a day filled with fun team building activities. We were separated into 2 groups. My group consisted of Audrey from MN, Nitika from NJ, Trevor from GA, Aaron from TX, Jorge from TX, Kyra from NY, Megan from MI, and someone else who I am blanking on. A lot has been going on so please excuse my short term memory loss. We did activities such as trust falls, spider web climbing, and mine field surviving. Through these activities we grew as a group and really bonded, especially because people were falling and crawling and being lifted waaaaay off the ground. After the trust activities, we made a much needed CVS and Starbucks run. You knew I couldn't stay away from Starbs for 4 months. :)


After that we returned to the academic building for a dinner of pizza and our first "academic" session. We had our very first lesson in ethics and leadership. We watched the CNN coverage of the terrorist attack on 9/11/01 and then we discussed them. We then discussed what we wanted to get out of this program academically and intellectually. It was very thought provoking and great discussion. My favorite question to ask people is how they found SEGL. Everyone has such a different answer and such an amazing story about how they found this amazing program. Anyhow, after the ethics and leadership class, we headed back to the residential building for yet another dorm meeting with rules. The rules for the dorm are simples: doors must be open 90 degrees; close on, covers off; no horizontal. Those apply for when the genders are intermingling though. Haha yes, there are boys here. No more all girls’ education for me. And again, we were finally able to sleep.



Today was our first day of legit classes. I got up at 6:45 took a shower and ate breakfast. We were out the door by 8:15. Classes start at 9:00 and end at 4:30. So once we got to school, we had school meeting which is basically just like checking in to make sure everyone is doing okay. After that we all had ethics and leadership for 90 minutes. First we did this skittle simulation exercise. Basically we were the only people left in the world after a nuclear war. In order to survive, we had to find and eat 10 skittles. Unfortunately, many obstacles were thrown our way. Some people broke their leg and had to eat 5 more skittles to be able to move. Some people were mute or blind or allergic to a certain color skittle. Others had guns and others had bullets. So of course alliances were formed. I found my 10 skittles and thought that I was safe until I came across some puppies that I needed to save. Winson, from Seattle, is the nicest guy ever, so instead of saving himself he decided to save everyone else. He gave me the 5 skittles that I needed to survive. After I went upstairs to the third floor in search of more skittles, and then I stumbled across the "safe bunker" in the English room. This bunker was Will form NH's idea. I was the third person in the bunker after Will and Megan. The three of us controlled the bunker and tried to help save as many people as we could. It was a very successful and interesting simulation. After the 50 minutes were up, we went back to the big room in the front of the school and discussed the simulation and the ethics of it. It was very interesting and very fun. For the rest of our ethics class, we discussed the philosophies of Aristotle, Kant, and John Stuart Mill.


After ethics, I attended APUSH which is taught by Gray Pederson, who relocated to DC from the Lakeside School in Seattle. He is an amazing teacher and has a great personality. All we really did today was figure out where everyone is in class. I'm the farthest ahead because I'm at the Progressives already, while everyone is somewhere around Reconstruction. I'm so confused as to how everyone is going to be ready for the AP exam. I'm where I'm supposed to be and I'm not even taking it.

After APUSH, we had lunch which was 3 different types of salad: one vegan, one vegetarian, and one normal. I tried them all and my favorite was definitely the vegan one.

After lunch, I went to Spanish 4, but I'm only in Spanish 2. I think everything will work out fine though. My teacher, Maylen who is from Cuba, believes in me and my class is only 2 other people so Emily from NJ and Everett from MD will be able to help me a lot. All we really did today was basic conversations. Maylen said that she didn’t think that I was behind in speaking, so I guess I'm on the right track. We will just have to see how it goes.

After Spanish, I had Comparative Government and Politics or CoGoPo for short, which was also taught by Gray. He actually helped to create and write the course for the College Board, so I am really excited for that. Also, the class is a very conceptual class which is the kind of history that I'm good at, so I'm excited for that as well. In CoGoPo, we study the governments of Britain, Russia, China, Iran, and 2 other countries that I forget. It's getting late so please excuse my very short term memory loss.

After CoGoPo, I had Precalc, which Maylen also teaches. This is her first time teaching math and we have a lot of material to cover because everyone has learned different things so far this year. Hopefully everything will get done and everything will be okay.

After Precalc, I had a free period where I worked on history homework and talked to my fellow classmates. Everyone is so interesting that talking to everyone is beyond amazing. So far, this program has brought out the very best in everyone.

Finally after my free period, we went back home to the residential building. We were able to chill out and listen to music and talk and play outside and go for runs etc. until 7, which is when dinner starts. For dinner we had quesadillas which were prepared by Alanna. Alanna is our resident chef. She is staff for SEGL and an advisor, but most importantly she is our chef. And she is wonderful! Cooking for 17 voracious teens is no easy task yet Alanna manages to do a wonderful job. After dinner were quiet study hours. I was able to finish my homework in like 2 and half to 3 hours. It was amazing. But I'm almost positive that the homework load will only continue to get heavier and heavier.

Okay now I'm done. This is officially the longest blog post ever. Those of you who read the whole thing are amazing people. And yes, I do use the word amazing a lot, but it's just an AMAZING adjective. Mkay, well, I'm gonna go to bed now so I can be ready for school tomorrow. Everett, Winson, and I are on dish duty. Oh joy.