Week 14 - 20 miles of...

Amazing week version 14.0. I'm not leaving. Ever.

Monday:
During E&L, Henry introduced us to our case study for the week: Grand Strategy. He presented a power point that laid out all the general knowledge about the subject. I love this subject! It's so fascinating. I'm also really excited for the simulation on Friday. We will all have different roles at the White House and have to develop a strategy to solve a major crisis. Ah I can't wait! After that it was a normal school day.
In the afternoon, we had exercise block with Henry. We went to the Capitol park and played Ultimate Frisbee. We had some people stop by and ask if they could play. A coach also watched us play for a while. Tourists took pictures of us. We are so legit.

Tuesday:
Today was a normal day. Although we had a lunch time speaker. Jane Mayer of the New Yorker came to speak to us today about her work in investigative journalism.  She specifically focuses on torture and terrorism. Her job is so cool! She is pretty much what I aspire to be. She leads this amazing life where she writes for the New Yorker, writes books, travels, and has a family.  I'm on my way though because I was recently selected to be an editor in chief for my school's newspaper. I am also the international liaison and will be helping to start a newspaper and teach about free press at a school in Baghdad. I'm so excited! For Flex period in th evening, we watched the movie 13 Days which is about the Cuban Missile Crisis and grand strategy. It was fascinating.

Wednesday:
Today was a strange day. I had my last AP exam of the year at NCS. I took the AP English Language and Composition exam, and it was  breeze. Hopefully, I did as well as I think I did. After the test, Teddy, Aaron, Jorge and I went back to school like we were told to do so that we could participate in E&L. When we got there, no one was there and the power was out. We called Henry and were told to report back to the dorm. No one was there. Everyone was at the Holocaust Museum. You needed tickets to get in today because it was so crowded. Instead, we stayed home, ordered Chinese food and watched a movie. It was a chill day. Once everyone arrived back at the dorm, we debriefed the day. (Everyone spent the morning walking around the monuments. We didn't miss anything big.) We also discussed the simulation that will be happening on Friday. I can't wait for that! It's going to be awesome.

Thursday:
Today was a pretty normal day at SEGL. In the afternoon during Arabic and Chinese block, we had E&L where Henry and Noah briefed on the simulation that is happening tomorrow. I'm so excited for it. I hope I am either a journalist or the head of the CIA. I think those would be the most interesting roles. It starts at 3:45 tomorrow. Can't wait!

Friday:
We had a normal school day up until E&L block, which is when we had the most epic simulation. It was the grand strategy simulation where everyone had a role in the government or some sort of related agency. A crisis hit our nation and we all had to figure out how to deal with and how to finish our daily tasks as well. The crisis that hit our nation were terrorist attacks in Yemen. Our grand strategy was to stay passive and not attack unless we were attacked first. It was pretty successful, only 3 American lives where lost. Although we did end up with a military coup in Yemen and an exiled president that we decided not to help. Isabel ended up being the President. Kyra and I were Washington Post reporters, just like I had hoped. It was so fun! We go to mess with people and write a lot of articles. We also uncovered the governments lies about the CIA drone incident. We wrote about how the  president drinks a lot. (Direct quote.) It was great! I love being here second semester because we get to do all the cool things that first semester never got to do. We are obviously the superior semester. After the simulation, president of the board, Matt Ellis did a private guitar concert for us. It was great. We all sang along. Noah and Matt did a duet and so did Matt and Gray. Everyone here is so talented. I love it. I love moments like the concert when everyone comes together as a group. We all love each other, and during times like those it's very apparent.

Saturday:
I had a three hour French class this morning. After that, we had a quick English class where we were allowed to walk around and find some alone time to reflect about our Credo. Our final capstone project is writing an ethical credo about everything that we learned this semester. I know exactly what I'm going to write. It's going to be amazing, or brilliant as is required of the project. After that we had a chill day. I played Scrabble with Jorge and Aaron. Later in the day, I went to Eastern Market with Sophie, Trevor, Audrey, and Winson. We ended up at this amazing book store called Capitol Hill Books. It's th e second hand bookstore with books about everything. It's so cool. In the evening, we played Hide and Glow seek which is essentially hide and go seek with a twist. Will orchestrated everything. The point of the game was not to get caught by Everett and you had three lives. Every time you were caught you would get a glow stick, if you got three you lost. You could also find tonic cards that either added or subtracted glow sticks. Plus all the lights were out and trash bag streamers were hung all over the house. It was so epic. After the game, we had a glow in the dark rave. Whoo fun day! Unfortunately we were missing 4 girls. They all went home for prom. It was weird having so many less people.

Sunday:
Today we had brunch and then we went to Georgetown to go shopping! It was great. It's so cool and trendy and fabulous. It's great shopping as well. After spending a few hours walking around, we went to Leopold's Cafe, which is this really trendy Viennese restaurant that is owned by a friend and board member of SEGL, Phillipe Leneer (?). He sat and ate with us and treated us to some great food. We had calamari, fries, and salmon pizza. We were all allowed to choose our own dessert. I had this mango cheesecake and it was amazing. It was by far the best food that we have had all semester. After we came home, I just chilled with everyone and enjoyed the time I have left here in DC. I'll be back in Cleveland before I know it.

One regular week left. What is this nonsense? Honestly? How have I been here for four months? Seriously? I love it. I'm not leaving. You can't make me.