Sunday, June 24, 2012

The names Wozniak, Gary Wozniak

On Friday I went with Steven and Nate to the international spy museum. It was really interesting place where we learned all about the art of espionage throughout history. Although I really wonder how much is really told how much actually can be known about the history of spies, and at the end there was a thing saying the best spies and there missions are never known. That being said what we do know is extremely interesting. The earliest example of spying they gave was when the Israelites invaded canan and it of course continues to this day. At the beginning of the museum you are asked to assume a "cover" which you need to memorize and remember so that you can act your cover and not give yourself away. Here is a picture of my cover story: 



In the Museum we got to learn about a lot of different spies and skills spying requires, and my favorite part was seeing the gadgets that spies have used. There has been some really crazy stuff. I did remember my cover until the end of the museum and was able to pass the questioning. Here is a spy car and some get smart memorabilia for the twins:


Unrelated pictures:
The elevator doors at the national achieves 

One of my co-workers who left this week, Barry

Sunday, June 17, 2012

I represent the people

Friday was an interesting day for class. We went to the national defense university to engage in a strategic diplomatic "game". Each of us took the role of a member of either the U. S. or Mexican government and we met in our own country groups and then in bilateral talks. I took on the role of a Mexican congress man and consequently my catch phrase became that I represent the people. It was very interesting exercise that took the majority of the day. We found out first hand that it is very hard to get compromise between sovereign nations. Anyway it was fun and instructive. There are no pictures unfortunately.
Saturday I had the sobering experience of visiting the Holocaust Museum. It is a very emotionally draining experience but very worth the visit. My favorite part was learning about the rescue efforts the pockets of Jewish resistance who did all they could to fight back. There are no pictures of this either.
Here's some random pictures that I haven't put up yet.
At the Capitol

The Meditation Maze

A Pay Phone

The Washington as viewed from the Jefferson


Sunday, June 10, 2012

In which I accomplish two life goals with a single stroke

Friday was an interesting day, two things I've always want to do got done: Attending a political rally, and visiting the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Me and several of my friends attended the "Stand Up For Religious Freedom" rally in upper senate park around noon on Friday, there were many of these rally's happening simultaneously all over the country. The catalyst of course being the infringements Obama care makes on religious freedom. It was good experience to be a political rally for the first time and to feel the energy there of people united in a cause. After this event we went to the Supreme Court for our class briefing, which incidentally was where the rally was marching, but we left early to get there on time. We got to walk around the Supreme Court building and watch a film on the court, then we had a briefing with a BYU graduate who is clerking for Justice Kagen. That was really interesting and gave us kind of an inside view of the court.






Sunday, June 3, 2012

The crag of old rag

Yesterday was a day for an adventure. Holly, who is a girl in the program but who lives in VA with her family, invited some of us to go with her and some people from her ward and hike old rag mountain in Shenandoah National Park. . Having been trapped inside the concrete jungle for more than a whole moon now several of us jumped at the chance to breathe the fresh "mountain" air and feel the excitement of adventure in our blood. 6 of us caught the metro up to the last stop on the orange line (I should say the last working stop since track work prevented us from going all the way to the end) and then Holly picked us in her SUV and we met up with Natalie's fellow intern Anne, who is from Germany.
We stopped for gas a food at a wonderful place called Sheetz which is HQ'd in Altoona PA and was the bread and butter of us missionaries in Pennsylvania, so that was a great nostalgic moment for me.
We then headed up into the hillish mountains of VA.
The hike up Old Rag Mountain was beautiful and a lot of fun. We could not have had a better day for it. We went the short way up to the summit which meant that about half way up the trail disappeared an we began doing what we called bouldering at BDSR but the locals refer to as "rock scrambling." This involves climbing over, under, around and sometimes through the crags of the huge boulders that make up the higher parts of the mountain while following little blue painted arrows to know you are actually going a way proven to get you to the top. This was a lot of fun, but also difficult at times especially where the rocks were slightly slipper from rain the night before. We reached the top and ate the food we had packed and enjoyed the spacious vistas of Virginia's forests. Then we came down the longer but much easier path to the bottom. All in all it was a ton of fun to be out in nature with good friends and fresh air.
Here a some pictures in no particular order: