PAEMST Day 3

We woke up early again to catch our buses this time to take us to the White House. We had the opportunity to go on a tour of the White House. We ended up having to stand in line outside so our IDs could be checked...twice. It was really cold, but at least it wasn't snowing. We had a bit of a chance to talk to the fellow awardees while we stood in line. After getting inside, we walked past some pictures of presidents, their families, and happenings at the White House and then a few rooms downstairs. We eventually made our way up the stairs to the main floor where we had been just the day before. Everything now looked different in that we had to stay behind the ropes as we walked briefly through the East, Green, Blue, and Red rooms. It wasn't nearly as exciting as we had already had the chance to wander (somewhat freely) around these three rooms less than 24 hours before that time.

From the White House, we walked a few blocks to the National Geographic Society building where our guests were waiting for us with a few snacks and a water bottle. We were then treated with a prescreening on the new show Cosmos with Neil Degrasse Tyson. We were the first group of people to watch it ever as it premiered on TV that next Sunday. We got this opportunity because the White House tour was originally supposed to include our guests but we were told just a week before the trip that our guests would not be able to come.

After Cosmos, our guests could either ride the bus back to the hotel or wander downtown from where we were, I think Diane chose to wander. The other awardees and I were put on a bus and taken to the National Science Foundation. We had a little talk and then we split up into groups and ate our lunches in breakout sessions with people the worked at the NSF. Some groups were better than others and talked about some interesting things and got ideas from the awardees how science and math education can be improved. My group walked away with a feeling that our hosts weren't sure what to do with us. After lunch, we had another group photo taken in the atrium and then we had another large group discussion before we went back to the hotel.

Diane, Michael, and I decided to go to the Washington, DC temple so Michael could take some pictures and then we could go do a session. We took a taxi there as we figured it would be faster and easier since we'd never been before. Diane and I waited inside while Michael took pictures as it was cold, but Michael didn't show up for the first or second session so we finally went without him. We found out later that he didn't have his recommend with him and it took too long to find the right people so he just went to the visitors center until we were done. When we left, we found out that a couple of brothers got a grant to run a free shuttle from the temple to the nearest metro stop. It would have been nice to know about that before the taxi ride.

After the temple, we decided to go eat a fancy dinner so we found a place on the way home called Copper Canyon. I decided that things like this don't happen very often and I would be reimbursed a certain amount so I splurged on the filet mignon. Our server kept coming back to make sure my order was right because I wanted the 9 oz instead of the 6 oz and I wanted the blue cheese topping that others found a little overwhelming. The cow was beautiful!

Diane and I made a little pit stop at the bathroom in the lobby of our hotel on the way back and found out that it was bigger than our hotel room! Maybe we could get a discount next time if we volunteer to just sleep in the bathroom.