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Field Trip!!
Posted by #43 Will Miller at 01-07-1999 12:00 AM
AP Euro goes to DC
Well I must admit, that was one of my most interesting field trips. We all met at school, then again at Shady Grove and took Metro to Union Station since the National Gallery didn't open until 10AM. There were obviously a lot of other people on the Metro, since we left at around 8AM. In talking with each other and doing some of Ben's Annoying Things to Do on the Metro™, we attracted the attention of various passengers. Kait and Laura met a nice lawyer (well he SEEMED nice) and after talking for a while, explained to him the concept of THE CULT. He must've been interested enough to visit the page from work, since he applied. Here's what he wrote on his application:
"You guys need to get organized. Think of a cause and follow it. Maybe your cause should be bringing more life to Damascus, maybe your cause should be fighting to make sure that an equal amount of the county government's money goes to the Upcounty communities as it does to downcounty communities such as Bethesda, Rockville or other God-forsaken places. This might seem kind of boring but it's a way to get things done and any group of 380 (excuse me, 387) people could have a considerable influence.
Just an idea.
In addition, I'd like to say hello (give a shout out to) those Cult members I met on the metro this morning. You made the trip...interesting." -#388 Victor Smith
He has an interesting point that we could have quite a bit of influence if we all decided to do something. Those are interesting ideas, but I doubt everyone would agree on one cause. It seems that one of the qualities of THE CULT is that we don't really do anything specifically, but I wouldn't necessarily mind seeing that change. Back to the field trip, we convinced our teacher to let us walk to the National Gallery instead of spending another $2.10 or whatever to take the Metro 2 blocks. With Jesse as our "leader", we found our way to the mall. Just remember that it's ok to jaywalk or disobey the lights when someone in the group has Mentos. The Gallery was pretty spiffy, it's funny to see adults get all excited when you ask them questions about art so you have something to write about. Another observation was that the guard people ALWAYS said something to us about stepping back from paintings, especially b0b. When there's four 17 year olds and a 40 year old woman standing around a glass case, looking down at some Japanese scroll, the 17 year olds are ALWAYS identified as the threat and asked not to lean on the case, even when they're not and the woman is. Silly guards. They don't even know when WWII was. Anyways, we got some info for our assignment, then ate lunch and left. On the way to the Smithsonian Metro Station, Jesse and I went ahead of the group and looked at some sculptures outside of a building near the escalator for the station. The group had passed us, so we were running to catch up and then some guy stopped us, holding up some kind of badge. He said he caught us... smiling, so we got stickers - woo. I found it odd, but was relieved that it wasn't some guy who cared that we ran across traffic. At Metro Center, we were bored waiting for the train to Shady Grove and tossed some pieces of paper that said "http://thecult.ml.org" off the side of the upper level. About five minutes later, a cop came up to me, (since they were mine) holding his badge out. He said he saw me littering, that there were trashcans for that, then asked how old I was and who the chapperone of my school's group was. At this point, I was a little concerned that Mr. K might kill me, but he didn't... probably because of the mentos. Lessons learned: don't get caught and always take mentos. No replies.
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