United States, Virginia - Day 15

DAY 15 

This morning after our breakfast we took the metro to the Smithsonian museums with Alli. We started our tour with the Natural museum. It was really nice! We saw an exposition which talked about the ocean life. We saw the evolution of many different species of fish and the exposition explained why the ocean wasn't healthy.

There was also an exhibition about the human evolution. We saw many skeletons and a man explained us how men appeared on the different continents.

The last exposition that we saw was on the mammals. There were a lot of animals reconstitutions and it was pretty fun!

After that we visited the Museum of american history. There were third floor, the first one exposed the social advances in the United States. The part on the food presented a woman named Julia Child. She's famous because she went to France and brought back our cooking recipes in the United States, how funny! The second floor exposed the history of United States, so I learnt more about the Civil War, and it was really interesting. The third floor was talking about the presidents of the United States. There were also an exposition on the cinema and we saw Harry Potter's costume! 

After Iunch we walked around and we saw the White House! I would have liked to yell "hello Obama, how are you budy ?" but the place was crowded so I figured out that I probably should stay quiet... We also went to the Washington Monument which is huge! The construction started before the civil war but stopped during it. When the war ended, they continued the construction but the rocks weren't the same color, so the monument is bicolor haha! 

We rested a while in the Second World War memorial because it's really nice. In the middle there is a huge fountain where you can wet your foot. Alli's mom joined us and we continued our visit. 

We went to the Lincoln Memorial. To enter in the memorial you have to climb precisely 87 stairs. (yeah we count it..) But it really worths it because the Lincoln statue is really impressive! We passed by the Vietnam Memorial to get in the metro. It is a black wall with the names of the victims written on it. Some people drop flowers or American flags to honor the soldiers.

On the evening we shopped before our dinner. Now I have all the gifts that I need! For dinner we went in an Italian restaurant and it was yummy. They served a really good bread, it felt like home haha! Washington is a really fun city. There is a lot of walking when you are visiting but I really had a great day. 

United States, Virginia - Day 14

DAY 14 

This morning we drove to Washington. We were really comfortable, we had crackers, starbuck coffee, music and blankets!

In Washington we visited the Capitol. It's a beautiful monument where the Senate sits. In the memorial crypt we saw statues of great personalities and I took a picture with Mr Martin Luther King! There were also famous paintings which retrace the American history. This visit was really interesting.

On the evening Alli's mom had a meeting dinner so we were all by ourself in Washington with Alli and we had a great time! We ate pizzas and it was really yummy.
Then we walked around, we listened to street art performers in front of the river and we went shopping in the streets. I bought a lot of gifts for my friends and my family and I'm really glad about it.
It was really amazing because it was getting dark but the stores were still open and the streets were alive; the atmosphere was great. The smells of seafood melted to the talks of the walkers, the weather was perfect.. When we felt tired about walking we took a gelato and we returned to the hotel. We ate our gelato on the terrace to enjoy the weather and then we got to our room. It was a really good night, and Washington is a really nice city.

United States, Virginia - Day 13

DAY 13

 This evening we shopped in an Asian supermarket and we bought the ingredients that I needed to cook for the family. After this I cooked with Alli a Tom Khakai. This is a coconut milk sauce with lemongrass, vegetables and chicken. It was really good and they really appreciated that I cooked for them! I was glad that they actually liked it.

United States, Virginia - Day 12

DAY 12

This afternoon we went at Alli's friend house! So I met her friends Eden, Gabi and Ashley. They are really nice and funny, we had a great time. When we arrived, Ashey and Eden showed us a dance from their holiday camp, then we just joked around. At dinner time we ate tacos, it was soooo good! This is like bread (the bread from the wrap in McDonald) with meat, salad, cheese and salsa sauce in the middle. It's yummy! After this we swam in the pool at sunset, there were so many dragonflies flying in the sky, that was really beautiful. We dried and then we played games inside. We played the spoons game. It's the principe of the Kem's, but when you have 4 same cards in your hand you take a spoon, and everybody follows you, the last one who doesn't get any spoon loose. We also played the George game. You have to call someone around the table by his name. Then this person has to call somebody else, but if he doesn't respond at his name or if he hesitates, he changes his place with somebody else and gets the name of this other person. It seems confusing and it WAS confusing but we laughed a lot!

I'm sorry, I have to admit that none of the pictures of this collage are from me, I didn't take any pictures yesterday so I made my best to illustrate this article! 

United States, Virginia - Day 10

DAY 10 

Today we went on the beach with Alli, Doug and his friends! It was really cool, the beach is so much bigger than the mediterranean ones, and so are the waves! It wasn't too crowded so it we enjoyed it. I was really happy because I swam for the first time in the Atlantic Ocean. It's colder than the Mediterranean sea but it felt so good! We spent 3 hours on the beach and then we went at Matt's house (this is the son of the friends of Alli's parents, I told about them earlier) and we swam in the pool while the guys were kayaking on the river. I had a great day. On the way home, I chose the musics in the car and I felt powerful about it haha!

United States, Virginia - Day 9

DAY 9

Today I went to church for the first time in the United States! And no matter how much you think it's boring, well here it's not. It's quite different from France, first the mass happened in a casual building, I mean that it wasn't in these old gothic churches that we are used to see in France. And in fact, the ceremony was funny, because there was a screen with lyrics on it and we were all singing praying songs with a band... It was like a karaoke prayer! They really made the mass alive and I found that it was interesting!

On the afternoon we did a picnic for the Bastille Day (again) at the Academie Francaise presidente's house and it was really cool! We were with our group of correspondents/hosts so we had fun! When the picnic started, we were so hungry that we just swallowed the first thing that we saw and it happened that it was the dessert.. So we had several desserts and then we ate the actual meal (like the salty part of it). It was fun, even if the American guests have probably thought that French people are really weird!

United States, Virginia - Day 8

DAY 8 

Today we went to the friend's house of Alli's parents.  Their house is beautiful. It's huge, and they have a pool in front of the river. The view is amazing. They were really nice and we had a great time. There were 3 other teenagers. One of them was so excited, he kept executing flip back everywhere, he's such a character! I also met Doug, Alli's brother! I'm sure he's nice but we haven't talked much yet. During the afternoon we chilled in the pool, we played ping pong, we ate a lot, the guys tried to catch some crabs... It was great! These people are so nice too me, it's wonderful. 

On the way home listening to country music (this song precisely : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOB4VdlkzO4) I couldn't stop smiling. So I figured out that it was because I'm really happy to be there with great people. Damn, I love United States!