One Year Later

Obviously this blog has not been updated in a while--after a few weeks of telling myself "I'll get to it soon", I just decided to leave this as is. The point of this blog was and still is to serve as a guide for future finalists, and the rest of the entries don't contain too much that's particularly important for them to know--and plus, aren't some things better left as surprises? ;)

For a brief update, I'm currently a tremendously happy freshman at Yale University (the lovely Jonathan Edwards College). I'll probably be majoring in Astronomy and Physics, but I'm still keeping in mind a few less sciency options. College is lots of fun and the bonds between my year's finalists are no weaker than they were 11 months ago. Just last night I went to see one of the finalists perform with his a capella group, and the massive e-mail list is still growing strong (I've probably gotten 15-20 e-mails today, at least, but today's unusually busy, what with a finalist's birthday and certain other topics of discussion that I can't quite relay here).

I might some day post notes from the rest of the trip, a few new posts are still saved here as drafts. I'm leaving the blog up, with minor modifications, for the sake of this year's batch of finalists that just got announced a couple of weeks ago. Good luck, guys!

Updates

I am REALLY sorry, folks, for the lack of an update! This week has understandably been extremely busy, and while I'm working on the next few updates, they will not be up until sometime early this week! I have all my notes down in the Moleskine and just have to type them up and add some commentary, but I'm currently away from home and have very little time to blog--plus I have so much schoolwork to make up!! Check back in the next few days.

EDIT - 3/22/06: Um, yeah, check back during the weekend or so. So sorry. If you're really upset, please send an angry letter to my teachers for making me make up work. I love you all, even if I don't actually know you.

EDIT - 3/27/06: I haven't forgotten about you. Be patient!

EDIT - 4/03/06: One entry updated! Hopefully more soon...

Adam

Meeting Mr. President!

Previously, on "Mr. Solomon Goes to Washington"...

As we neared the hotel, the best part of all--the announcement that tomorrow, we get to sleep in until 9!! Breakfast and lunch will be combined into the so-called "brunch" at 9:30, and then at 10 we leave for, that's right, the White House!! So you know what that means--late night without feeling guilty.

http://stsfinals.blogspot.com/2006/03/public-session-nas.html

The following takes place between 9 AM and 1 AM on the fifth day of the 2006 Intel Science Talent Institute. Events don't occur in real time, but that would be seriously cool if they did.

Wow, today's been a wild day! So I woke up nice and late, at 9 AM (although to be fair, an AM hour typically is not in my book for a non-school night), and headed down to brunch, this time in the big fancy ballroom where we saw Dr. Lander talk and had dinner Friday night. Now maybe I've just been doing brunch wrong all my life, but I truly do not think this was quite brunch so much as a pure combination of breakfast and lunch, so I was initially very confused. Brunch has "brunchy" items, like cantaloupe. Brunch tends not to have home fries and baked ziti, much less right next to each other. Now that was just plain bizarre. (I didn't really eat much.)

After that we all emptied our pockets out, headed outside, and walked a couple of blocks down 16th St. towards this large white residency to meet some polictian. It was amazing! We didn't actually go to the White House itself but rather the administrative building across the street, where the Vice President's office (among other things) is. It's connected directly to the White House, which during the Eisenhower administration became primarily residential, with only a couple of offices (the Oval Office, etc.). After some understandably heavy security (including one little episode in which we were led one way, started walking down and then all of a sudden were switched around and forced to run in the opposite direction, which amused Kim and myself to no end--after meeting the President we tried backtracking this way but were disappointed to see that we were just being led out via the most direct route), we got to a library with no books called the Indian Treaty Room, which I'm imagining is where some treaty was signed with the Indians, and then christened after said treaty in the day or two before the treaty was broken again. We spent a good 10-20 minutes or so getting in position, taking some practice pictures, and generally just making sure everyone was nice and visible for the camera, and then after a few minutes, in walked the President! It was a bit strange, you know, to see in person, right in front of you, someone whom you've seen on TV and in the news and all so much, just there like one of you. I've gotten that feeling before when I ran into Jerry Seinfeld in a Santa Monica restaurant a few years ago, and when I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers last year in Vegas, but this was just surreal. So he talked to us for a few minutes about the importance of science and the role that we play in America's future, keeping America competitive, and then said something about how even though people some people may say science isn't cool, we should keep doing what we're doing anyway because it's important. Then he fielded some questions from the group. Our group is, on the whole, quite left-leaning politically, but people were generally respectful and didn't ask him anything really tough (although he got a bit scared when Kate started her question by saying "I'm from one of the hurricane-affected areas in Louisiana...", before she thanked him for visiting!). I was tempted to ask him an Iran question just to see how he'd pronounce "nuclear" but he ended the session before picking me to ask him something (although I was planning on asking him something much more along the softball lines like everyone else--probably something about Israel. I really just wanted a chance to talk to the President because come on, when else will I get to do that?). When someone asked him if he liked any of his science classes at Yale, his answer was an unhesitant and confident "no", although he told us he enjoyed geology a bit, and was pretty interested in trees :) After a few questions, he told us he had to go, so he took a picture with us (which I haven't seen anywhere! The only picture that's surfaced online, strangely, is one taken candidly from a weird angle where not all of us are visible...) and left. We were left pretty much in awe. A lot of my fellow finalists may have had less-than-favorable impressions of the President but regardless, he is still the most powerful leader in the world and to meet him was a pretty unique and spectacular opportunity!

So we walked back to the hotel, and had a bit of "chill time" before leaving for NAS for another three-hour public poster session, from 1 to 4. I brought my MP3 player with me this time so Jenny and I listened to some Ottmar on the bus ride over, as well as other eclectic music I have--some Israeli, I recall, there was some Indian, etc. Mmm, some good stuff! By this point, however, however, we were a bit tired after a full day of presenting the day before, so this was less of a "poster session" and more of a "everybody take pictures and present other people's board" day. Needless to say, a great many people were offended when Nick injected his sense of humor while presenting my project on brown dwarfs (or at least they would have been, had people actually been watching). But then the Science Service people yelled at us for board-switching, so we just went back to taking pictures. I also got interviewed by Newsday, so I suppose I'll appear in there at some point soon. Again.

Afterwards was project teardown. That was, for some reason, a little sad. Seemed like the beginning of the end...it's starting to sink in that in two mornings from now is that moment we've all been dreading all week, when we finally have to go. But now the posters, which we set up just two days ago, are in their boxes and ready to get shipped back home to us...

So on the bus ride home I broke out the MP3 player again as Kim seemed interested in hearing some Ottmar, too, so you know, I gotta spread the love. You should listen to some Ottmar, too. Check him out on the ListeningLounge. We arrived back at the hotel and had a tiny bit of downtime (which I spent rushing around making sure my new tuxedo pants fit!) before heading to one of the hotel's lower lobby rooms for banquet rehearsal. This had the wonderful effect of again reminding me that tomorrow is our last full day together and then the next morning, it's all over. That is to say, the experience in D.C. is over, the forty of us all together in one place, all doing these amazing things together. We'll stay in touch for years and years, I know it, but it will never be the same as it is now. ~sigh~ How saddening!

But after that, things quickly perked up with what will most likely shape up to be the most memorable night of the week (no knock on all the fun we had last night bowling, of course). In a night of typical STS class, we went for dinner where we had...fondue!! It was delish. First we had a big pot of hot cheese on a burner (the table had burners built into it!) that we got to dip bread in. I was sitting next to Michael, who's always really interesting to talk to, and it was lots of fun to watch his fascination with fondue grow as the night progressed!

By the main course, however--which consisted of a number of raw meats and seafood that you would put in this large pot of scalding hot oil to cook, after covering it with some spices--the drama had begun. A girl, who shall remain anonymous, ended up getting really dizzy and nearly passed out because of, well, poor eating habits, so she was quite malnutritioned. I had the fortune of sitting next to her and of course I, the astrophysicist, am caring but know nothing about the human health so I sort of assumed she was sleepy. So I tried to help but the combination of my utter lack of knowledge and her refusal to be an inconvenience (and thus her tendency to shrug off my help) led to, well, bad things. In the end she ended up getting taken outside, forced to drink and eat, and then was perky and happy for the rest of the night.

The drama continued when our group of young scientists made a discovery--by placing something very cold, such as an ice cube, in something very hot, like, for example, the pot of scalding hot oil we used to cook our food, a lot of energy would be released in the form of steam and a loud noise that amused us to no end. A couple of these young scientists experimented with the aforementioned ice cubes, and all was well when, in the excitement of discovery, another young scientist at my table (who shall also remain anonymous) decided it would be a prudent experiment to dump an entire glass of ice water in the pot of oil.

Thirty seconds later, the table was covered in scalding hot oil, and there was quite a scene. An angry Science Service representative came to us and asked, burning, fuming with rage, who was responsible for any of the experimentation. While we protested at the quelching of the flare of scientific discovery, Eric, who was one of a few people to place an ice cube, bravely stepped up. None of the others did, except the young scientist who poured the glass of water (which really caused all the commotion), who really had no choice since it was pretty well-known what he did. While in the end, there was no punishment except these two brave experimenters were sent home without dessert, it was pretty intense. We weren't sure if it would affect their judging, if they would be sent home, or what.

So, long story short, tonight was delicious, but I'll be damned if it wasn't dramatic.

So, we returned to the hotel, and had a relatively normal hang-out in the e-lounge, as usual, until about 12:15 or so (give or take maybe 15 minutes), when the e-lounge closed--for good!! (I then returned to the room where John was watching a TV show about comets, very interesting, so we watched that for a while and then went to sleep.) Sadly, this is the last time we'll all be together in this particular hang-out of ours, as it won't be open tomorrow. Not like we'll have much time to be there anyway...tomorrow we present to Senate, lunch with some of D.C.'s most prominent scientists, and have our awards banquet!! Next update will be a big one :)

Public Session @ NAS

Greetings from the STI e-lounge! Today was a great day. I woke up about 15 minutes late, quickly showered and dressed and got to breakfast about 10 minutes late. Fashionably late, I call it (as opposed to Jenny, who was fashionable late in the sense of being taxied to Capitol Hill an hour after the rest of us!!).

After that, we got shuttled back to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), where we took some pictures in front of the big Einstein head--first the whole group, then just the Long Islanders (A.K.A. the cool finalists)! I guess we'll be in some local paper tomorrow. After that, we went to Capitol Hill (where Jenny, Nick, Diane, and Harley finally met up with us) where we took more pictures, mainly the traditional Capitol Hill photo--one of the whole group, one of just the girls, one of the guys, and then one of--that's right--the cool New York finalists.

Then we shuttled back to NAS for the judging and public exhibition of our posters. The first few hours (9 AM through about noon), the judges came around very slowly, spending a lot of time with each of us, up to about three or four per person. Then we had lunch at the NAS, and returned to our posters where the public viewing began at 1, and lasted till 4. We have another tomorrow, I think, same time, same place. Awesome.

I think things went really well for me today. After Siemens, I'd presented my research SO many times that I just got out words that, no matter how hard I tried to really describe the project, were just uttered with no real meaning. Today, though, something clicked and explaining it in so many different ways to different people--from long discussions with astrophysicists to short rundowns with high school students--really made me get back into my project. I feel like it's kind of simple and straightforward, but even if it is, the results are pretty significant and I got a confidence boost on that while presenting today to the 8 or so judges who stopped by. I was learning about my project again while the judges and the public were. It was very nice. I just felt like no matter who I was talking to, I was enthused and animated and really did a good job of conveying the important points and the major significance of my research. I walked out of NAS feeling like I just did as well as I could have, which is all one can really ask for.

After NAS, we came back to the hotel for a bit of chill time, before leaving at 6:30 for...bowling!! Probably the highlight of the week so far (and I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing to say!). I didn't quite bowl my top game (even Kim beat me, and this was her first time ever playing. Ouch! That being said, I maintain I have played much better in the past), something in the upper 40s (ouch!) the first game, and I was on a better track the second time around, before they turned it off during the 8th or 9th frame (I believe) so we could go back! Aw, shucks. But the bus ride back was great and then as we neared the hotel, the best part of all--the announcement that tomorrow, we get to sleep in until 9!! Breakfast and lunch will be combined into the so-called "brunch" at 9:30, and then at 10 we leave for, that's right, the White House!! So you know what that means--late night without feeling guilty.

So, as I write this, I'm in the e-lounge with Jenny. She's a really cool girl--a classical guitarist, a close cousin of my own people, the flamenco guitarists, so we've been listening to Ottmar Liebert all night. The music is gorgeous--I downloaded some live tracks that he has on his Listening Lounge, plus some footage that I recorded at his (spectacular) concert last year on Long Island--and it is really awesome to be able to share it with someone who can appreciate it just as much. That's lots of fun. Otherwise, I've been chatting on AIM a tiny bit, catching up with some friends, and now I believe it is time to go to bed! The e-lounge closes at 11 PM tomorrow night for the last time so the Monday and Tuesday (and Wednesday) entries might be a bit delayed in arrival. Good night!

Day three!

Another early day. Breakfast was 7 to 9 so I arrived at 8. Then we came down to the e-lounge and we all watched "13 Going on 30", which I unfortunately had to leave briefly in the middle for...my final judging interview! It went alright. Questions on stem cells, ideal gases, and the like, some of which can be found in the last post. Afterwards was lunch, during which the shuttle service to the National Academy of Sciences started. I finished in time to take the second shuttle, where my poster, which I had shipped from Long Island on Wednesday, was waiting for me. I set it up, had some pictures taken, and then a quick Q&A on video in front of the poster, and I was done nice and quickly so I could take the first shuttle back to the hotel with Eric and Luke. We met up later with John, who was alone on the second shuttle back, and, having a few hours to kill (most people took much of the afternoon because of late judging and a long poster setup), we headed down the street to the White House, a couple of blocks from the hotel and right in view of it.

It was an amazing experience. A beautiful day out (so we all got to go out in t-shirts, what a relief after two days of suit-wearing!), and when we got there, there was this little protest right outside the gate that was really just fascinating to watch. The protesters got into debates (well, fine, more like ranting nonsensical arguments) with a bunch of the, erm, less-liberal people on the street, and I got a lot of good footage, both photo and video. This is the kind of thing that doesn't quite happen as often on the Island so it was really a new experience (usually the protests in NYC are spaced apart and insanely big, not cozy and comfortable like this one).

After that, we came back and hung out for a little before one of the nicest moments of the week, the selection of the Seaborg speaker. The Seaborg speaker--named after Glenn Seaborg, Nobel Laureate, namesake of the element "Seaborgium", and former head of the Science Service and friend of the STS--is chosen annually from among the 40 finalists, by the finalists, as the person who best represents the group. Someone who is passionate about science, eloquent, etc., to speak for the group at the banquet on Tuesday night. Everyone nominated someone, and the 15 who were nominated (I was not included, although according to some people later I should have been--aw, shucks) were then whittled down to one. I am very proud to say that I led the charge to have the eventual winner elected--one Mr. Carmi Schickler. Carmi is an entertaining, normal (well, maybe not quite) kid but when you get to know him, he's one of the most intelligent and interesting people you'll meet. He is, I think, the ideal Seaborg speaker, and I'm glad to have him representing us Tuesday night.

Then, we left for dinner, this time outside the hotel, at the Charlie Palmer Steakhouse. What a meal! First we had a little reception in a rather noisy room, where everyone got to mingle with each other, the Sciserv people, and the judges, among others, before we got moved into the equally-noisy dining room. We were assigned tables--it was very fancy. I had the clam chowder, the steak (which was fantastic), and the cheesecake. Yummy!

After that, we returned to the hotel around 10:30 or so, where everyone pretty much went to sleep right away because tomorrow is an early day--we have to be at breakfast at 7, and on the shuttle to NAS again at 7:45!! But then, as I was laying in bed, I realized today was the New York State Science Olympiad and my school's team--which recently won its second consecutive regional championship--and I was really curious to see how we did. So, figuring it would be very quick, I just threw on my suit pants and headed down to the e-lounge (where I'm writing this now). When I got there it was quite crowded, and I quickly got sucked into conversation with Jenny, Shoshana, and Sheela. So much for going to sleep early!! By 12, however, I managed to somehow pull myself away and get to bed. Mmmm....zzzz.

Oh, and for the curious, we placed 13th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):)

The judging begins

Today was the first day of judging. For something so hyped up, they really weren't that bad! I had three today; some people had two (I'll have my fourth tomorrow, while others then have to have both of their last tomorrow). I'm personally glad I got the third one out of the way. Each room had three judges (for twelve in total), just asking you questions and talking science with you for fifteen minutes. They seemed to go by very quickly: I'm not sure how well they can differentiate between the forty of us based on these short interviews, but I'm sure more factors into it. The decision seems to be very meticulously made.

I felt that the sessions on the whole weren't too bad. Of course no one will know everything and I certainly didn't, but I think I reasoned most things out well enough. We'll see how it goes! There were a lot more questions on math/physics/astronomy than I expected, too. That certainly surprised me. I don't want to divulge too much of the questioning (some of which were unique, often based on your application, and some of which a few people got), but since Amber Hess did it, I guess it's OK if I discuss a few here. So here are some examples, for the curious:

• If you were the director of national energy policy, what would your energy policy be?
• What is a Type II supernova (based on the fact that one of my essays dealt with Type I supernovae, Type Ia in particular)?
• If you have a round table, and you play a game taking turns putting quarters on the table, where the loser is the one who is left with no room on the table to put a quarter (you can't move any), what is your winning strategy? Do you go first or second? How do you play?
• What is an ideal gas, why are gases not ideal, and which gases are the most ideal?
• How do stem cells work in patients?
• Why do you like U.S. history (based on that being one of my favorite subjects, as listed in the application)?
• Why is it possible/impossible for organisms based on silicon, instead of carbon, to exist? Why are we carbon-based lifeforms?
• What causes the tides? Where do high tides occur in relation to the moon's orbit? Why are there high tides on both the side of the Earth in relation to the moon?

So it was harrowing, and fairly intense, but an enjoyable series of discussions of science, social policy, and otherwise, and all three flew by really quickly.

Then there was a bit of downtime and finally, the alumni banquet. Right before dinner we had the guest alumnus speaker, Dr. Eric Lander of MIT (1st place, STS '77). He was fantastic. Before (and after) his talk, we got a bit of his history (first from the Science Service president, then from Dr. Lander himself). He actually did a math project--"Quasi-Perfect Numbers"--when he was at STS in 1977, went on to Princeton and got a bachelor's in math, then got a math Ph.D. from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He went to Harvard Business School to teach Managerial Economics and one day read some material on the brain that his brother Arthur, an STS finalist in 1978, sent him. His reading led him to genomics and he was fascinated. After a bit of a (well, a hugely major) career risk, he ended up helping to lead the Human Genome Project, with which he still works to this day.

So what is genomics? It's the study--as I'm sure many of you blog readers know (referring here to the prospective STSers of the future!)--of the human genome, coding and decoding it, figuring out what is where and what does what. So he gave a talk about his work with the project, the project's work, and its current discoveries and future goals. The research was very interesting and I think Dr. Lander can be seen as the quintessential example of career flexibility. It is extremely comforting to know that no matter how set you are on a path--as I am on astrophysics--even after getting a Ph.D. you can still do a complete 180 and still become a leading expert in the field (although not in every case--he said he became an expert because genomics was then so new, there were no experts!!).

After that we had a lovely dinner in a big fancy ballroom at the St. Regis--such a nice, formal dinner, in fact, that we were assigned tables. Yep. I got to sit with some other space people (Harley, Elyse, and Lucas), and some Intel bigwigs, plus Dr. Grant Stokes of MIT.

Now, this is really exciting. Dr. Stokes is the head of the LINEAR program at MIT, a near-Earth asteroid-tracing program that discovers something like 60% of all newly-discovered NEAs. So they have a program called the Ceres Connection which names the asteroids after various people of accomplishment--Einstein, Curie, etc. There are over 22,000 asteroids thus far discovered since Ceres in 1801, and since so many exist they are unique to astronomy in that they are among the few classes of objects where the discoverers still reserve the right to name them. The IAU--International Astronomical Union--makes the rules for naming astronomical objects, and the standard convention is to involve the coordinates in the name of an object, so that its name tells you where it is, hence fun, snappy, roll-off-the-tongue names like "2MASS 1615422+491029". However, solar system objects--particularly asteroids, that are very close to us and zip around the Sun very quickly--have very rapidly-changing coordinates in our sky, so the idea of naming an asteroid based on its coordinates makes sense for about three hours.

So, asteroid discoverers are given naming privileges, meaning LINEAR has a big stash of asteroids just waiting to be named (often for as long as 8 years). And guess who got their own asteroids--that's right--the 40 finalists (except those who already got one at ISEF, etc.)! Next time my mentor goes observing, she is so looking up asteroid 22551 Adamsolomon. It's about the coolest thing we've gotten all week :D

After that, the best part of the night--dessert. It included chocolate computers and a chocolate fountain. Yum!! Deeelish.

After that, I went out with Carmi, Shoshana, and Joe in search of a Starbucks. We located three within a block of the hotel--two within sight of each other--but none were open, so we walked back, where we met up with Sukrit and Eric. Somehow S. + V. got separated and the rest of us ended up in the lobby, where we had a big discussion on politics, religion, a tiny bit of science, etc. It was a really great thing, and the people are really becoming one of the best things about this week. Everyone is really great.

Now I am sitting in the "e-lounge" with Minh, who wanted to be mentioned.

"A Celebration of Science"

We arrived today! What a day. I woke up at 6 in the morning, quickly got ready and went to Bellmore train station. I met Brittany there and took the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station, where we met up with Harley, Eric, Carmi, Irina, Sarah, and Sheela, otherwise known as The Rest of the New York Crew Taking the Acela. I've met many before at press events and other competitions, and some were totally new faces, but the group gelled together very well and the train ride was extremely enjoyable.

When we arrived at Union Station we stepped off the train and entered the terminal to the sight of cameras and microphones recording us walking in! Apparently they were filming a bit for "Whiz Kids", a special on Intel STS, ISEF, and science research in high school in general. They're going to be with us all week. We took a shuttle to our hotel, the lovely St. Regis, where we met up with a big group of finalists who arrived earlier today and yesterday (when the West Coasters came). That was a bit more awkward but eventually we all acclimated to each other. Everyone has meshed a lot now, it's really great.

I saw Michael and Kiran, for the first time since Siemens. They're both really fun and really smart kids, and our mini-Siemens reunion has been quite fun. I also met some other finalists who I've been talking to lately via e-mail/IM, like Jenny, Kim, Kate, and Other Adam. They sent us a list of everyone's e-mail address at the very beginning and Jenny started a big e-mail thread that's just snowballed out of control, so I think lots of people knew lots of other people to start with. Lovely.

So, I dropped my bags off and headed off to lunch, where I sat at the Long Islanders, Siemensers, and Kate Table. The Sciserv people gave a short introduction, the highlight of which, they scheduled us a meeting with the President Monday afternoon! I picked up my room key and dropped my bags off there, along with my roommate John, who seems really nice (but has spent most of today sleeping!). Then we had about an hour of downtime so I wrote in the Moleskine a little in the library, to keep notes on the day (I'm loving it, by the way, strongly recommended as a good pocket notebook for really any purpose).

Soon thereafter was media training with Mr. Jack Franchetti. He told us a lot of interesting stuff, he's a professional who works with very high-up clients and delivered an astounding presentation. Some key points:

• How your presentation is viewed is roughly along these lines: 60% visual, 30% tonal, 10% content. Keep this in mind, kids!!
• Have a "gotcha". The average sound-bite (and unless you're live, you WILL be reduced to a soundbite) is only six seconds long, so be quick and be catchy!
• Prepare.
• He ended it with his description of the STI: "A celebration of science", he called it.

After that was two hours of downtime, which involved a visit to a nearby--shock of the century--Starbucks. After that was dinner, which involved apple cobbler (mm!). Kim had a vegan meal, which she didn't touch, but it looked really pretty, at least. Prettier than my plate of meatloaf and mac'n'cheese, at least.

Then we got around to a round of speeches. Key points, our guest speaker is Eric Lander, a very accomplished biologist at MIT and a finalist from STS '74! He's apparently done some pretty amazing stuff with mapping the human genome so I'm definitely looking forward to his presentation tomorrow night. On Saturday we vote for the Seaborg speaker, an annual speaker who is always one of the 40 finalists who best embodies the spirit of STI. I have some ideas in mind (I think I've met all 39 now), so I'll have to give my vote some more thought over the next couple of days. That was followed by some talks, including one from the St. Regis's resident honorary historian, who gave a very interesting talk on our (gorgeous) (and apparently rather storied) hotel's history.

We then dispersed at around 7:30. Carmi came up with the idea of maybe getting a group to explore Washington and I told...well, pretty much everyone, and at around 8 maybe half of the group went to wander. We went to the White House earlier--it's right down the street from us!--and tonight the Big Group went to the Washington Monument (a spectacular sight), and then through the World War II memorial. Very nice. We then came back and some of us, myself included, went to their e-lounge, a room with a big TV and about 20 laptops, where I'm writing this entry now. Pirates of the Caribbean is on now. I think I'm going to go watch it or otherwise explore. Maybe finally head back to the room....(Jenny is looking over my shoulder and wants to go exploring with me)....I'll write back later. Judging begins tomorrow!!