A quick update from me. I enjoyed the Jamboree very much and have made many new international friends – when I return to the UK I will write up each day from my notes. On Friday we left the site and headed to our university accommodation in Maryland. On route we stopped and I exhaled a joy of cry as I spotted Goldfish in America so automatically had to grab myself a bag! We ate real food and I do not think I’ve ever seen so many UK Scouts voluntarily eat salad (it was definitely a change from rice and chicken!).
We then played cards until a bunch of people from another unit (83) stole our Florida flamingo (more to be explained on a different post) so we ran around trying to recapture it. We then headed to be after a well deserved yet weirdly warm shower.
We woke up the next day and ate breakfast (there was bacon!) before walking to the train station. We caught the train into Washington DC where we first headed towards the White House. From there we could explore at our own accord so headed towards Lincon memorial.
We also looked at the Vietnam memorial and walked along the pool of reflection before stopping at the World War memorial. To photograph the Washington monument my group became Spidermen. From here we headed towards the Natural history museum.
Here I found the bear prints which when I was around 3 I had my photo taken their – hence I retook the photo. We looked at the displays: ran away from the elephant from night at the museum, recreated an antelope attacking a lion being attacked by a cheetah and more. I learnt that pigs are related to hippo’s before we ate lunch.
After lunch we headed to the air and space museum where we got personalised dog tags and saw some of Neil Armstrong’s kit which he took to the moon. We also space walked and touched a piece of the moon. We then headed back to meet our unit before heading back to our university accommodation. After a quick stop at target (where I brought 3 packs of goldfish and a mango – a story for another time) we then got dinner.
That evening we headed to the UK party where we had our photos taken in all of the host countries photo booths. We got a free ground sheet and also took part in a few other activities. We went to target again to buy some popcorn and tissues but only had $5 so when it came to 4 cents over (we forgot about taxes) the lady just allowed us to pay (and forgot about the missing 4 cents).
We headed back to the accomodation where I showered before heading to watch a movie (it didn’t happen) and then ended up writing up the past few days by hand with my unit (who were watching fast and furious). I then headed to bed.
The next day I woke up and headed to breakfast (for sausages which weren’t patties!). We then went back to our accommodation where we had a mini pub quiz (a group of flamingos is called a flamboyant) and then headed to catch our yellow school bus. We arrived at the baseball where I set off the metal detector as I forgot to take my bottle off of my shorts so it buzzed. Some of us had to lie about our age in order to get a free hat but luckily I did not need to and break Another Scout law! Once we got in and had our supporter hats, we grabbed food and headed to a seat (which was along the row of my designated seats). We watched baseball and as a contingent got a shout-out for being international supporters of Anthony Santender.
Our unit had to leave early (as did many others) to catch our bus. I have now found out that I am going for dinner at Denny’s tonight.