Here's the video of the talent show that was held on the last day of camp. It speaks for itself :)
If anyone were to describe Patrick Henry College's Strategic Intelligence camp as incredibly fantastic and out of this world, I would call that an understatement. As a matter of fact, I have yet to discover adequate words to describe my week there this summer. Since I cannot do it in few words (such as "incredibly fantastic and out of this world"), I will resort to the option of doing an in-depth explanation: Before I arrived at camp, I received a letter containing my new identity which I would assume for the entire camp. Alias: Vivian Wilson Birthplace: Manchester, England (I had so much fun pulling off the British accent!!) Current Residence: Oudtshoorn, South Africa Occupation: Opperator with the SANDF special forces When I arrived, I was assigned to a task force (Nisroc1- the best team ever) and to an agency to work with (FEMA).  Our days were filled with special activities. We had 5 (sometimes 6) different lectures each day with breaks in between. The topics included Intelligence 101, Great Intelligence Failures in History, Moral Dilemmas in Intelligence, and How to Deliver a Briefing (fascinating!). After the lectures, we had free time which lasted for about 2 hours or until dinner time. I usually spent my spare time playing soccer, dodgeball, or hanging out in the cafe with friends :)  Director Brewer during a lecture After dinner, we proceeded to town hall for an evening lecture and activity. One night we played an epic game of capture the flag; another night, we spent the evening trying to crack a code in order to rescue one of our conselors from a hostage situation. My favorite activity was the ultimate challenge of spoons, rock paper scissors, and dodgeball. Each activity was so different, but so fun! Throughout the week, the different teams competed against eachother in the activities in order to win points. The teams would win points for the cleanest dorms and best performance in evening activities. On the last day, a very special team would receive a promotion- thus being allowed to stay up past cerfew and watch a movie. (Unfortunately, Nisroc was not that lucky team. We were the runner-ups) On Day 4 (Thursday), we all boarded HUGE busses and headed out to Washington, D.C. where we visited the International Spy Museum, the Air & Space Museum, and had lunch on the National Mall. (Unfortunately I was as sick as a dog on this particular day, but it was still an unforgettable trip.) During the long bus ride to D.C., we put our recently acquired knowledge of code making and code breaking to use. ********** Try to crack this code if you can! 2/14/13 6/17/26 19/20/11 26/19/8 14/13/18 **********   We, The Four Musketeers Day 5: Friday was the day that we all anticipated and dreaded at the same time.
Early that morning, there was a "terrorist attack on American soil." This was an emergency exercise that lasted the entire day. According to our sources, a deadly virus was released in 8 major cities- killing over 2million people in under 1 hour. We worked together in our assigned agencies (the DOJ, DOT, Coastguard, FBI, CIA, ICE, and many, many more) and we were able to aid the situation and prevent any further attacks. (We save the world- you should be thankful!) After our mission was completed with successful results, we attended a press conference and briefed the "President." The Friday night activity was famously known as Manchoven Cow- the Patrick Henry version of America's Got Talent. (More on that one later.) On Friday evening, we were allowed to drop our aliases for the first time and tell eachother our true identities. Everybody was terribly disappointed that I was not really British. They were even more shocked to discover that my sister and I... were sisters! We had gone the entire week not telling anybody that we were siblings. The reactions to this revelation were priceless! Friday was also the night we said goodbye to friends and began packing for the trip back home. Those were some of the saddest goodbyes that I have ever said. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. This week was unforgettable. Mission Accomplished. Over and out. ... ~I received this in an email from a friend a couple years ago. It has something to do with travel and it's actually quite fascinating! ~
1. No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen. 2. There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't appear to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each. 3. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. this is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a pokey 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour. 4. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer " (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth. 5. 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force. In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now. ~ Ever wonder how the Painted Desert got painted? Or how the Rio Grande got there? Wonder no longer! Video performed by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers.
 This was definitely one of my favorite parts of our cross-country road trip. San Antonio has a certain air to it that welcomes every person from every background- music lovers, shop-aholics, history buffs, as well as your everyday tourists. I could have easily spent a week there and never gotten bored. Unfortunately, we were only there for one day. We did, however, get a chance to visit the Alamo and the River Walk (If any of you have seen the 1984 movie, Cloak and Dagger, starring Henry Thomas and Dabney Coleman, you know exactly which River Walk I am referring to.) The River Walk Cloak and Dagger is one of my all-time favorite movies. Actually being there and seeing where it was filmed was very intriguing. Madeline and I had a great time pointing out all of the familiar spots. I was fascinated by all of the shops and restaurants that lined the River Walk! It seemed very similar to something you might expect to see in Venice. They even had boats that cruised down the center of the river- tour boats and dinner cruises. Spanish and Italian music from minstrels entertaining at various cafés filled the air. What a setting! "Remember the Alamo!" The Alamo was very different from what I had expected. It was situated right in the middle of a bustling city, and surrounded by skyscrapers. If you were facing the Alamo as in the picture above, and if you were to turn around, you would see lots of shops and museums across the street. The inside of the Alamo seems much larger than it looks on the outside. (Unfortunately, photographs are not allowed inside.) It was so fascinating to see graffiti etched in the walls. There were mostly date markings and names- ones which I did not recognize. On the far wall hung six different flags- The Six Flags Over Texas. These nations had all claimed sovereignty over Texas (or over some portion of Texas) at one time or another. See how many you can identify! (Click for the answers)       *Fun Fact* Did you ever wonder why the world's largest amusement park corporation is called Six Flags? The very first Six Flags park was built in Arlington Texas in 1961!   Never once have I been on a trip where I held an alligator and ate one in the same day! New Orleans is definitely the place to go if you want unique food. Cajun food is not one of my favorites, but I actually tried some things that were surprisingly good. TOP 3 1. Fried alligator- it tastes like chicken! 2. Turtle soup- very similar to chili 3. Cajun-style cheesecake- no, they didn't sprinkle cayenne pepper on top. Normal cheesecakes are rather dense. This Cajun-style cheesecake had a whipped cream texture. It was delicious!  Previously, I mentioned holding an alligator. I shall explain: This video was taken during one of those swamp-tours on a boat. Our guide, Bishop, did a tremendous job educating us on the wildlife of the Louisiana swamps in a very entertaining manner. =) After he caught the alligator, we all got to hold it. Here is another video of one of our other alligator encounters. (the alligator was trying to eat a hot dog that was on the end of the stick...he got it.)  This particular trip to New Orleans was for business. My dad had a trade show to attend. He & I spent the mornings at the trade show manning the booth. (Sorry- no pictures of that.) The time we spent in the city was extremely enjoyable. I cannot wait to go back and explore more of it! To anyone planning on visiting New Orleans, I would recommend the following: · Take a swamp tour- you won't regret it! · Eat beignets at the Café Du Monde in the French Quarter · Visit the Laura Plantation. Madeline & my mom visited and what they learned was fascinating! · Go to the RiverWalk and try on gorgeous hats and masks! Thanks for reading! Click below to see more photos!         Welcome to KateOnHoliday! As most of you know, I am a frequent flyer. Since I can't bring all of you with me on my travels, I've decided to start up a travel journal so you guys can follow me online! I'll be updating the site by posting pictures and writing entries as much as I can. Please explore and don't forget to comment!
Cheerio! | Most recent voyagesPurcellville, Virginia ArchivesAugust 2012
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