Day Six: Another Trek Downtown

As I predicted, last night it was Arvind Mahankali who won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Um... yeah.  I ended up in a 10-way tie for 33rd.

Here is a link to a nice conclusive Herald Bulletin article about my time at the Bee.

Also, I encourage you, if you haven't already, to check out the Spelling Bee website and look at all of the neat things they have to offer about this week - for example, I believe you can take the actual Preliminaries test that we took now on their homepage.  Anyway, check it out.

Today was our "DC Tour" day.  So we were up and out of here at 8am and onto a bus.  It was mostly a driving tour, but we did stop and get out of the bus occasionally.

Arlington from the back side of the Lincoln Memorial

The Washington Monument, from the bus.  It's encased in a scaffolding - a recent earthquake damaged it a bit, so they're working on trying to fix it.

Korean War Memorial

Jefferson Memorial, from the bus

A National Park Service Mountie

Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

One of the pillars surrounding the World War II Memorial

So after we toured around for a bit, we got dropped off at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  Don't have many pictures of that, sorry...

Tonight is the Awards Banquet - usually there's a special guest speaker, but I guess I'll have to save that for tomorrow night's post.

Tomorrow we're heading out of DC *sigh* and driving to Princeton, NJ before arriving home Sunday the 2nd of June.  And then we have to go to school!

~Joe

Day Five: Round Five (and Six)

Half of the 42 spellers, before Round 5

The same half of the 42 spellers, after Round 6

So, as predicted, there are no finals in my future.

I took another computer test last night - a total of 30 points.  I got 12 of those - one three-point vocabulary included.  Then, I missed my Round 5 word - it was ignimbrite, and I spelled it ignembrite (I knew "-mbrite" and "ign-", but I guessed wrong on the vowel).  Oh, well.  So I had a grand total of 44 out of 72 points over today and yesterday:  61%.

So not great in the Semis, but that's not the point.  I made the Semifinals and got on TV, which has been my goal all three years I've been there.

I'm not sure who I want to win tonight...
Mom's pick is either #256 Vismaya Kharkar or #44 Nikitha Chandran.
I don't really have one, but I have seen #163 Arvind Mahankali spell - he's really good, and he has probably the most experience of anyone in the field right now.  He's certainly got what it takes to win.

We shall soon see!  :)

~Joe

Day Four: Round Four (Part Two of Two)

Yes, you read right - you're reading the blog of one of the top 42 spellers in the world!  (And I'm very modest, too...)

Me and my Semifinalist medal

 So yes, I did get called to be in the Semifinals.  I had 32 out of 36 points when they made the eliminations.  I missed four spelling words on the computer test, but got all of the vocabulary section right!

Immediately after a one-hour break, I was back in the computer room to take the Round Four computer test.  Let's just say that's a whole different ball game...

I'm confident on 4 of the 26 answers that I gave, if that says anything.  The good news is that one of those is one of the three-pointers, but I doubt I'll make the Finals.

But you'll see me on ESPN2 at 2pm EST tomorrow, if you tune in!!

~Joe

Day Four: Rounds Two and Three (Part One of Two)

The Herald Bulletin article finally came out... link here.

The spelling bee has some great resources at their site... here.  There is broadcast info, up-to-the-minute competition data, and speller bios - check it out.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee Flickr page - if you type "2013Speller73" in the search box, you can see some of me spelling in Rounds Two and Three.

Also, Dad brought along a "Flat Chuck", which is apparently a thing that WTHR Channel 13 News does, for us to take a picture of while we were here.  We did, and it was aired this morning (there's only about 35 seconds of actual picture, the rest is just a commercial break, I guess):

We actually didn't go anywhere today - we were too busy with the competition.  So nothing here today...

My evil twin Me (looking over my glasses) on the big screen.  That's a camera boom in front of me.

So - Round Two.  My word was "rejoneador" - I spelled it right, and got three points.
Round Three:  My word was "dudgeon" - I spelled it right, and got three points.

And, to answer the question that all of you who saw me in Round Three are asking - I was expecting him to say "Old English", so it threw me for a loop.
For everyone else, this is how my Round Three exchange with Dr. Bailly went:

Dr. Bailly:  Your word is "dudgeon".
Me:  Can I have the definition?
B:  A state of indignation.
Me:  Um... can I have... the language of origin?
B:  It is unknown.
Me:  *slightly away from the mic, quieter* Figures.

Again, I was expecting him to say "Old English", and I was briefly surprised.  But everything ended up okay.

Part Two will concern my results in the first three rounds, and whether or not I've made it to the Semifinals (2pm EST on ESPN2) - and I think I've got a good chance!

I should be back here within two hours...

~Joe

Day Three: A Trek Downtown

This morning was the Round One computer test.  It had 24 spelling questions (half of which count) and 26 vocabulary questions (14 of which count, and 2 of those for 3 points each).  So from that, we get a total of 30 points.  Tomorrow has two oral spelling words, for three more points each (total of 36).  So the goal is to get as many points as possible - I want to try to make the top 50.

I'm not allowed to talk about the test, but I will say I think I did well...

Tomorrow night, the actual test I took will be available on the Spelling Bee website for you all to take as well - I'll have a link to it here.

Again, not much to report here... still no Herald Bulletin article (tomorrow?)...

Tomorrow, Rounds Two and Three will be broadcast on ESPN3 (online) at 8am and 1:15pm Eastern.

So after the test, we went out for the day in downtown DC.  We took a taxi to the National Archives, then walked to the White House to take pictures.

Us in front of the White House

As we were walking down the street directly north of Pennsylvania Avenue, Mom and Elli kept declaring that Dad and I were lost and going the wrong way, and then accused us of switching the buildings once we got there... ?

Afterward, we got to go in the National Archives to see the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

So then we had lunch at a Mozambican restaurant called Nando's, whose claim to fame is their "world famous Peri-peri spice sauce" or something.  Anyway, I was a little wary at first, but it ended up being pretty decent - go figure.

A gate/arch thing in Chinatown

After lunch, we took a ride on the subway to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and spent the rest of the afternoon there.  Meghan, who was the only one who hadn't been on the Metro before, wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but we all got through it okay.

Really big cavernous Metro station

And now, what you've all been waiting for - animal pictures (and videos)!

I missed this, but apparently, there was a big gorilla fight over a tree branch...

So then we went back to the hotel, and basically as soon as I'm done with this post, we're going over to an informational Bee meeting.

Art.  (What is the deal with you people?!)  :)

Tomorrow, like I said, is Rounds Two and Three - and they're elimination rounds... wish me luck!

~Joe

Day Two: Turkey Run

And here is the end of day two...

I'm thinking I'll put two videos on each post, and then any extras can be saved for a later post... it helps spread the fun around!  :)  Not sure about the sound quality from these, but you can probably get the picture.

 

The Hall Hall Of Of CHAMPIONS!!

There was no competition today, but there was a little "orientation" session this morning.  Not much to write about that.

Still no article, but there was an ESPN camera at the barbecue today, taking video footage (probably for little montages before broadcasts).

And this is where most of the post will be today.  :)

All 281 spellers and families took buses to Turkey Run park and the Claude Moore Colonial Farm in McLean, Virginia.  There, we had a Memorial Day barbecue and general fun festival thing.

To give you a little idea of the scope of the hotel... this is the atrium.  On the other side of the big wall is another courtyard (that our room has a window onto) of comparable size to this room...

But first, we took a few pictures around the hotel to kill some time.

At the bottom of the picture above... there's a fountain show thing going on at this point.

So then we actually left for Turkey Run.

 

 

Turkey (at the Claude Moore Colonial Farm)

Turkey run *ahem*

We saw three or four of these little geckos in and around the wood piles on the CMCF.

Me and Dr. Bailly (the pronouncer) signing each other's autograph books

This one takes a little explaining...  So the first year we went to the Bee (2010), we also had the barbecue at Turkey Run.  And one of the things we blogged about (for those who remember) was this performer who came and juggled and balanced on stuff.  She was really good, and we thought, well, maybe she'll be there again.  She was, and of the four people she used in her act, Dad Shane the Brave was one of them.  His job was to balance the Razor-Sharp Globe of Death while she stepped up on it (and then balanced up there the rest of the show).  Go figure.

Elli's going to be the next Morgan Freeman...

And that's it for now... tomorrow we plan to go to the National Zoo and the National Archives.  Also my Round One computer test is tomorrow, though I won't have results until Wednesday night.

~Joe

Day One: We're (Finally) Here

So... yeah.  The title says it all.  After 11 solid hours of traveling, we've finally settled down and are more or less set in our new accommodations.

We ended up leaving at about 6:30 and arrived at 5:30.
On the way, we made a few stops and took a few pictures...

We Mom put some signs up in the windows of the van, for all of the passersby to see... oh, well.

A mile marker in Ohio for the Cumberland/National Road

I just made a test on my iPod video function, so I can put videos on here that I take this week.  :)

And I made helpful little heading banners for the later posts, so as to separate the news.  People who know me will appreciate that this is exactly what I would do...

So yeah - that's about all I can think of to put on here for today.
Tomorrow is the Memorial Day barbecue at Turkey Run park off to the west in Virginia.

So I guess that's all for now!

~Joe

Day One: It begins...

Yes, you read right - this post is going up at 5:00 in the morning!!

Within the hour, we'll be leaving on our trip... *yawn*

I will say that I'll provide all competition reports here, as well as any media coverage details (there's a Herald Bulletin article that'll be coming out in the next few days) for your reading enjoyment.

Not very much to write now, so I guess you'll be hearing from me later!  :)