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Thank you to everyone who has been writing such great comments in response to the blog! I am going to try to answer all the questions from the "comments" that I haven't yet answered.

Sixth period asked, "How do you answer a constituent's letter? What color is the subway?"

I'm learning a lot about how a constituent's letter gets answered. First, ALL letters are read by someone in the office and get answered in some way. The letters that come in the actual mail get answered more quickly than those that are sent via e-mail (since there are relatively few paper letters compared with the number of e-mails). First, the staff checks to see if a letter has already been written to respond to a specific subject. For example, let's say that many people write letters asking Congressman Altmire to support the G.I. Bill to increase funding for veterans to pay for college. If a response letter already exists on that subject, then that constituent's letter gets logged into the computer and assigned to the "batch" of constituent letters who all get sent that letter in response. If no response letter has been written on that subject, someone is assigned to write it. This letter goes through an extensive review and editing process. So, the four letters I wrote to constituents are now in the middle of the following process. First, they were read and edited by either the Staff Assistant or the Legislative Correspondent. Then they were given back to me to make the corrections. I then printed out a new copy of each letter and gave it to the Legislative Assistant assigned to that topic. For example, one Legislative Assistant handles all issues relating to veterans and education, while a different Legislative Assistant might handle energy and transportation. Then, the Legislative Assistant gave the letters back to me to make more corrections. So I printed out new copies again. Then I gave these copies to the Legislative Director. He made edits and gave them back to me. On Monday, I will make these changes and print out new copies of the letters for the Chief-of-Staff to read. Once the Chief-of-Staff approves the letters (and I make any edits she has indicated), THEN the letters go to Congressman Altmire to read and approve. So every response letter gets read and approved by the Congressman. Sometimes, he will make changes or additions as well before the letter is sent to the constituents.

The subway (which is called the "metro" in Washington, D.C.) has many different "color" routes, depending on where you want to go. In order to get from the Rosslyn metro station to the Capitol South metro station, where I go every day, you can either ride the blue line or the orange line. However, before you get on the metro, you have to make sure the train is going in the right direction. So you have to pay attention to the "ending" destination. I also learned today that you have to use the SAME metro card you enter with in order to exit. You have to put your metro card into a reader, which opens a turnstyle to let you enter AND exit. When I tried to exit today, my metro card had run out of money. I had another metro card with money on it which I tried to use to exit, but it didn't work. So I asked the person in the booth, and she explained that I need to add the correct exit fare (an additional 50 cents) to my card so I could exit with the same card. When I put it in the exit reader, it kept my card because I put exact change on it and used it up. So now I know to make sure I have enough money on the SAME card when entering and exiting.

I am looking forward with much excitement to seeing members of my 7th period class when I am 95 years old. But please don't try to ask me any hypothetical questions at that point since it's not nice to purposely try to confuse an old lady.

In response to "Making Laws Isn't Easy," my "thoughtful students" wrote, "Do the meetings often call for a tallie of votes for a recount? How long did it take to get through the building? Did you get lost? Next year you should have a mock meeting to debate bills. Keep us updated."

It's more likely for someone to call for a "roll call" vote (when they tally the votes individually) if a bill or amendment is controversial. The Education and Labor Committee is very partisan -- which means the Democrats and Republicans often disagree strongly on policy. However, the Transportation Committee is less partisan, so there are fewer roll call votes that take place during those committee meetings since bills they examine are usually less controversial.

It took me at least 10 minutes to get through to the other building where the committee room was, due to all the stairs, escalators, and elevators. I tried to go to the Ed and Labor Committee Room by myself the other day to take a picture of it for you. I actually was able to get there successfully by myself! Sadly, it was locked. And then I got lost coming back. It turns out there is a real Barber Shop (where they cut hair) in the basement of the Rayburn building. I passed this Barber Shop twice while I was lost. Eventually, I had to ask for directions to get back. It turns out there are two different "basement" levels, and I was on the wrong level to get back to the escalators to the Longworth Building. So, YES, I got lost. But it was fun. GREAT idea about a mock meeting to debate bills! I'll definitely keep that in mind!

First period -- thanks for reminding me that I should put a picture of myself on the blog. You'll see that I did.

To Charlie K. -- I'm glad you got to visit the Library of Congress and that's too bad you couldn't go into the main reading room. You do indeed need to be 18 to enter. However, you should have been able to look down into it through the glass windows. I recently found out that Disney has a book for history teachers which explains the "real facts" behind the National Treasure movies. I am going to get it. If I remember, when we tour the Library of Congress, I'll will try to ask about the "Book of Secrets" for you. I'm sure many people have asked about this by now so the guide probably has a pretty good answer ready.

Joseph -- Thanks for reminding me about your embassy question. Your question was "would someone born in a U.S. embassy in a foreign country be considered a "natural born" citizen," right? I will ask the Legislative Director when everybody gets back to work on Monday. He'll probably be able to answer it.

Carly -- I'm glad you're enjoying the blog! You have a great summer too!

Colleen -- Thanks for your nice comments. That must have been so exciting to take part in the round up! There's a book you might like called "The Virginian" by Owen Wister. It's actually my favorite book. It's about a cowboy and a school teacher (which is probably why I like it) but it's considered classic literature. It's extremely well written. That's neat about the model and the rafting. These three activities are so very different from each other! I'm glad your foot has healed - just in time for summer :o)

Chris - I'm glad you enjoyed visiting Sewickley and Virginia!

To everyone -- I am going to Mt. Vernon tomorrow -- the home of George Washington. I'll be sure to tell him hello from all of you. They just opened a new visitors' center which is supposed to be fantastic. It has three life-sized statues of George Washington at different ages. I plan to take lots of pictures, so stay tuned for the next blog!