Being the capital of Ohio, the instructors at DISAM thought it a good idea to take us to Columbus and educate us on the ways of US politics.

We spent the day looking around the Ohio capital building learning about how the state system works. From what I can work out, it's pretty much a mini-federal system. They have the Governor (who is like the President) and also the Senate and House of Representatives. The only down side for the Governor is that he doesn't get to fly around in a cool plane.

The Ohio capital building is very beautiful. Apparently when they were renovating it a few years ago, though were going to complete gut the interior. Luckily someone decided to clean off years of dirt and grime to discover a foyer with intricate art work that had been almost been lost to time.

It was a good trip to get out of the classroom for the day but that's about it. Carol had returned to DC to start work at the Embassy by this time so she missed this part of the trip. I don't think she missed that much.

House of Representative chamber	Speakers chair	Center dome in the State's capital building	One of the many paintings around the capital building
The beautiful interior that was nearly lost due to a build up of dirt and grime	Senate chambers