Editor’s note: Hamilton County Unit 10 student Andrew Wellen competed this summer at the Scripps 2010 National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.; he won the county spelling bee for the fourth straight year and then the Tri-State Spelling Bee to qualify for the national event. Though he didn’t advance to the final rounds, he did keep a journal of his experience, excerpts from which follow.

May 30

We left the hotel and drove the final 40 miles to D.C. My dad headed straight for our hotel, the Grand Hyatt.

After unpacking and walking to McDonald’s, we visited the Natural History, American History, and Air and Space museums of the Smithsonian. The American History Museum was one of my favorite stops on our whole visit.



May 31

We woke up early and went to Ford’s Theatre and ordered tickets for a 4 o’clock tour of it and the Petersen house. After that, we walked around D.C. and visited tourist sights, such as the White House, World War I and World War ll memorials, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial and Washington Monument.

We had a stroke of luck at the last place on this list, as a couple came up and offered us tickets to go up inside the monument. They had stood in line at 6:30 in the morning just to get the tickets, but some people didn’t show up that were supposed to and they were left with extras. Later on, we found out that those tickets sometimes sold out as early as 7 a.m., so we got very lucky.

After all of this, we went back to the hotel to register for the spelling bee. I got a bunch stuff, including a commemorative watch, an autograph book for other spellers and bee officials to sign (or anyone else: for example, I got signatures from Erin Andrews and Chris Harrison on the night of the finals), tickets to a barbecue, wristbands for the finals of the bee, a journal and tickets to the Farewell Banquet on the final night.

They also gave everyone and their families T-shirts with letters on them. The bee officials filmed a bunch of people getting together and spelling words out with their shirts. Scripps said they would put this on TV.

After everything with the bee was over, we made our appointment with Ford’s Theatre and the Petersen house.



June 1

We got up to go the barbecue in Turkey Run, Va., sponsored by the bee. There, they had various activities, like karaoke, volleyball, softball and carnival games. We spent the whole day there and had a good time.

After returning to D.C., we went back to the room and I put a couple more hours of study time in before the contest the next morning.



June 2

I got up early to go take the Round One test. This consisted of every speller taking a 50-word spelling test on a computer. Only 25 of these 50 words were counted toward your final score, but they don’t tell you which the 25 words are.

After this, the family went to the Crime and Punishment Museum. This was probably my favorite stop during our whole visit; we spent four or five hours there.

This museum had exhibits about the different ways that government had punished crime throughout the years, going back as far as medieval forms of punishment.

It is also where the show “America’s Most Wanted” is filmed.

After this, we went back to the Grand Hyatt for a while until it was time for me to go down to the Independence Ballroom of the hotel for an assembly of all the spellers. They basically told us the rules and schedule for the competition throughout the rest of the week.

After it was over, I studied for two-and-a-half hours in preparation for the next day in what would be the last time I ever had to study spelling words again.



June 3

I got up and went to the Independence Ballroom for Round 2 of the bee. This was just like a regular bee, where all the spellers had to get up, walk to a microphone, ask questions about the word they are given if they want to, and then spell the word.

The word that I got was borealization — having to do with adaptations of life in northern regions. I spelled it correctly.

After going to eat, I went back to the ballroom for Round 3. This round was aired on ESPN3. It was just like the second round.

The word that I got was tetragrammaton, meaning the four Hebrew letters that form a biblical proper name of God. I spelled this word correctly also.

After waiting in our room for about an hour, it was time to hear the results. We went back down to the ballroom and waited for them to announce those progressing to the semifinals.

After they had called out all of the numbers of spellers that made the cut, I found out that I wasn’t one of them. I wouldn’t get to go on to compete on television.

I was a little disappointed, but the fact that I was in Washington, D.C., and that I had gotten so far made the loss seem not so bad.



June 4

We got up and ordered tickets for an open-top sightseeing bus. We rode it to the National Cathedral and spent an hour or so there.

Next, we rode the bus to Union Station, where we ate and looked for souvenirs. Later on, we found out that there had been a gang fight at the station about the same time that we were walking around. It went on without us even knowing it until we saw news cameras and reporters scattered outside.

After sightseeing, we went back to the hotel and got dressed up for the finals of the spelling bee. We watched the final 10 contestants compete for the trophy.

At the end of the competition, we saw Anamika Veeramani beat out everyone else and be crowned champion.



June 5

We got up and rode the sightseeing bus to Arlington National Cemetery.

There we witnessed John F. Kennedy’s burial place, the Tomb of the Unknowns and the changing of the guard.

After seeing all of these things, we went to the Pavilion, a mall that used to be Washington’s post office and a bell tower.

After this, we visited the Art and American Indian Smithsonian museums.

I got dressed up to go to the spelling bee farewell banquet and the party afterward.

This was the last of the bee and pretty much the last of our trip.

I had fun and was sorry to see that the whole thing was over.

• Andrew is a freshman this year at Hamilton County High School. His parents are John and Debbie Wellen of Dahlgren.