Episode I: And So It Begins

Today was our first official day of the inauguration trip. It started off bright and early by getting up so we could be out the door by 7:15 as we were instructed to do. When we got to the University of the District of Columbia’s auditorium we started an ice breaker activity. While I could appreciate the goal, it was kind of pointless because of how many people were in the in the auditorium. It was pretty impossible to move around. There were also a few people that were extremely full of themselves that I found hard to deal with.

The speakers were all very good. Kevin Nunley, the director of student life, was very entertaining. He made the crowd laugh but all the while gave us important info about our trip and gave us some good survival tips for getting around DC.

The program overview given by Dr. Gene Alpert and Tony Cerise was pretty basic. They didn’t really tell us anything we didn’t know just from reading the Washington Center brochure. The best speaker was definitely Dana Bash. She gave a really intersting account of what it is like to be a CNN correspondent to Congress. She told us what it is really like to meet with Congressmen and Senators on a daily basis. She then gave a very lengthy question and answer period. The students who asked the questions generally asked good questions, but it seemed like half of the questions were all the same, basic, “what is he really like?” kind of thing.
She was also followed the McCain campaign and got to know him quite well. It was really cool to hear her account of following him around the campaign trail.

After our session we got lunch and went on a bus tour of DC. Most of the sites we visited I had seen before, but I got to see the World War II Memorial for the first time. The last time I was here, the monument was still under construction. We then went out to dinner at an awesome Irish restaurant called the Dubliner. It was delicious. Tune in tomorrow for the next installment!!!