A 3am wake-up call did not seem like a good idea when the alarm rang this morning. I did manage to get up and moving though. A bunch of us headed for the metro station at a little after 4 this morning. We got ended up closer to the Capitol building than I had thought we would. We didn’t have too much trouble seeing the ceremony since we were right next to a big screen. The morning went by very slowly. We were standing in our spots at a little after 5am and quickly started to freeze over. Once everything went numb it didn’t seem so bad. It was cool to watch the sun rise and also feel the little bit of heat that came from it. After awhile the screens started playing the “We Are One” concert from Sunday. Having the music really woke up the crowd. People were singing and dancing with the songs.

Bearing the crowd on the way out was a different story. It was complete insanity; which was to be expected. There were 5 of us that stuck together and we navigated our way back from the Capitol Building to the metro stop in Arlington and finally a ride back to our hotel.

I thought Obama had a well done speech. I truly enjoyed listening to it. Overall, I felt that the day was worth it. Everything that we have gone through over the last week has been invaluable. I wouldn’t trade it in for anything. We were able to experience a once in a lifetime opportunity and I am exptremely thankful that I could take part in it.

A part of the whole day that surprised me was the lack of security where we walked in. We heard from others that up front they had to go through a security check point. We had none of that where we walked in. I didn’t see any effort of security farther back.

I loved every minute of being in Washington DC but I am still happy to be getting back to a bed with sheets and a room with heat.

Today was a late start. Once we got moving, Kari and I headed off to the Natural History museum followed by the Air and Space museum. The Natural History museum was pretty cool. It was interesting to go around and see different animals from the continents and to read a little about them. In one section there was actual soil from different places all over the world. The New York sample was from Honeoye which is close to my house.

After the Natural History museum we headed off to meet up with a couple more people from the group. We had a quick run through of the Air and Space museum and continued to meet up with more of the group. The crowds at the museums were enormous. It was fun to notice the change in people from when we first arrived.

Tonight is hopefully an early night since tomorrow is going to be a very early morning.

Today was an uneventful day in Washington. A few of us went out to lunch at the Capital Brewery. The food was great and the service was good too, I would recommend the restaurant to anyone. We ended up not going to watch the concert in person but to watch it on tv. That turned out to be a great choice. We didn’t deal with the half a million people at the concert and we could see everything. We also had the chance to relax and stay warm. Garth Brooks and U2 were my favorite performers. As a person who doesn’t like Garth Brooks that much, I was shocked to find him as my favorite singer today.

For dinner, we all met up at the restaurant in the hotel. The view from the hotel is wonderful, especially at night. It was my second time eating there and I still enjoy the atmosphere of it all.

The rest of the night I will just be relaxing some more. I don’t know what tomorrow has in store but I am anxiously awaiting Tuesday.

Yesterday we headed off to the Newseum. The Newseum was fascinating. We were able to look at “today’s newspapers” from all over. It was fun to see the headliners in other cities and countries. The 9/11 section was very powerful. There was a wall of newspapers with the headlines about the attacks. There was also part of one of the buildings and a movie of journalists who were at the scene and what they had documented. Another interesting section was the “Presidential dogs”. There were pictures of the Presidents with their pets.

I also had the opportunity to visit my cousin who lives in Northern Virginia. I don’t see him very often so it was nice to have a chance to catch up. He also introduced me to Thai food, which was a new experience.

We started off with our last auditorium session. We heard from Steve Bell, Sam Donaldson, and from 6 former members of Congress. Steve Bell continued to talk about the role of the media; showing more news clips. I wasn’t too impressed with Sam Donaldson. He dragged out most of what he said making it hard to stay focused. Hearing from the Congressional Panel was interesting. They talked about many of our country’s problems.

In the afternoon, we headed to the American History Museum. We ate lunch at the Stars and Stripes cafe on it’s opening day. Then we all spread out to see the various parts of the museum. The museum was amazing. I loved seeing all the exhibits whether I was really interested in them or not. I would recommend that anyone who hasn’t been there before go.

Thursday seemed to be a long day. We started off the morning seminar with Ross Baker, a professor of political science at Rutgers University, who spoke about the first 100 days and their challenges. Baker wasn’t the most interesting speaker we’ve had but he still made some good comments about Obama coming into office.

Dr. Genovese then spoke. I love listening to Dr. Genevese’s presentations. His thoughtfulness and passion for the topic make his speeches very worthwhile to listen to. He engages the audience and doesn’t linger when answering questions.

The best speaker of the day was the Ambassador of  The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Hussain Haqqani. The Ambassadors that we have heard from always amaze me. They have so much insight on the relationship between their country and the United States. The Ambassador mentioned how many politicians here haven’t traveled to many places and he was proud to say that he had travelled all over the world including over 40 states here in the US.

Steve Bell ended the morning session. He continued with his presentation on Politics and the Media. He showed a couple more news clips from the campaign and spoke about each candidates attack ads. Then ended by playing a Saturday Night Live clip with Tina Fey as Sarah Palin commenting that “nothing could follow that” and sending us on our way for the afternoon.

In the afternoon we took a tour of the Capitol Building. It was a short tour and I would have loved to see more of the inside. Despite the length, I was really enjoyed being able to be inside the Capitol building. The inside was incredible; the architecture and paintings were amazing to see.

In the evening we went to a performance Mark Russell. Russell held up the expectations that I had for him. He referenced Buffalo (in a good way) many times that followed with a loud cheer from our group. He kept me laughing throughout the entire performance.

Friday will be another great day. I am looking forward to seeing the American History Museum that was recently renovated. I continue to wait anxiously for the activities that will come over the next few days.

Today started off with another C-SPAN taping. Dana Perino, the press secretary for the White House, was interviewed. I found that she was interesting to listen to. She definitely knew how to take odd questions. I liked hearing from someone inside the White House and especially working for the press. There is always a hype around George W. Bush and it was interesting to hear her side of the story.

Ted Koppel from ABC News Nightline spoke next. I was really looking forward to hearing his speech. I liked what he had to say but I felt that he came off as a little rude. He didn’t seem all that friendly about the questions being asked. Despite what seemed to be a rude demeanor, I was still excited to be hearing from him and overall enjoyed it.

Clarence Page, a columnist at the Chicago Tribune, spoke next about the Obama Transition. He was extremely entertaining. He had a witty comment for everything he said. He couldn’t have been more energetic and eager to hear from the students. I did manage to laugh through most of his speech and thought that he was the best speaker so far.

This afternoon, we took a trip to the Embassy of Algeria. I wasn’t sure what to think about this meeting; I didn’t really know what to expect. He was very friendly and loved answering questions. I thought that this was the best site visit that we’ve had. I learned a lot from the Embassy about Algeria and their relations with the United States.

At the end of our scheduled day, Kari, Sarah, and I headed off to the Verizon Center to watch the Georgetown/Syracuse basketball game. I was the lone Georgetown fan out of the group but it worked out– Hoyas took the win. I wore my St. Bonaventure sweatshirt which attracted a lot of attention. I’ve never walked down a street and heard so many people shout “Go Bonnies!”. At the game we sat next to a guy that graduated from Bonas in 2001 and met two more guys on the metro that graduated in 2006. It was really fun to see so many Bonaventure alums.

Today was another great day in Washington DC. The day started off with the Washington Journal live on C-SPAN. It was a very interesting experience to watch the interview. Questions from both the audience and from people calling in were addressed. We were sitting right in the center of the auditorium; I hope tomorrow we will be able to get good seats again. I I enjoyed hearing from Tom and Carol Wheeler who worked on the Obama Transition Team and as the Obama Irish-America Outreach Coordinator respectively. They talked about their start in politics and how they became involved in the Obama campaign.

After lunch, we met at the New Democrat Network (NDN). The presentation by Simon Rosenberg, the president and founder of NDN, was decent. He is a very smart man and had a lot to say but he made it seem like the group was an inconvenience which made things a little awkward.

We had some spare time before going to the reception at the US Chamber of Commerce. We did a little walking around on Pennsylvania Ave. They are all very busy setting up for the events next week but we got to sneak in a little peak at the White House.

The reception at the Chamber of Commerce was decent. I was looking forward to hearing Bob Shieffer from CBS News speak. Unfortunately, I was disappointed by the evening. It wasn’t the speech that was problematic, but the students in the room. There was too much commotion and a lot of people were talking throughout the entire presentation. I couldn’t believe how disprespectful people were. Mr. Shieffer even asked the audience to stop talking during his speech.

Today was another good day at the seminar. The speakers we had were Special Agent David O’ Connor, Marc Pachter from the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, and lastly a debate by Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel, columnists at USA Today. As the speakers went on today, I felt it got more interesting. Special Agent David O’ Connor was very interesting to listen to. He talked about the history of the secret service as well as entertaining a lot of questions from the students. There were some microphone issues that made it hard to focus during some of the questions.

Marc Pachter spoke next about the History of the Transition of Power. This presentation seemed dull to many but I found it to be interesting. He showed a lot of portraits of the former Presidents and then analyzed them. Some of the portraits were funny to see and to hear the story behind them. He mentioned suring his speech that temperment, more so than intellect, was the trait to posess as President. But putting temperment and intellect together made a dynamic pair.

The last of the speakers were Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel. They did a debate on behalf of Common Ground. Cal Thomas represented the Republicans and Bob Beckel represented the Democrats. The point of their talk was to educate people on coming together and getting rid of the hostility between both parties. If they both worked together then there would be a way to come up with an answer that everyone agrees on. Also, by putting more heads together, a collective thought between the parties will be expressed. This speech was my favorite of the day. I thought it was a great message and that both sides presented a funny and influential argument.

Today was a long day but worth it! The couple speakers we had today were very interesting. I really enjoyed hearing from Dana Bash, the Senior Congressional Correspondent at CNN. She gave most of her time to having the students ask questions. It was nice to hear from the other students and to get the side of the media.

We also went on a bus tour around the city; visiting all the memorials. I really enjoyed seeing the WWII Memorial. I thought it was a nice layout with the water in the middle and sitting between the Washington Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. I also thought that the Franklin D Roosevelt Memorial was interesting. The quotes that were engraved all around were fun and interesting to read.