I started out my travels in Washington D.C., on May 21st. Myself, along with the rest of the group lived up on Capitol Hill, literally right behind the Supreme Court Building, at a little place called The Congressional. This building was lovingly renamed, Le Congressional. During our stay in Washington we had a nice mixture of touristy things, and non-touristy things. After we were fully orientation-ed (a process that took a hefty 6 hours and could have been done in 2), we visited the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court building, Arlington Cemetery, and all of the monuments and memorials (Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, FDR, WWII, Vietnam, Korea, etc). In addition to all of these relatively accessible Washington Musts, we also took a tour of the White House (although we were only allowed to see about 6 rooms), and we were able to go sit down on the floor of the House of Representatives, and sit in Nancy Pelosi's (Speaker of the House) office.
Our group was also able to take a tour of the D.C. neighborhoods that tourists don't think about including Georgetown (the playground of the Washington well-to-do), Howard University (a historically Black college), U Street (a historically Black neighborhood), and Columbia Heights (a Latino, especially Salvadorian, neighborhood). This tour of the different D.C. neighborhoods was actually quite interesting, seeing the different people interact and learning the different histories behind each neighborhood. In Columbia heights we were able to visit the Latin Youth Center's Arts and Cultures building, which was amazing. In this center kids pay $15 or do community service, and in exchange they are able to take classes on painting, radio DJing, mixing, editing, and producing music, broadcasting on television, hip hop dance, and much more. The facilities were great, and the whole project was so inspiring. Being in the center almost made me want to stay in D.C..
The group also visited a variety of businesses and hosted a number of speakers on various topics while we were in D.C. Collectively the group visited the Federal Reserve Bank, the American Society of Association Executives (which was way more interesting than it sounds), the Canadian Embassy (which turned out to be a bit of a flop, mostly because the woman presenting only knew about her little piece of the big picture, and couldn't share anything else), Amnesty International (which I heard was also disappointing), Time Magazine, the Peace Corp, a public relations company, and the IFC. We also had speakers visit us from the British Consulate, a lobbying firm (this speaker would become a legend within the group, a man by the name of John Chwat), and a former member of the State Department. All in all, the speakers from D.C. were very interesting, although there were a few duds.
After some group bonding, and two weeks of evening adventures throughout D.C., the Washington Center group headed off to England!
The flight was pretty good, I had a glass of free wine with dinner (I love international flights) and a Tylenol PM and was out like a light. I convinced the 2 girls in our group that had been sitting next to me to switch their seats with my friends RJ and Sean, and I sat between them. So for about 5 of the 7 hours I alternated between sleeping on Sean's shoulder, then RJ's. Needless to say, it worked out quite nicely for me. But apparently on the flight, our group leader, Brian Feely (who we are convinced is a Nightmare Before Christmas character, and plotting evil deeds internationally) passed out unconscious, literally 2 feet from my head, and neither myself or Sean or RJ woke up. My roommate Raquel says he went down like a ton of bricks and there were flight attendants all over the place, but we kids slept away peacefully. He probably passed out because of the mixture of alcohol and cold medicine. (For the record this guy is like 6'2 and 115 pounds, and totally a lightweight when it comes to drinking).
Well, after we landed at Heathrow Airport on Saturday, I moved into my apartment in Islington (the northeast corner of London). My actual apartment is pretty great. It is new just this year, I get my own bedroom and bathroom, and my room is pink! You all know how much I love pink! I weaseled my way into rooming with my best two girlfriends here, switching rooms with another girl in the group. So things are just peachy, in that sense. Unfortunately, as I said, I had a number of internet problems, requiring long (and expensive) phone conversations with tech people. What they say is very true, Brits have no customer service. But that is neither here nor there.
So after we got all settled, we took a little tour of the area we are living in, pointing out various streets, the Tube stop, the grocery store, all of that. After the tour, we did a bit of grocery shopping, came home and unpacked. Since we knew we couldn't go to bed too early, because we needed to adjust to the time change, we decided we wanted to go out for a drink (Yes, I am finally legal here!). We went exploring, and found a little hole in the wall bar called The Oak Bar. We got there around 9, so there was obviously no one there, and we told the rest of the group to come meet us there. Well as we waited for everyone we began to notice that the people there were a bit dodgy. Around 10:30, as they were putting up a sign that said "9 out of 10 gay men use condoms", we realized that we were in a gay bar. It was quite amusing. We stuck around there for a while before coming back to the apartment, and then I finished unpacking and Ellen and I watched a movie and went to bed.
Monday, however, was not quite such smooth sailing. My friends and I were slightly delayed in the morning, because Ellen's alarm did not go off. That was just the beginning. After all of that, we headed into London on the Tube, arriving too late to run errands, and just sat at our classroom for 45 minutes before our intern orientation. During those 45 minutes, we were forced to listen to the ramblings of Davidson Wissing, arguably the most annoying person I have met to date, hands down one of the most socially awkward people on this trip. Finally after yet another orientation, everyone in the group was supposed to be getting information on their interviews for their assigned internship. This, for me, meant actually finding out where I was assigned, ending the overly-long anticipation period. But alas, I was the only person in the group who did not receive this information. My internship is still in the works, putting pressure on me to complete the University of Michigan requirements to complete the paper needed to get credit for my internship. After this disappointing news, I tried to change my return flight home from London to accomadate my additional post-internship European travels, only to find out I would have to coordinate this with people in the US. More frustration. Now Ellen and I decide that we are going to head back to the apartment, change, and grab a quick bite to eat before we had to be back downtown for a dinner. Well, after arriving at the Islington Tube Stop, Ellen and I proceeded to get lost for about 45 minutes trying to get home, only to give up and go back downtown. The dinner was lovely (free food is always good), and I found out a little bit of information on my internship status, so that was all well and good. After the dinner, we went to Sainsbury's (a local Kroger-like grocery store) before heading back to Islington. After taking the Tube home, Raquel, Ellen and I decided we would try out the buses, hoping to find a better way back to the apartment, other than our 30 minute walk. Well, going along with the theme of the day, we missed our stop and didn't realize it until about six stops later. We ended up in Clapton, about 20 minutes away, and were kicked off of the bus at the last stop. Fortunately we ran into some cute older ladies, who gave us directions on the correct bus stop to get off at. As the bus returned, it was the same driver, who laughed at our situation. As each old lady got off the bus she reminded the driver to drop us off at the correct stop. After we finally got home, almost an hour and a half later, with groceries still in hand, the rest of our friends got quite a chuckle.
Well, thus far London is amazing, and I can't wait to explore even more. Although, hopefully I will not get lost quite as often :-).
Now I just have to work on looking right, then left before crossing the street... there have been one too many close calls. Silly Brits, driving on the wrong side of the road.
Well, that's about it for now. Until next time...
Cheers!
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