Entered on 2001-09-25 at 9:04 a.m..
Back to DC
The adventure has begun. I have been in DC since early Sunday morning when my parents and I drove up to our nation's capital and dropped me off at our hotel on Dupont Circle. The trip up was uneventful, with the minor exception of circling around Washington circle a few times trying to figure out why it wasn't Dupont circle. That mystery solved things went very smoothly. Getting out of town for my parents however turned out to be quite an adventure. If you wish to know more feel free to email them at [email protected]
Our first event as a group was brunch at the Ambassador's Residence. The place is georgous! Very british with large portraits of heads of state hanging on bare stone walls, and an exqusite rose garden. Brunch was much more of a lunch, but first we needed pictures. We each took a picture with the ambassador, and then we took a group picture.
Photographic Asside Now why the photographer was using such a small aperature, I don't know, but the affect was to make the portrates look like a picture of cardboard cut outs. It is really quite amazing how much the ambassador looks like a movie prop in the picture.
Shortly thereafter we began seeing drinks being served. Now coming from a nice southern university I though that my choices of drinks were, sparkling grape juice/sparkling water, orange juice and plain water. I soon found out that it was champagne, mamosa, or water. Ah, Britain is going to be very different indeed.
We mingled for a little longer then hit the enormous array of food with servers . Lunch was wonderful, and so was the desert course which followed. We had the rest of the day free, and a small group of us went down to the Natural History museum. One of my new friends, Mathew read some pieces of parchment in ancient Greek to me very cool .
Yesterday we began fairly early with some discussion and a chance for questions to be answered. Boy were some people in for a shock. I'll make a long story short because I'm paying by the hour here Some of the Marshall scholars were unaware that their housing would be coming out of their living stipend, not being paid directly for them. Ouch! Going from L650 a month to L200 a month for non housing has go to be quite a shock. There is an overall consensus that none of us know how the scholarship really works, or what to expect. Needless to say some personalities are taking it better than others.
Yesterday we visited Congressman Sprat a '64 Marshall. He was neat, but the highlight for me was our visit to the State Department. We met with Assistant Secretary, Dick Armitage outside the Treaty Room where all of the international treaties are signed. It was great. He gave us a run down of the six big challenges facing the US and thus the State Department currently, and then opened up the floor for quetions. All of the Marshalls asked really good questions. I felt as if I were some important person sitting in on a closed door briefing. He didn't let anything slip, but his firm grasp off all of the details and implications of possible reactions really impressed me. I have a tendency to mistrust those in some positions of power in the government as not really being on top of their game, but boy he was. Things are in good hands in the State Department, as far as I'm concerned.