A Sweet Treat to Obama!

After going to a brunch hosted by the office of Congresswoman Linda Sanchez and getting to meet the Congresswoman, Neslie and I braved the insane crowds by the Capitol and headed over to Georgetown, one area we hadn't yet explored. We were walking along M Street and ran into this great bakery, called Furin's of Georgetown. Along with about every single pastry you could ever want, they had these great Inauguration themed pastries, such as a model White House and cakes and cupcakes decorated with the likeness of President Obama.

                                                                                              courtesy of Furin's bakery

Currently, Neslie and I are just relaxing and resting up for the big day tomorrow! We were very excited when we found out that only 240,000 tickets were given out, meaning we'll be with less people than on Sunday at the concert. The weather is supposed to be decent, around the low 30s, so hopefully we won't freeze too much.

It's finally time for a change!

We Are One Concert!

I know I've said many times how incredible all these experiences have been and how life changing they are proving to be. However, please forgive me as I'm going to say it again. Today marked the beginning of the Inauguration festivities with the arrival of President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden into Washington, D.C. with their families. Hundreds of thousands of people crowded into the National Mall between the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial for the We Are One Concert, featuring performances by Beyonce, Bono, Bruce Springsteen, Will.i.am, Josh Groban, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor and Shakira, along with appearances by Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx and other notable celebrities. We got our times confused so my roommates and I got there a little late and we were closer to the Washington Monument than the concert, but luckily, they had big screen TVs set up all along the Mall so we could see the concert. It was incredible not only to see musicians who I've always idolized, such as Bono, but to also to be in a crowd of that many people (it was the largest crowd I've ever been in). It was also a little nerve-racking to see Army soldiers and Military Police at almost every corner with humvees and machine guns as well as helicopters circling overhead. Plus, I was frightened at that many people and they're expecting triple the crowd for Inauguration so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Finally, it's just a little chilly here. It was around 35 degrees today which is so exciting (sad to say, but after 15 degrees, it feels like paradise) but standing in that for a while makes your body numb so I will look like a mummy on Inauguration Day. However, I would not have traded this experience for anything- getting to be in a crowd of people so hopeful and energized is truly a once in a lifetime experience.

Tomorrow, Neslie and I are fortunate enough to attend a brunch at Congresswoman Linda Sanchez's office. I'm looking forward to meeting her as well as her staff and mingling with other people!

The Start of Inauguration Festivities!

Friday marked our last day of official seminars with The Washington Center. They actually brought in a panel of former members of Congress, such as Conrad Burns, and each person took turns discussing their experiences in Washington, D.C. and offering their views on issues of high importance to the new administration. We also were able to go to the Embassy of Jamaica and meet the Jamaican Ambassador to the United States (although I was a little late since I have bad luck with doors and cracked a finger). He was so down to earth and so approachable. I may have not learned as much about policy but he had a lot of real life stories to tell us which are invaluable. 

On Saturday we had a tour of the Newseum. We also had the option of touring the Capitol but I saw it when I was younger and found the Newseum so interesting that I really did not want to leave. Of all the museums I've been to around the world, my personal favorite is the Newseum. I love that it is a museum of current events and journalism history. I find that I can relate more to museums whose exhibits relate to things I've experienced, such as 9/11 or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. All the exhibits were amazing but I was particularly interested in the exhibit called News and Press Freedoms Around the Globe. It had a map detailing the level of press freedom in each country around the world, with green being the highest freedom, yellow the middle and red the worst. I also really enjoyed the exhibit on 9/11. It was, of course, very sad and haunting but I was so young when it happened that I don't really remember that much of the course of events and it didn't really hit me as much as it does now. They had a great exhibit of newspaper headlines from the day of and the day after the attacks as well as an actual piece of metal from the wreckage of one of the Twin Towers. 

All over Washington, D.C., we can tell the city is filling up and getting ready for the Inauguration on Tuesday. Flags are lining the parade route on Pennsylvania Ave., news crews are setting up on the roof of the Newseum and Canadian Embassy next door, metro stations are closing and streets and bridges are blocked off. The sidewalks are full of wide eyed tourists, some of whom are visiting D.C. for the first time and surprised by the cold and others hoping for any glimpse of history. The feeling of hope and excitement that permeates around this area is unlike anything I have ever experienced and I highly doubt this is the case for all Presidents. 

More Washington D.C.!

I really wish I was better at updating this whole thing, sorry. This week has been so amazing and so fun but also so incredibly hectic. We're up every morning by about 6 and don't come back to our apartment until around  7 or 8, which doesn't leave much down time. I have loved all the seminars so far:

Monday:

-a Secret Service agent

-Two professors, one from Ball State and the other from Loyola Marymount. 

Tuesday:

-CSPAN actually came to our seminars and recorded several shows to air this weekend. In fact, Neslie and I will be featured on a segment hosted by Brian Lamb interviewing Washington Center students. It airs tomorrow night at 7 pm Eastern.

-The US Chamber of Commerce hosted a reception in our honor right down the street from the Hay Adams Hotel, where the Obama family is staying. We got to mingle with the other students as well as listen to a speech by Bob Schieffer, of CBS News. 

Wednesday:

-The White House Press Secretary, Dana Perlino, came and talked to us. I'm glad I heard a Republican perspective on the current political climate however some of what she said in defense of President Bush was a little hard to take.

-Journalist Ted Koppel as well as two columnists from the Chicago Tribune.

-We took a tour of the Canadian Embassy as well as Voice of America. I liked Voice of America but I was very surprised to learn that it was a government funded station.

Thursday:

-We heard from two professors about the transition and the role of the media in influencing the outcome of the election which is something I'm very interested in. Professor Steve Bell mentioned that the questions asked to Obama and McCain on the same television shows were so different and showed such a strong bias toward Obama that it had to have helped Obama win. 

-The Pakistani Ambassador to the United States spoke about the foreign reaction to Obama's election. He said some controversial things that could be regarded as anti-American, such as the US tends to practice isolationism, but I found his honesty refreshing.

We were able to go to Congresswoman Linda Sanchez's office today and pick up our tickets. It is so surreal to have tickets to the Inauguration in my possession. I'm pretty sure they are the most valuable things I've ever owned. It's been absolutely frigid here, with temperatures in the teens and wind chill right about zero but it's all been worth it. This experience has really made me sure of what I wanted to do (politics and journalism) and I'm now convinced that I want to try to intern here this summer.

I'll have to wait to post pictures until I return to LA next week because in my rush to leave for the airport at 6 am, I forgot my camera cable. :(

First Day of Seminars!

Today was our first day of seminars at the Washington center and it promises to be a very busy yet fun week. All the speakers were interesting but I really loved Dana Bash's talk. Bash is the Senior Congressional Correspondent for CNN and hearing her speak about her time on Capitol Hill and out on the campaign trail just affirmed to me that this was my calling and it made me really happy. I always thought I wanted to do journalism covering politics but I wasn't positive, but after listening to Dana, I became positive that I want to become a political reporter. 

We also took a tour of the monuments which was so cool. It's been almost ten years (wow, how time flies) since I've been in Washington, D.C. so seeing all of them again was so cool. We were lucky enough to see the Jefferson Memorial at sunset so seeing the sun shine through the clouds and the pillars of the monument was spectacular. It was especially nice to see all the US historical sites after seeing so many historical monuments in Europe and feeling that the US lacked the same zest for history as Europeans. My personal favorite was the World War II memorial because of the beautiful, theater-style design and the water fountains in the center with the light hitting the water at just the perfect angle!

            

   My roommates and I at the Lincoln Memorial. (L-R: Hillary, Myself, Marilei, Neslie and Ada)

                                                           Inside the Lincoln Memorial

                                                            the Washington Monument

                                                                 Iwo Jima Memorial


                                                      Part of the World War II memorial

                                       Neslie and I freezing at the World War II Memorial

                                                          the World War II Memorial

                                 Overlooking the Potomac from the Jefferson Memorial

                                               Jefferson Memorial (my personal favorite)

First Day in Washington, DC!

It's finally here! After months of anticipation, we've finally arrived in Washington, DC! I arrived last night and stayed with some family friends near the airport before moving into my apartment today. I have 5 other roommates and the apartment has gorgeous views of old town Alexandria. The seminars start tomorrow bright and early and I'm so excited for them. We get to meet journalists, such as Ted Koppel, Bob Schieffer and Dana Bash as well as some ambassadors and members of President-elect Obama's transition team. I'm still in shock that I get to be a part of all this and meet so many influential journalists. The best part is that Neslie and I now have tickets to the Inauguration. Our school's President was able to get tickets through Congresswoman Linda Sanchez's office, meaning we have actual tickets and don't have to be in the huge crowds! I cannot believe that I'm lucky enough to not only be in DC during this historic time but to also get to attend the swearing in ceremony. I have to keep pinching myself to make sure it's all real.

                                         A little bit of a funny angle, but our living room!

                                                                  Our little kitchen!

Hillary Clinton's Role in the New Administration

It's now been exactly two weeks since Barack Obama was elected President of the United States and he's been hard at work building his administration, including appointing Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois as his Chief of Staff. Now, the focus has turned to the Secretary of State position, which in turn, led to speculation about New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's role in the administration. Her name has been tossed out as a possible candidate for either Secretary of State or the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and debate has begun about which post would best suit the former First Lady. As with every issue, each side has its pros and cons. Some argue that Clinton would be better suited as the Health and Human Services Secretary because of her experience working with health related issues during her tenure as the First Lady and how she could use that experience to best serve the Obama administration. Others believe she would be a better fit as Secretary of State because she is a well known politician who has cultivated foreign policy experience for herself during her time in the Senate. President-elect Obama is expected to announce the nominees for these posts in the coming weeks so it'll be interesting to see how this dilemma plays out.