Great family movie. Nice job Ben Stiller.

Anyhow besides that, yesterday was the end of the seminar portion of this trip. We heard from a distinguished panel of former Congressmen in one of the meeting rooms of The House of Representatives and ended with a tour of the Capital building. It was a rushed tour, as our meeting in the morning ran over and all the students were exhausted mentally and physically. It was a consensus: we all just wanted to eat by the time 2:30 rolled around.

Funny story about Brian that will probably give an insight as to just how strenuous the seminar is. Ok, so if you’ve ever been to a subway you know you have your little farecard and before you get onto the platform you stick it into the turnstile (most of these are electronic now) and you go through.

Well, Brian, an intelligent guy, for some reason takes out his farecard and attempts to use it, as we are about to go down an Escalator! What in the world?! I thought to myself , “Poor Brian, that guy is exhausted.”

Haha. I still laugh when  I think about it. Get some sleep today bro.

At the end of the seminar, each of our small groups gave a short presentation. I represented our small group and  summarized what we got out of the seminar with 3 universal concepts for success in Washington and in life  (I went into more detail, but I’ll spare the readers here):

1. Honestly expressing yourself – In the long term you can only be successful if you are true to yourself, your values, and what your “perceived injustice” is.

2. Seek first to understand, then to be understood – Take time to listen to all sides of story. In Washington, people tend to like to talk more than to listen. Listening allows you to clarify your own ideas better.

3. Be resilient – Everyone from Ralph Nader, to Elizabeth Edwards to Lorraine Miller (Clerk of The U.S. House of Representatives) resonated this truth. It’s about hard work.

One inspiring story came from one of the students, Bernard, a man from Cambodia and a naturalized citizen of the United States. As a 9 year old boy, his whole family was killed in war. He travelled 11 months through the jungle to get to freedom. He said “I was in hell and when I finally became a citizen of the United States I was in heaven.”

Wow. How lucky we are to be free. Many people have fought so hard for it.

Steven Schrage the CSIS Scholl Chair in International Business spoke with us about the economy of the first 100 days of Obama’s Presidency.  He mentioned that the U.S was “still in state of extreme flux.”  I think we all know this, but I’m not going to comment any further.  “I am not releasing anyone if it would endanger our national security.”  I cannot wait on what the press has to say on this subject.

A very cool thing happened when we were meeting in front of The White House to discuss our day.  The police closed the sidewalk and were screaming at people to get off the street.  About 20 minutes later, police cars and black SUVs come out and take off.  I think that the President was actually in the SUV, but then again, we cannot know for sure. 

Another great highlight of the day was when we all went to the Willard Hotel to see Elizabeth Edwards’ speech and book signing.  I definitely bought a book after she read the first chapter in her presentation, and took pictures of her signing it (THIS WAS AWESOME). 

Well being that we are awake for about 19 hrs a day and only get about 5 hrs of sleep, I’m going to bed.

 In America, we (well not me since I’m not a US citizen, but you) have not only the right but the privilege to participate in our own self government and our freedom. If we don’t participate, we essentially lose freedom.

 Last night we had the privilege and the unbelievable opportunity to attend the exclusive Cosmos Club of Washington D.C. and listen to a man, whom among many other contributions,  played an intricate role in ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DAYS IN MODERN HUMAN HISTORY.

 The man who leaned over and broke the news (twice) to President Bush on September 11^th, 2001.

 When Andrew Card spoke, we listened. You could cut the silence in the room with a knife.

 Andrew Card gave us a play-by-play of his account on that faithful day. I was going to upload the video of his response, but it doesn’t do it justice.

 Plus I don’t want to be monitored by the FBI or something. (Just kidding!)

 Wow.

 Ruby was supposed to blog last night, but we all decided to trek over to the Lincoln Memorial and just made it back before the Metro closed at midnight. She will be blogging later this week.

A Taste of the Middle East

Hey ya’ll.  This is Jenny reporting in this time. I was reading Yeeka’s past couple of blogs and I found his perceptions of the group to be pretty accurate, although he left a couple of people out. At the Seminar, we are divided into small groups and a couple of folks have somehow attached themselves to our group. First, Ridhi Berry from New York City, happens to be the roommate of Crystal, Ruby and me. She is Indian and is never short of a comeback, definitely keeps our group light-hearted and makes the DC trip that much more fun. Jake King a.k.a “Snead” is from Alabama. His accent and very southern and his ways never cease to keep us entertained. His nickname “Snead” came about since 1) he is from Snead State Community College and 2) I found the name “Snead” to be so funny he just had to be called that. In fact we call him that so much that we have a hard time remembering that his real name is Jake. 

Today we heard from four different speakers. The Ambassador of Iraq (Samir Sumaida’ie) was my favorite. He brought a different perspective/outlook on the issues surrounding the war in Iraq. Most of the time what you hear in the news media tends to show only the negatives. Sumaida’ie gave a more optomistic outlook. He believed the presence in Iraq has been beneficial to the Iraqi people as it gave them the opportunity they needed to fight against the Islamic Extremists. 

Finally, to top off the night, we went to a Moroccan restaurant with the Washington Center. The whole style was as if you were actually in the country eating at a native Moroccan’s house. Low couches with pillows were what we sat on. The tables were round and a silver platter sat on top of a small structure.  First, they had gold pots where they poured hot water over your hands. Then, they gave you towels to dry off on. Next, there was a separate towel that was our napkin. The first course consisted of three types of salad: cucumber, carrot and eggplant, all of which you had to eat with your hands as there was no silverware. The second course was a light pastry filled with eggs, chicken, and some rather odd tasting ingredients. It was covered in powdered sugar and cinnamon. No one in our group liked it. The third course was a roasted chicken that was very tender and was the best out of all the courses. The fourth and final course was dessert which consisted of triangle shaped light pastries filled with nuts and caramel. We drank sweet mint tea with the dessert pastries.  Overall, it was an awesome day and I feel, as did the rest of the group, that even though we are tired, what we learned from the speakers and eating exactly like another country are things that will stay with us forever.

The first thing I thought about on my return trip to Washington is the difference in the mood of D.C. compared to January. D.C. is such a unique place; everyone always looks so busy just rushing around. When I see some young professional, I wonder which congressman/woman/senator/lobby group/national institution they work for. Brian commented that even just walking around the city in a suit feels cool.  (Those weren’t his exact words)

The good thing about this seminar series is that there are a lot less particpants compared to January. We don’t have to get up at 5:30  AM to get a good seat. This morning we had a panel of print journalists from the National Journal, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and the US News & World Report. All of them gave a pretty favorable analysis of Obama’s first 100 days in office.

One of the topics that particularly interested me was the “Legitmacy of Inexperience,” the contention that national level experience did not necessarily translate to good performance as President. I’m still doing some thinking on my hypothesis that leadership qualities are more important than technical skill in predicting success in any capacity…I’ll let you know how it goes. The start of the seminar is pumping me up!

Another funny observation are mine and Brian’s roommates; two really funny and nice guys from Hawaii. Everytime we come into the apartment they are cooking, and apparently they only brought with them loud Hawaiian shirts. After being indirectly called out today, they need to go do some shopping…

Ok, let’s end this post. Me, Brian and Crystal had dinner at P.F. Changs, a really classy Asian restuarant. I’m learning a lot from Brian.  I felt like I had another seminar over dinner. Check out our day one analysis video! It’s pretty cool, except Brian looks like Yao Ming compared to me.

First off, let me just give a quick formal introduction to this blog. 5 of us MOC students are in Washington D.C. this week for a seminar series to learn about the first 100 days of the Obama administration (hence the title). Here are my observations of our team so far:

Jenny Durr – Jenny is a little crazy and will laugh at most things, often uncontrollably. She brings a lot of smiles to the group and she’s very excited about this whole trip. She’s also looking to get some connections for a job with the Federal Government out here.

Brian King – He’s the in house political expert for us. This guy is very knowledgeable about politics and actually campaigned for President Obama way back. The man was studying for the LSAT on the way up here, while I slept. He’ll definitely be Obi Wan to my Luke Skywalker.

Ruby Quintanilla – Ruby balances out the group with her calming demeanor, and her packing skills make me question my masculinity. I pride myself on packing the least Ruby! (For the record I have to carry one of Crystal’s bags too.)

Crystal Guy – My beautiful and well organized girlfriend, whom is just as excited this time around. She also keeps me in check.

Anywho, we managed to get to our apartments easily this time without the two princesses from last time Trent and James who had packed 5 bags of wardrobe changes each ala’ Britney Spears in concert (just kidding, i love you guys). We had a quick hall meeting and then hiked over to the mall to grab a bite to eat at the mall. Tomorrow our seminar begins and I still have readings to do. So check back tomorrow night.

I’m out!