January 19th, 2009

Another long day, but a short post…First we went to a few sessions, of which I attended one on Women and Politics by Kim Gandy, the director of the National Organization for Women, and Foreign Policy with Peter Beinart from the Council on Foreign Relations and Jonah Goldberg, an editor at the National Review. It was very interesting.

After that, we got on buses and traveled again to the University of Maryland to hear Al Gore speak to us. I was pretty close again, about 25 rows back from the podium. Much of his talk was on the future of our generation and what we can do to get involved in politics and protecting the environment. He said that my generation is the best renewable resource the world has. I didn’t think he was as good of a speaker as Colin Powell was, but it was still cool to hear from him.

I met a guy attending NYU who is originally from India – we had a great talk about my experience with India. There are so many people here – students from Ireland, South Africa, Canada, and France – those are only people I have met so far…I’m sure there are many more countries represented here. It reminds me that America, though struggling, truly is a world leader and that we must always treat others with respect because we are always being closely watched by other countries.

Tonight I’m going to get formal pictures taken, and then I’m meeting Julie for dinner in a “local spot.” After that I’m heading downtown on the Metro to check out the conditions for tomorrow morning. Let’s just say that we are going to be getting up VERY early and I will be hoping earnestly for a decent spot. The city is PACKED!

I’ll post tomorrow after the inaugural festivities!