Washington, D.C.

Where, oh where to begin...

Kelly and I finally got to meet, in person, in Washington, D.C. after months of novel-like emails and long Skype sessions.  It was like meeting with a long-lost friend, a smattering of screams, hollers and hugs.  Although we had never met, being united at last seemed natural.

I am not one who really follows politics, and I certainly can't pretend to understand how politics work, but I have great appreciation for our country and a love of our history.  I have only been to D.C. one other time, on a whirlwind of a trip with my high school choir, so I was excited to spend some time in our nation's capital, and being alongside Kelly made it that much better! :)

Our first stop was to part of the Smithsonian - the American History museum where we saw the original Star-Spangled Banner - who knew that it was over 30 feet long?!  There were also gowns from our lovely first ladies, history about major wars, developments in transportation, but our favorites were Kermit the Frog and Dorothy's ruby red slippers.  Seeing the ruby slippers was quite special, and since one of our speakers throughout the week referenced these shoes, the yellow-brick road and "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore," Kelly and I felt very "well-versed" with the topic.

The week was a time for us to get to know our exchange partner better, but mainly a time for us to learn more about Fulbright and help us to prepare for our adventure.  For months, we've all been preparing, and while everyone around me has been incredibly supportive, no one else can really understand what emotions I've been going through.  So, getting to D.C. and being with others going through these exact same emotions was wonderful!  Many of us met in Denver in May and have communicated over email and Facebook (thank heavens!) and it was so much fun to be together.

Fulbright's mission is to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries," so we decided to go ahead and get to work on that! :)  We had a wonderful time getting to know one another and learning about the differences in each other's countries.  "Team UK" spent lots of time together learning about the differences in our languages and learning about the words that we should not say.

Fulbright, and their partner IIE did a wonderful job of hosting us for the week and preparing us for all that is to come - the ups and downs along the way, the culture shock, the differences in teaching, etc.  We had lovely meals, great down time to get to know one another and tour the city.

I loved the time getting to know Kelly and the many others that are embarking on similar journeys, but I must admit that some of my favorite times were my morning walks.  I absolutely love watching a city come to life in the morning, almost like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.  I feel like you get a feeling for the place and you can see the personality beginning to shine through.  People are generally cheerful at those early hours while delivering loaves of bread or collecting garbage.  Walking in D.C. was like walking through our nation's history.  One morning I went by the Iwo Jima Memorial just as the sun was rising on a cloudy day.  There were very few people around, so the seriousness of the statue seemed to set in even more so.

Then, I went to see Lincoln.  The Lincoln Memorial at daybreak was so perfect.  There were a few people there, mostly ones that were starting their morning like myself, or sitting on the steps, contemplating the day ahead.  What a way to start the day, sitting at Lincoln's feet.

On our last night together, we were honored with a final banquet where each country represented did a short presentation about their own history and culture.  The Americans, all 30-something of us decided it would be very difficult for us to represent the whole of America in just a few minutes, so, in true America fashion, we decided to have a USA pageant, complete with toilet-paper sashes, and each share just a bit about our state.  Everyone did a great job, sharing the fun parts of each state and our "claims-to-fame."  Everything from beer to mountains to songs was mentioned.  I hope I represented Alabama well with this greeting... "From the land where college football rules, where we fry just about anything that stands still long enough and where we always say yes ma'am, I'm Rebecca Smith from Sweet Home Alabama."  The other countries, did a wonderful job of presenting history, customs, traditions and fun stories - many even lead the crowd in song and dance and even a pub-style trivia game.  What a glorious way to end the week!

As wonderful as all of the hellos were, that made all of the good-byes even harder at the end of the week.  Some, were just farewells to people that I'll actually be seeing soon as we tour England together.  Others headed to the UK, I will see again when we meet in London in late September, but many, I only had to hope that our paths would one day cross again, but I guess that is all a part of this journey, meeting people along the way, making connections, learning from one another and sharing part of ourselves