Meeting everyone for the first time was pretty much unreal. There are so many awesome people here doing this program. I showed up to the hotel lobby completely drenched having dragged my camping pack and camera bag a few blocks from the metro station to find a lobby completely PACKED with people. I quickly discovered that it was the Arabic group waiting to go to the airport that afternoon. Right when I arrived though, everyone was ridiculously quick to introduce them self and find out what language you are studying. After I arrived we had an "Welcome to DC" presentation and had to go around introducing ourselves to the group which consisted of everyone taking Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Urdu (approx 65 people total). The one kicker with the introduction was that you had to say something interesting about yourself. I HATE THAT. It always takes me by surprise and I haven't found a good answer that funny/interesting to share with a group. Anyway, the people here are really interesting. The diversity in majors is unreal. I am one of two engineers in the group. The split between undergrad and post grad is like 50-50 which took me by surprise. I really enjoy learning about everyone's background and what they are researching for their PhD's. I've met people doing their PhD's in Folklore, Geology, Geography, International Education, Mughal Studies, and much more. When we got here they also gave us a $235 gift card to spend over the two days here in DC. Thank goodness it doesn't expire till 2019 because I have no idea how I would spend all that when all of our meals are provided except for dinner tonight.
Tomorrow we have presentations all day so look forward to a super thrilled post....not.
P.S. - I've also decided that I'm not cutting my hair or shaving the entire time I'm away. Hello ridiculous flow.
I am SO excited to keep reading. Love love love travel blogs. I hope you sleep through your entire 15 hour flight, BAG ;)
ReplyDelete-emily