Tuesday, June 21, 2011

But I Don't Speak French!

I don't know how it's Tuesday evening already! Earlier today as I was waiting my turn to go through security (yes, full-body scan) for a few seconds I forgot what city I was in and a few hours later I had no idea what day it was. I guess that's what you get for going to 6 airports in 6 days...

When I arrived in DC, my friend from Purdue, Kathy Brumbaugh, picked me up from the airport and we did a car tour of the greater DC area. That afternoon we had a meet and greet at our hotel so that we could get to know the other participants in the program. There are about 30 of us, most of whom are studying international relations/political science/Middle Eastern studies. I'm the sole engineer. It's kind of strange to me because I'm not used to having so many conversations that are about democracy and Middle Eastern issues. Needless to say, I spend a lot of time listening; definitely no conversations about herpolhodes or space cones...

However, we did make it to the National Air and Space museum today, so I had my chance to point out the Bell X-1 and explain some of the parts of a rocket engine.

Yesterday was a full day of guest speakers including a diplomat who was evacuated from Yemen within the last several weeks, several people who have worked as analysts at the CIA, and someone who works at the Christian non-profit organization World Vision. They were are very interesting.

And of course, if you're in DC you have to see all of the monuments, so we did that as well. (The internet at the airport is very slow, so pictures will have to wait a bit)

Right now I'm waiting for our flight to Paris. We were originally scheduled to make a quick connection in Paris to Casablanca, but our plane got delayed, so now we will be spending 24 hours in Paris, so we're going to do a whirlwind tour. And I'm going to eat a croissant.

I'm very tired, but hopefully I will be able to sleep on the plane. I don't know when I'll be able to post another update, but most likely it will be when I have arrived in Morocco!

So, as always, have a good Tuesday evening.

1 comment:

court said...

Benha! I am so excited to have another of your blogs to read! =)

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