Dawning of a New Adventure

Saturday, I began my day at 3:00 am, gathering last minute things throughout my room and double checking my to-do list. It felt so weird to see how much I was leaving behind in comparison to how little I actually brought with me.

One 50 lbs suitcase, one 35 L pack,
an over-sized purse with laptop, a pillow,
and my Colorado Moose.

I also made the last minute decision to wear my hiking boots (upon my father's suggestion) instead of flip flops- which meant one more pair of shoes I was able to squeeze in :D!

My flight left at 6 am from Durango which is an hour and a half drive from home. However, with only two gates, I allotted for just 45 minutes to check-in and still had plenty of time to say good bye to my dad and mentally reflect and prepare myself at the terminal. Take-off was pristinely back-dropped by a brilliant tangerine sunrise.

Watch out Arnold!

I landed in Denver and made my way to the other side of Terminal B to spend my 3 hour layover reading and thinking. Carrying around a 20 lbs pack on my back for the next week of traveling is going to result in some killer back muscles to rival even the buffest of men! (stay tuned for pictures ;)!)

The flight to DC was long enough to allow me a bit of shut-eye and time to read up on some more facts about Germany. After waiting for my luggage, I found my way to the metro and was instantly perplexed by the seemingly illogical ticketing system. I saw two women at the machine who had just retrieved their ticket. As I approached, I heard them speaking French and discussing the process. I asked them politely, in French, how it worked and one responded that they had just asked the nice lady and she had helped them. This wasn't necessarily helpful to me but it did somehow make me feel a little more at ease being able to relate to foreigners even in my own country. I teamed up with a man from Georgia (the country, not the state) and together we figured it out. He helped me with my bags after I nearly tumbled down the escalator and then I politely denied him my number and we parted ways. After exiting the metro station, I started on my way up the four blocks to my hostel but unfortunately took a block in the wrong direction and then was forced to duck under an overhang for 10 minutes as a rain storm hit out of nowhere. I then toughed it up and drug my bag through the down pour and puddles. Luckily, I found the hostel, received a nice tour and quickly met up with some people from my program and made friends with others staying in our room.

Korean War Memorial at night

Korean War Memorial

Sunday, I spent a majority of my time at the National Mall seeing the sites and memorials. I actually ended up seeing pretty much all of the main memorials 3 times that day. I walked with some people from my program around to a few sites and then met up with another CBYXer to do a 3 hour bike tour of mostly the same sites and then after our dinner with 11 of us from the program, we ventured, yet again, to the National Mall to see the memorials at night. The Korean War Memorial was my favorite and especially at night, though I have to say Lincoln is quite impressive in his size, quotes and view of the Washington Monument. Dinner with everyone was awesome and I could not ask for a better group of people to spend a year with and to create life-long friendships with.

World War II Memorial

I've finally made it to Georgetown University where I met (mostly) all of the rest of the participants and spent the evening getting everyone's background and learning where we are all placed. It is a relief to finally meet face-to-face with my 75-person support group for this adventure. The next four days will be long and exciting- full of information overload, mingling to the max, jetlag, and an important first meeting with my host mom who I now know a little bit more about.

I'm now off to bed to rest before a long day of orientation tomorrow!

Gute Nacht!