Today, we had “only” two appointments. And yet, this day was special and full of surprises. At noon, we were welcomed by no one else but media legend James Srodes in the National Press Club and sat down to talk and have lunch with him. We were joined by Daren Brisco, who had spent the last 14 months before the presidential election together with Obama and his team on the Campaign trail to report for Newsweek Magazine. His experiences and way of presenting them impressed us in a number of ways. Some fell literaly in love... ;)
But seriously: Daren proved sensitive to issues as varied as the dark sides of his job, Obama's challenges as president-elect, and the role of race in America in general. His anecdotes and stories often reminded James Srodes of experiences during his own career and we learned how life on the Campaign trail has changed for both journalists and candidates within the last 30 years. This unique glimpse behind the scenes, coupled with their warm and funny nature, turned this lunch to the trip’s highlight, so far.
In the afternoon, we visited the Woodrow Wilson Center (WWC) and were introduced to its primary objectives with their program on North Korea as illustrating example. Afterwards, we attended an Ion Ratiu Lecture (in Romanian) at the WWC by Eleonara Ceravschi on her struggle to ensure that pupils can study in their native language at schools in Moldova and the necessity to improve the situation there in general. The lecture was attended by a number of diplomats and the panel was chaired by Dr. Christian Ostermann and Samuel Donaldson, the famous correspondent and anchorman for ABC News for nearly four decades. Again, we were released into the evening full of impressions that we are trying to order writing this blog, right now.
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