Day 6 - Almost Obama: On Journalism and Diplomacy (12-04-08)

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.

Day 5 - March on Georgetown (12-03-08)

As strange as it may sound, there is no centralized Ministry of Culture in the United States. There are separate institutions, which take care of the development of the education system. National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is the agency responsible for various programs in the humanities. In the official conference room of the agency, which made us feel, as if we were spending time in the Harvard Club, we talked to several prominent members of the NEH staff. The recent projects of the NEH include the curriculum for the history and art teachers, “Picturing America”. On the examples of various works of art or craftwork, the children can learn how the American identity has been visually expressed throughout the history. NEH offers numerous opportunities in the Division of Research Programs to support young creative teachers. Go to http://www.edsitement.neh.gov to learn more about the numerous subjects researched by the NEH.

The NEH is located in the Old Post Office Building. Only George Washington Monument is higher than the tower of the Old Post Office, so, basically, you can’t get any higher, since the Monument is closed for tourists. We all agreed that Washington D.C. is as beautiful from the bird’s eye view, as from squirrel’s (if you’ve been to D.C., you know what we mean). After our unsuccessful attempts to undercover some secret actions inside of the FBI building with our camera zooms, we continued exploring the mall-character of the Post Office Building, eating sandwiches, buying gifts and counting the steps to the restrooms.

But even the most brilliant students of the American Studies gave up on counting the steps to Georgetown, when they saw the White House, which we passed once again to catch the better view, than the last time, by the traumatic impression of our first day trip (rain plus wind plus cold plus outside equals trauma). Having taken all the possible “one-day-I’m-gonna-live-in-that-house”-face pictures, we started marching. We marched and marched and marched and marched and marched. Then we marched a little more and reached Georgetown (by the end of March).

Georgetown is a neighborhood named after… No, there will be no surprises: after George Washington (one of the things you should know about D.C. is that if something is named after someone, he really was someone). Much could be told about Georgetown, but three things are especially significant: it is the location of the Georgetown University Campus, it is full of tiny pre-civil war buildings located on hilly roads, and it is the contemporary hipster neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

Georgetown University Library is pretty indescribable. Its endless resources (name it – they have it) are available to everyone, who has a picture ID. On the one hand the library holds copies of Thomas More’s “Utopia” and a copy of Mark Twain’s “Tom Sawyer” annotated by the author. On the other hand, the library staff will be helpful with assisting you researching for university papers. Nicholas Sheetz, the manuscript librarian at the Georgetown University, was our host at the archives and at the quite impressive old university library. He also invited us to “Tombs” a “typical university hangout” at Georgetown University.

One must say, there are not many shops around the Mall, although the name would suggest the opposite. Commercial activities are generally unwished in the city center, since its image should be as symbolic and serious as possible. Eager to spend our dollars in a really American way, hungry for bargains, cheap jeans and other gotta-haves, we headed for M-Street, the shopping area of Georgetown. We just did it: we had it our way because we’re worth it. And we were loving it.

Day 4 - Exploring the Neighborhood (12-02-08)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHÉLE !!! ALL THE BEST FROM ALL OF US !!!

Tuesday started with a nice little walk not too far away from the hotel. Yeah! Through the sunshine, that caught the busy, hard-working neighborhood, we were basically walking just a few blocks down New Hampshire Ave. to get inside the Department of History at the George Washington University. There, Kenneth Bowling invited us to a journey to the early days of US politics, namely the First Federal Congress Project - a tremendously elaborate and ambitious venture carried out by a team of four. One of them needs to be mentioned explicitly: His colleague, who worked for Hillary R. Clinton's campaign! The team’s entire undertaking consists of 22 volumes, featuring personal letters as well as official correspondence, pointing out some of the most important actors, i.e. Jefferson, Washington, etc. We will meet up with K. Bowling on our last day (Monday) to visit Mt. Vernon together with a group of George Washington University students. We're already looking forward to that!

Sandwiches for everyone! We had the honorable mission to provide lunch also for our next speaker: Professor of American Studies and director of the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, a real and popular specialist on D.C.'s architecture, especially the past and ongoing development of the Washington Mall. Not unmentioned shall remain the atmosphere that his two slide-projectors created during his more than interesting presentation. It felt like a funky flashback into the late 70's making us feel the nostalgia we all know from old fashioned college movies. Groovy.

On our way to the next exciting D.C. historic site, we faced a very familiar (Bavarian) spirit: Brewmaster's Castle. It is one of the most beautiful Victorian houses in Washington. It belonged to Christian Heurich, a German immigrant, who made a fortune with his brewery. Although the beer could not be tested on site, we learned that Christian Heurich, owner of the complex, was at one time the 2nd richest land owner in the city.

The next point of our schedule was a visit to the Anderson House, today the home of the much-debated "Society of the Cincinnati"

Think the day is over? HA! Think twice, there are always institutions in D.C. that are worth a visit. For example, the German Marshall Fund, just a few streets away. There, Harvard Ph.D. and M.A. Dr. John Glenn held a presentation (the first powerpoint presentation we saw) on transatlantic trends. The German Marshall Fund researches trends in European-American affairs. The discussion, that followed, brought up questions concerning energy supply in Europe as well as NATO-related topics. A broad array of issues has been mentioned that really proved that this visit is another very important landmark in our stay here.

Think the day’s over now? HA! Think three times. There is one more institution in our neighborhood which needs to be explored from the inside - the German Historical Institute (GHI). We all knew that Prof. Mauch used to work for the GHI but we didn’t expect the Second Blair House to also be the second home of Mr. Mauch. Currently, there’s an exhibition displaying how the Civil Rights Movement affected and was perceived in Germany, which Mr. Martin Klimke showed us through. Furthermore, the exhibition was followed by an inspiring discussion in the beautiful ballroom of the house. It is hard to imagine how happy we were to hear that we were invited to dinner by GHI. Who doesn’t like Thai food...?