Orientation Day One

Getting up 4:15 am is only worth while if you have travel plans. Or in my case are going to DC for Fulbright Orientation.

Arriving in DC at 9 am without being able to check into the hotel until 3pm = interesting idea.

I traveled with Adam, a student from IU who is studying Russian and going to Moldova (yes, they speak Russian in Moldova. Moldova is here.) His wife drove us to the airport and dropped us off, and will pick us up on Friday night when we get in.

When we arrived at the hotel, the rooms were not ready but they were willing to place us on a list where they will call us when the rooms were ready. Or at least Adam was put on the list.

My reservation was cancelled.

Yup, my reservation was cancelled. The Fulbright commission cancelled the reservation. It was with a English Teaching Assistant (ETA) to somewhere (they provided us names and where people were going, and emails). I have no clue why it was cancelled, but the hotel felt bad, so they gave me one of the first rooms available.

I dropped off stuff and then headed out to the Smithsonian National Art Museum, which is only a few blocks from the hotel. I couldn't do the entire museum because I was feeling a bit out of sorts because I donated blood the day before. So, I decided to come back to the hotel and just relax and look over the stuff that they would give us.

They gave us a lot of good info (more to come in a separate post).

We had a dinner reception with yummy pasta and a gazillion deserts. I also got to meet all of the people that are going to Macedonia (once again, in a different post). We also meet the returning students who gave us some advice.

Then, we stayed almost 30 minutes past when the official end time was and the hotel staff as nice as possible kicked us out!

See you around the globe!