Travel day numero uno

Yesterday was my travel day to DC. And it ended up being a whole day; I spent about 10 hours in an airport for 2 ½ hours of flight time. My first flight was cancelled and rescheduled to leave at 12:10 instead of the original 9:15, but it got to Charlotte 20 minutes early. 20 minutes before the second flight was supposed to leave they announced that the plane was still in Raleigh. I ended up not getting to DC until 5:30, five hours after I was originally supposed to arrive. I was late for the meet and greet session, and missed the introductions twice!

There are seventeen of us, two men and the rest women. A majority are graduate students, but there are about 6 undergraduates (including me). Most of us went out to dinner at a Melanesian restaurant a few blocks down the street. I didn’t particularly like the food, but we sat there for a long time and talked. There is one student, Farida, whose parents are Bangladeshi; she and Andrew, an alum from last year, told us something about what to expect when we get there.

Today we have a full day of meetings with different state department officials and program alums. We also get to meet Bangladesh’s ambassador to the United States.