Thursday, January 24, 2013

Barrack and Roll: Inauguration

On Monday, we had the amazing opportunity to attend the Inauguration. You may have seen me on TV! I was the one waving the flag, standing next to that other girl waving the flag :) We didn't have tickets so we could see the Capitol from where we were standing but not much else. However, there were megatron screens set up so we actually had a really nice view of the whole thing! We left the hostel around 8 am, and even though we live only 4 blocks from the Capitol, it took us about an hour to get to the standing area because they so many roads blocked off around the Capitol. When we arrived at the "no ticket" area, we were greeted with high fives and cheers, TV news crews and cameras, and tons of American pride. The whole atmosphere was just amazing. People young and old, men and women, black and white, rich and poor, were all gathered here to celebrate and to show support for our president (or maybe they were just there to see Beyonce..) Either way, it was crazy to think that so many incredible, powerful people were standing in front of me.

While we were waiting or the program to start, a man with a huge box of American flags came by and started passing the flags out. People were taking handfuls and passing them back through the crowd, spreading them out so that everyone could have the joy of waving that flag. We were all anxiously staring at the screen, waiting for Obama to show up and being disappointed every time it was just another old, white male. But once he finally entered the Capitol and was making his way to the stage, there were so many good vibes that were going around and so much cheering and joy! The same thing happened when Kelly Clarkson took the stage to sing (she was amazing!) and of course, for Beyonce as well! Even though Obama forget to give me a shout-out during his speech (I'm sure he was under a lot of stress so it could have easily slipped his mind), I still really enjoyed listening to him speak.

The second Beyonce was done singing the word "brave," people started rushing to get out because oh-my-goodness was it crowded! It took even longer to get back to the hostel. Half a million people all trying to get to the metro and out of the blocked off streets? Yeah, it was a little crazy. But surprisingly, people remained pretty calm about it. There was a part where we walked into this huge crowd that wasn't moving. It was a complete stand-still mob taking up and entire street! My friend Anna and I stood up on a cement block and we saw that an ambulance was actually trying to make its way through the crowd. It managed to make it through, but the crowd of people didn't move. We ended up taking an even longer route back to the hostel to avoid the biggest crowds, but on one of the residential streets, a man was outside in his front yard with a grill, making hot dogs and selling them to the people walking by. Genius idea! unfortunately he ran out by the time I got there.

A few members of the group tried taking the metro back to the hostel, but the lines for the metro were up on the streets and it took them almost two hours to get back.

This will definitely be an experience that I will never forget! Even though we could have easily watched the Inauguration from the warmth of our hostel, being outside with the crowds in that crazy atmosphere was 100% worth it.



Here's a few photos from the day :)

Isabelle, Meghan, me, Anna, Genevieve, and Bethany



Obama!


Beyonce!


The ambulance trying to get through the mob


-Heidi

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