Monday February 1st, 2010
16 eager and extremely excited Australian students arrived at Capitol Hill ready to be inspired and put their American politics knowledge to the test. We were hosted by Senator Susan Collins’ office and were taken on a tour of the Capitol by interns working for her.
The tour started with an intensely patriotic introductory video showcasing the rich history of the buildings and how they came into being.
The tour itself was extremely interesting and enabled us to ponder the fine architecture and political history.
The remainder of the day was spent perfecting the position papers, adding in any new and recent developments in our fields (mine being nuclear terrorism) and ensuring we knew the legislation back to front!
Tuesday February 2nd
Enjoying the finer side of Washington DC, a trip to the Smithsonian museum was in order! This included a stop at the Air and Space Museum which had a life size replica of the NASA Hubble telescope among many other rockets, planes and military replicas.
Georgetown (the famous shopping strip) was also explored!
Wednesday February 3rd
Walking towards the white house in preparation for the tour was an experience in itself. Having probably watched too much of ‘The West Wing’ and that minuet possibility that Obama might just walk past (albeit at a distance) culminated in feeling overly exited and eager. Tours in the white house are self guided allowing you to move at your own pace and take in everything.
The entrance walls were lined with photographs capturing the best of the history within the building, with some new additions of Barack Obama and family. The building itself was refreshingly tasteful and a lot smaller than one would expect - giving it the feeling of being a real house instead of monument.
We were allowed to enter the east wing, green room, red room and blue rooms learning about their history including the story behind all the antique furniture and decorations.
The afternoon was spent at the impressive Supreme Court building. We attended an informative lecture on the history of the court and how the current justices came into their positions. There was also a tribute gallery for Sandra Day O’connor, the first female supreme court justice.
No trip to Washington would be complete without a visit to the Australian Embassy, where we met with Scott Bolitho, who discussed everything from his role at the embassy to how he began working for the department of foreign affairs and trade in the first place. As the embassy was in a transitory state with ambassadors (Kim Beazley was expected to arrive at the end of the week) we were unfortunately not able to meet with the current ambassador to the US.
