Time: 12:39 west coast 3:40 am east coast
Place: Washington DC/Virginia Dulles Airport
This past weekend I joined youth activists at the Nations Capitol in Washingotn D.C. covering a conference for an ethnic media site called New America Media (www.newamericamedia.org). The conference focused on the opportunity gap or the achievement gap as educators and professors like to call it. I interviewed several leaders from various communities around the United States that are combating the inequalities in our nations public schools.
After the conference ended we explored the city as fast as we could in 55 degree weather. We rode the Subway/Metro line, visited several amazing museums and historical monuments. The hotel where we stayed was near the Pentagon. We spent 3 nights in D.C. we were only supposed to be there for two but because of some lame airport security we missed out flight. Never before have I ever seen so many people walking around in military uniforms.
We covered a lot of ground, we ate at the famous Ben’s Chili Bowl, 5 guys hamburger joint, and drank a couple pitchers at the Tombs Pub. We got a personal tour of Georgetown University from my sister, she even showed us where the exorcist was filmed.
Leaving D.C. was hard, partly because we didn’t even put a dent into all the spots one should visit when out here, I also wanted to stay longer and hang out with my little sister who lives out here on her own. We tried to surprise her, she was not expecting me to actually come. She always invited me and gives me a hard time for not visitng her once in the past three years that she has been studying in D.C.
I am very proud of what she is doing out here, after our goodbyes we were ready for the trip back home to San Jose California. At the airport things looked like they were going to run smoothly. I was pumped about the flight home on Virgin America because of all the gadgets on the plane there is for passengers, but we never even mad it on the flight. We waited in line.
