Media Day

On Monday, August 7, AGU in America had a half-day field trip to Washington, D.C. It was another hot day, although not as bad as last week. We met at the College Park Metro Station at 1:15. As usual, everyone in the group was on time (only Tim and Ji Won were late!). Professor Uchida accompanied us.

We changed to the Red Line at Fort Totten. The air-conditioning in the metro car was not working very well, and by the time we arrived at our destination (Farragut North), everyone was very hot. Some of the group went to Caribou Coffee to cool off, and the others went to the National Geographic Museum at 17th and M Streets N.W. It was wonderfully cool inside, and they gave everybody a nice paper fan. We saw the crusader castle exhibit and the soccer photographs. It was so hot that nobody wanted to go outside to look at the pictures by Reza around the exterior of the building, but several people did some shopping in the small store!

At 2:45, we all met and walked to 1150 15th St. N.W., where the headquarters of the Washington Post are located. Our guide, Carrie, showed us a short movie about the Post, its history, and how it is produced. Kevin showed this movie in class this morning, too! After that, we visited the immense News Room and learned about the different sections of the newspaper and what they contain, e.g., the A (front) section, Metro, Style, Sports, Business, etc. It was pretty interesting, and several AGUers asked good questions. I think some of them are gaining confidence in their English. :-)

At 4:00, I went home, but the group stayed in DC to explore the downtown area around Lafayette Square. They got back to College Park at 7 p.m., too exhausted to watch All the President's Men, a movie about the Watergate scandal of the 1970s, in which the Post played an important role.