Inauguration Pictures/Story
Hey everybody,
So as some of you know, I went down to DC a few days ago to check out the inauguration of Obama.
First of all, if you didn't already know, I'm Canadian. I was born and raised in Canada... my mom recently moved to the US, but I don't really have any "ties" to the US other than that. That being said, however, I am in the US all the time (15-20 times a year)... and I am very very pro-American/Canadian relations. You know what I'm saying? I don't know...
I was talking to Vito (Mario's_Left_Nut) on Facebook and he was surprised that I was going. I told him: "this is an important day for Americans... and obviously this means more to Americans that it does to Canadians, but Americans are important to Canadians."
Okay, so I was kind of thinking about going to the inauguration this past Sunday. I was trying to find people that would drive down with me, but nobody would go on such short notice (like 1 day). So when I couldn't find anybody to go with me, I pretty much gave up on going.
So Monday morning I woke up, and I said to myself "screw it, I'm just going to fly down." I really wanted to go, so if I want to go somewhere, why don't I just go, you know? My mom always taught me that, "I'll never regret it if I go... and I'll always regret it if I don't."
The round trip ticket cost me $300, which, really, is nothing. I figured - when is the next time I am going to see $300? Probably next week. When is the next time I will be in a sea of 2-4 million people cheering on the first Black President of the United States? Never again.
SO, I left Monday night, after some complications with my flights (My flight to Reagan Airport getting canceled and then re-routing me to Dulles), I arrived at George Washington University at 11pm. My friend is a Med School student at GWU, so I was lucky enough that I could stay with him. Him, I and all of his friends went parting until 4am, when I went to bed.
I woke up at 6am, and by 7am, I was at the National Mall (where everything was happening). I spent an hour trying to get as close as possible, maneuvering my way through the sea of people. Eventually, I got to a point where I was as close as I could POSSIBLY get without having a ticket. Which was perfect.
So it was now 8am, and nothing was going to start happening until around 11:30, and his speech was going to be at noon. So that meant 3.5-4 hours of standing there. During this time, I was talking to all of the people around me, which was nice. I actually talked to quite a few Canadians on the trip... which I didn't really expect. But sometimes I would be talking to people and they would say "Aren't your ears cold?" (It was about 0 degrees Celsius that day). I would pretty much say "Heh, I'm from Canada, this is a Summer's day for me." So yeah, lots of talking. Sometimes I would be talking to older black men... and when they heard that I was from Canada, they would be like "I can't beleive a white Canadian would fly down to see this."
After 4 hours of waiting, Obama finally became the president, which was cool to see. The pictures do not do any form of justice to the experience because of the mass of the crowd and the noise they were making.
After the speech, I started walking to the subway, which took an hour (2-3 blocks) and then I lined up for 2.5-3 hours just to get on the Subway. Took the subway to the aiport, and was home at 10pm on Tuesday.
Pics for your enjoyment:
Getting there:
Starting to walk closer:
People:
View from where I was standing:
View of behind from where I was standing:
Obama's Speech:
Madness after the speech:
So as some of you know, I went down to DC a few days ago to check out the inauguration of Obama.
First of all, if you didn't already know, I'm Canadian. I was born and raised in Canada... my mom recently moved to the US, but I don't really have any "ties" to the US other than that. That being said, however, I am in the US all the time (15-20 times a year)... and I am very very pro-American/Canadian relations. You know what I'm saying? I don't know...
I was talking to Vito (Mario's_Left_Nut) on Facebook and he was surprised that I was going. I told him: "this is an important day for Americans... and obviously this means more to Americans that it does to Canadians, but Americans are important to Canadians."
Okay, so I was kind of thinking about going to the inauguration this past Sunday. I was trying to find people that would drive down with me, but nobody would go on such short notice (like 1 day). So when I couldn't find anybody to go with me, I pretty much gave up on going.
So Monday morning I woke up, and I said to myself "screw it, I'm just going to fly down." I really wanted to go, so if I want to go somewhere, why don't I just go, you know? My mom always taught me that, "I'll never regret it if I go... and I'll always regret it if I don't."
The round trip ticket cost me $300, which, really, is nothing. I figured - when is the next time I am going to see $300? Probably next week. When is the next time I will be in a sea of 2-4 million people cheering on the first Black President of the United States? Never again.
SO, I left Monday night, after some complications with my flights (My flight to Reagan Airport getting canceled and then re-routing me to Dulles), I arrived at George Washington University at 11pm. My friend is a Med School student at GWU, so I was lucky enough that I could stay with him. Him, I and all of his friends went parting until 4am, when I went to bed.
I woke up at 6am, and by 7am, I was at the National Mall (where everything was happening). I spent an hour trying to get as close as possible, maneuvering my way through the sea of people. Eventually, I got to a point where I was as close as I could POSSIBLY get without having a ticket. Which was perfect.
So it was now 8am, and nothing was going to start happening until around 11:30, and his speech was going to be at noon. So that meant 3.5-4 hours of standing there. During this time, I was talking to all of the people around me, which was nice. I actually talked to quite a few Canadians on the trip... which I didn't really expect. But sometimes I would be talking to people and they would say "Aren't your ears cold?" (It was about 0 degrees Celsius that day). I would pretty much say "Heh, I'm from Canada, this is a Summer's day for me." So yeah, lots of talking. Sometimes I would be talking to older black men... and when they heard that I was from Canada, they would be like "I can't beleive a white Canadian would fly down to see this."
After 4 hours of waiting, Obama finally became the president, which was cool to see. The pictures do not do any form of justice to the experience because of the mass of the crowd and the noise they were making.
After the speech, I started walking to the subway, which took an hour (2-3 blocks) and then I lined up for 2.5-3 hours just to get on the Subway. Took the subway to the aiport, and was home at 10pm on Tuesday.
Pics for your enjoyment:
Getting there:
Starting to walk closer:
People:
View from where I was standing:
View of behind from where I was standing:
Obama's Speech:
Madness after the speech:
Comments
Did people around you "boo" when Bush took the stage? I heard sound bites of it on the radio. I thought that was in REALLY poor taste. The inauguration is not the proper forum for that kind of thing.
~~NGD
Did people around you "boo" when Bush took the stage? I heard sound bites of it on the radio. I thought that was in REALLY poor taste. The inauguration is not the proper forum for that kind of thing.
Yeah, you know what, they did. Not only that, they were booing George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, AND Laura Bush. Whenever any of those people would appear on screen, the crowd booed them like crazy.
Not only that, when Bush was walking into the place where they do all the signing/transitioning or whatever (he was second last one to walk in, next to Obama) people were chanting "Nah nah nah nah..... Nah nah nah nah.... Hey Hey Hey.... Goooood Byeee"
There were even crowds of people singing "Hit the road Jack! And don't ya come back no more, no more, no more, no more!"
I never really participated in any of the chanting/cheering - positive (for Obama) or negative (for Bush). I was just there to see it. I agree, though, I felt bad for the guy (Bush) when everybody was booing. There was an older couple standing beside me from Texas, and they really didn't like it when people Booed him. Maybe they were saying "Boourns", though.
Did people around you "boo" when Bush took the stage? I heard sound bites of it on the radio. I thought that was in REALLY poor taste. The inauguration is not the proper forum for that kind of thing.
Yeah, you know what, they did. Not only that, they were booing George Bush Sr., Dick Cheney, AND Laura Bush. Whenever any of those people would appear on screen, the crowd booed them like crazy.
Not only that, when Bush was walking into the place where they do all the signing/transitioning or whatever (he was second last one to walk in, next to Obama) people were chanting "Nah nah nah nah..... Nah nah nah nah.... Hey Hey Hey.... Goooood Byeee"
There were even crowds of people singing "Hit the road Jack! And don't ya come back no more, no more, no more, no more!"
I never really participated in any of the chanting/cheering - positive (for Obama) or negative (for Bush). I was just there to see it. I agree, though, I felt bad for the guy (Bush) when everybody was booing. There was an older couple standing beside me from Texas, and they really didn't like it when people Booed him. Maybe they were saying "Boourns", though.
That's unfortunate. I don't think that people shouldn't voice their disagreements, but they voted and their voices were heard. No need for the other stuff that tarnishes a pretty important day. Not everybody has class, I guess.
I'm not trying to stir the pot or anything by mentioning it. I was just curious if it was as bad as it sounded on the radio.
Thanks for posting! Was it kind of like a penguin thing, where there were so many of you in a big mass that you all kept warm?
It
MAY have, but I think I would have been warmer. Even though it was
cold, the sun was really really warm that day. The only part of my body
that wasn't cold at all was my head, and it was because that was the
only part of my body that was exposed to the sun. The rest was covered
by everybody else.