Traffic, Heat, and Fireworks

The heat was getting to me as I parked my car (likely illegally) after quickly getting lost in the downtown D.C. area.  I was coming in from the George Washington Parkway and the directions I had seemed easy enough to follow.  Boy was I wrong.  To top it all off, I was traveling on the nation's birthday, in the nation's capital, in the middle of a humid afternoon.  But, I quickly found that people were helpful and friendly in accomodating my situation.  One older man I met along the way even was originally from my hometown and we discussed this for some time before he and others sent me on my way down the correct streets.  Once back on track, the delays of the traffic and holiday road closures only made things more difficult.  Suddenly, I was regretting not coming earlier and also dying of heat.  Even though I had just returned from Africa only weeks earlier, the heat and humidity was ripe in the air here and I wasn't ready for it.  Finally, after circling Thomas Circle for nearly an hour and a half, I found the hotel (thanks to some locals) and entered to find that my roommate had not yet arrived.  I checked in and moved my stuff from the basement parking lot to my room.  I was nervous already for this trip and even with all the previous traveling I had done, for some reason, that nervousness only increased now that I had arrived.  I quickly met a few other's attending the conference, one from Canada (which I later found to be quite common) and we walked around the city a bit to later end up at the Chinese restaurant that was part of the package.  There, we ate and also met a few others, including one women from Armenia who with I became good friends over the next couple of days.  We were able to make it back to the hotel before a severe thunderstorm rolled through the metro area prior to the fireworks.  Later, we all made our way down to the lawn of the Washington Monument to witness the nation's best fireworks display.  This, however, wasn't until after we had sought out a hot dog for nearly an hour to no avail.  I spoke for awhile with a man by the name of Andre from New Orleans and Tulane University about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  As the fireworks ended we made our way back through the city, to the hotel, and to bed.  My roommate got in late that night.  He was from Cameroon, Africa (a pleasant surprise for me and apparently for him too, as he found out I was there)  We discussed the African continent despite my clearly tired eyes and he often mentioned something that I heard over and over, I had seen the truth by being to Africa, and that set me apart.  I smiled at his cheerful attitude and his comments.  But, behind that smile was real concern.  The next couple days was setup for us to uncover that truth that he spoke of and how to fix it.  We were tasked with this problem, and we, our generation, would have to be the ones to find a solution.