Landing and Getting to the Valley

I'm not sure if it's just my nature or everyone's experience, but the night before the trip involved packing into the wee hours of the night despite convincing myself that I was "95%" packed the day before. It's amazing how much stuff I ended up thinking I needed and perhaps more amazing that I managed to stuff it into two bags.  Or maybe it's embarrassing that I needed so much...either way, I was in no way aware of the public transit nightmare that would unfold the next day.  I slept for a few hours, said goodbye to mom and dad at the airport, and met the other New Mexican Scholar, Jake Wellman, in the seating waiting for the flight.

Jake and I hit it off from the start.  His masters is in Environmental Economics at LSE, and outside of being crazy smart (like all of the scholars I've met) he is down to earth and as enthusiastic about puns as I am.  The night before, we had both received the cryptic but suspiciously military-sounding text: "I am your driver.  This is not my number, you can reach me at 555-555-5555 tomorrow." The ambiguity made me think the organizers had arranged for us to have private drivers, but instead we met Brad Hackert, an Air Force officer who will be studying war studies at Kings College.  We hit it off as well, and before long the three of us were discussing the role of the military and civilians in the middle east.

We made our way to a bus with our bags (between us all we had 300+ pounds of luggage) and followed Jake to the train to DC.  I quickly realized what it's like to carry 100 pounds of luggage in muggy DC weather, and based on how sweaty my shirt was I think the people around us got a pretty good idea as well.  As we waited for the train to arrive, there were muffled explosions going on in my head as I thought through what it would be like for the three of us to get our six gigantic bags and six carry-on items onto the train between all of the business commuters getting on and off.

Somehow we managed, but the absurdity of it prompted an older couple to jokingly ask: "What's going on, are you guys moving somewhere for two years?"  We laughed and said they were exactly right.  They wished us luck and probably wished I could take a shower as we struggled onto the platform at Union Station.  Jake, in all of his wisdom, took us to get a cab instead of the subway, and we made the last leg of the trip to the rental station in an air conditioned van.  We met up with Patrick Donnan of Auburn University and David Jia from Stanford.  Again, both were really friendly and smart, and we had a great chat during lunch.  In fact I'll save some time and words...all the scholars are friendly, super smart and great to hang out with--it's been incredibly humbling and has made for awesome conversations covering every topic under the sun.  As I introduce more, assume that they are all excellent people.

When we got back to the rental place, Emmy, Raina, Kate, and Sam had arrived and were also getting their car. Unbelievably, the gals had managed to get eight bags to the rental place ENTIRELY ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.  I didn't think about it too much to avoid further aneurysms. We helped them pack into the cars and set off to the Shenandoah Valley.