DC Fun

I'm sitting in my hotel room in DC, enjoying a nice rest after spending the day at the National Museum of the American Indian. If you're ever in the area, I'd highly recommend it. All of the Smithsonian museums are great, of course, but this one was very special. I took a guided tour with a "cultural interpreter," a Navajo woman who took seriously her responsiblity to reeducate those of us who have misperceptions about the First People. Honestly it was quite moving and I'm glad I had the afternoon to digest it all.

I'm here for another Fulbright orientation for the next cohort of Fulbrighters going to the Near East, Africa and South Asia. Yesterday, I was honored to sit on a panel called "What it means to be a Fulbrighter." (See my comments from last year's panel presentation here.) The other panelists were Dr. E. Ethelbert Miller, Scholar to Israel, and Dr. Everette Penn, Scholar to Egypt. I'm very lucky to have been included.

After the meeting, I met up with my fellow alum Keisuke. I haven't seen Kei since I left Bangladesh last June! He's living in DC, so we went out after the meeting for some great Chinese food (fresh noodles made on the spot!) and we caught up on all the news. All that was missing was our buddy TKP, who is in Kolkata doing her own research at the moment. I'll be visiting her hopefully next week!

Tonight we have a fancy shmancy reception - time for me to get ready. I'll take my camera along and I'll try to take some pictures for later posting.