National PDO

          Last week, I attended the National Pre-Departure Orientation in Washington, DC. On Tuesday, I left from Albuquerque on a 7:20 flight to Dallas and I then flew from there to DC. When I arrived in Dulles, I followed the confusing signs to the baggage claim where I was greeted by several YES Abroad volunteers and some fellow YES students heading to a variety of countries next year. We rode a shuttle on the crazy DC roads to the 4-H Center, which was very nostalgic being back at since that was where we had IPSE, where my airport group signed in, got our name tags, YES shirts, and YES bags (all of which I was very excited about), dropped our bags off in our rooms, and went to the main hanging out room in the center to pass the time until dinner. We had our first workshop that night where we talked about the program in general and how to be an effective ambassador while abroad. Despite the late hour that we finished, many of us hung out in the common areas until curfew and my roommates and I stayed up for several hours after that just talking.

The 4-H Center where we stayed for both the IPSE and the PDO. It was strange and wonderful being back because I had convinced myself I would never see the center again after IPSE.

          Wednesday was an extremely long day of workshops that were very informative and helpful, but staying at the same table in the same room for roughly 12 hours got exhausting. Our workshops covered many topics from Health and Safety to Discussions of Faith to Being a Digital Citizen. I felt I learned a lot from each of the workshops and they forced me to consider many things I had never even thought about before, but I was glad I thought about before I was in a situation where I might easily offend someone. It was also very nice to be able to ask many of the questions I had thought of to our wonderful group leader Hana and get answers from someone who had actually lived in Turkey and knew firsthand answers. It was also wonderful to get to know the Turkey group who will hopefully be my exchange family for the next year. Everyone in my group was very nice and I'm very excited that we will be experiencing Turkey together. After an incredibly long day, my roommates and I ignored our need for sleep and stayed up late into the night once again.
          Thursday was a very exciting day for me because we got to get out of the 4-H center for awhile and go around DC. We all got dressed up and it was very fun to see everyone in their nice clothes. We then split up by country with some groups going to their country's embassy while others went to a museum with art from their region. We were lucky enough to be able to go to the Turkish embassy which was very cool. There was some confusion with the buses to take us to our various destinations so the Turkey group ended up on a giant couch bus for the 7 of us, Hana, and another woman working at the orientation. We arrived at the embassy, which was absolutely beautiful, went through security and were taken to a room where we waited for awhile and demanded Kyle teach us some of the Turkish he knew. We then met the 2nd and 3rd secretary who gave us a presentation about Turkey in general and about Turkish foreign policy and answered lots of our questions. We also got tea and coffee as well as some cookies that were very delicious. It was very cool to talk to the people at the Embassy and they had a lot of information for us. I also thought it was very funny because when I told them I was from Albuquerque, one of the men giving us the presentation told me how much he liked Breaking Bad which is something I hear pretty often. I just thought it was hilarious that a Turkish man would have watched Breaking Bad and was later told that Breaking Bad is popular in Turkey which should lead to some interesting conversations for me.

The sign on the outside of the Turkish Embassy. There isn't a W in the Turkish language, so it says Vasington instead of our spelling.

There was another building like the one you can see here opposite this one and they were both very beautiful. It's not a great picture but it was all I had time to take.

          After our visit to the Embassy, we ate lunch in a park and walked to the US Department of State which was right up the street. We went through security and were escorted (and I do mean escorted. Some of us asked to go to the bathroom and the women who took us actually came into the bathroom with us. They weren't playing around!) to a meeting room. There, we were addressed by the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary who told us about her experiences living and working abroad and gave us some insight into what the Department of State expects from us during our year abroad. After she spoke, we were able to ask questions to several other Officers in the Department of State and then we asked questions to someone who specialized in Turkey and that area of the world. It was very nice to talk to him and he was very informative about various subjects in Turkey.
          We then walked down to the Lincoln Memorial which was very fun since I hadn't been there since I was much younger. However, it was beastly hot and I was ready to get back to somewhere with air conditioning pretty quickly. We took some group pictures and then we headed back to the 4-H Center where everyone excitedly changed out of our fancy clothes and went to dinner. We then had another workshop during which we got some interesting diagrams drawn for us by Allen (including my favorite, the chart of exchange student happiness and sadness) and then hung out and talked as long as we could.

The view of the Washington Monument from the steps of  the Lincoln Memorial. It was a beautiful day despite the heat and humidity and I loved seeing the memorials. You can also see how incredibly crowded it was at the Lincoln Memorial. The huge masses of people weren't really helping out with the heat.

Lincoln sitting on his chair inside his memorial. I felt obligated to take the tourist photos while I was there since I didn't know when I would be back.

The Turkey Group. From Left to Right: Hana (our group leader), Priya, Elsa, Kyle, Me, Leah, Jake, and Rowan. 

           Friday morning, my roommates and I packed up and headed for breakfast. Everyone checked out and headed to a meeting about policies and a goodbye session after which we just hung out until we had to go to the airport. I was on the early flight and after clearing security, another YES student and I had lunch and waited for other YES kids to show up. Once we found some, we all hung out and accompanied people to their gates. I was one of the first people to leave and it was really sad for me. I hated not knowing how long it would be before I saw most of these people again and that in some cases, I might never see them again. Even if I wasn't close with them, they are the ones who truly understand what I am going through and they will be the most understanding during my time abroad. After my goodbyes, it was just a long journey home. All this week, I have really missed being in DC with all these people who just understand who I am and who can always make me laugh. I can't wait to see my group and hopefully the Ghana group again in 50-something days at our gateway orientation. Thanks for reading! Hopefully I will have more news about Turkey to update this with soon!

The YES Abroad Class of 2014-2015. I don't think there is a more qualified group of kids out there and I know that everyone is going to accomplish amazing things.

The Turkish flag in the Dulles airport. In the B terminal, the ceiling is lined with tons of international flags so naturally I had to track down the Turkish one.

P.S. The girls going to India arrived in their new homes a few days ago and I hope everything is going well and that they have an amazing year!