Road Trip, Philadelphia, DC

Well, the last week was too busy, so I'm doing a quick recap:
Road Trip to Philly was long. We departed at 6 am and reached our hotel at 8-9 pm. We had a really good busdriver, who took us to 9/11 memorial in Pennsylvania.

The memorial is dedicated to the 4th plane that departed from Newark (it was supposed to go to San Francisco). Shortly after the plane had taken off, the terrorists took over the plane, but people on board had already received texts from their loved ones about the other planes that had already hit the targets. So the people somehow managed take back the control over the plane and they made an impossible decision - they crashed the plane on the empty fields of Pennsylvania, in the middle of nowhere. Every single person on that plane died. There were quite a lot of people visiting the memorial and it felt really sad, but at the same time walking there made me admire those people, who very possibly avoided the plane crashing into the Capitol (that's believed to be the plane's specific target).

In Philly we stayed at the Red Roof Inn Trevorse, a small hotel that actually looked better than I expected. Although I spent half an hour on the phone with the WiFi customer line, after being put on hold for 3 times I finally got a fast internet connection.

The next day we visited the Independence Hall, the Constitution Center and later we got 4.5 hours of free time. Me and Karolina walked through Chinatown, on the main street and through the Rittenhouse district. Downtown Philadelphia looks exactly like New York in movies - busy and colorful. In the evening we started driving to DC. When we finally arrived at the UDC apartments, we were surprised, and not just because of the big apartments with kitchen and a personal bathroom. We didn't have any pillows, blankets, bedsheets, toilet paper or shower curtains. Thanks to our mentors' quick actions, we got the missing things a couple of hours later, only shower curtains remained missing, but it was no big deal, only the bathroom was flooded every time somebody took a shower. But our apartment was on the 11th floor, we could see the top of the Capitol from our window and we had a metro station and Starbucks around the corner - so it was pretty amazing.

We spent 2 days in DC. We visited the State Department, where we did a NATO simulation, which was really fun. One of the girls interning at the State Department was American Estonian and she started talking to me in Estonian. It was the weirdest feeling - all my languages got mixed up and I couldn't speak proper Estonian just because in my mind I couldn't link being in a totally American environment and speaking Estonian at the same time. In DC we also visited all the important places - the White House, the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial and the museums - Smithsonian, Newseum, the Holocaust Museum. DC is really stunning. It is a big city, but it has endless green spaces and everything is so clean. It also feels very safe. People cycle through the city wearing suits and backpacks. DC is definitely a city I would like to live in. It's completely amazing.

After two completely amazing days in DC it was time to face the inevitable - the goodbyes. I actually have to admit that I didn't cry until getting home - what can I say, I'm a slow Estonian. :) It didn't feel real, I didn't actually realize the fact that it was going to be over very soon.

But, after spending the late Friday night packing, it was time to leave on Saturday morning. After long goodbyes, checking in at the airport, doing some last-minute souvenir-shopping and the last absolutely amazing Starbucks frappucino, it was time to step on a plane and leave the USA. We were flying with Lufthansa and I really enjoyed the flight - it lasted only a bit over 7 hours, the food was good, movies were great and I had an aisle seat. In Frankfurt we said the last goodbyes and then I was on my own. I had almost 5 hours to kill and Pille-Riin, the WFU Estonian Fellow, was coming with a later flight, so I was alone. Anyway, I wondered around the airport for quite a while and then, when my gate was finally announced, I landed on a seat next to my gate and read the book I bought in DC until the boarding started. The flight to Tallinn was very boring, but I finally got an hour of sleep.

My mom and sisters were waiting for me at the airport with a "Welcome Home" sign. We went home, ate some soup and black bread and I showed others some photos.

I'm going to write one more post to summarize all my emotions, thoughts and experiences I got from BFTF, so stay tuned.