It's now 10:03 and I am finally back in my hotel room. We got up at 6am this morning so our bus could leave exactly at 7am. First we visited the Pentagon. When I toured the Pentagon through TWC we got a standard issue tour. One of my professor's friends gave us a mini-tour ( a little different from the standard tour, we even got to visit “The Tank” where the Joint Chiefs of Staff hold meetings) and also told us at the beginning of the tour that he would have to leave at some point because he had to brief members of Congress on the new defense treaty that Admiral Mullen will be signing on Monday. The timing for our topic could not have been any better. The first group presented their ideas to Paul Stockton, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas' security affairs. He was very receptive to our ideas and said many were in the beginning stages of development.
After leaving the Pentagon, we headed to the State Department. We arrived late because our Pentagon tour ran over but were able to join the 8th floor tour in progress. After that tour we headed to our meeting. I was presenting in this meeting to Deputy Assistant Secretary Chris McMullen and the United States Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States (OAS). The meeting went well and we were also joined by a man who works at the State Department in refugee issues and is originally from Jacksonville (Secretary McMullen always went to Jacksonville University for a year). I really enjoyed being able to discuss refugee issues, as they are something I feel very strongly about. The discussion and presentation went well and we also got to see a good portion of the building. To be honest., I found most of the building to be very unappealing (lots of plain white halls) but enjoyed the experience.
The 8th floor of the State Department: 
After the State Department we visited Office of American States. It was an incredibly beautiful building and I learned a lot about the organization, something I didn't know much about before that trip. There we meet with the Brazil Ambassador to the OAS and a few staff members. The best part of this was learning about the “peace tree.” When we first came in, our tour guide pointed to a picture near the door. The OAS is about to celebrate its 100 birthday and when it first opened President Taft gifted them a peace tree. They are asking for President Obama to come to their 100th anniversary gala to plant another tree (we actually mentioned this to the member of the NSC we met later that day).
The outside of the OAS:
Meeting table at the OAS:
The original peace tree (it was maybe 4 feet tall when President Taft planted it):
After our tour and presentation at the OAS, we walked across the street to our meeting at the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB). As we came through security, my professor pulled three names from a bag to decide who got to go with her to a tv interview she was taping that evening. I did not get picked but my roommate did. As we headed up stairs for our meeting all of the sudden I hear my professor say “Oh, David! How are you?” I looked up and saw she was hugging David Gergen. I'm still pretty shocked he was just wandering the halls but I was excited (and the teasing for that has been constant). We met with Luis Rossello, the director for the Southern Cone at the National Security Council and Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs: Dan Restrepo. This meeting was a great learning experience. Both men explained what points could be expanded, what was logical, etc. They did a great job explaining exactly the questions we should be asking ourselves when writing a paper like and the questions he has to answer when he wants to bring an issue to his boss. This was, without a doubt one of the best meetings we had.
My EEOB pass:
After that meeting (our final for the day), we split up. A few members of the group headed to Ambassador Soderberg's interview while the rest of us visited the Kennedy Center. Because we were running late we missed the free performance but walked around and took it all in. Following that, we all meet up at dinner. We ate a very tasty Peruvian restaurant (El Chalan on 19th and I). It was deliciously and a great way to end the night. Shannon and I went right to our room and to sleep.
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