Quick fast forward update

So I've kind of given up on really doing a full recap of the rest of my time in London, though I may go back and do a brief overview of Thanksgiving, Finals/everyone leaving and the Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague but for now lets stick to current events.

I went to the Inauguration today! Muhlenberg sent down four buses to DC to see the Inauguration and thanks to somebody signing me up I was able to be on one (even though sign ups were when I was in London).

We left around 2ish this morning and had no problem going down because we got there around 6ish. A couple of us grabbed breakfast near where we parked and then headed down following our map and the handful of other people all moving in the same direction that early.

Even though people keep telling me I've been to DC before I barely remember ever being there in the main DC monument section (I know I was there for Melissas wedding but we didn't go sight seeing) with all the stuff so when we could see the Washington Monument I got pretty excited. We continued to follow the crowds past the monument and to and through the Mall where we walked up as far as we could before the crowd was dense. We were able to move up little bits throughout the course of the day but for the most part we were by the 2nd big Jumbotron. We could see the dome of the Capital from where we were ironically enough the first big Jumbotron blocked where everyone was sitting and where the ceremony took place.

They played the concert from a couple of nights ago on the screens before the pre-ceremony stuff started. I think we must have been in the singing section because people around us were singing but if you looked elsewhere everyone else was pretty sedate. The concert kept everyone in high spirits which pretty much lasted all day. It was really a well behaved crowd which is amazing when you realize how many people were there but there was very little pushing or shoving and no fights or anything which made for a great day.

Other than that it probably played out the way it did on TV because we watched most of it from the Jumbotrons. But it was his voice coming through the speakers and we could see the Capital and everything so I can still say I was there to witness history, which is something you rarely get to say.

Afterwards the crowds leaving were a little more ridiculous. There were 2 exits for the entire Mall with no signage or anything saying where they were just plenty of gates and borders saying where they weren't. Once we got out we didn't try and get to the parade 1-because we didn't know how long it would take to get back to the bus in the crowd and 2- because they said they had closed access to the parade route earlier in the day. We probably could have forced our way but instead we just headed back to the bus with the crowd which was a bit more rowdy but still extremely well behaved.

We got back to the bus around 2:30 and we had to be back by 3:30 so we got some hot food and sat on the bus and ate in the bus where it was warmer and less crowded. No traffic really coming back, got back in about 4 hours or so which was great. Now I'm just tired. But that's that!