Day 6: April 21
I can’t believe that this was the last day of the Spring Meetings!!! It was so jammed packed but it also flew by!!! The last five days have just been a whirlwind for my brain and reignited my passion and interest in development!
Today’s panel was entitled Building Human Capital: A Project for the World. While I was unable to attend this panel in person (hooray for aggravating my back injury), the above link will let you (and me) hear what the panellist had to say. And guess who one of the panellists were??????
BILL GATES!!!!!!! MICROSOFT BILL GATES! BILL & MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION BILL GATES!!!!
I’ve seen and listened to so many amazing, admirable and insanely knowledgeable people during these meetings. That just in itself has made this trip worthwhile.
After that panel, we met with Adam Moscoe. Adam is currently working as an Advanced Policy Analyst Program with Finance Canada. Adam completed his B.A. and M.A. at the University of Ottawa, and through the Young Diplomats of Canada program met our professor. Since then they have exchanged tweets and she invited Adam to speak to us about becoming a public servant, his experience and suggestions for us as we enter the working world after graduation. Although our time with Adam was short, it was very inciteful, and he was gracious enough to give us his contact information if we had anymore follow up questions.
And that was the end of the Spring Meetings! Now, it was time to explore D.C.
My friends Jessica, Iqra and I started our afternoon eating at our favourite pizza place, &Pizza (which just so happened to be attached to the hotel I was staying at). Honestly, this is one of the BEST pizzas I’ve had. Just see for yourself:
After pizza, we headed to the Smithsonian’s newest museum: The National African American History and Culture Museum. This is such a popular museum!! The museum is free just like all of the other Smithsonian museums, however, you require a timed ticket. These need to be acquired months in advance (at the end of March I was trying to get a ticket, and the next available tickets were for July). Thankfully, the museum does release same-day tickets. The catch is they are released at 6:30 am and go in a heartbeat. Iqra was a doll and woke up in the wee hours to get our tickets. IT WAS 100% WORTH IT!
I was so intrigued by all the information and exhibits that I completely forgot to take any pictures at the museum. The museum is separated into two different parts. There are three stories tracing the history of African Americans in the United States from slavery to present day and the trials, tribulations, setbacks, successes, rights granted and spirit they went through and endeared. The second part of the museum is a number of galleries featuring art from African American artists. I, unfortunately, didn’t get to see much of this second part of the museum because I had tickets to the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts!
This show is a hilarious Who-Done-It Murder Mystery. The first act of the show goes as any other theatre production would. But then in the second act, they brake the four wall, and us audience members play the role of detective and decide who is the murder. In addition to producing outstanding art, the Kennedy Centre also has a gorgeous view of D.C. and Georgetown. I’ve compiled pictures below.
After the show I returned to my hotel and packed up, tomorrow I’m checking out and checking into an Airbnb-Hostel to start the second phase of the D.C. lag of my trip.
Can’t wait to tell you what I got up to next!
Anne Marie's Adventures 