Inauguration Day

Inauguration Day
Today was a crazy day. I got up at 4 this morning to get ready for the inauguration. Myself and two other s had tickets and passes to a parade watching party thanks to my mom. So we got all dressed up in dresses and headed to the capital. We thought that leaving my 6:15 we would not have any trouble getting through with tickets. We were very wrong though. There were so many people and it was so cold outside. We get to the first checkpoint, which was a mass checkpoint that went all the way around the block. We waited at the first checkpoint for about an hour without moving and decided we would try to get another way in. So we started walking towards the metro when a man on a bike with a trailer said he could give us a ride. We were so cold and tired that we decided that it was cold. So the three of us hopped on and then the guy shouted it would be 40 bucks to take us to the capital. So then we went a whole three blocks with him before we got to a dead end and the guy said “sorry can’t take you any farther, that will be 30 bucks and don’t forget the tip” Nikki told him 30 bucks without tip would be plenty and that “you took us two blocks!” So we hopped out of the most expensive bike ride of my life and headed to the capital. We finally made it to the silver gate which is where we were supposed to enter with our tickets. We were at the silver gate for about two hours before they let us in. We finally got in and went through security. We stayed for a bit and took some pictures and then decided we wanted to go to the party where it was warm. That was another fun adventure that took 2 more hours to get to. We basically had to walk back under the tunnel to get to the building our party was in. When we finally saw our building that our party was in we saw that we had to cut through a big crowd to get in. That was not a fun experience. These people were so upset and angry because they had purple tickets and they were not being let it. So they decided to take it out on everyone around them. I can’t say that I blame them; they had been waiting out there for hours and hours. After getting separated and yelled at a few times we finally made it to the party. It was a beautiful building with a great view of the capital. We were on the fifth floor overlooking the capital. We stayed there for a few hours and watched the parade. Then after the parade we took a taxi home and came back to our room and went to bed after a long and exhausting day.

The Inauguration was such a cool experience and I am so glad that I got the opportunity to be here for it. I have never seen so many people in one place before. It is cool to see our country stand behind our new President. There are so many people here from all over and it gives me chills to see how much people respect this man. It is so amazing to see and witness. Finally our country seems to be coming back together and just in time to welcome and support our new President.
-Stephanie