A place where students can speak out freely and engage in debate and discussion about Civic Engagement, world news and politics. The views and opinions expressed in this Student Blog do not necessarily express the views and opinions of The University of Texas-Pan American or the UTPA administration.

I've Finally Arrived!

HugoPosted At : January 17, 2009 9:00 PM | Posted By : Hugo Salazar
Related Categories: Inauguration

Hi Everyone,

       I started off the day really excited. Both my mom and sister saw me off at McAllen Miller International Airport this morning, and I arrived in Washington at 2:00pm (1:00pm Valley time). The city is full of people, and it's unbelievably cold! It was 19 degrees when I got here and the temperature only gets colder as the sun goes down.

     The shuttle ride to the hotel gave me just a few glimpses of the Washington and Lincoln Monuments, but I promise my future pictures will be better.  I started out the day checking in to the hotel, and registering for the program.

There were a couple of introductory seminars, but the highlight of the evening was getting to listen to our welcome speech by news correspondent Luke Russert.

His speech was very insightful and touched mainly on the importance of the youth vote, and the importance of political involvement, and he added a lot of humor.

Tomorrow, our keynote speaker will be General Colin Powell (Ret.), and we'll be shuttled to the University of Maryland to hear him. I'll also have a chance to visit some of the monuments of the National Mall in evening. Well, as much as I'd like to keep telling you all what's on schedule, I have to end my first blog right here. It's about 9:20pm right now, and I have to wake up in time to catch our breakfast at 5:15...that's right, 5:15am.

     -Hugo

Oh, and for anyone wondering, there are 5,000 of us attending the conference, and people came from all over the world. Here's what the ballroom looked like when we all heard our welcome speech:

 

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Inaugural Blog Info

HugoPosted At : January 13, 2009 6:25 PM | Posted By : Hugo Salazar
Related Categories: Inauguration

Hi everyone, I'm Hugo Salazar, a Senior Chemistry Major at UTPA, and I'm going to attend the Presidential Inauguration next week. My trip is part of the University Presidential Inaugural Conference which will begin Saturday January 17 and end on Wednesday January 21. While I'm over there, I'll post a daily blog, which will probably be in the evenings, and I'll try to include as many pictures as I can. Feel free to post comments and questions, but please understand that the conference will keep me pretty busy, so I may not be able to reply to all of them. If you want a little more information on me and my trip you can read the UTPA article by clicking here.

Talk to you all later,

-Hugo

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