Mr. Oakes Goes to Washington?

Four score and seven minutes ago (give or take), I returned from Washington, D.C. It may be fitting then that my inaugural blog address will concern my trip to the District. The city is filled with reverencial tributes to many of the great patriots, presidents, and leaders of our country. My main reason for going out there was to visit the university named after The Third Greatest Man To Ever Live, George Washington. GWU is located right in the middle of the city, within blocks of the Blanca Casa, or White House (for the non-spanish speakers). I was prepared to dislike the area and the school, but I was very pleasantly surprised by both.

Foggy Bottom, the area where the school is located, actually seemed pretty nice. (I'm sure I'm not the first person to think Foggy Bottom is a funny sounding name.) Maybe everyone was confusing GW with Georgetown, but the area was in much better shape than I was led to believe by people who "knew" the area. The city was generally pretty clean and nothing was worse than parts of downtown LA. There is a convenient metro stop right on campus with access to the whole city and surrounding states. There are only a few blocks to the monuments and I think they try to keep it up as well as possible. The streets were pretty clean. I saw a few bums here and there, but its a big city, what are you going to do?

The school itself was really nice. It looked like they had done alot of renovation because everything inside the school was really well kept. The library and facilities looked nice. The Moot Courtroom was the nicest I have seen at any school so far. All the classrooms are better than the ones I saw at Hastings. The school is very diverse which is a plus. They tout great opportunities for students with all the government agencies and firms in the nearby area. Most of all, the students looked like they were overall pretty happy. I saw more smiles than I saw frowns, more people studying contently than passed out over their laptops. I was really impressed by the Dean and the whole school. I was there for most of the day on Friday for all kinds of orientations and seminars. I was impressed with the quality of the other admitted students. Everyone there was definitely very smart. Overall I have to say that it was much nicer than Hastings and BYU.

The problem is it is expensive. It's not just tuition that is staggering (tuition costs an arm and a leg). The overall living expenses of Washington just add insult to one-armed, one-legged injury. There are ways to cut down on costs by sharing a room, living in Virginia, sharing a room in Virginia, or just living on the street. But all these have their costs that probably balance out to equal in lost time and metro fees, or frostbite, or worse.

In the final assessment, I learned that I could handle three years of east coast experience, and I might even enjoy it. As long as I can stay out of the summer heat, Washington might be a great experience for me. There are so many fun things to do there, and so many opportunities available only to students in that area. BUT when all is weighed out, UCLA still has the edge in location, cost, quality, and weather. If I get the chance, then UCLA it will be. But otherwise, I may just have to give the District a chance.

Saturday I was lucky to have a full day to get to check out the sights, which included a tour of the Capitol building. I had a great day of exploring by myself, but I was unable to even really scratch the surface of what there is to do among all the museums, exhibits, and monuments. The best part was that most of them are free. It was a great trip and each day that goes by makes it look more likely that I will live out there for the next few years.

I posted a bunch more photos here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22723&l=86388&id=596407478

Please check them out...

Dan