Weekend at Fogarty-Ellison Orientation

The weekend at Fogarty-Ellison orientation has been a great time to get to know some of the other fellows and see the Bethesda and Washington D.C. areas. My activities this weekend included a visit to the Smithsonian, a trip to a Washington Nationals game, and watching the World Cup final Sunday.

Saturday, I traveled into Washington D.C. with several of the U.S. and foreign site fellows. We arrived on the metro, and set off in two groups bound for various sites in our nation’s capital. A group of the foreign site fellows accompanied by one of the U.S. fellows headed to the White House and other monuments, while I headed to the Smithsonian along with two of the fellows from Yale. Paul (U.S. Fogarty: Lima, Peru), Libby (U.S. Fogarty: Chennai, India) and I headed first for the National Gallery (of Art), a museum I had not previously visited. After lunch at the folk festival on the National Mall, we all headed to the Museum of Natural History, meeting up with the group who had traveled to the White House. Finally, Paul and I checked out the Air and Space Museum, while the other fellows returned to Bethesda. Unfortunately by this point, most of the foreign site fellows were tired from walking around D.C., and so we were unable to get a large group for the Nationals game. Undeterred, Paul and I took the Metro out to the game, and were able to get great tickets behind third base for a game that we later learned was also attended by President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. The Nationals lost 5-2 to the San Diego Padres, but this game, which was the first National League game that I have attended, was still quite fun.

Sunday afternoon began with brunch at our program director’s home in Silver Spring, and ended with watching the World Cup final, won by Italy on penalty kicks. Penalties are definitely a tough way to lose a cup final… With my favorite teams USA, England, and Cote d’Ivoire long since out of the competition, I was hoping to see Zidane of France conclude his international career with a second cup victory, but instead saw his career end with a reckless head butt that resulted in his ejection during extra time. An unfortunate end to a stellar international football career.

Sunday evening involved Japanese food for dinner, at the local Benihana restaurant. At this restaurant, we watched as our food was prepared and cooked on the table right before our eyes, which was quite the experience. It proved to be a great dinner with twenty of the other Fogarty fellows, and a nice end to the weekend. Tomorrow, we’ll return to orientation with epidemiology in the morning, and country presentations in small regional groups in the afternoon.