By Mike Manzoni

Tourists from around the country-perhaps even the world-ventured to Washington last weekend for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.

And as visitors were observing the cherry blossoms that encompass the nation’s capital, University students were just getting off of the highway after a seven-hour ride to begin a four-day stay which would include a number of briefs to both media and political organizations.

As the bus entered the city passing by the new National Park and anxious fans waiting to cross the threshold of the stadium, just a ways down, the rotunda of the Capitol Building was glistening in the rays of the sun, which was slowly retiring to the West for the evening.

After a sweep through the Capitol Hill and short drives by the Washington Monument which stood at the center of the of Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s masterful architecture and design that is Washington, the bus came to rest at the hotel-one which was nestled behind the city in the town of Rosslyn, Va.

(The First Evening: Taking to Georgetown.)

A sizable amount of students, some of which were in the area for the first time, navigated themselves to the subway and took it to Georgetown, the staid, upscale section of the D.C. area.

Parading through the city, sometimes confused as they were separated, the roughly two dozen students struggled to adapt to the new way of traversing the streets.

In Washington, one typically is given about 30 seconds to cross a short street, maybe 50 yards.

But to Hofstra students, it was the most arduous task of a most unusual gelid night. At one point, one person was in a corner of an intersection, while two others were in another, looking across the street at yet another group, All confused where, when, and, as ridiculous as it may seem, how to cross.

Finally coming to form, the congregation of students went to a Malaysian restaurant in Georgetown while others strayed into other parts of city to see a concert.

(Day Two: An Itinerary Amended.)

Though the carefully scripted itinerary called for a visit to the National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of Natural History, professors decided to let students tour the city themselves, setting only a deadline to meet the bus in front of the Smithsonian later that day.

Seasoned throughout Capitol Hill were a few large groups, but, because of varying interests, the different clusters splintered. Some even were left wandering solo.

(Day Three: Detour to Arlington.)

Shut out by a scheduled brief at Rock the Vote on short notice, a stop at Arlington National Cemetery replaced the empty block on the schedule.

Reposing at the foot of Arlington House, also known as the Robert E. Lee Memorial, the bus stopped to release students on the 624-acres of land.

Students rushed through the final resting sites of former President John F. Kennedy and his brother, former Senator and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Students photographed the eternal flame of the former president’s grave site that, adjacent to his brother’s simple white cross and conservative plaque, seemed grandiose.

(Day Four: No Cameras!)

“If you’re taking a picture, yes; if you’re filming, no!” said Nancy Dehlinger, the peculiar, ill-prepared speaker at the Republican National Committee who began her scripted ramble at the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Republican Center by all but berating a student.

Dispatched by the University’s Center for Civic Engagement to shoot footage for a promotional video, a journalism student was told to put away his camera.

Her constant glancing at prepared text on the podium in front of her took away from her presentation which already started on an awkwardly sour note.

As it turns out, her speech foreshadowed her responses.

The woman responded in a subtle, Southern twang to nearly every question by saying: “All I can tell you is my own opinion.”

The meeting was so poorly rated by students and professors that the brief by the woman, who one person later likened to a mean fourth-grade teacher, prompted one professor to say he might change his party affiliation.

Final stops at the Democratic National Committee and a conservative publication were made before the bus rolled around the highway outside of the Pentagon before heading back to New York.

Mike Manzoni is a freshman broadcast journalism student. You may e-mail him at [email protected].