Not an April Fools’ joke

So I was kind of surprised that I didn’t get any questions about why all the protests and demonstrations yesterday. Perhaps you’re all smarter than I give you credit for. Or perhaps no one besides my mother even read my entry and she already knew the reason. (By the way, if you want to see some video of one of the protests in front of the Embassy, CNN has a video here.) Anyway, the reason was this:

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Shawn and I spent the morning with these people (Ambassador Taylor, Mrs. Bush, President Bush, Doctor Taylor, and Secretary of State Rice if you’re having trouble with my darkish photo). Well, not exactly “spent the morning” - more like spent two and a half hours waiting and then spent 20 minutes of the morning. But it was pretty cool.

When it was my turn to meet the President, Shawn wanted me to ask if he was supporting Obama or Clinton, but I thought back to my etiquitte class and determined that it might not be…um, diplomatic. Instead, I was a little taken aback as he said, “Hey, how’re you doing?” Um. Good. Thanks. He seemed pretty laid back, which I guess isn’t too shocking. Shawn did note that he does the little shoulder shake when he laughs just like Jon Stewart’s impression of him.

So the visit is only a day and then they’re all off to the NATO Summit. I’ll be glad when it’s all over because Shawn has been working a crazy amount of overtime for the last few weeks. I cannot even begin to describe all the work that goes into an event like this. And all the details - it’s hard to even imagine. Shawn was pretty lucky, though, in that he got to do a fairly important job for the visit and work closely with Secretary Rice’s staff. So even though it’s been a lot of work, it seems like it’s been a good experience for him.

And a couple more photos from this morning: