It’s hard to imagine how enormous this monument is. It stands, he stands, like a mountain, facing the Tidal Basin and with a killer view of the Jefferson Memorial. Finally, I am a tourist in my home city. I love it. I know just enough to get around and enough has changed that there are new memories to forge.

Today was the orientation for the German Marshall Memorial Fellowship. American fellows mingled with European fellows. We received our blog assignment: one post of 500 words required. We created group rules. We talked about culture.

And in a small way, my mind has already been blown. In a conversation about transatlantic cooperation, several European fellows chimed in about the importance of looking at the Mediterranean as a whole (including northern Africa) and about whether we’re really considering the importance of the Arctic now that climate change has created real ramifications related to things like shipping and global commerce. I’ve met a surgeon who has done Medicins sans Frontieres missions to Haiti. I’ve learned about human rights law in Poland.

Tomorrow, we head to Brussels…