Capital Blog: Swimming's Mandi Grandjean
7/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
July 10, 2011
Miami women's swimming's Mandi Grandjean (Canton) is in the midst of her unique experience in the national's capital, Washington D.C. During her nine weeks, she'll be submitting periodic blog updates about her adventure. Here is her fourth entry.
This past week has been so exciting and busy. Just being in DC for the Fourth of July is an experience. I spent the day in Georgetown and then watched the magnificent firework show from the Lincoln Memorial. I am not a huge firework person but these were definitely amazing. They actually had them choreographed to "American" music as well. There were so many people at the National Mall. Spending July 4th in DC is something that I will never forget.
This week at the Embassy it was particularly exciting for a short week. Wednesday I got to spend time with Ambassador Sumaida'ie. He is extremely nice and intelligent. He was really interested to hear my American perspective on the Arab spring and Iraq in general. We had a really enlightening conversation about the difference between the Iraqi media and the American media. I also got to meet with the other diplomats and talk to them about various international topics. One of them told me that he likes to swim so we talked a lot about swimming. I also found out that in Iraq, traditionally, the pools are segregated between the sexes. There are days and times for women to swim and for men to swim, but never together. Obviously, this is very different from our culture, as we share a pool during practice with the men's team often.
On Thursday, the Embassy held an event to repatriate the artifacts that were stolen illegally from Iraq's museums during the 2003 invasion. This was very devastating to the Iraqi people. The looters would sell these priceless artifacts over the internet and through various other sources. The FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement worked together with the embassy to track down the artifacts to return them to the Iraqi people. This event was the official handing over of hundreds of artifacts from the U.S. government to the Iraqi government. The ambassador gave a speech as well as FBI special agent Ronald Hosko of the bureau's Washington field office and Kumar Kibble, deputy director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They then signed the official documents that transferred the antiquities from the U.S. government to the Iraqi government (the embassy).
It was extremely exciting for me because during the week, part of my job was to contact all of the media in the Washington area to send a media advisory to. We had a really great press turnout, the Washington Post, Washington Times, CNN International, Reuters and AP all attended the event and wrote articles about it. To actually see my hard work being put into action was particularly rewarding. I also was able to get hands on experience with the artifacts. The gun in picture of me and the Beretta sterling pigeon shot gun belonged to the former Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Baath Regime and was a gift from the King of Jordan. Another project that I did was to take pictures and catalog all of the artifacts, including a 3,000-year-old necklace from the Babylonian times. There were also other belongings that were taken from Saddam Hussein's palace including a silver wear set among other things. I also was able to touch tablets that were 4,000 years old. During the event however, I had to stand by the invaluable artifacts and make sure that no one touched them or tried to take them. I know my 5'3 frame is not that intimidating, but I think I did a pretty good job because no one tried to take anything!
Needless to say, there was never a dull moment during this week. This includes today when I was given the rare opportunity to take a Capitol Dome tour. This tour takes you inside the rotunda of the Capitol. You get to see the original dome which was made of wood, in that they built on top of it the outer shell of the dome that we see today. I was able to go to the top of the inside of the dome and got a very personal view of Washington's apotheosis which is the huge mural across the top of the rotunda. I was also able to go to the outside very top, right under the Statue of Freedom and get a 360 degree view of the city. It was breathtaking and I was so grateful to be given this opportunity.
I can't believe I only have two more weeks in DC; time has gone so fast. I will be sad to leave, but I definitely miss all of my team mates and friends back in Oxford!
--www.MURedHawks.com--
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