Is this a Dream?

Bonjour à nouveau,

As the sun began to fall closer to the horizon, we all sat in the bus, anxiously, to arrive at this place that we had never seen before.  We sat in our suits and dresses, in awe, looking out the window at all of the stone mansions with green, beautifully kept yards.  We passed house after house that nearly shouted excellence.  We were in the district were many government officials reside.

As we kept passing more mansions, we began to slow down, and eventually stop, at the most beautiful gate that we had seen thus far.  On one of the stone pillars on the right side of the gate, there was the seal of the United States.  We had arrived.

While we waited to enter in the soon to be open gates, security checked the bus.  At this point, all of us on the bus realized what an opportunity it was to be able to enter on to the property of the U.S. Ambassador to Canada.  After a couple of minutes, the gate doors swung open, and we entered onto the most valued diplomatic residence in Ottawa.  Beautiful flowers and well groomed bushes lined the road as we traveled the property to the house.  Then, to our left, we saw the house.  Wow.

Excited and nervous at the same time, we all exited the bus and walked up to the front steps of the Ambassador's home with our invitations and photo I.D. in hand.  Just before exiting the bus, I thought to myself, "Is this a dream?  How did I get here?  What put me in this situation that I am currently experiencing?"  I, along with many others, were dumbfounded at the idea of being in a place that so few people get to be at.  We all waited our turn, shook David Jacobson's hand, and walked into his house!

As I walked in, a fellow Killam recipient walked by with a glass of wine.  "They are serving drinks in this room and that room, but the room to the left has less of a line," she said.  I walked over to get a water with a lemon in it, while many others drank all of the fine liquor and wines that were offered.  Then, we began to explore the house.  While walking over to one of the many living rooms, butlers offered us the most mouth watering h'orderves that I've ever had.  Pictures lined the walls of past presidents, as well as the current president of the united states.  We were in the ambassador's house, looking through his book collection and using his bathroom.  I never would have thought that I would be in this place.

What was this weekend with all of the Fulbright Scholars and Killam Fellows like?

This past weekend was one of the more special weekends of my life.  We got treated like Kings and Queens for the three days that we were together.  We got to listen to arguably one of the most interesting and intelligent professors of today, see and tour the amazing Parliament building, play ice hockey, and attend multiple, very special events that honored us as Scholarship recipients.

Even better than all of that, I was able to meet over 40 of the most inspiring and amazing people that I have ever met.  Every Fellow and Scholar that I talked to inspired me.  Every one of them shared one thing, and that is determination.  Beyond the determination, and the thing that brought us all so close together, is that we were all experiencing the same thing together.  All of us had worked hard for our grades; all of us had been told that we had a chance to go to Canada/US on scholarship; all of us had made a decision to apply for that scholarship; all of us received the scholarship; all of us made a risk to be put in an unknown place apart from all of our friends; and a good many of us where experiencing Ottawa and Canada for the first time.  We became so close in those few days.  I have been missing all of the great people that I met, and wish that us meeting up in Washington D.C. in the Spring would be here a lot sooner.

I can't really explain how close we all got as a group in those three days.  I also can't explain the seemingly divine nature of why I met and connected so strongly with some of the people there.  A good deal of the many people that I became so close with on this trip strongly reminded me of other people that I have known in my past.  I have not counted all of the circumstances in which a person at the orientation reminded me so much of someone that I already know/knew, but there were well over five people.  I am having trouble putting this idea into words.  One person in particular is a story that I am not going to explain on here, because it is almost too special to talk about.  I honestly thought that I was talking to the same friend that I haven't talked to for a couple of years.

To put this long blog to an end, this weekend was amazing.  Sorry that I did not take any pictures.  I plan to upload some soon that other people took.  The city of Ottawa was very beautiful with all of it's Gothic architecture style, and old English feel.  Again, the people are what made this trip.  I have never been around such inspiring and accomplished people in my life.  I hope to be around groups like this more in the future, and inspire those that lack the determination to get there.

Love,

Benjamin