By Malik Siraj Akbar
I woke up at 5:30 a.m today to catch US Airways flight# 44 for Washington DC. It had already started raining. I packed everything and made sure that I had not forgotten anything. I thought I hadn’t . but now, while writing this blog entry in my Arlington hotel room, I realize I forgot to pack my Humphrey T-shirt! Walter Cronkite School of Journalism had prepared special T-shirts for its Humphrey Fellows.
Mukesh, Chev, Javed and I were lucky to get the Discount Cab for $20 to the airport. Thus, it was a great deal and we had to pay $5 each.
Washington is unlike Phoenix: It is cold here. The wind blows fast enough to compel you to wear a jacket.
After settling into our rooms, the group of Humphrey fellows went out for the search of some food. We, three journalists from Pakistan, were perhaps very lucky to find a wonderful Arabic restaurant down the Key Bridge in Arlington to eat some Pakistani food. The chef there was a Bengali and the owner was an Arab.
It was the best meal I had gormandized since coming to the United States in the last three months. We had to pay $50 for the meal but we did not have an iota of regret over spending the money. After all, you cannot get good food even at times when you have a pocketful of money.
