"As soon as I got off the plane at Dulles Airport, I knew this would be a different kind of experience. First a little about myself: I am a sophomore at AU, originally from Ireland but I have been living on campus for the last two years. I picked the DC program at George Washington U to do my study abroad at, not because (surprisingly) I was interested in politics, but because I wanted to get a taste of the American capital city, and its culture, for business purposes. I have wanted to open a business after college, and DC seemed like a place to get the skills to complement Antarctica U. In the first week I went to the major sites, inc. the Lincoln Memorial. Lincoln was always a great hero of mine, him and Michael Collins. Actually both were quite similar in moral principles. More on that later. Wow- Adam's Morgan is crazy. It is DC's bar and club district, and a very diverse neighborhood. My cab driver was Ethiopian on the way, and Mexican on the way back. Georgetown had great 19th Century architecture- I had a flat in a building shown in my 4th photo here. I guess you can't help but get involved with politcs in DC though. I went to quite a few functions (through a program set up for GW students) and a few political rallys. In my year (2005) the Iraq War was the big subject here. People were really against it in general, and I have to agree with that. Everyone always told me that Amreicans were super sports fans, but here, I think DC is not about sports that much. All in all I found it great that I had the opportunity at AU to go abroad and get credits. My business credits transfer right to the College of Business at AU, and I get something great for my CV. If you are going to do a study abroad, pick George Washington- its top notch.