State visit:

As many of you (particularly those in the UK) know, President Bush was here last week. This was a whole pile of trouble for all of us at the Embassy. It also cost UK taxpayers GBP 4 million. They are none too happy about this.

It was sort of interesting to learn some of the behind the scenes of an event like this. From the 600 thank-you notes that have to be prepared to the number of people involved in any one event that the president is at, it's definitely quite a production. I worked on the Embassy "meet and greet," when Bush and Mrs Bush, Secretary Powell and Mrs Powell, and the US Ambassador to the UK (William Farrish) came to the Embassy. We all had to stand in the lobby for two hours since no one is allowed to move around the Embassy while the president is there and he came earlier for office time and a meeting with Arab media. All the streets around the Embassy were cordoned off and someone (ie an intern) had to stand with the cops and secret service at the cordon to check names off of the list. They then had to be escorted to the Embassy by a Metropolitan cop (hence the 4 million pounds-- mainly overtime).

I got to the lobby about 1pm and stood there with my friends for about 2 hours at which point they started to play some tinny music. After about 15 minutes of this, Bush, Farrish, and Powell came out. Farrish introduced Bush and Bush spoke with the generic thanks to everyone who works at the Embassy. He then took pictures with the kids (and he was really great with them). He worked the rope line, shaking hands with everyone he could. He was alright at it, but Powell was much better at seeming like he really wanted to talk to you and wasn't thinking about the next hand. I didn't get any pictures with Bush or Powell (I was a row back and just got to shake hands with both and talk to Powell for about 30 seconds), but one of the other interns has some very good pictures and has offered to forward them to us.

This was definitely an experience I'm glad I had, even if I now have a bunch of things to do to get caught up. More later maybe.