6:15 am

Buses, buses everywhere at RFK Stadium. I didn’t sleep too well on the bus, but we just arrived so I can’t worry about that now. (OSAF staff handed out snacks and water during the bus ride, which was nice.) All you can see are hundreds and hundreds of buses parked side by side around you. I’m in a sea of thousands of people walking toward the shuttles that will bring us to the Mall for the inauguration. Along the walking path, there are already vendors at 6:15 in the morning hawking souvenirs – t-shirts, pins, calendars, posters, newspapers air fresheners, you name it – and people snatching them up. With the smell of funnel cakes and hot dogs in the air too, it feels like I’m at a carnival, but boy am I freezing.