Vivian Chen, 27, from Qingdao, China was a witness to history this year. As a CHI au pair living with her host family in Virginia she was lucky enough to be able to attend the Inauguration festivities of the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama, on January 20th.
Her host family’s home is an hour and a half away from Washington DC and she tried to plan ahead and leave early to get a good view. She did not sleep the night before and left at four in the morning, but even leaving this early was not early enough due to the overwhelming crowds. Despite these crowds, and the cold weather, Vivian was overjoyed to be able to 
experience such an important day first hand.
Vivian feels lucky that the timing and location of her au pair placement provided her with this opportunity. She had been following the Obama campaign closely and was inspired by many of his speeches, which is one of the reasons she was so excited to attend the inauguration ceremonies in-person. Vivian will always cherish her great memories of this unique cultural experience.
