DONNA!

By Brendan Lin

Entrance to the West Wing

A few of us were lucky enough to visit the White House West Wing two weeks ago, and it was quite the experience. To be honest, it was very humanizing. I'll explain why.

The West Wing is a very small, very comfortable feeling office building. We went at around 8:45pm, when most of the staffers had already gone home. Inside, there are nice soft carpets, wood accents, Dell computers, and soft, vanilla-colored walls. Occasionally there will be white-clad Secret Service officer or two standing by a hallway. It's not very pompous or ornamental, like the inside of the Capitol Building. This is simply where people show up to work, including the President of the United States.

I did get some chills when I recognized areas from famous photographs, including, of course, the Oval Office. It was a bit smaller than I expected, and very neat. Our guide Mary told us that it serves as more of a ceremonial reception area than a functional workplace. The President has a "real" office nearby. We also saw one of the doors to the Situation Room, which, apparently, occupies two floors. It was a smooth wooden door with the Presidential seal next to it. Above the seal were the words "The Situation Room." That was it. I really have no idea why I expected it to be different, but I had always imagined the door of the situation room to be a thick, secure chunk of metal, bank-vault style. To see people just casually walking in and out was sort of jarring.

We also got to see the Rose Garden, the Cabinet Room, the Roosevelt Room, and the Press Room. I was actually impressed by how no-nonsense everything was. It had a sort of subtle pride to it, rather than being flooded with the more pompous decorations that adorn other buildings in D.C. In fact, most of the decorations in the West Wing were simply photographs taken by the West Wing photographer. It was nice. It seems like a comfortable place to work.