Hotel catches fire, but still a great day in New Hampshire

Okay, this day started out pretty normal and uneventful. We were scheduled to meet with Dante Scala, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire who authored one of our course textbooks. Breakfast went well, and the meeting with Professor Scala was going well until the fire alarms started going off in the hotel. The staff tried to reassure us that everything was under control, but within minutes the story had changed and we were all forced to evacuate. Firefighters and police arrived on the scene, and it seemed as if the fire had been isolated and would not spread beyond the small area in which it had started, thus our rooms would be safe. With this in mind, we loaded into the vans and headed out to the campaign office. Once there, we were assigned to canvass with a group of volunteers that had brought a bus up from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Their driver was not familiar with the Nashua area, and had some difficulties finding the neighborhoods assigned to our group. About an hour later, we received a call from Dr. McLauchlan informing us that we needed to come back to the hotel immediately because it was being closed pending inspection and we would only have a short window of time to get our stuff out. When we returned to the hotel all the utilities had been shut off, so we did our best to find and pack all our clothes and stuff in the dark. I know I must have left things behind, but as of now I haven’t noticed anything missing.

Luckily, we were able to find a hotel with enough rooms available to accommodate the entire class for the duration of our stay; unfortunately, it was located about a half hour away in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Our second hotel, a Radisson, seemed so luxurious compared to the Best Western. Once we all got settled in, the Clinton team (me, Adam, Steve, Debbie and Damaris) decided to grab a bite to eat. We walked over to a Chinese restaurant adjacent to the hotel and, for the first time all day, got to relax for a minute. Dinner was pretty good and it gave us all a chance to reflect on our day as well as the internship experience so far.

Later, Debbie, Damaris, Adam and I attended a debate watch party for Hillary supporters in Manchester with a gentleman they met on Friday at the 100 Club dinner, Mike Martineau. Mike was kind enough to drive all the way down to Chelmsford and take the four of us to Manchester and back. The debate was amazing; Hillary knocked all her opponents down, although there were only four candidates in the debate. Once the debate was almost over we began to see Secret Service agents coming into our debate watch party. Then we noticed that a stage and rope line had been set up in the back of the room. It was obvious to us that we were going to be receiving a very important visitor soon; sure enough, about twenty minutes after the debate ended Hillary showed up with Bill and Chelsea. Hillary spoke to the crowd for a few minutes and then began the traditional “grip and grin” along the rope line. This was the second time I had seen the Clintons in person, and it was still just as exciting as the first. Both Hillary and Bill are such wonderful people, and when you meet them in person it is really easy to feel the warmth and compassion they feel for others. Just before they left for the night, I was able to get a picture with Bill.

All in all, this day went from stressful and chaotic to blissful and exciting. This will be a day I never forget.