Family Is Important

Family: The support of your family will make a big difference in your FBINA experience. Plan ahead to either go home or have your significant other visit if at all possible. Ten or eleven weeks are a long time. Most found 2 trips home and one visit by family worked well.

My family visited in week 2. I had them fly into Regan (DCA) Friday afternoon and take a hotel shuttle to a nice hotel at Crystal City. Crystal City is 5 minutes from Regan and across the Potomac from DC. Everything is walking distance and the Metro stops there so you can ride it into the city. After class Friday I drove directly to the hotel and we all had a great weekend together. They checked out late Monday morning, riding the hotel shuttle back to DCA and I drove in to the Academy early Monday morning. Traffic was light because I was going in the opposite direction. I admire those folks who commute in that traffic each day and I thought Atlanta traffic was rough when we lived there. Anyway, I highly recommend the plan I used here. It worked well logistically, time wise, and convenience wise. 

Below is my Yellow Lab Paxton. This was the last picture of him while I was away. I had Barbara text it to me. He died the next day. He lived to be 14 and was a large part of our lives, being with us for every special event/milestone in our lives. RIP P-Man! 

Below: This is our Black Lab, Elvis. This picture was taken after I returned from the NA.

                                      Elvis misses Paxton but he has taken over as top dog.

Above: These are the deer that are all over the property and there are a lot of them. If you do not plan to go home on a weekend or on a group trip on a weekend with classmates then the place can get very lonely. These may be your only friends to hang out with.

Regarding flying, you cannot leave early to catch a flight, so book your trips accordingly. The NA is strict on this. Factor in extra time to get to the airport. Traffic is tough in the area.  Several students who stayed the entire time without a visit said they would never do it again. For international students, the separation can be even more difficult. Notes, post cards and letters mean a lot. Skype and FaceTime help too. The only cell service that works well historically is Verizon. I think Verizon has a cell repeater on a water tower right at the Academy. It even works in the basements. All the other services had a poor signal or no coverage. I had AT&T and switched to Verizon during the NA, it was that tough to get a signal. Factor this in if you don't plan on visits and are going to rely on Skype or FaceTime.

If your family visits and they are not coming to graduation you can give them a self guided tour of the Academy. You just need to register them in advance thru the Counselors office. It is easy and I recommend they see where you lived for 10 weeks. Since I had my family up in week 2 and went home twice I did not have them come to graduation. I showed them the Academy in Week 2 when they visited.



Everyone takes a picture in front of this sign

Another popular photo spot