GWU, Washington DC.

The Foggy Bottom Metro station in Washington, DC smells like a combination of burnt rubber, grease and wet commuters.

It’s the end of rush hour on this April morning and people spill out of metro cars and silently make their way to escalators where they surface to sounds of torrential rain and enthusiastic street hawkers selling umbrellas for as low as five dollars.

“Jumbo umbrellas, jumbo umbrellas, get your jumbo umbrellas here,” a hawker sings like he’s selling hot dogs at a ball park. In less than a minute, he sold three. At this rate, his inventory will be gone before lunch which is not good. Rain is forecasted to continue through dinner.

I find myself at the Foggy Bottom Metro Station to tour George Washington University with my son Adam, who is a high school junior, a fellow student of his, Diana and my wife Debb. The Foggy Bottom area is one of the oldest 18th and 19th century neighborhoods in DC. It got its name because its close proximity to the Potomac River made it susceptible to concentrations of fog and industrial smoke. Today, it’s mainly a concentration of people using umbrellas to fight a blowing rain and delivery vehicles searching hopelessly for a parking spot to birth their contents.

I’m an old school college campus guy. For me, institutions of higher learning bring to mind stately white column buildings named after long-dead benefactors, professors strolling about in tweed jackets with elbow patches while attractive co-eds study on expansive lawns and try their best to avoid misguided Frisbees from horny college guys.

George Washington University is different.

It’s in smack dab in the cradle of democracy — four blocks from the Obama’s, three blocks from the State Department, and pretty much next door to the Kennedy Center and Watergate. When I was in college in rural Virginia, the nearest fast food restaurant was a good fifteen minutes away.

The University has a lot going for it. The orientation program for prospective students outlined some of the benefits attending GW: over seventy majors from which to choose; 9,500 undergraduates; 90% intern during their attendance; 450 student groups; and 80% study abroad. Plus, over 60% receive financial aid which is a good thing because tuition and fees will run you roughly $63,000 a year. Cha-ching.

The campus tour got off to a great start. It stopped raining. We were led around by a wel-l spoken  freshman engineering student named Curtis who did a fantastic job telling us about campus life while pointing out places of interest with his folded GW umbrella.

Curtis, our GW tour guide telling us about “University Yard” although there was not a lot of yard in the traditional sense of the word.

At one of the first stops, he proudly stood atop a bench to preach about “university yard” which is the largest green space in the Foggy Bottom.  According to Curtis, it’s a “favorite spot for students to study, meet up with friends, or grab a snack from a campus club fundraiser.”

I wasn’t that impressed. It’s no larger than two basketball courts and has just as much grass. Brick walkways engraved with the names of alumni crisscross and then crisscross again covering most of university yard. The rest of the “yard” was made up of mocha-colored mud blotches and patches of grass clinging desperately to well-trodden soil. As for engraved bricks, these made for a somewhat distracting stroll because I caught myself looking for strange names like Gunter, Vladimir or LaCresha, of which there were none.

We were able to sneak through a couple of academic buildings where professors professed and students did their best to pay attention and take notes. Some aspects of college haven’t changed over the years. While academic buildings were quiet, the streets of GWU were not. Ambulances howled, construction vehicles moaned, and clusters of students (I think) squished to class and hopped over rain puddles. Much different than my college days when the only annoying sound was disco “music” blaring from a three-foot tall speaker crammed in an open window.

We meandered around campus for about an hour. Admittedly, I could never get a sense as to where I was. There were no ivy covered walls marking campus borders.There was, however a Whole Foods. Curtis was quick to point out that GW is laid out in a five block grid which which was foreign to me because my college experiences have been in non-urban environments. Having to cross multiple city streets to get to class is not bad, just different. Being late to class because of you had to detour around a presidential motorcade makes for a damn good excuse.

The unique combination of city life and college life has its advantages and disadvantages. For some, it’s a draw. For others, a turn off. Then again, it’s not me who has to decide which college to attend, just how to pay for it and support my son’s decision, wherever he may end up going.

Now, which way to Foggy Bottom?