Jasmine Linabary, one of about a dozen Whitworth University students in Washington, D.C., for a Jan Term program on the media, sent this report from attending the swearing-in ceremony:

 Inauguration Day was a day of anticipation - whether it was people's desires to witness a "historical" event or anxiety about getting onto the National Mall or when Barack Obama would step out of the motorcade.

People covered distances and obstacles to attend the ceremony today. We spoke to visitors from Germany, Brazil and Ethiopia mixed in with American citizens from all corners of the United States who all mentioned hoping the Inauguration would be historical event and that Obama would bring change when he took his oath as president.

John See of Wisconsin was once such person. He and his wife braved the icy roads driving from Wisconsin to see the inauguration.

"Obama is the love of our lives," See said. "We really see him almost as a savior of some kind. We've been hugging our grandchildren and telling them, 'Life is going to be worth living again.'"

Members of the crowd also faced odds gaining access to the event they had anticipated. Some waited in line since Monday night to get in and those who joined them later had difficulty finding where they were supposed to go, as the entrances and routes were often not marked and officials seemed to have conflicting information. We spoke to a woman from Texas who had been trying to find the right gate since 10 p.m. and entered a convenience store to warm up. By 6:30 a.m., she had decided to give up.

When we left the hostel at 4:30 a.m., we had little idea what was in store. We knew the event would be big and it would be fairly cold, but we couldn't have anticipated the feeling of standing and maneuvering in a crowd of nearly 2 million people. Lines stretched down multiple city blocks. We entered by walking through the I-395 tunnel and then walking down to a 12th Street entrance with a crowd packed like sardines between buses and barricades.

Others met anxiety at entering the National Mall. We did not have to go through an anticipated security check point at the entrance. Those around us in the crowd also commented on what appeared to be lax security that made several people nervous, given the amount of people at an event watched worldwide. Later, while witnessing nearly all of the United States' political dignitaries take the stage, a fellow student jotted a note to friends and family in her notebook - just in case.

The crowd was silent in anticipation, standing on tiptoes with video and still cameras in the air whenever a monitor showed another motorcade approaching the U.S. Capitol Building. When Obama was finally spotted, the crowd would erupt, waving flags and cameras alike.

The anxiety continued as the crowds tried, many unsuccessfully, to exit the National Mall after Obama's speech - without direction and with most streets blocked off for the parade route. A solid mass of people filled 18th Street from Constitution Avenue to K Street, cheering and booing officers directing the route.

When all of the vendors selling Obama t-shirts, buttons and figurines leave the streets of Washington D.C. and those who came to the city for the ceremony return home, the anticipation will still remain as the world sits back to watch what happens in the beginning of his term.

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