Winding Down

This is my last week here in DC. This past weekend I visited all the DC monuments with R and Katharine. Monday night I then had the chance to go to Screen on the Green with Katharine, which was showing Dog Day Afternoon. Good movie.

I started packing on Tuesday. It's been hard. I said goodbye to my first co-worker yesterday because he is going on vacation Thursday and Friday, and my first roommate who is visiting friends Thursday and Friday. It's crazy.

The only thing that is keeping me down is the fact that K, my horror-story roommate, has been absolutely dreadful and we came head-to-head last night. My roommates told me to ignore her and enjoy my last few days but its easier said than done.

R, who is amazing, is organizing some great goodbye events. For example, we're going to jazz in the sculpture garden Friday evening. Hopefully it's going to be a good last week.

"Bad Democracy Breeds Corruption"

This week has been all over the place.

Monday I attended an event that included three governors from Venezuela and the Mayor of Caracas. It was very interesting, as they are "opposition leaders," according to Chavez. Most people don't know what is going on in Venezuela - I didn't. If you're interested in learning more, read this Washington Post article. It's well-written and quite informative. Mayor Ledezma (on the left) actually led a hunger-strike outside of the Venezuela OAS office until the OAS agreed to meet with him and other "opposition leaders." They were in DC to meet with the OAS on Tuesday, which is why I was able to go to an event to see them on Monday.

Tuesday was supposed to be a hearing on Iran in the Western Hemisphere, but it was canceled (unfortunately). Wednesday made up for it because my dad visited DC! He was in the city working on getting a patent approved, so we were able to get dinner, along with our dinner guest, Katharine, at a great restaurant called 1331; and then we saw Harry Potter.

Today I was at the hearing mentioned in this article. It was very interesting. I really don't think I can comment on what I found interesting, because it would require me explaining what I believe is sensitive information. Yeah, it's not classified in any way, but it would not be good for me to let the info out. But it was definitely weird to come home and see this article. Makes me recognize that the media likes to focus on the quotes and not the context - it's all about causing a stir to get the attention, not so much the actual information. It's frustrating.

Tomorrow's forecast:

• - Holocaust Museum
  
• - All the DC monuments/memorials
  

Long Owed Update

This week has had its ups and downs. My being sick continued until late Tuesday. My cough resumed again Sunday, unfortunately. Anyway, this past week kept me very busy as the Senate and House passed bills dealing with the defense. I also had the excellent chance to go to part of the congressional hearing on Foreign Affairs, specifically to the hearing on Guatemala. That was very interesting- especially since it was the first hearing that did not seem staged. Meaning, not all the congressmen agreed and not all the witness agreed either.

This weekend I went to Monticello with Katharine. It was amazing! I'd post pictures but I - gasp - forgot my camera. Katharine brought hers though, so I took some with her's so I'm just going to have to wait until she posts them.

Yesterday I was able to go on a tour of the Pentagon. It was really interesting! Did you know about 1/3 of the signatories of the Declaration were military? Did not know that!

Also, in the middle of the pentagon there is a courtyard. In the middle of that is a little building. During the Cold War the Soviets had satellite pictures that showed hordes of people going in the building and left with bags. So that Soviets assumed that it was some sort of intelligence hub and trained all of the missiles on it. - It was a hot dog stand. People joke that it's the deadliest hot dog stand in America. Now I think it's just a general cafeteria.

Today I got a chance to tour the diplomatic rooms. The above picture is from the more intimate diplomatic room. The one to the right is the largest diplomatic room, which was set up for an event that will take place tomorrow. My goal is one day to be invited to both of those rooms... and not as tourist.

This week should keep me pretty busy. I have various events and more House/Senate work. I love working with House/Senate affairs. It actually might come in handy too, because the Marquette Office of Public Affairs is looking for a student to work part-time as a government relations intern. With all the money I failed to make this summer, a part-time job could be perfect. I put an email into the contact to find out how many hours a week the job is and the hourly wage (all information they failed to post), but I think I'll also call tomorrow. I'd love to be able to keep working on government relations work even when I return to school. We shall see.

Tomorrow I shall try to write a post on my amazing neighbor, Mr. Smith*, and his dog, Jane*.


*Names have been changed... especially since I don't know their real names

"That's so American"

First off, I have changed the settings on my blog so people can comment without having an account. I thought the settings were already like that, but apparently not. So comment away!

Secondly, 4th of July in DC - amazing. The morning started out slow but around 4 pm my roommates and I headed over to our friend's house (well, the house that she's house-sitting in). The place became packed within an hour so around 5:30 I headed out to meet up with Katharine and her roomies on the National Mall. Her roommates had been there since 3 pm so they had scored a nice spot right in between the capitol building and the Washington Monument. Katharine and I met up with them around 6:30 and over the next 2.5 hours, the place filled up to be incredibly crowded (see picture to the right).

Katharine and I had a nice time catching up, chatting about residence life, an organization we're both a part of, and other stuff as well. I really like her roommates. They're really nice. We also chatted a lot about our friend T, who has jetted off to Africa and who we both miss a lot.

Around 9 or 9:30 the fireworks began. I managed to get some pretty awesome shots (like the one to the left). It was a really great show, and the crowd's reaction was amazing (for example, heart fireworks issued a crowd-wide "awwww"). The show was shorter than I expected, 15 minutes or so, and the music didn't make it's way to us like we expected. So for next time, because there will be another time that I will be in DC for the 4th, I will know to bring a radio to play the music if we aren't at the capitol building.

After the fireworks, I met back up with my roommates and enjoyed the rest of the night with them.

I cannot believe that I only have 4 weeks left. I love DC so much and I love my internship. It makes me so excited for the possibility of graduate school and for all my career possibilities. However, I am also getting equally as excited for my senior year. My first grad class... as an undergrad, all my other classes, my student orgs and my job, and spending my last year as an undergraduate with all my friends.

Life's so Sweet Right Here in the Passenger Seat

I have completely failed when it comes to keeping up with this blog this week. So, I shall try to make up with a quality post and lots of pictures.

The picture to the left is the brand-new, re-opened Eastern Market. It's a huge farmers market that's open Tuesday-Sunday every week. It just opened on Saturday after a two-year renovation following a fire. The next picture shows what it looks like outside on the streets surrounding the building. It's filled with tents that has clothes, furniture, jewelry, hats, etc. It also had some unique people, like the woman bellow to the left who was pulling her dog (decked out in clothes) in some sort of rolling contraption. Priceless, no?

It was pretty amazing. The work week has definitely had its ups and downs. I am really enjoying working in Congressional Affairs. One of my co-workers there, who has worked as a staffer for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told my supervisor that I have a knack for the section and that she would have assumed I'd been working in Congressional Affairs for years from the work I've done. -- Pretty amazing.

On another note, I have been able to settle in quite nicely here. Last Saturday or Sunday I made -- Garlic Parmesan Chicken (which is to the right). It was absolutely delicious and I cooked 4 of them (yummy left-overs all week). I learned how to cut garlic and it turned out excellent!

This weekend should be pretty amazing and it's going to be starting tomorrow. Federal employees get tomorrow off. Heck yes. I also get Monday off because no one will be in the office. Heck yes x2.

This weekend will be epic- 4th of July in DC, fireworks on the mall and my roommate's get-together. Pictures will be taken to capture the amazingness of this weekend.

This one's untitled...

I'm very tired, so I am going to blog about Monday and save today's stories for tomorrow.

Monday kept me running all day. I visited the Capitol and got a tour, learned about the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and visited the DEA. As I waited for the people I toured with to arrive, I wrote the following:

I'm sitting outside the capitol building sipping my iced venti caramel latte. I'm in the bus drop-off circle waiting for the person I'm meeting to arrive with our tour group. As I read one of the three 400 page books I have the pleasure to read this summer, two busses arrive. After a few moments swarms of presidential scholars pour out of the buses. Bemused, I lower my book and begin to watch. The first thing I notice is the advisers, who all felt compelled to apologize -- as if my amused smile really meant I was annoyed.

The second thing I noticed was how half of the students attempted to dress professionally (most looking like little kids who played dress up in mommy and daddy's closet), and the other half was- painful. If a dress has tule... it's probably not appropriate for the capitol. And I'm all about expressing oneself through what you wear... but red converse with black skinny dress pants are not acceptable -- even on a guy.

During my day, I got some amazing shots of the capitol and the DEA museum.
Lincoln Statue Beautiful... I want it.

Tomorrow I will update on today... because it was memorable.

Days that are over ... Will not continue to last

As I left work this afternoon I ran into another worker in our office building (though not my office). She looked at me and smiled saying, "one down, four more to go." I just sorta smiled and nodded... but the thing was, my supervisor had to remind me to go home today and I cannot wait to get back tomorrow morning to finish my research.

I was thinking about this realization as I walked to the metro. I realized that yes, I will have boring days that go by slowly... possibly even boring weeks. However, it's when every day at work is one that drags on that you begin counting down to the weekend. And when you count down to the weekend every week... that's when you should consider a new job. Hopefully I don't get to that point with my internship.

Hmmmm so what did I do today? I went to a panel on "Detention, Rendition, and Human Rights." They discussed Guantanamo for most of the panel. It was really interesting. I also found out I will get credit for my internship, so long as I read three books related to my internship before school starts. No big. Yay for 3 poli sci credits!

Tomorrow's Forecast: An event on drug cartels and a day of research!

Lizzy Want A Taxi?

The only thing I have come to despise in DC is the taxi system. Everyone's told me to take a taxi if I have no one to walk with at night. I've only had to take a taxi twice. The first experience was the worst. My destination was about a 17 minute walk away but it was 10 pm. Yeah, taxi necessary. Anyway, it takes like 15 minutes for the taxi to get there and then, when we're making our way to the place, the driver takes a long route. I kindly inquired, "isn't there a more direct way?" He completely flipped on me saying "You should respect your elders and not question them!" He then mocked me saying, "if you know so much, tell me the streets." I explained that I was in new in town and did not know the streets, but I had taken a more direct route before. He refused to acknowledge I was right and continued to tell me how rude I was and that I should never question my elders. That ride stunk.

In other news, I had a great rest of the work week.

That is General Petraeus... yep, the former commander of troops in Iraq and the current head of CENTCOM. I saw him speak on the plans for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq on Thursday. Too bad I didn't get a better picture. My boss was nice and waited with me to see if we could catch him on the way out. Weirdly enough, his motorcade left without him. Diversion? Quite, possible.

I also had a chance to go to the Pentagon. It's not my official tour; but it was a meeting, so I was able to see a lot the building while walking to our meeting.


This weekend was absolutely phenomenal. I went to Artomatic with my friend Liz. She and I only made it to two floors during our 4 hours there. We got caught up at the "Education" room, where we made dioramas in old cigar boxes. I found the most amazing central asian designed elephant, so I decided to base my design around it. I found a cigar box with a similar centra asian design. The result is the picture to the right. Hooray for art! I'm pretty proud of it.

Today consisted of sight-seeing with Katharine again. This time we made it to the American History Museum and the National Archives. Both are amazing. I was able to see a lot of letters, clothes, etc. that belonged to my second-cousin 10 times removed, also known as George Washington.

Here's to hoping that my work week is just as exciting as it was this week!

"Life's Not Fair"

Today I didn't feel right about writing about my internship. Instead, I'll write a reflection on the shooting today at the US Holocaust Museum.


Today was a scary and sad day in DC. Two of my coworkers had taken me out for ice cream. On the way back to the office we cut through the underground mall and exited out the Marriot. As we were leaving the lobby I noticed the TVs on CNN had on breaking news- "Shooting at the US Holocaust Museum."

"Oh dear God," I half-shouted, knowing that my roommate is an intern there. My two coworkers turned around and joined me in front of the TVs. We stood there in silence for a few moments before leaving and heading back to the office. On the way we saw a Homeland Security police car rush down the street.

When I got back to the office all the TVs were on full volume. They're usually always on CNN but vary from being on mute and full volume. Because of this, I was able to keep fully updated... but I still had no idea how my roommate, R, was. We had been silly and not exchanged information (we have now, though).

Of course, I knew R was not one of the people shot. They said the only individuals shot were the security guard and the shooter, but I still worried about R and how she was handling the crisis. I know I would have been freaking out, even with crisis situation training.

I did not know how R was until about 50 minutes ago, around 8:30 pm. She told me about her experience during the shooting and it was hard to swallow that she had gone through such a horrific experience. I couldn't begin to imagine how she was handling the situation.

But what struck me most was her emotion over the death of the security guard. She had spoken about the security force to C and I on Sunday. She had mentioned a large man whom she compared to a large teddy bear, one of her favorite security guards- the man who died today. It turns out he was the first person she met at the museum. He gave her her first tour and helped her out multiple times with her job. Even talking about his death brought her to tears, and she had only known him for two weeks.

One of the things that will always stay with me is something she said, with great difficulty, near the end of our discussion of today's shooting. "Today a good man died... and the man who should be dead is lying in stable condition in a hospital... Life is not fair."

"One Short Day, in the Emerald City..."

"And we're warning the city: now that we're in here, you'll know we've been here." Oh Wicked, you speak so true.

I am officially done with my first two days of my internship and I just have to say... "wow." It's been a whirlwind of a week and its only Tuesday night. Let's see? What can I actually talk about?

Monday morning I was able to attend an event at George Washington University. One of the men speaking, Thomas Shannon, was just nominated by Obama to be the US ambassador to Brazil! It was a informative, well-organized event, but also quite overwhelming because I didn't really know the background going into the event and had to learn as I attempted to take notes. I figured out the background as it went, however, and talked about it even more afterward with my co-worker. I learned so much just yesterday.

And today, I attended a congressional hearing on the situation in Guatemala in the building to the right. That was absolutely phenomenal. I cannot believe I was in the same room as the former Vice-President of Guatemala.

I also got to see Liz, one of my favorite Pi Phis, today. Hooray! I've also met so many people (I was introduced to two congressmen today); and it's not even half-way through the week.

My supervisor is very attentive. She wants me to create a development plan so we're both on the same page as to what I want to get out of my experience and so that she can do all she can to make sure my experience is a good one.

The only downside, so far, is that I am the only intern in the office. Whereas most interns are in a large program and meet other interns, I have to meet other interns through my roommates, my friends who are interns, or if I decide to be awkwardly friendly at the events I attend (like I did today). Ahh well. It doesn't come close to making this week less amazing.


The Rest of the Week's Forecast:

• -Meeting (fun one)
• -Tour of the Pentagon
  

And that's really all I can talk about as to what I'm doing this week. =) Oh, the picture to the left I took of the capitol before the hearing.

Apartment Update: My mattress sucks. No, I cannot flip it over and it will be better. It's box-spring, pretty sure, and the outside is plastic, so there isn't even fabric to cushion. Soooo uncomfortable.

It's Lincoln on a Segway

Today I had arranged with Katharine to meet up and take our routes to work, followed by a trip to Target. I knew her parents were coming (they're very nice), and I could wait to spend some time with her and them.

After riding my route to work (it's pretty dang easy... just a long metro ride). I arrived out in Virgina, where Katharine is staying, and met up with them at the metro station. We rode it into the Capitol and went over to her office building... only the J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters. But before we reached the headquarters, we came across quite a sight.

Yes, that is a man feeding a squirrel. Click on the picture for a closer look.

After taking pictures of myself and Katharine outside of Katharine's office (as of tomorrow), we looked down Pennsylvania Avenue. Her mom mentions that she absolutely loves the Ols Post Office because it's beautiful from the outside and the view from the tower is phenomenal. She convinced us to go over. We quickly learned, however, that it would not be open for another 40 minutes.

"Well then, let's look around until it opens!" Katharine's mom suggests. 3 hours later, we had walked down to the edge of the national mall, seen both sides of the white house, and had a fantastic lunch. We did end up back at the Old Post Office too. It was a lot of walking, which I had not anticipated (my feet are paying the price); but it was worth it. I'm not sure I would have been super motivated to see the sights we saw by myself (museums- yes, looking at someone's big white house- no). One of my favorite parts of our self-guided tour of Pennsylvania Avenue was the following sight:

Yep. Lincoln on a Segway. Cute Lincoln, at that. Possibly my favorite of the strange sightings for the day.

Tomorrow's forecast (besides the real one of rain and humidity):

• -First day on the job!
• -Try not to freak out
• -Get more groceries (ramen noodles, anyone?)

And finally, I'll leave you all with some pictures from my trip down Pennsylvania Avenue.

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White House- I really like this shot.













The US Capitol Building. I also love this shot.