Just Another Day in Paradise

Ok so paradise could be a stretch… but I love DC. It has been miserably hot this weekend. And that’s coming from someone who has only lived in two of the hottest places in the country. But 95 and zero clouds when you spend all day walking gets pretty hot and gross. Now that I’m done complaining here’s a recap of another amazing week in the life of an intern that only has to work 3-4 days a week.

This week congress was in recess, which meant that everyone was super casual and congress wasn’t in session. Although I didn’t wear jeans till Wednesday because I didn’t believe that people actually wore jeans to the office ever… Also that getting to the office 15 minutes early was not appropriate because no one got there that early this week. One of our legislative assistants came in Tuesday with a huge binder and asked who wanted to read it. One of the other interns nominated me and I had no idea what it was about. I don’t think I can say what it was about but I did a lot of research and read hundreds of pages this week and felt like I was actually making a difference. On Wednesday at my running group, one of the other runners who is a lobbyist for a child welfare nonprofit told me lots of new information on the FARM bill which is a hot topic right now. Basically every single conversation you have with anyone here somehow pertains to politics… no matter what, I’m sure I’ll get sick of that at some point, but for right now its fine. On the bright side, if you stay up to date with your politics you always have something to talk about with complete strangers. And I have to say I like hanging out at friends’ apartments watching TED talks, as nerdy as that may sound.

On Friday, I had the day off and I met my Theta mentor through the DC theta alumnae program and she works in the same building as me and is only 5 years older. Every day off I try to just go exploring (in the safe areas of course) and try not to get too comfortable going to the same places. One of my friends and I even made a rule for ourselves that we’re not allowed to eat at the same place more than twice because there are so many neat places to try. So on Friday I walked to embassy row and did some exploring. Dupont Circle is a really pretty area and a little quieter than the hill. Today, I went to get a manicure with a friend and the red metro stations by where we were going were closed so that meant lots of walking. Then, I went to a theta event on the mall and met 4 other girls who are interning and 6 theta alumnae from around the country. They gave us tons of useful information about places to go and things to do. The college thetas were awesome too, yay for new friends! Then I walked about 2.5 miles back from the mall with one of my new theta friends from Princeton who happens to live one block over.  So, that’s been my week so far. This next week I’m looking forward to joining an intern small group with my church, National Community Church and going to briefings on the hill about human trafficking and rural women’s health. Oh and I'm actually working 4 days this week and my friend Rachel is coming to visit! And of course, having more new adventures! 

Gandhi Statue and India Embassy, I felt compelled to read the info on every statue, even though some of them were in Turkish and other strange languages.