SO I DON'T THINK I need to say how cool this is. I'm on my own with four really cool roommates, in an amazing, beautiful city, with a phenomenal job (albeit, one I don't get paid for). Yes, there's a lot of extra stuff that you get (and that you therefore get to do) when you do this through the Washington Center: an academic course and all the coursework that goes with it, the Presidential speaker series, research papers both for your class and for the center, a professional interview, and a massive portfolio including bi-monthly 'journal entries.' But I'm not getting freaked out about deadlines-yet-so for the moment, things are good.
I'm in "the Meridian at Braddock Place," which is a new-ish apartment complex with the Braddock road metro station literally in its backyard (it takes me less than 2 minutes to walk from my front door to the entrance of the station). The metro is like my apartment: clean, comfortable, and reasonably quiet (at least compared to the NYC subway). My love of urban living has only been intensified lately - lots of parks, lots of fountains, lots of little cafes, shops and bistros, easy metro access, easy walking distances, lots of everything good. This is particularly true of the area in which I work - Dupont Circle - which is basically a couple of square blocks of loveliness, with 26 amazing restaurants (including two sushi bars, an Indian restaurant, a Thai place, a Potbelly Sandwich Works, a Starbucks, three bistros, two independent bookstores, and a park within sight of my office building. The building in question is super-nice and has a pharmacy at the bottom (open 24 hours, and stocking everything imaginable) and a patio on the roof with am amazing view of the city, and cute wrought-iron tables where you can eat your lunch (I am actually together enough to buy tupperware containers, but not enough to buy salad stuff, so I suspect I will have to buy my lunch for another day or so). So, the commute is about 30 metro minutes + a 10 minute walk down Connecticut (one of the nicest streets in town), versus an hour-plus commute to the middle of nowhere. The office is really nice, and so are the people (Lorelle, who initially interviewed me for the post, is also my supervisor). I'm the National Outreach Intern: essentially, I'll be doing work related to the different initiatives and coalitions that Women Thrive heads up. For example, I spent most of today working on making a summary chart recording the pledges that different members of the Women's Faith Development Alliance have made to women's equality and economic rights. When she interviewed me, Lorelle said that this was a "great opportunity to survey the DC-area NGO landscape," and now I see what she meant. I think I'll be doing lots of really cool stuff this summer, and learn a ton to boot. I'll keep you posted.
As previously mentioned, my roommates and I actually get along incredibly well - so well that we've not only gone grocery shopping (and other stocking up, Target-style) together, but also sightseeing: so far, we've hit up Union Station, parts of The Mall (we went to see the WWII and Jefferson Memorials in the dark on the weekend, which was phenomenal), and Chinatown (on Sunday-we actually ended up in an Irish pub eating Guinness ice cream and eating nachos like four college friends - pretty cool). There's a few other interns working at World Thrive, too (including some more that start on Monday) but I haven't gotten to know them very well. All four of us have different class schedules, and work at slightly different times, but it's really nice to come home after work knowing that people you actually like will be there. Plus, we've got a plan to hit one Smithsonian museum every weekend-finally, people who actually want to go to museums (sorry, Kiosh :P).
I've been having fun walking around and riding the metro by myself too, though. There's more new stuff to come, including my class on Thursday, and the beginning of the International Affairs lecture series (on Monday). I'm hoping things don't get too crazy, because I'd like to spend some time exploring the city (I bought a Frommer's Washington on the weekend!) and squeeze in a trip (or two) to NYC. For $35 round-trip, I would totally walk around for 36 hours with no hotel. You know I'd do it!
More crazy stuff will ensue this week. But I'll write again soon...ish.
;-)
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