Final Post

Well, I guess it’s that time of the semester. It’s sad, it’s happy, it’s a sense of accomplishment, and it’s a well-earned vacation. Time to pack up the cubicle, say more than a few goodbyes to my amazing roommates and coworkers, and move over for the next crop of interns to descend on Washington DC. And load up the Netflix queue in preparation for three solid weeks of brain rest. The last couple of weeks have gone by so fast that I can hardly remember what I did (besides write a lot of papers!) It seems like I just got here, and even though I’m SO ready to get home and then back to Nashville, something tells me it won’t be too long before I make my way back here.

It’s really exciting to think that some of you are getting ready to pack up and head to D.C. for the Spring! Be excited. Start looking around now for the amazing things you’ll get to see and experience in just a few weeks. Be a dork and get some tourist books. Look forward to your internships, to the people you’ll get to meet. Take every chance you can to get out and explore every part of this amazing city, and don’t just stick to the museums and monuments (although they are pretty cool!)

There are some things I’ve found since I’ve been here that have made my life way easier, and I’ll leave them with you as a parting gift.
Hopstop and WMATA Trip Planner: Until you know the Metro map by heart (and don’t worry—you eventually will), these sites will be lifesavers. The trip planner is great because it gives exact times, but you can actually text Hopstop for directions if you get into a real jam. Also, you can load these Metro maps onto your ipod or PDA to have them with you on the fly.
DCist: Great local blog for keeping up with all the latest happenings and events around the city, for locals and by locals. Arts, music, local news, transportation info, politics… it’s got it all.
Washingon DC Flickr group: Like taking pictures? Like looking at them? Head over there to see some of the best sights in DC, from beautiful to just plain weird.
Walkscore: Type in your address and pull up a map of everything within walking distance—grocery stores, libraries, restaurants, parks… pretty much everything.
Schnozbot: Search D.C. happy hours by neighborhood. When you’re working for free, these are where you’ll find great food for dirt cheap.

So to those of you coming in, best of luck to you! Take in all you can, and make sure you leave some room for a little fun. ;)

Until we meet again,
Christy

Week 14

After all that heat and drought business, I sure didn’t think I’d be seeing any wintry weather while I was here. Lucky for us, though, Snowpocolypse 2007 is upon us! There’s this crazy D.C. weather guy that I like to watch every morning before I venture outside, and I didn’t really believe him when he’s was jumping up and down and screaming something about a snowstorm. But I walked out of my building and it was flurrying a little, leaving a layer of white dust on everything in sight. It was so pretty! A few hours and four inches of snow later, the city had slowed down considerably. There were snowball fights, mini snowmen, and snow angles going on outside during the lunch hour at Arlington Refugee Services, and it was an all-around great day. I didn’t even have to mess with the ice on the roads because I don’t have a car.

There has been so much to do this week that I hadn’t had hardly any time to get out and do anything interesting. Last Friday night was a candlelight vigil in Dupont Circle for World AIDS Day, so I Metro’d over there after work to check that out. Gina over at District of Col-fun-bia was apparently there, too, and has a great account over in her Week 14 blog. In true form, I just stood to the side and took some pictures. It was really cold, but it was really neat seeing that many people turn out to remember that AIDS is a pretty huge issue.

To be completely honest, I’m scraping for material this week. I did mounds of homework, studied hard, and pulled my first legitimate all-nighter. Everyone is in the middle of finals and it’s tough to find time to enjoy the last couple of weeks here. We’re trying, though! The national Christmas tree and menorah both went up this week, reminding everyone that holidays and relaxation are just around the corner. Since I’m thinking no one wants to read about me sitting around and doing homework, I’ll close this out with some photo-blogging from the week instead.

Week 13

Hopefully everyone had a safe and fun break! All of us in TWC are back in the city for the final stretch before the end of our semester here and we’re trying to cram as much fun and as much work as we possibly can into these next few weeks. Portfolio deadlines are coming up fast, final projects are kicking into high gear, and I pretty much can’t remember being more stressed out at the end of a semester, ever. But since The Powers That Be told us when we came here that we should consider “fun” to be part of the syllabus, I guess I need to find some way to relax.

I did get to see the coolest thing this week, though. My class went to the National Press Club (where we had seen Katie Couric) for the second time, but this week there was a panel of journalists who had covered the White House over the years. Helen Thomas of Hearst Newspapers was probably my favorite. That woman is almost 90 years old, has covered every administration since Kennedy, and is unbelievably witty and sassy. She sort of stole Dan Rather’s thunder, I thought. I really hope I can come out swinging like that when I’m 87. NBC’s David Gregory and David Sanger of the New York Times were also on the panel. There was a weird generational thing going on between the younger reporters and the older ones because journalism has changed so much. It caused enough tension to be pretty interesting and it totally fit with what our classroom discussion had been leading into, so it was amazing to be able to see it played out right in front of us with these big-shot journalists. What an opportunity.

Even though things are winding down for us interns, I’m loving how DC’s getting all decked out for the holidays. It seems like everything is all wrapped in lights and garland and ribbon. Union Station even has some massive toy trains with miniature villages set up, from what I hear. A week from Saturday, the national Christmas tree lighting will be happening to ring in the official holiday season. I didn’t get any tickets for that, but my sources tell me I can go by and see it later on once the crowds have thinned out. That’s usually how most things go around here.
I guess that’s about it for this week.

Keep the questions coming!




David Gregory and Helen Thomas in a rare moment of peace.

Lobby of the National Press Building. What can I say? We like to

know what’s going on!





Really fun performers at Metro Center. These guys are always there entertaining the masses, but this is the first time I’d seen them decked out for the holidays!

Week 12

Happy Thanksgiving! When I checked the Drudge Report this morning, it said that 39 million people were supposed to be traveling today, and I think about 38 million of them were in Union Station. Well, probably not, but it was definitely crazier than any airport I’ve ever been in on the day before Thanksgiving! After carting my luggage from my apartment to the Orange line, from the Orange line to the Red line, and from the Red line to the Amtrak train, a four-hour ride through northern Virginia looked pretty good. Even though it’s about 70 degrees outside, the leaves have finally changed around here. So pretty!

So anyway, I’m on my way home now after a pretty long couple of days. I definitely dumped my last pair of contacts down the drain by accident about a week ago, so I’ve been wearing my really old pair of glasses since then and I can’t really see! No one ever told me this before, but having no peripheral vision really messes with you. I’ve finally stopped tripping over carpet and sidewalks and stuff, but it’s been sort of tricky trying to catch the bus when I can’t see which one is coming at me. Thankfully my new contacts are waiting at home. Speaking of buses, though, I found out that there’s one that runs directly from my apartment to my internship every 15 minutes. Moral of the story: There are more ways to get around this city than the Metro.

Part of TWC’s program is a civic engagement project, meaning that you have to find some way to give back to the community while you’re here. Since volunteering at your own agency is off-limits, I decided to help out setting up and handing out water for the 20th annual Help the Homeless walk-a-thon. Aside from having to be on the National Mall by 6:15 on Saturday morning, it was a really cool experience. There were thousands of people there, including Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish (anyone else love these guys in elementary school?) and I think they ended up raising about $8 million for D.C.-area shelters and service organizations.

To tell you the truth, though, I feel like kind of a slacker when I hear about what other TWC interns are doing—we’ve got some really creative folks in this program who have gone way above and beyond to set up their own events and benefits to fundraise for so many different organizations. Way to go, guys!

My weekend obviously wouldn’t be complete without a protest, so I wandered down to the Washington Monument after the walk-a-thon to check out a rally against police brutality and hate crimes.

My friend Elliott, another TWC intern, met me down there and we sat around for a while listening to the speakers and bands before Metro’ing back to Arlington.

When we get back to D.C. next week, we’ll only have three weeks left! I’m as excited as anyone about a long holiday break, but I’m realizing I only have a few more weekends to go exploring. That also means I don’t have too many more chances left to tell you all what to expect. So we’re going to try a little interaction: What are you curious about? Housing? Transportation? Classes? Monday sessions? Leave your questions in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer. Don’t be shy!

Week 11

Veteran’s Day is one of those holidays that you don’t really think about unless your school or office is closed. Or if you’re in D.C.

There were a ton of things going on around town this weekend as veterans poured into the city from all over. A friend flew in from Nashville for a few days, so I figured that Sunday would be a great day to drag her all around the monuments and memorials to see what was going on! We’d stayed up pretty late on Saturday night catching up on Kid Nation online, so we didn’t quite make it out in time to see the actual ceremonies. We spent a while at the World War II Memorial, though, and it was so cool to see veterans and their families taking it all in. I guess the major attractions have all become part of the landscape for me since I grew up visiting a lot as a kid, so it was really neat to remember how meaningful these things really are. It was also pretty insane to see veterans there who are younger than I am. It blows my mind.

On Monday, we decided to hit another hugely important D.C. spot: The Wheaton escalator. Before you start laughing or thinking I must be really running out of things to do, it’s the tallest escalator in the Western Hemisphere. It’s seriously massive and takes 2 minutes and 45 seconds to ride, according to its oh-so-reliable Wikipedia page. We rode it up and down a few times to make it worth the trip out there. In case you’re completely intrigued and want to make your own pilgrimage, it’s second-to-last stop on the Red line towards Glenmont. You’ll only find one that’s taller, and it’s is all the way in Hong Kong. Bummer!

Things are still manageable on the work front. I realized today that I’ve only got about 15 days left of my internship, and I can’t believe how fast it’s gone! Things can get pretty intense around there, so we have to take some time out to have fun—Today was our Thanksgiving dinner, Arlington Refugee Services-style. There was turkey, but there were also some incredible homemade Ethiopian and Egyptian dishes because we have some unbelievable cooks among us (of which I’m definitely not one!). It was a great time to hang out and take a breather. Afterwards, it was back to business: Picking up winter coats from a coat drive in the big blue van, searching the internet and newspapers for job fairs, trying to sort out information for the annual report. All that. We’ve been notified of a few new families that will be coming in the next few weeks, so I hope I’m around to see them.

That’s all for now!

Week 10

I’ve already written about hanging out in crazy protests and demonstrations trying to understand how that fits into this whole advocacy thing. I have a lot of questions about that. But when people are in the middle of protesting or doing a die-in or something, it’s not the best time to start asking them why they’re there. So on Sunday morning, I sat down on the front steps of the Cannon House office building with a pretty high-profile demonstrator named Start Loving. No, seriously. That’s his name. He changed it when he dumped his 25-year career as an executive in the computer industry, his two Masters degrees, and pretty much everything else in his life because he needed a better reason to get out of bed in the morning. Anyway, he’s been in that same spot for over a month now, which is how I knew where to find him, and he was kind enough to field about 2 hours of steady interrogation.

The short version is that he’s been hanging out in front of this building for a while now with a sign asking lawmakers to think about human dignity while they’re figuring out what to do about the growing conflict with Iran. He doesn’t strike up conversation or go after people or anything; he just sits and tries to be a visual reminder of what’s at stake. My first thought is, this can’t possibly be an effective use of time. He’s just sitting there. Shouldn’t he be, like, tutoring the Iranian kids at my agency instead of letting his hair grow out and looking homeless?

But when you walk by, you pretty much can’t ignore this guy. And when he starts talking, it’s even harder. He looks pretty crazy with all the forehead tattoos and ratty clothes, but he knows exactly what he’s doing and what he’s about. I came away from the conversation with a pretty good feel for the root and motivation for at least this side of advocacy work. He’s not sitting in an office and getting paid or anything, but he says he’s there because he can’t not be there. And I can relate to that. I mean, I’m shooting for something a little more stable than his job, but I think I’m starting to understand that side a little more.

As a side note, I thought about trying to pass this off as my required informational interview for TWC, but I didn’t think they’d go for it!

Productive weekend, though. But don’t go thinking it was all work and no play. The other highlight was that Jack Bauer and the 24 crew have been filming around town for the past few days. Despite my best efforts, I haven’t found them, but I did stand exactly where Jack Bauer had been standing just a few hours earlier. The molecules from Jack Bauer’s shoes are probably on the bottoms of my shoes now, and I’m never throwing them away.

There was also Halloween in Georgetown, which was a little insane. I went out with some coworkers as a nudist on strike (give me a break—this was very last-minute) and our IT guy said I looked pretty legit. I even had a picket sign! Hey, I might not understand protesters, but I can absolutely play the part.

Lots of ceremonies and parades coming up for Veteran’s Day this weekend, so be on the lookout for that. Enjoy the long weekend!

Week 9

I’m sitting here drinking my first caramel apple cider of the season and realizing that fall has finally arrived. At the end of October. I’m pretty convinced that nothing beats fall in Tennessee, but as long as there’s a Starbucks close by, D.C.’s not so bad either. I blew off the cement and high-rises for a few hours on Saturday headed out to Fairfax to take some pictures of the colors. You can imagine by surprise when I kicked away some leaves and found actual dirt underneath instead of pavement! Not that I don’t appreciate big city living, but sometimes a girl just has to get out.

It’s been a pretty low-key week. Like most of the country, we’ve had a real shortage of rain. I’m not pro-drought or anything, but I’ve basically been crossing my fingers every day hoping the skies won’t split open while I walk to the Metro. It had to happen eventually, though, and it did this week. Just like the stand-to-the-right-walk-to-the-left thing on Metro escalators, I found out that there are some unwritten rules about carrying an umbrella on a crowded sidewalk. There’s this weird moment when you lock eyes with the person walking towards you and you realize that one of you needs to lift up your umbrella so that you can pass each other without having to sidestep into the street. You both realize the sidewalk isn’t big enough for both of you, but neither of you wants to move. As I eventually figured out, if you’re the one closest to the street, it’s on you. I learn these things the hard way so you don’t have to.

I think there must be another rule saying that when it’s raining, Metrobuses only have to stop for you if they feel like it; you have to flag them down like taxis. But that’s another story for another day!

Thankfully, the clouds rolled out in time for the weekend. It was a big weekend for our fair city because about 30,000 really ambitious people descended upon the area to run in the annual Marine Corps Marathon. Several coworkers (and a few TWCers, I think) were getting in on the action this year, so the rest of us met early in the morning to watch. Marathons have gotten really high-tech these days, and you can actually keep up with runners through text message alerts. Crazy! We spent the day trekking from milepost to milepost cheering on our friends as they chugged through all 26.2 miles. Race days are seriously some of my favorite days in a city because so many people show up for these things just to cheer for people they don’t even know. It’s awesome to see everyone hang the picket signs for once and spread some kind words to complete strangers.

Things have been pretty uneventful at work this week, and aside from stomping around in the mud and rain in full business attire to check out a house for some clients, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about.

What is worth mentioning is the 17th street drag parade that just went down in Dupont Circle a few hours ago. This was another one of those last-minute D.C. blog finds, and it was pretty spectacular. It happens every year on the Tuesday before Halloween and it’s followed by the drag queens racing down the street in stilettos for a few blocks. I stopped by after class tonight but couldn’t see much because it was so crowded! This place gets quirkier by the minute.

Last bit of exciting news: I managed to get a photo featured over on DCist a few days ago and another on the DC Metroblog, so that was a great way to start the week. Score two for the intern. It’s kind of a fun way to leave my mark here, I think.

Until next week!