Somethin' to Write Home About

Final Post

2007-12-14T14:26:00.000-08:00

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

2007-12-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-30T09:40:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-16T08:18:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-02T06:43:00.000-07:00

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!

Week 8

2007-10-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

I’m learning that most folks in D.C. keep a finger on some sort of media pulse, whether it’s the morning Express paper, television, or my personal favorite—the local blogs. I’ve got more than a few of those in my arsenal, so I usually have a pretty good handle on what’s going on in and around the District since I can read about it in real-time. There’s this constant buzz, and if you know where to look, it’s pretty easy to stay in the loop. So if there’s a riot going down at the other end of the city, I’ll probably be reading about it within 10 or 15 minutes—and that’s exactly what happened this weekend.

There was a big meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on Saturday, which happens every year around this time. And every year like clockwork, someone stages a protest. I won’t get into the ins and outs of the situation except to say that given an opportunity and the slightest excuse, people seem to love taking to the streets here. And if at all possible, I like to be there when it happens. I hadn’t even gotten out of bed yet on Saturday morning when I read about this one, but after glancing at my watch and realizing I could make it down there if I left right away, I threw my trusty Powershot into my bag and headed underground to catch the next train into DC.

This particular group was marching from a nearby park to the World Bank building, so I figured I’d meet them at the end of their route. When I got off the Metro, I wound my way around the maze of street closures and got there just in time to see the first few protesters trickling into the square. A few minutes later, I could hear shouts and drums from the next block over headed in my direction. Hundreds of police officers put on their best riot faces, I got my camera ready, and then everything collided all at once. It was pretty much complete chaos for the next two hours. I realize that’s probably not the normal place for an intern to hang out, but seriously—if you have even a little interest in group psychology or political activism, it’s a completely fascinating place to be! I spent the next few hours giving the camera a good workout and watching hundreds of angry kids stretch the First Amendment to its farthest limits.

Scuffling at the World Bank protest.

I’ve always been really curious as to what makes people do things like this and what they hope it a accomplishes, so DC is definitely one of the best places in the world to study that. I’m in the business of advocacy—that’s a little-known but huge part of social work. In D.C. I’m getting to see it from all sides, from the kids chucking bricks through windows in Georgetown to months-long hunger strikes to anti-refugee activism that affects the core of what I do. I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations since I’ve been here with activists and protesters of all shapes and sizes, from all walks of life. And I guess what I’m seeing is that people just have a lot to say, and DC is like center-stage. Questionable methods aside, people just want to be heard. The amazing part is that when you live here, you pretty much have a front row seat if you want it. You just have to keep an ear to the street.

A hunger-striker named Start Loving hasn’t eaten since October 1st. He says he’s waiting for hearts to change on Capitol Hill. And yes, the forehead ink is real.

It’s been a pretty big week between all of that, the Dalai Lama’s visit to the Capitol, and the ever-shifting world of refugee resettlement. Midterms have really snuck up on me, but it feels like I’m just getting started!

A Tibetan student waits for the Dalai Lama outside the Capitol.

Week 7

2007-10-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

So, I had a plan for today. I had a to-do list just like I do every day. It generally chills out in the sidebar of Microsoft Outlook, and there are empty checkboxes next to each thing on the list. If everything is crossed off by the time I leave, then I’ve had a good day. Maybe there are some phone calls I need to make, a budget class to be taught, or some invoices to deliver to the Powers That Be. Things that take two minutes and things that take two weeks. I had a good day today, but by the looks of my to-do list I didn’t accomplish much of anything.

It’s a crazy thing, helping out with resettlement. We don’t have tons of cash to throw around. We have to rely on a lot of resources that aren’t always there and a lot of people we can’t always pay, and we need both badly. This time, it really came down to the wire: We’ve got a family arriving tonight, found them a house yesterday, and moved in what furniture and supplies we had this afternoon. Beds? Check. Pots and pans? Check. Toothbrushes? Check. Dinner? Check. Toilet paper? Oops—put that one on the list. We got a bed stuck in a doorframe, had a near-mishap involving a kitchen table, and almost locked the keys in the car. But thanks to our staff (who, like me, had to-do lists that probably didn’t include moving furniture) and an incredible volunteer on extremely short notice, we dusted ourselves off after a really long day and stepped back to admire the sort-of-fully-furnished condo—less than two hours before the family was supposed to touch down on U.S. soil. Okay, yes, it looks a little empty and mismatched—it’s no “Extreme Home Makeover,” but it works, and it’s almost home.

Needless to say, I came home tonight with a pretty different perspective from the one I had when I left the house this morning. My nerves are shot, my entire body aches, and I didn’t quite make it to class this time around. But I’m sitting here on my cushy TWC-supplied couch, watching “The Office” on my TWC-supplied TV, admiring the Arlington skyline from eight stories up, and realizing that I have it pretty good over here.

Before today, my week wasn’t exactly stellar. I was going to find a clever and uppity way to whine about being sick all weekend, try to make the Solar Decathlon sound way more exciting than it actually was, and possibly drop a few hints about how Washington’s a pretty tiring place to live sometimes.

The Solar Decathlon, which was actually kind of boring.

Luckily for you, dear readers, my plans fell through. ; )

Week 6

2007-10-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

Three-day weekends are a wonderful thing. Apparently people around here actually have Columbus Day off, which worked out really well for me this year! One of the things I love about Washington is that it’s pretty close to a lot of other cities, so when a three-day weekend rolls around, it’s a great chance to get out of the area and see some other parts of the East Coast. Two of my roommates took the Chinatown bus to New York City, which is only about four hours away by bus, and $40 round-trip. Easy enough, right?

As for me, I headed back home for a day, then hopped in my car and made my way down the coast on Saturday morning for a weekend at the beach with some of my favorite Nashvillians. Now, there are at least two things Nashvillians do often and do well: They know how to hug, and they know how to grill out. Kites were flown, grills were fired up, guitars were played, and good times were had. On Sunday morning, we all scraped ourselves out of bed while it was still dark outside to sit on the beach and take in a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

We weren’t quite sure how to put these together. (Guest photographer: Morgan Levy)

My kite was pretty much doomed from the beginning. (Guest photographer: Marion Millard)

On Sunday morning, we all scraped ourselves out of bed while it was still dark outside to sit on the beach and take in a beautiful sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean.

Soon afterwards, I ventured back up north for some more family time, then took the Amtrak back into DC. As the train roared on past the white dome of the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument, I realized that this city looks even more impressive at night. Whether you want to call it home or you’re just passing through, you have to admit that there’s no place like it on earth.

So I find myself at work on Tuesday, my desk piled high with stacks of Employment Guides, Sunday’s Washington Post, City Papers, D.C. maps, Craigslist rental printouts, and transit brochures. We’ve got a refugee family flying in from Iraq in a few days and we’re still looking for a place for them to live. There’s a couch that needs to be picked up, welcome packages to put together, and so many preparations to be made in order to make Arlington look just a little more like home. It’s hard work, it can be hectic, and sometimes I wonder if it’s ever going to come together; but knowing that in a few days, some family will be leaving that mess and beginning to call this place home makes it so incredibly worth it.

So until next week, from my soggy city to yours, goodnight!

Week 5

2007-10-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

If you ever want good music, good art, and great food, Adams Morgan is where you need to be. This weekend, I paid a visit to DC’s annual Crafty Bastards festival in the heart of this neighborhood where hundreds of ridiculously talented artists and crafters were able to show off and sell their stuff. Think colorful iPod covers, laptop sleeves, booths upon booths of amazing screen-printed t-shirt artists, silkscreen concert posters, bags and purses made from recycled vinyl—that doesn’t even begin to describe what all was there. A couple of hours into it, I found myself crouched next to the dance floor, camera in hand, with a front-row seat to one of DC’s biggest annual breakdancing competitions. Here’s something that very few people know about me: I love me some breakdancing.

You see, back in Tennessee I worked and volunteered at a music venue/skatepark/urban youth center in downtown Nashville. It was basically a place for kids to go after school so they’d stay out of trouble; we had all kinds of art, film, dance, and photography classes to keep them busy. Let me tell you- we had some troubled kids there, but they were troubled kids with an unbelievable amount of talent. One of the biggest places I saw it was on the dance floor.

Crafty Bastards’ B-boy Battle competition was nonstop energy. And kudos to the kid who gave up his spot by the floor for me--I got some great pictures! A couple of them were even linked over from the DCist blog, if you’re into that kind of thing.

When you’re little and you try to think of the coolest career you could ever have, social work isn’t generally the first thing that comes to mind for most people. It isn’t always pretty, we don’t pass senators in the hallway, we hang out in some not-so-great parts of town, and some of the world’s most difficult people and situations somehow find their way into our offices every single day. But I seriously feel like one of the luckiest people in the world when I get to see that kind of hope, energy, and talent show up in the unlikeliest of places—whether it’s at a skatepark in downtown Nashville or a makeshift dance floor in the heart of DC. Or even in the dusty basement office of Arlington Refugee Services.

Although there hasn’t been any breakdancing at work, I still think it’s one of the coolest placements I could possibly have. I’ve been staying on top of Craigslist looking for housing for some Iranian clients, dealing with some pretty hectic end-of-the-fiscal-year craziness, learning all about what can go wrong for our clients (one family came to the US with ONE bag, and the airline lost it!), as well as what can go right (one of the clients from last week’s pre-employment training got a job!) It sure as heck never gets boring.

Time to go hit up the Presidential Lecture Series! See you next week.

Week 4

2007-09-29T10:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I just got back from a class field trip to see Katie Couric at the National Press Club! Usually, it’s just a gathering of journalists who come to hear influential or controversial public figures, but my professor managed to hook our class up with some tickets for this evening.

I was studying journalism before I changed my major to social work, so there’s still a part of me that loves the excitement of a media frenzy. When I was choosing a class to take here at The Washington Center, I purposely picked a media-related class because I figured I’d be right in the middle of it. Needless to say, tonight was a great time!

The past week has been a little bit slower-paced. With no major protests to wander into this week, I’ve been trying to catch up on work for my other classes. Exciting, I know. ;-) On Friday night, I hung out with my coworkers in Arlington for happy hour and headed home to watch a movie with my roommates. It was then that made the tragic discovery that our TV has no jack for a DVD player, but we still survived the weekend! Between baseball season winding down and football season starting up, who really needs a DVD player anyway?

As for work, I think the craziness is thankfully dying down a little! I’m getting to meet some of the families face-to-face that we’ve been working hard to settle, which is really neat. Right now, I’m partnering up with a coworker to try to organize the pre-employment training materials a little better. We’re making new worksheets and cleaning up old ones so that we can actually have a workbook to hand to the clients when they come through the door.

And I’ll leave you with a word of advice, you guys- If you decide to go the route of the Smartrip card (a refillable and plastic fare pass for the Metro) REGISTER IT! I lost mine yesterday and they just transferred my balance to another card. So if you’re anything like me and you lose stuff easily, this can be a lifesaver!

On that note, I’m off to bed!

Week 3

2007-09-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to believe that another week has gone by! I'm learning pretty quickly that there's never really a dull moment here in Washington. This past weekend was the first time I've really been able to get out and not worry about much homework. I'm taking two classes from Belmont on top of my TWC stuff, so it was a little hectic at first. On Saturday morning, though, I met a friend from work in Chinatown to do some shopping and hang out for the afternoon. We got some bubble tea and walked down towards the Capitol, where we'd heard about this huge anti-war demonstration happening. When else am I going to see 100,000 people march on the Capitol, right? If nothing else, we figured it was a great excuse for people-watching.

My friend and I managed to elbow our way into the middle of it and listen to people’s stories while snapping some decent photos. What an experience.

Things at work have been pretty crazy, too. Last week, many of my coworkers and clients celebrated both the beginning of Ramadan and the Ethiopian millennium. I’ve never seen so much food come through an office in one week! We’re also settling so many families right that we keep running out of supplies and furniture. It’s been really neat to see the entire office pull together and make do with what we have, though. It’s times like these where I really start to see that you sort of become a jack-of-all-trades when you work at a small non-profit. One minute, I’m designing a brochure. The next minute, I’m helping a client fill out a green card application. Today, I was digging around in a storage shed trying to find twin sheets to give to a family that’s flying in tonight from Iraq.

In between all of that craziness, TWC has kept me pretty busy. We got to go to the Department of the Interior this week to hear former Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta speak. This sounded like it would be really boring, to be honest, but what a neat guy! He was apparently one of the Japanese Americans held in an internment camp during World War II, and somehow went from that point to serving under two presidents.

That’s all for now! As many of our clients say, ma'assalama.

September 11th, 2007

2007-09-17T07:50:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a weird day in Washington. Today marked six years since the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and just about every high-rise I can see has a huge flag draped across at least one side of it. It was almost surreal to see them all displayed at once on my way to the Metro this morning.

On a much brighter note, though, my first full week of work did not disappoint. I’m getting to know my coworkers a little better and even got to go to a business seminar with them on Thursday and see General Colin Powell speak! Sugar Ray (the boxer, not the band) was there, too, and it was really neat to be able to hear him. Unfortunately, 15,000 people pouring out of the conference center downtown at rush hour doesn’t do much in the way of helping Metro traffic, but we all managed to get home in one piece!

Already, I’ve had some amazing experiences working with the refugees at my agency. And you’ll be happy to hear that I’ve gotten the commuting thing down ;-). It’s been a really eye-opening week for me, though. I mean, I’ve worked with refugees back home in Nashville, too, but something changes when you’re on the job almost full-time. You start learning about people’s stories, and your own perspective starts to change. For example, I spent a good part of 9/11 sitting in a room observing a coworker who was helping some refugees from Iraq. The world looks a little different from there.

Also, I haven’t talked much about my class and program events yet (yes, we do actually go to school here sometimes!) Every Monday afternoon, we have speakers or events to attend with other interns from our program. I’m in the program called Advocacy, Service, and the Arts, and yesterday we had the opportunity to see some returned Peace Corps volunteers talk about life in the Peace Corps. As far as class goes, I’m in one called “Press, Politics, and Power,” and tonight was our second meeting. Apparently, we’re going to go see a live interview of Katie Couric this month! Call me a nerd, but this is pretty exciting.

So basically, I’m meeting people from all over the world, getting to see people and do things that I never thought I’d get to experience in my lifetime, and having a whole lot of fun doing it. I should add that I’m pretty much exhausted, but I almost think I’d be missing out if I wasn’t!

Week One

2007-09-17T07:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome, TWCers!

I hope everyone has had a great summer!

First, a little about me: I grew up in Yorktown, VA and I’m starting my senior year as a social work major at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. After months of planning, stressing, interviewing and Googling, I've started an internship with Arlington Refugee Services where I’m helping out with a program called Breaking the Barriers, which provides pre-employment training and other services to refugees trying to make it in northern Virginia. I couldn’t be more excited!

I can't believe it's already been a week since the big move! Last week was spent trying to get everything set up in my new apartment in Arlington, getting to know my three incredible roommates, and doing the tourist thing. A lot of information was thrown at us at the orientation, but it was a great way to meet people. Admittedly, though, I was pretty happy to see the weekend.

TWC Ice Cream Social

View from my apartment balcony

While I was eating breakfast on the balcony Saturday morning (the weather has been gorgeous), I noticed a Farmer's Market set up on the street below. After checking that out, my roommates and I headed to Chinatown to eat at a great hole-in-the-wall Chinese place and grab some bubble tea. Since Monday was a holiday, I spent the day trying to unravel the mystery of public transportation and finish up some reading assignments for my classes in Nashville.
Today was the first official day of work and class, and it's been a whirlwind. The folks at Arlington Refugee Services have let me get my hands dirty pretty quickly, though, and after a quick orientation I'm already helping process some new clients!

All in all, I won't lie- the transition hasn't been easy, but it's already been incredibly rewarding. For starters, I missed my bus today by only a few seconds and had to hail a cab for the first time in my life! As a side note, people move quickly here, and I've definitely been run over on the Metro escalators more times than I'd like to admit (these people are very serious about the "stand to the right, walk to the left" thing). My internet also isn't quite up and running in my room yet, and walking to the grocery store is going to take some getting used to. I've decided that this experience isn't for the faint of heart, but being in this city is absolutely incredible. I've even found a cozy coffeehouse where I can hide out if I start stressing.

Lost Roommates

Right now, I can hear a serviceman playing "Taps" in the Arlington Cemetery just a few blocks behind my building. This means that it's time to go inside, get some sleep, and get ready for another exciting day tomorrow. This time, I'll try not miss the bus!