Washington DC At Night

Vietnam War Memorial

Me and Mr. Abe Lincoln

Korean War Memorial

Korean War memorial - We found La France

Lincoln Memorial

Me at the World War II Memorial

I found WASHINGTON

World War II Memorial and Washington Memorial

World War II Memorial

Flags at the Washington Monument

It looks like I'm walking up the Washington Monument

The Washington Monument

We went into the city on friday night and we did a night monument walk. It was one of our goals of the summer to go around and see all or at least most of the monuments/memorials during the day and at night. I thought the night walk might be creepy and not very safe because we weren't leaving until 9pm and we didn't get home until midnight, but it wasn't scary at all. Actually lots of tourists do the night monument walk and there are security guards and rangers at the monuments still even at midnight.

It is also much better to walk around and see them at night, one because there are not as many tourists so it is much less crowded, and two because it is MUCH cooler and you don't feel like you are about to die of heat exhaustion. Also the monuments and memorials are quieter and I think much more magnificent at night.

So it was a pretty long walk around but definitely worth it, and I loved seeing all the monuments lit up, especially the World War II memorial. I think that one is the most magnificent at night because the water is all lit up and every state is lit up. This memorial has become my favorite, both during the day and at night.

Today, Saturday, I babysat again and made some money which was good, and I also LOVE the kids I babysit for, they are adorable. I think I am going to babysit for them one more time, and then they are going to have a nanny so I will be done, but that is probably good because I won't have very much time after next weekend. Also next weekend is July 4th in DC which should be VERY exciting!!!! Then the next weekend I'm going to Mount Vernon and the beach FINALLY, and then next weekend Grandma and Lukas come to visit, and the next weekend I go to Massachusetts for Amy's wedding! And then only two more weekends I think before I come home! The time here is going so fast and I still have so much to see and do! But even though we are so busy, we have so much fun, and I feel like I can just come home back to Seattle and crash at the end of it!

Event with the UK Secretary of State for International Development

Today I unfortunately had to go to work. We usually get Fridays off but since we had a HUGE event today they needed our help to check people in and to help with the Q&A. At first I was really bummed at having to go into work but it was worth it because the event was really interesting.

It was a speech by the new UK Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell. The equivalent of his job in the US would be the head of USAID, so he's pretty important to say the least.

His speech was on the Millenium Development Goals and how the UK was going to try and achieve them. He seems to be a really good person for the job, his ideas were really focused, to the point, and also realistic. It was definitely worth coming into work for, and we also got free lunch with was AWESOME!

Later tonight we are hoping to go into the city and see the monuments all lit up and take pictures, which will be really fun! But other than that, I am taking it easy till then cause it's been a LONG and EXHAUSTING week!

Department of State

At the Department of State for class

On Wednesday for class we went to the Department of State for a briefing as our professor calls it. It was really cool because we got to hear from 2 different speakers and then go to the Operations Room.

Our first speaker was Deborah Graze who is the Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Bureau of Human Rights, Democracy, and Labor. She was a foreign service officer as well and told us more about the Foreign Service and also what her specific bureau did. It's actually really interesting cause they have to publish a report online every year about human rights abuses in every country, even the United States! And this report is funded by the US Congress, and the data is taken from Embassies and NGOs and IGOs, and then they also talk to the Governments of the countries as well. It's a long process, but I think it would be a really interesting report to read and it's great that it is accessible to the public.

We also had a previous WII student speak to us. I think she worked in the Conflict Management or Conflict resolution bureau. She is a presidential management fellow which is a fellowship you can get while you are in graduate school and then you can work for the Department of State and they either pay for all of grad school or a part of it. So she talked to us about that and also how WII had helped her and how she got her career started at the Department of State.

Then we got to go to the Operations Room on the 8th floor, I believe, of the State Department. This was the coolest part. When we got off the elevators we could see Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's office, but unfortunately we didn't see her! I had my eyes focused on the office for a long time but she never came out!

We went down the hall from her office to the Operations Room where they deal with the crises. There is a crisis management part and then an operations room part. The Operations room was set up by Kennedy during the Bay of Pigs Invasion and since then there has been someone in the room 24/7. This room exists for when anything bad happens in any part of the world that could affect US interests or US citizens. The job of the people who work there is to call up our ambassadors in that country, find out what is going on, and then write up an analysis for the Secretary of State. One report is due to the Secretary at 5:30am and one at 3pm, and if she is traveling then it is still due at the same time but it has to get to her at 5:30am and 3pm her time wherever she may be. Because of this they have a clock in the Operations Room called "Secretary Time" so they can get her her report on time.

The Operations Room, as I mentioned earlier, is staffed 24/7 and there is even a swinger who bridges the shifts so there is always a person there. We also got to sit in the task force room where they put together task forces when there is a disaster. We were actually sitting in the chairs where the different members of the task force sat when they dealt with the Kyrgyzstan conflict and the Haiti earthquake. For the Haiti earthquake they had 3 task force rooms set up though because it was such a big problem. When a task force is set up they are there at their computers 24/7 as well, and it is usually a member from each bureau of the State Department. It was pretty neat and I had no idea that this place even existed.

We also got to meet a girl who interned there and she was a Undergrad Pickering Fellow which is a program you can apply to as a junior in undergrad, and if you get in you spend one summer taking classes, and then the next summer interning at the Department of State. Then you have to go to one of 15 grad schools on their list and then you get an automatic entry into the foreign service and have a commitment of 4 years. It seemed really cool, and I'm thinking of applying especially because you can get into the Foreign Service that way without having to pass the test! Also if you get in your life is set and you have a job right out of grad school without having to find one yourself, which sounds amazing. So it's definitely a possibility and the girl we met highly recommended it. But it is also very hard to get into, but it's worth a try

This summer is definitely making me think more and more about what I want to do, and it's hard because everywhere we go to visit I like, and I think everything the people do that we meet is interesting, and I don't want to have to choose, I want to do it all.

I'm also beginning to be interested in International Development as well and maybe working for USAID, but I really have no idea, it just seems like an interesting field, but so does the Foreign Service...too many tough decisions!

National Gallery of Art

Pretty Fountain at National Gallery of Art

Another Pretty fountain at the National Gallery of Art

The Naval Memorial + The National Archives

On Sunday we went into the city and did some more touristy things. We went and got lunch and had a picnic at the Naval Memorial which was beautiful! We were supposed to have the picnic on the National Mall but we didn't quite make it all the way there - it was a really long walk! But the Naval Memorial was much less crowded and had more shade!

After we had lunch we walked to the National Gallery of Art. It was a beautiful museum and had a pretty cool impressionist exhibit. It was also cool to know who the artists were since I took art history in the spring. But I have to say that even though I thought I would appreciate art a lot more after taking art history, I'm not sure I really did. I at least now can stand going to an art museum and love looking at the pretty paintings, and I know more about the paintings. But I still have trouble looking at art very long - but we were there for a couple hours, which I think was the perfect amount of time! I guess I'm just not a gung-ho art museum type, but I am really glad I went, and it was a pretty amazing collection of art!

My favorite part of the museum was the fountains that they had all over the museum...they were beautiful and it also created a cool atmosphere that is unlike any other art museum I've ever visited!

When we got home from the museum we had to go grocery shopping so we were ready for the week, and then I worked out in the gym for a little over an hour, and then went to sleep so I could prepare myself for this week which is going to be a very long one!

Work is crazy busy this week, I didn't even have time for a lunch break today, I worked straight 9-5 and we are going to the department of state for a class tour on wednesday which should be really fun!!

The Week

The Department of State

My special pass that I had to wear at the Department of State


First time dressed up in a full suit for my interview
at the Department of State - of course it was 85 degrees out (so HOT)

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (I finally took a picture)

I have not updated my blog in awhile because this week has been pretty hectic and I've been too busy to write.

Work was really busy this week, we had lots of events and lots of publications to send out, and also database entry to do (probably the most monotonous and boring task I've had to do so far).

We also had A LOT of homework to do this week.

Since so much happened this week, I'll just go over the highlights.

Tuesday:

We got taken out to lunch by one of our supervisors at Carnegie. We just got a new intern on Tuesday and so she took all three of us out to lunch and Carnegie paid for it. It was a really fun lunch, we had some good intern bonding and we got to know Kendra, one of our supervisors who is not a whole lot older that us, much better too!

Thursday:

I went to my second event at the Carnegie Endowment. It was called "The 2010 NPT Review Conference: What Next?" and the speakers were Deepti Choubey (a Carnegie Scholar) and the US Special Representative of the President for Nuclear Nonproliferation Ambassador Susan Burk - so basically this woman works directly with Obama on Nuclear issues. It was a very interesting event on the NPT conference and what it means for the US. She discussed what the US wanted going in, and also why we shouldn't consider this conference a failure by any means like some people in the media were calling it.

This is probably my favorite part of my job because I get to learn about so many international relations issues from people that are so smart! So that was exciting!

After work on thursday a few of the Washington Internship Institute Interns and I went to a grad school reception for Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Tuft's Fletcher School of Intl. Affairs, John Hopkins Nitz School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service, and Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs.

It was really interesting, and there was FREE food which was awesome! The only thing that was a little bit frustrating was that we would ask them if they had people that went to their schools right after undergrad and almost every one said that most of their students are in their mid to late twenties and went after working for a few years and a lot of us were planning to go right after undergrad. Also their acceptance rates are a bit daunting, and we all felt like we needed to go save the world before applying or they wouldn't accept us. But it was at least good to find out about them, and what they were all about, and I think right now my favorites are Princeton, Tufts, and Georgetown.

Friday:

Friday was a VERY exciting day because I got to go do my first informational interview, which is a requirement for my internship seminar. I did my info interview with the ambassador/foreign service member who spoke with us last week because he was really interesting and I wanted to ask him some more questions about the foreign service.

I was able to meet with him at the Department of State where he is the second in command of the Population, Refugees and Migration Bureau just under Eric P. Schwartz who is sometimes in the news. It turned out to be probably the worst day for me to choose to meet with Ambassador Robinson because it was World Refugee Day so he was very busy, but he nicely took time to meet with me for 40 minutes.

We talked about a lot and I got all of my questions answered about the foreign service and he also gave me some tips about applying and also other career paths if I decide that I don't want to do the foreign service. So the interview was amazing, and he was great, and it was also fun going into the Department of State. I felt quite important because I had to go through security and then sign in with the front desk and I was escorted everywhere and had a special little pass.

It also made me really excited to see more of the Dept of State on our tour next week with our class because I only saw one section of it.

I also dressed up for the first time in a full suit and I even wore hose because I feel like the Dept of State is pretty fancy with lots of high up people and I didn't want to look underdressed. But of course the one day I have to dress up really fancy it is 85 degrees or maybe even hotter and I have to walk almost a mile from the metro to the department of state. It was kind of miserable, but I guess that is DC for you! And I was still glad I decided to wear a suit because almost everyone at the Dept. of State does wear a suit so I didn't look out of place!

Saturday:

Today I babysat for my friend Hope's old youth leader and her husband who have just moved to DC for about 5.5 hours. They have two little boys, one that is one and a half, and one that is 3. They were very cute and I was basically just entertaining them while the movers moved in boxes and I just kept them out of the way. We went to the park, spent lots of time outside, which they loved, and I did too until I was dying of heat because it is 90 here today plus humidity!

But it was really fun and it was great to make some money as well!

For dinner tonight we are going to Adams Morgan to explore that neighborhood because it is where all the ethnic food is, it's kind of like how cities have little italy, little thailand etc...but with this it is all crammed into one neighborhood. It should be lots of fun!

The Weekend

This weekend was nice, it was the perfect balance of relaxing and fun! On Saturday my roomate and I went and worked out at the gym while watching the England vs. US World Cup Soccer game because the gym has channels and our TV has none! It was a crazy game and the US managed to tie England 1-1 because of a very lucky goal where the England goalie had the ball in his hands and then let it slip out and back in the goal! In the World Cup there has been a lot of ties which I guess happens when the teams are so good! But today Germany beat Australia 4 - 0 which was very exciting!
That was basically the highlight of Saturday...for the rest of the day I just sat around and did homework because I have about 300 pages that I have to read by wednesday and I also have to create a Professional Development Plan!


Today we did some more sightseeing. We woke up really early because we had to get into DC before 10am to get tickets for the Holocaust Museum. The tickets are free but you have to wait in line to get a time to go into the permanent exhibition. We got there at 9:50am and were able to get a time for 11:30am which was great!
Then while you are waiting to go into the permanent exhibition you can see the other parts of the museum! We went to an exhibit on Nazi Propaganda and then Daniel's Story which is about the children of the Holocaust. It was very interesting but I definitely thought the permanent exhibition was the best and the most meaninful! It was so well done and I learned a lot!

When you first go into the permanent exhibit you receive an identification card of a Jewish person and you are that person as you are walking through...here was my person's story:

Name: Margit Morawetz
Date of Birth: February 26, 1922
When Margit was a baby, her family moved from Austria to Prague, Czechoslovakia. Her father was a banker from a religious Jewish family in Bohemia and her mother came from a Viennese family of Jewish origin. Margit knew many languages: Czech, French, English and German, which she spoke with her family

That is all you are supposed to read while you go through the first floor which shows the Nazi's ascent to power.
Then on the next floor, about the beginnings of the conquering of Europe, you read the next part of your person's life:

1933-1939
In 1938, when I was 16, attacks on Jews in central Europe escalated and my parents decided I should leave. I left secondary school in Prague and went to Paris, where I studied dressmaking. It was hard to live on my own and go to school, but in March 1939 my mother came to France. She lived outside Paris, and I saw her often. Once France was engaged in the war in September 1939, it became clear that Jews in France could be in danger.

So then after reading this part you go through the second floor, and then continue to the third floor which was about the concentration camps and the horrors of them...this part of the exhibit is one of the scariest parts, but I think they do a good job of showing enough to make you realize and see the atrocities and how awful it really was but not enough to make you overwhelmed and want to run out of the museum. For this part you learn this about your person:

1940-1941
I apprehensively continued my studies until just before Paris fell to the Germans in June 1940. Refugees streamed to the unoccupied south of France, and I bought a bike so I, too, could flee. I rode for hours until I came to a school building where some refugees were staying. After a brief rest, I headed out in search of my mother, who had been sent to a detention camp on the Spanish border. Only hours after I left the building, the Germans blew the school to pieces.

Then after going through the concentration camp part you go through the liberation part which is really sad too because you see the bodies and how malnourished they were. But it is also a happier part since you see some of the people they rescued and saved, and you also get to find out whether your person lived or died on the last page of their identification card.

Mine said:
Margit eventually found her mother, and the two fled, via Spain and Portugal, to the United States, where they settled in 1941.

I was so happy to have a happy story after the many sad and awful stories of the museum, and also seeing how many could not make it to the US because the US closed its doors to Jew refugees.

That is the Holocaust museum, it's a really amazing and powerful experience and I would reccomend it to anyone who comes to DC, and I definitely recommend going through the permanent exhibition because that is where you learn the most!

After the Holocaust Museum we were starving since we had spent 4 hours in the museum and so we went to Chinatown to get some lunch! We didn't do a lot of walking around Chinatown but we saw the arch at the beginning and ate some really yummy Chinese food.

Now we are all back at home doing more homework...the only bummer of this program is how much homework we do have! If we didn't have so much we would be able to explore a little bit more! But we still manage to have a great time on the weekends and sort of fit the homework in!

The Dacor Bacon House for Retired Ambassadors

The secretaries of State (Hillary Clinton on far right)

Our Yummy Meal

On Wednesday instead of having our normal international relations class we went to the Dacor Bacon House for Retired Ambassadors, and we had lunch and had a Retired Foreign Service Officer and Ambassador come and speak to us! It was pretty amazing to hear his stories and hear more about the foreign service! For the foreign service you have to pass this exam which most people do after grad school and then you are in! You get your first assignment, and if you can't speak the language of the country the Dept. of State pays to train you and also pays you a normal salary while you are in training. If you do know the language though you get paid an extra $10,000 on top of your normal salary! So it would help me to know french!

The only thing that seems a bit scary is that you switch post every 1-2 years, so you are constantly moving and if you have a family/husband they can't always come with you, actually 1/3 of the places they can't come with you!

It still sounds amazing though, you get paid to learn languages and get to travel the whole entire world! I'm just not sure if I want to be traveling that much and moving that much, or being out of the United States that much! But in terms of what you do in the Foreign Service it is exactly what I want to do, because it is an entire career of diplomacy, you work in consulates and embassies and basically help the US stay allies with the country you are in!

It sounds like a cool opportunity! And it was great having this man talk to us, because it is always interesting hearing from someone who has done the job! Also if you work your way up in the foreign service you can become an ambassador, and then you get to stay in one place for a little bit longer! So it's definitely an option!

Also lunch was really good, and it was so fancy!

In 2 weeks we get to go on a tour of the department of state and meet people who work there which will be very exciting!

Event on Tuesday

Ok so this is a little bit out of order, but on Tuesday I was able to go to a Carnegie Event that was really, really interesting! It was about Iran and the islamic fundamentalist government there! There were talking about how this green movement is rising in Iran and how this green movement wants to make the country more democratic, because many in Iran just want to be able to vote! They don't neccesarily want as democratic of a government as we have, they just want to vote, something I think we in the US sometimes take for granted!

The speakers were; Karim Sadjadpour, who is a Carnegie scholar, Abbas Milani, a professor from Stanford University, Gary Sick, a professor from Columbia University, and it was all moderated by NPR's Steve Inskeep! All these people were so smart, and the interns got asked to help with the Q&A where we passed out microphones for people who had questions!

Since I can't explain exactly what the event was about because I missed the beginning due to setting things us, you can go to ceip.org and find the event under Iran - One Year After the Disputed Election and Violent Crackdown. They have a video posted of the event so you can hear the speakers if you are interested

Outfits of the Week

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

So since I realized I don't have a lot to talk about every week since work isn't that interesting every day, I decided to make a work outfits of the week post! (I look a bit tired in some of them because most of them were taken at 7am after I was done getting ready for work)

It's nice because, though have to dress up every day for work, but we don't have to wear suits every day and I also found out that we don't have to wear hose!! That part is really nice because it is so hot and humid! The only bummer is that in DC most people wear heels everyday! It wouldn't be so awful if I was sitting at a desk all day but we are walking around pretty much constantly, so on tuesday my feet died to the point that I could barely walk home from the metro! And pretty much every day all of us in our suite complain about how much our feet hurt! But our feet are becoming a bit more adjusted and there are less and less blisters every day! I used to love heels but I am now starting to think of them as a curse! I will be very happy to come back to Seattle in August and wear tennis shoes and flip flops again!

Also even though most of the time it is REALLY hot and humid here this week has been beautiful! Yesterday we had an 80 degree day and it wasn't too humid, and we even got to have a work meeting outside! And then the day before that it was basically Seattle weather, 70 degrees and cloudy which felt so good! So it is not hot every single day, and I have also learned that thunderstorms are great because it means for a few days it will be a bit cooler! For any visitors to DC that means right after a thunderstorm you should go visit all the monuments because you won't be drenched in sweat walking around to all of them!

The Weekend

Jefferson Monument (+ construction)

Amazing Words in the Jefferson Monument

Thomas Jefferson

Another picture of the capitol

That sunburn turned into a nice tan

This weekend was much needed after a long first week of work and classes. And the ridiculous part is that last week was only 4 days, and this week we have to conquer a five day week!!

So on Saturday we did some more sightseeing in the city after sleeping in until 11am! We went to the library of congress again, and then we walked all the way to the Jefferson monument which, for those of you who have been to DC know, is very far away from the other monuments! It was a bit of a hike but we were very proud that we didn't get lost on the way! We also went to the white house afterwards which is another long hike! After walking 5 or 6 miles we called it a day and rode the metro home and had a chill night at the apartments!

Today, Sunday, we also kind of just had some hang out and relaxing time which was a nice change from our normal crazy busy schedule. We went grocery shopping at Costco and at Harris Teeters - a store we don't have on the west coast, but it's basically just a Safeway, though I don't think the selection is as nice! Besides that though we haven't done very much today! We have all thought of doing homework, but that thought has gotten disregarded many times, because we just don't have a lot of motivation! But it will get done by wednesday - i'm sure it will be the classic college way of doing it all on tuesday night!

I'm not ready to go back to work at all and do not want to get up at 6:30am tomorrow, but at least this week will be easier than last week where we had multiple huge projects to do on top of trying to get oriented to the building! And luckily I have also found a subway buddy who works in the same building as me so we can go to work together! Oh and I am going to try out the upscale gym in our building tomorrow after work and see how nice it is which will be exciting because exercising outside in this humid weather does NOT exist!

First Day of Internship and First Day of Class

On Tuesday I had the first day of my internship and I was so nervous, but the day surprisingly went really smoothly! I got up at 6:30am and then left the house by 7:45am to get to work early! I'm SO glad I left early because I missed a subway that I was supposed to get on and also went the wrong way on 18th St. and got lost walking to the internship! But finally by 8:45am I got to the building and just waited in the receptionist area for my supervisor to pick me up! She picked me up and then had to run off to a meeting, but she introduced me to the other intern who showed me around! It was crazy though because here I have not met anyone from the west coast, but ironically the other intern was from the Wedgewood neighborhood in Seattle!! Such a small world! She was really nice and showed me how to set up events and then showed me pretty much everything all day!

I also had to have 2 different orientations - a computer orientation so I could use my computer and then an HR orientation to sign release forms! The rest of the day was pretty much doing basic intern tasks like making different op-ed articles for the events and data input! It was not a very exciting day but at least I wasn't thrown a bunch of tasks that I couldn't do, it all seemed pretty easy! But there was definitely a lot of information in my brain of passwords and how to get to certain hard drives and files on my computer and we have to manage 3 different email accounts so my brain was dead by the end of the day! Also I had no idea when they took their lunch break so I just sat at my desk by myself and didn't eat lunch because I didn't know if I could leave and I was too scared to ask! But I have a lunch planned with the other intern tomorrow so I will definitely eat tomorrow!

I'm hoping to get more interesting tasks later that are a little bit more international relations related, but I'm also the intern and I do feel like I'm doing what most interns do, at least I'm not having to make coffee or copies, I am doing legitimate work! And at least I can go to the events by the scholars if I have time during the work day and we get free food since every event is catered! We all have learned quickly the little ways to save money and how to get free food - the other interns from the Washington Internship Institute and I joke that by the end of the semester we will all start going to the soup kitchen for free food because we are basically at homeless status since we have no income! I don't think we actually will, but it would be funny and then we joke about how their would be an article about "Interns flocking to Soup Kitchens" in the Washington Post which would then force our organizations to pay us! :)

One other perk though about my internship is we have 24 hour access to the gym at the Carnegie Endowment, and we have a really fancy tea, coffee and hot cocoa machine!

Today was the first day of class and we had 5 hours of class total! We had 2 hours of our internship seminar from 9-11am and then 3 hours of our international relations seminar from 1-4pm! It was a really long day!! We also have SO much homework to do this summer! For our internship seminar we have to read 150 pages of books about our field per week! We can choose the books, but we have to buy them and read them so we keep learning more and more about our field! Awesome, another thing to buy...I feel like all we do here is spend money, it's getting a little bit stressful, especially since this is the first time I have to live on a budget!

And then for our international relations seminar we had to pay $60 for books, and have to read those books + articles + the newspaper every day + the economist!! Basically a ridiculous amount of reading! And then on top of that we have to write papers, do 4 informational interviews, and prepare a professional development plan! It's a lot, and it's all helpful but I don't know how we are going to have time to do it all!!!!! So all of us are a bit overwhelmed after having both the first day of interning and then the first day of class!!!! Hopefully it will get easier!