5.1.2010 - Day 8

I have officially passed my first week in D.C., having arrived approximately 1 week and 5 hours ago. It has been an eventful and exciting first week!

Where to begin...I don't know where to start. So here's the short run down:

Tuesday - began my internship, endured training part 1, made my first trip to the GWU gym (wow! is it ever so much nicer than BYU's...)

Wednesday - finished training part 2, began doing real work :0! (on my way to the gym tonight some random woman, dressed rather exotically - ethnic somewhere-African attire - sitting on the sidewalk, jumped at me as I ran past, scared me, but I'm sure any eyewitnesses got a kick out of it as I almost ran into the bus stop

Thursday - spent the day doing real work, again!

Friday - had first two Washington Seminar (WS) briefings (we'll have two a week), went running with the fellow WS students around the Mall (passed Lincoln memorial, the Capitol building and the White house!) but killed my feet and knees in the process (I haven't run that much in...ever?), and then spent the evening in Alexandria, VA, where I probably further damaged my poor lower appendages...

Saturday - visited a handful of Embassies (Passport DC begins today; there'll be open houses in the embassies all month - next weekend is the EU countries, but we'll be in Philly) and went to the Phillip Collection, which was the first modern art museum in the U.S., and saw the Georgia O'Keeffe special exhibit which ends next weekend...and ensured that my feet and knees are effectively out of service, if yesterdays run wasn't enough :P

So that's the gist of it...now if you have any questions then let me know, otherwise I'll just touch on a few highlights.

I'll let you know more detail about the internship later, but for now I'll give you a basic run down. I walk to and from work, it's about 25 minutes depending on how many cross walk signs I have to stop at (and believe me, the HAND doesn't stop Washingtonians, so you don't always have to wait, just look both ways and run...). I work on the sixth floor, though IIE's office also includes the 7th floor. There are about 100 employees at this office and roughly a dozen work on the same program as I do (IVLP - International Visitor Leadership Program). There is a wide variety of nationalities including Lebanese, Czech, Russian, Trinidadian, Indian (as in from India) and American. I have met most of the group, other than a few who have been out of the office. I have my own computer, desk and cubicle! Though my 'cubicle' isn't really partitioned off, with walls around no more than the desk perimeter. There is one other intern from BYU, also with the WS, working in the office, though in another program. There is one intern from GWU interning currently, though she'll finish soon and we'll have two more by June 1. When I go into more detail on my internship I will also include pictures.

Our venture out to Alexandria wasn't all that exciting. It was an old town - obviously, being in Virginia - and with that came high prices and a nice shopping street, King Street. We did however find some interesting street performers, one in particular, at the very end of the road, on the edge of the Potomac river. Rather than explain the display myself, I'll let you watch and listen (just give it a second and you'll recognize the tune - sorry if you don't...) :

So, what do you think?? Pretty awesome, huh? This guy makes bank too. He had people dropping bills almost constantly. At least one girl gave him a $10! Apparently he travels all around the world and performs in institutions great and small. He's been in magazines too - I think it was a National Geographic article he had in front of the table.

There was a trolley provided to get from the Potomac back to the Metro station (Someone was looking out for my feet...), and on the ride my roommate, John Lenahan, and a girl also in the WS decided they were going to strike up a conversation with the ladies chatting next to them and give them a pass-along-card. Well, it so happens they were in town for a reunion they have. What for, you may ask? For having lived in Manila, Philippines! Crazy, huh? Neither was LDS, but they knew where Ayala Alabang was and were familiar with BSM and ISM. One was a doll maker and she, and her friend, both worked for Pauline's (sorry, for most of you who have no idea about this stuff, just know it was a cool connection). It's a small world, after all :)

So, today. It was a good day, aside from my aching knees-and-below. I got to tour a handful of embassies (Haiti, Bahamas, Indonesia, Korea, Brazil, Kazakhstan, Zambia, Croatia). Haiti has a beautiful embassy - we admit we didn't expect much :/. I tried to go by Japan and Australia, but Japan didn't really give tours of the embassy, just their tea house, but only with a ticket, of which there was a limited amount. Australia, unlike all the other embassies which closed their doors at 4PM, closed at 3PM. It was a shame...I didn't get the free reusable grocery bag as a result :'( but I saw Kazakhstan's embassy instead. Brazil gave a tour of the residence, rather than the actual embassy. It was quite beautiful (as you can see to the left).

In addition to the embassies I also saw the museum of the Society of the Cincinnati (google it) and a mosque. The museum is in a house that was donated and has many beautiful painting, portraits and other artwork. I was fortunate to walk past when I did as it's only open from 1-4PM on Saturdays. I enjoyed visiting the mosque, it was quite peaceful in there, not to mention it was beautiful. The sign said no shorts, but apparently mine were not an issue...the women, however, were all supplied with robes to cover their short sleeves/shorts and heads. It was relatively small inside, probably no deeper than the distance from the fireplace to the mudroom in my parents' house. There was, however, a large courtyard preceding, and a yard in front of that. Next week they are having a bazaar, but, once again, we'll be in Philly. But I'm sure that's not an irregular occurrence.

Apparently Saturday is a popular day for demonstration, logically, as it is everyone's day off. On our way (myself and two other WS students) to the embassies we heard shouting coming from a street we passed. We decided to check it out and found a group of Cameroonians in front of a hotel. One of the guys I was with, having served his mission in Paris, decided to approach the French speakers and ask what the deal was. It turns out that, unsurprisingly, the government is corrupt, so, while the people struggle in poverty the elite enjoy an aristocratic life. They protested this injustice there as the prime minister, vacationing, was staying in that hotel. Later in the day, as I headed towards the Australian embassy I heard a similar ruckus. I rerouted in its direction and found a group of Vietnamese in front of a building I didn't know, and couldn't find identification for. The flag on the building, so I've learned, was the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, while the flag the demonstrators bore was that of the south, and later the Republic of Vietnam. I don't know exactly what the situation was there, but there was definitely a man they were upset with as his face was crossed out on a poster or two. Isn't it great that people are free to do that here? I love it...