An Era Comes to an End

So I am officially back in Lima, OH (biggest city near Ada and Ohio Northern University). I went from being in the political capitol of the nation with a million and one free things to do every day to essentially the middle of a cornfield in 10 hours. That was 10 hours in a car. But let me go back a few days here...

So Sunday I got an email that Jared was coming home from Cuba early. Things took a turn for the worst in Cuba and they wanted to get out ASAP. So he was coming back to the USA and asked if I wanted him to come to DC and visit while I was still there, which was really a stupid question because of course I did!!! Jared got in to Reagan National Airport late Tuesday night, making me extremely happy.

Wednesday I went in for my last day at Women for Women International. It was bittersweet because I felt valuable there but the mindless work was getting to me. I always accomplished the tasks they gave me well and in a timely manner and I know they appreciated it. My parents raised me to always do a job I could be proud of, and I always did. But after 10 weeks I wasn't sure how much more envelope stuffing/package sending/database cleaning I could take. My last day was nice. I got my projects finished up and was able to say goodbye to everyone before I left. I even got a card from my bosses. All in all my experience taught me what really goes on behind the scenes at a non-profit and how hard and tedious it really is. It gave me a great respect for the people that work there day after day, year after year. It also taught me that fundraising isn't something that I particularly enjoy doing. After all is said in done I'm really glad I did it because it gave me a lot of good life experience and I met a lot of really cool people.

Thursday Jared and I went to the National Archives and the Library of Congress and then I had my last class. I was giving a presentation on African American Views of American Foreign Policy and it went REALLY well. The professor was impressed at our research and our presentation so I'm planning on passing that class. When I got home though, Jared wasn't feeling good. At all. Friday we actually ended up spending 9 hours in George Washington University Hospital just to find out Cuba gave him an ameobic parasite. Fun stuff, huh? Needless to say he didn't get to tour the city like he wanted, but we got lots of good bonding time in.

Saturday Dad and Kelsey went on a tour of George Washington University (ironic, no?) and then we headed for home. Dad drove us back to Medina and then Jared and I drove to his house in Lima.

Now it's back to ONU after Thanksgiving to finish up my degree. On May 20th, 2007 at 2pm I will officially graduate from college. :) Then it's a summer of something and hopefully off to France for 7 months to teach. So that's that! Keep in touch everyone and hopefully I'll be accepted to teach in France and I'll start this up again then. Until 2007... Chiao!

Well here I am with one week left here in Washington DC. It's been good, but I'm ready to go back to school I think. ( I know how wrong that sounds. ) I don't have internet in my apartment anymore so I'm in our clubroom on the 14th floor with internet. Here's some quick pictures of the past week or so.

Our Trick-or-Treating stash. Only about 12 kids showed up, but they polished off the candy!
Last Sunday was the Marine Corps Marathon. I went to check it out and it was like the biggest cross country meet ever, but way better!! And the number of runners was amazing!!! I stood at the finish line for 30 minutes and the number of people crossing the finish line never ever dwindled. And the fans... they estimate that over 100,000 people show up in DC to cheer on their runners and the Marines get live bands along the route and everything. Very inspirational.
Jason's Halloween costume. He's a Republican... it's been a rough year. Jason and I went to do a haunted tour and funeral recreation in Old Town Alexandria. Then we went out to a bluegrass bar just to top the night off. It was actually really really fun.
This Saturday I went to Eastern Market, which is FABULOUS. For you Clevelanders it's like West Side Market but more historic and they have handcrafts and stuff too. Here's some pictures of the goods.
That's all Cauliflower. All three types. Crazy, huh?

This is Old Town Alexandria's finest historic house. It was actually built by hand way back when... lots of history but whatever, it's cool.
The docks on the Potomac at Alexandria. I was able to just kind of chill out for a while. I love the water.
Well that's it! Enjoy the pics!

The past week

Since my last post was so devoid of photos I'll start this one off right. Here's one of me in my cubicle, which is only that clean because it was Open House night and had to be that clean. Don't worry it's already nerve-wrackingly messy again.



Ah my fellow Instituational Advancement Interns. Ashley on left Mary-Ellen on right. They're a crazy bunch. What can I say?


We had our annual Open House on Wednesday night. It was quite the shindig. TONS of people! Here's my boss (on the right) looking thrilled to be there. Here's our founder and CEO, Zainab Salbi (on the left) and the head of our board of directors at our Open House. I HIGHLY recommend Zainab's first book Between Two Worlds. It's excellent! And since I work there now I recommend the new one too, The Other Side of War. It's more of a photo album, but it has some great stories too.
Thursday night my roommate Ellie a

nd I went to Ford's Theater to see State of the Union which was very very good. It's about a presidential candidate hopeful in like 1946 but a LOT of the ideas and political backstabbing and everything ring true today. It was written about 50 years ago, so it was strange how relevant it all was. I guess nothing ever really changes. Here's a shot of the theater.

Saturday I got to go to the Library of Congress to get some research done. I got a reading room card so now I have access to all the rooms and I was able to do my research in the Main Reading Room, which is the big circular room that they show on all the postcards and everything. It was really really cool, but I'm also a huge dork, so it evens out.

I'm a ladybug for Halloween! I threw the costume together really last minute for the Dog Costume Ball Saturday night, but it'll even work for clubbing next weekend for all the Halloween parties! I think I look pretty darn cute, but I might be a bit biased.Speaking of cute... here's some of the doggies from the Ball. Dogs in costume are hilarious.

That's about it for the week. Today was all about studying, but tomorrow morning I'll probably sleep in, check out a museum and head to our lecture for the Washington Center. So excited. Hope everyone had a good weekend, especially those that went to the Women for Women event in Cleveland! Until next time...

Big Update

Ok... so I can't honestly remember what I've done since a lot of the last post. Most weekdays consist of a lot of work and then I come home and try to catch up on paperwork for ONU and my class, and the Washington Center and then I sleep heavily and wake up the next morning to do it all again.
Two weekends ago I had some good times, saw a lot of the museums around DC. The Postal Museum and the Building Museum and the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Museum of African Art and the National Archives and I went to see The Last King of Scotland. It's good but very upsetting, which I think is the point. Sunday I went to an organ recital at the National Cathedral which was nothing short of amazing.
Work has slowly been getting better. I'm becoming more friends with people in the office and I'm getting more responsibility. My Midwestern work ethic is becoming a problem though. In fact, it may be my worst enemy. I tend to get identical tasks done faster than the other interns and therefore get more jobs throughout the day. On the plus side it makes me look really good to my supervisors, and I've even gotten the attention of some other departments. In fact, one of the top executives in the organization told me to call her when I graduate because she knows she could find a place for me. That felt WONDERFUL. Beyond wonderful... I can't even put it into words. We had our open house tonight and our country directors were there and Zainab spoke and everything. It was really cool. I even told some people how the organization worked and stuff, it was neat to know enough to feel really worthwhile. I even got my own legitimate nametag!!!
The only other big news is that I'm officially applying to work in France next year. I have the application about 90% filled out, which I'm very excited about. A few more things to get done and I'll take it off to the French Embassy here in DC (that's the goal deadline anyway).
I can't believe I have so little time left in DC. I'm kinda sick of the 9-5 plus class and portfolio thing, sometimes it's too much to handle and I get really overwhelmed, but I'm really going to miss living in the big city. The lights the metro the free stuff. It's all going to be VERY missed. Getting back to ONU will be nice though... see my friends and my boyfriend (he gets home in 31 days!!! :) ) and start on the final stretch of the road to GRADUATION!!! When did I get so old? I can't believe I'm about to be done with college. It's really hard to wrap my head around that idea, but I'm working on it.
A few general observations about DC. If there was a soap opera about DC it would be called The Running and the Desperate. Everyone here runs. It makes me feel so lazy, but whatever. Seriously though, if you walk down the National Mall without seeing a runner just assume that nuclear holocaust has hit and you missed it. Most of the runners are pretty polite but there are a few that make it known that they are sooooo much better than you because they're runners. Kiss it. The people are also sadly desperate. I was looking up things to do one weekend and found a Young Professionals mixer. Sounds fun, right? Network, meet some cool people, relax? That is until I read farther and found out it's a "Lock and Key Party". All the females get a padlock and all the males get a key (can we say sexual connotation?) and the idea is to mingle and find the key that opens your lock. ACK. I kept reading on that site because I found it humorous and sadly, or hilariously, that was the most sane idea. There was wine tasting for women... with a sit-down to talk about how to deal with men. There was a cigar tasting for men only with a psychologist to teach them how to talk to women... yeah. What can I say? And then when people here do find someone they IMMEDEATLY get pregnant, as if to mock the singles. I'd like to see their mocking in 12 months when they haven't slept a full night in as long as they can remember, they block out crying, and puke is considered a fashionable accessory. Yeah, talk to me then when I still have enough money and sanity to travel. Hee hee. Joke's on you.
Anywho... the season finale of Project Runway is about to come on, I need to proofread my paper due tomorrow and start writing some papers for the Washington Center. Free night of theater tomorrow, so I'll be at Ford's Theater (think Prez. Lincoln...) to see State of the Union with my roommate Ellie. Should be good times, though it's free so even if it sucks, I'm just out a few hours. Is that terrible of me? Oh well, don't care. :)
Hope this post was enough to tide you over for a few more days. More info to come. If you don't see a post on here by Monday night call and yell at me. Laters!

Hurried Post

Ok I just typed out a whole big entry and then it randomly deleted it. Therefore I will type another nice long one later when I'm not feeling defeated by the evil computer monster. Blast you internet....
I SWEAR this week you'll all get a nice lil' novel to read. Harass me about it if it's not up by Friday.

Sing Along

Hi, my name is Dana
And I work as an intern in DC
I've got a job, one class, and a long commute
One day, my boss came up to me and said
"Yo, are you busy?" I said "No."
She said "Stuff this envelope with your right hand."

Hi, my name is Dana
And I work as an intern in DC
I've got a job, one class, and a long commute
One day, my boss came up to me and said
"Yo, are you busy?" I said "No."
She said "Enter this data with your left hand."

Hi, my name is Dana
And I work as an intern in DC
I've got a job, one class, and a long commute
One day, my boss came up to me and said
"Yo, are you busy?" I said "No."
She said "Send these packets with your right foot."

Hi, my name is Dana
And I work as an intern in DC
I've got a job, one class, and a long commute
One day, my boss came up to me and said
"Yo, are you busy?" I said "No."
She said "Copy these CDs with your left foot."

Hi, my name is Dana
And I work as an intern in DC
I've got a job, one class, and a long commute
One day, my boss came up to me and said
"Yo, are you busy?" I said "No."
She said "Stamp, seal, and send these letters with your tongue."

Hi, my name is Dana
And I work as an intern in DC
I've got a job, one class, and a long commute
One day, my boss came up to me and said
"Yo, are you busy?" I said "Yes actually! On top of this job I have a class that I have to write papers in every week, a portfolio to create before I leave Washington, classes to schedule and a graduation application to complete, and an application to fill you so I can teach in France next year. So I am busy thank you very much!!"

And then I woke up and realized that the last verse was just a dream I had.

Sorry for abandoning the blog lately. This weekend is all about doing nothing and catching up on my personal life, which has been badly neglected as of late. I promise a more complete update of my activities here in Washington this weekend!!

What a Weekend

I love weekends. Always so much to do. Some of those things are great and others are... well... not so good. But let's focus on the plethora of great things that happened this weekend and that would mainly be Saturday!! (Today I found some French magazines at a Border's in Georgetown... but that's only exciting to me because I'm a French dork.)
Saturday morning I went and fed the homeless at a soup kitchen which was kinda fun. In a shady part of town, but we went as a group with our RA, and it was during the day and not really all that shady, so it was all good. Then I headed for the National Mall to check out the National Book Festival. Authors and poets reading from their works and signing and everything!! I got some pictures for my mom. (She's an elementary school librarian.)
Ever heard of a little book called Holes? Disney made a movie of it too, with Shia Labouef. Well here's the man who wrote it: Louis Sachr.
Mom, to save any of these to your desktop right click on the picture and hit "Save Picture As". Here's Louis signing a book for his half mile long line of adoring fans. I'm really not kidding, the line was ridiculous!!!
I used to LOVE Arthur!! (Ok, I admit it, there's still a part of me that does.) But he was there too. So was the Magic School Bus and a whole crew of strange new generation PBS characters... when did I get so old!?
After the Book Festival I went to the National Gallery of Art and saw "Au Bonheur des Dames". It's a silent, black and white French film from the late '20s. And they had a group in from France to play the soudtrack along with it LIVE. It was so cool!!! The little black dialogue boxes that came up were in French and everything. It's even based on an Emile Zola book. It was just really cool. I felt uber-cultured sitting there watching it. Since I was in town around the time of the Millenium Stage events I went over to the Kennedy Center and I am SO glad that I did. They were having Asia Dance perform as part of the Dance DC Festival. All of the groups were amazing and fascinating, but the Indian ladies that performed second were very good, partly because of their facial expressions, which I don't think you can see on the video, and the group from the group from the Phillipines completely stole the show. Go to http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/archive.html# and watch the video from September 30th. The Philippines Group starts around minute 50 or so, if you want to fast froward. Oh, and did I mention that I got there early enough to get third row seats!!! It was SO cool to see up close! So that was my Saturday!

Moving back to add some pictures from the past week. I walked home along the Potomac on Friday evening and got some GREAT pictures of the monuments across the river. Not sure why there's only a shadow on the Washington Monument, but it's cool anyway.

I stopped at Theodore Roosevelt Island on my walk too. FABULOUS!! Great trails through woods and almost no people. Definitely going back when the leaves change. Great place for running. Took a dorky self portrait since I realized I haven't put many pictures of me IN Washington up.
Thursday I went to the Kennedy Center and saw Czechomor, the Czech rock group. Very good!
Wednesday was the book party at National Geographic. From left to right is Sylvia Plachy (photographer for the book and Adrien Brody's mom), Zainab Salbi (my boss and founder/CEO of Women fo Women), Lekha Singh (photographer), and the women in charge of National Geographic's Book Division.
That's my fellow intern, Mary Ellen. She's crazy like that, but that's why I like her. And I SWEAR that's water in her glass.
Oh, and I stumbled upon the Cathedral of Saint Matthew, the church JFK went to in DC.

That's it for this week. Laters y'all!

A Week of Firsts

Well the past week has certainly led to a lot of new things for me.
My first time exploring DC on my own. I saw the National Arboretum, the Franciscan Monastery and the National Basilica.
My first time seeing someone get arrested. I was in Chinatown and a regular citizen attacked someone the police were chasing. Good times.
My first time at a Presidential Lecture Series. The topic wasn't really that interesting to me personally and I had to walk 15 blocks in high heels, but at least we got the first one out of the way.
My first time conducting a legitimate Informational Interview. In fact, I had three of them this week and now I have so much information my life plan is even more up in the air than it ever was.
My first time hailing a cab. That's right, the country girl actually hailed her own cab. Be proud, be very proud.
My first time attending a book party. Women for Women International had a book party and I got to create part of the PowerPoint presentation and then I had to hand deliver it early so I got to meet the photographers and the man in charge of Public Relations for National Geographic and the CEO of our company, Zainab Salbi, who actually remembered me!! There was a reception first with cocktails and mingling and everything... it was really cool.
My first time not going to class in DC. My professor had to cancel class. Such a bummer. But since class was cancelled anyway....
My first time going to a Millenium Stage Concert. The Kennedy Center offers free concerts every day at 6pm and since it was raining and I couldn't walk around I went to see Czechomor, a Czech new age/rock group. They were actually really good!! And a free concert is always a good time.
My first time having so much to do at work I almost didn't have time for a lunch break. I guess I've really put myself in a hard place by being too helpful on Wednesday. Now I attend meetings with upper level staff and I'm like three people's intern and I have rather important, timely issues to do all day long. Much better than being bored though.
Lots of fun stuff coming up this weekend, so keep an eye out for new updates!! :)

Saturday's Events 1

Started the day at the National Basilica to the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Fabulously beautiful. Almost too much though. Reminded me a bit of Versailles with all the gold.


Then I went to the Franciscan Monastery up the road. I went for the gardens, which were even better than I had expected. Here's some pictures from that.


The rest of the monastery was strange and scary. They call it "America's Holy Land" because it's an exact replica of a church there or something... yeah, weird. Anywho, there was a cool organ concert that I sat in on for a bit.

Saturday's Events Part 2

The National Arboretum is beautiful. I got there a bit later in the day and they close at 5, but I fully plan on going back later in the autumn and spending a full day. It's a photographer's paradise!!! Here's a few of my better pictures.

Then I went to Chinatown for dinner and saw a random guy walking down the street decide to play cop. He looked down an alley and I guess he saw the situation so he tackled the kid the policeman was chasing. Just like that!! Then he and the cop put the cuffs on the guy and about 6 more cop cars showed up. Lots of blue. I have no idea what the kid did, but it must have been pretty bad. It was kinda cool to see someone get arrested. I'm not gonna lie. :)

And that was pretty much my weekend.

I'm one of them...

It's official. I have become a Washingtonienne. When I first got here I thought it was ridiculous how upset people got when someone would stand on the left side when going down the escalator. (It's "common knowledge" that you stand on the right so people can walk past you on the left.) Today on the metro I was stuck behind someone who had the nerve to stand on the left. So what did I do? "Ummm... hello!!!????" Yeah. When I finally got on the metro and sat down I realized I had become one of them.
In other news the women who hired me obviously never bothered to read my resume since she keeps giving the tasks that I'm incredibly qualified for to anyone but me. Makes for one very frustrating week. Yup.

The Week

Well Sunday I went to the Arlington Public Library and used my brand spankin' new library card. The library there is nice and all, but it's weird to go to a library and not know anyone there. My library at home has people I've known half my life and at ONU there's always people I know or Jared's working. I was able to check out some pretty cool books though and now that I something to read the metro ride to work in the morning is much more tolerable.
Monday I got some needed paperwork stuff done and then we had our mandatory tour of the Pentagon. Not exactly somewhere I'd go out of choice but it was ok. Tours there are led by service men and women and go through some really touristy, museumy parts of the building. Then Natalie and Megan and I went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday's... where a mouse ran across the floor. Yeah. So Monday was great.
Yesterday work was rather aggravating and the metro ride home was very aggravating and the fact that my phone card to call Jared didn't work was incredibly aggravating. The whole day was aggravating. And that's about the best thing I can say about it.
Today work got a little better. They actually gave me something good and worthwhile to do. And then I checked out a Graduate School Fair at the George Washington University. Since I was close to Georgetown I met Jason for dinner... it was a good time. There was even a fresh food market with some incredible eggplant bruschetta (with chocolate garnish) that was to die for. And cheap bell peppers. And awesome homemade apple cider. Which worked perfectly since it was the most perfect autumn day.
Class tomorrow... :( *tear*
Hope everyone else is having a great week!

Part One

Well I'm still here in DC (obviously) and things are just keepin' on. The internship hasn't gotten any more interesting, but I have high hopes. They did give me and my fellow intern (she works Thursdays and Fridays) a job to do on Friday. Usually walking for me in a day consists of 8 blocks total and a bit of walking around the office. So Friday I wore some pretty hot heels to work. BIG mistake. We were supposed to just go to the National Press Club downtown to copy an article out of Thursday's Orlando Sentinel. We got lost, and walked about 6 blocks the wrong direction then had to go back and a few blocks the other direction. When we got to the building we had to figure out which floor and when we got there a very rude receptionist told us we were in the wrong place. We eventually found the library, but they don't carry the Orlando Sentinel. So they told us to go to their Washington offices. We walked all the way over there to find out that, a few weeks ago, they moved. So we called and they didn't have yesterday's paper in quite yet. So we went out to lunch and then walked all the way over to the new offices just to find out that the paper still hadn't come in and the only Orlando Sentinel worker was out to lunch. So the entire thing was pointless. And my feet started bleeding from the blisters so I was forced to stop and buy new shoes *pity*.

Thursday was awesome though because I got to the FRENCH EMBASSY. Very exciting!!!






We got to hear the French Ambassador speak about French foreign policy and even some of his personal views of current world affairs. Afterwards Natalie and I got a picture with him. He was very nice and talked to us for a brief time and everything.

Today Natalie and I woke up decently early and went on a walking tour of Iwo Jima and Arlington National Cemetary with our Resident Assistant, Emily. That's her sitting down. She's VERY pregnant. She thinks it's going to be a boy.
Check out the next entry for the rest of today's events...

Part Two

Ok, here's the second half of the pictures. And the story. Jason had told me about a really great view in Arlington and we definitely found it!! Isn't that amazing? The three big monuments all in one beautiful picture. The view is near the Netherlands Carrillon, which is a huge and rather ugly, bell tower apparently gifted to the USA by the Netherlands in honor of 50 years of friendship. But at least it marks a really cool view!!

The Iwo Jima Memorial is one that I had never been to before and it was certainly a new experience. The memorial is HUGE but yet the detail in the sculpture is something else altogether. It definitely looks like the picture you see of it. It was was a good experience, quite moving and in a fantastic setting.

From the Iwo Jima Memorial we snuck in the side entrance of Arlington National Cemetary. The side entrance was really nice because it didn't have many people and there were more trees. It really felt like a cemetary instead of a tourist attraction.

There was a memorial in the far corner for those who had been killed at the Pentagon on September 11th. You could see the Pentagon in the background and the black marble memorial was moving, but I thought this grave of one of the victims, said it best. Many of the victims were buried there, though I don't believe all of them were.

We were able to see the changing of the guard as well. It started raining right before it began and stopped raining just after it finished. How fitting.

After our tour I headed in towards town to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Open House Festival. They offer tons of free performances and workshops. This year's theme was "Arts Along the Gulf Coast Highway". They had groups from the Gulf Coast and it was pretty cool. They also had a few of the Kennedy Center's usual groups. I was able to see the Suzanne Farrell Ballet perform three amazing numbers!!! I was about 30 feet from the stage dead center. I'm not quite sure how I got that lucky, but I could tell you the eye color of every dancer on that stage. That's how close I was. It was amazing!! Floating around the festival was the Target Dog... so how could I pass up an opportunity to get my picture with him!?

The Kennedy Center runs a free shuttle from the Metro to the Center and on the way there I met some new friends. On the far left is Daniel. He just graduated from the graduate school at George Washington University. Now he lives in Pentagon City down in Arlington and works as a contractor for the Armed Forces Health Service sector. He was really interesting to talk to and had great advice. Pam and Dylan (her son) live in Southern Arlington but are orginally from Louisiana, so they had actually heard of some of the acts that were there today. It was great to have some people to hang out with all day. And new friends are always fun.

The Kennedy Center is AMAZING. So many stages and all of them are impeccable and the acoustics are perfect in every hall. There were an unbelieveable number of people there. Daniel, who visits a lot, said he had never seen so many people there ever!

So it was quite a weekend. Tomorrow is the mall (I need a few things), the Fiesta at the National Zoo, and I'm gonna take myself out to see Little Miss Sunshine. I'll try and post some Fiesta pictures tomorrow.

September 11

Me in front of the Capitol Building on Sunday.

Megan and Natalie outside the Capitol on Sunday

Heading out after the OSU game. Megan, Sarah (Laura's friend), Laura (my cousin), Natalie, and me... trying my best to be as short as everyone else. *heehee*

The anniversary was quite the big deal here. For pretty obvious reasons. Two of my roommates participated in the Walk for Freedom and we all heard the salute to the Pentagon victims from the Arlington City square just up the road. There were flags everywhere and people seemed pretty somber. It was my day off and the weather was grey and dreary, the kind of weather that makes you want to stay in bed all day. I got some stuff done, but not a whole lot.
Today at work they gave me a lot more to do, but nothing particularly taxing. I guess at least it's nice that I'm given simple tasks. That way I'll always exceed expectation, right? :)
Another quick note about DC. I think CVS owns this entire city. I don't think I've come up from a single metro stop without seeing a CVS within an easy sightline. They're EVERYWHERE!! It's pretty crazy.
Hope everyone else had a nice weekend.
And happy early birthday to my little sister!! :) Happy 17th. Go see yourself a good R rated movie! (some sources tell me Little Miss Sunshine is excellent, I plan on seeing it this weekend too).

Run

Just went for a jog... it's SO much hillier here than it is back home. (But then again Ada's about as flat as it gets, isn't it?) I'll be surprised if I can walk tomorrow. But it felt good.

Wonder of Wonders

I sincerely suggest singing, or at least dancing, along with this blog entry:

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles
God took this intern by the hand
Gave me a job and - miracle of miracles
Handed her a project to do again

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles
I had a project to complete
Didn't take long but - miracle of miracles
Doing something felt so neat

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles
Just as you're about to scoff
As I was leaving - miracle of miracles
My boss gave me all Mondays off!!

When Bush won the election (no!), that was a miracle.
When he won the spot again, that was a miracle too.
But of all God's miracles large and small,
The most miraculous one of all
The best miracle of all my friends
God has given me three day weekends!

My Corporate Life

So I have officially started working in an office. The first day was good. My supervisor wasn't there, so I helped out the rest of the department (2 other people) by stuffing envelopes and getting materials together for them. Not exactly thrilling, but it was just for one day. I did experience my first staff meeting, and I think it was probably unlike a usual one. There was chocolate involved and everyone from interns to the CEO and founder just talked about how their summers were. There are about 45-50 people total in the office, about 8 of them male. Which makes sense since it is Women for Women International. Everyone was really nice and hilariously funny. Then we all got a quick update as to what's going on this fall. It's certainly going to be busy!
Today I got there a bit before 9. Big mistake. Apparently getting there around 9:20 is normal. I didn't see anyone until about then, and I wasn't sure how to turn lights on... so that was interesting. It does make for some extra sleep-in time which excites me. I met my supervisor today. She's really not much older than me, which surprised me, but she's very nice. She wasn't feeling great and had a lot of work to catch up on so I had a surprising amount of down-time.
There was a baby shower for one of the girls at lunch. She's so pregnant... she's a tiny little thing so she has this HUGE belly and she looks like she's about 16 so she said "I feel like when I walk down the street people are thinking 'There goes another teen pregnancy...'". I didn't know about the party or I would have brought food, but there was certainly enough. An office party back home means potato salad from the store and maybe a pizza and fruit. Here it was taboule, stuffed cherry tomatoes, indian spiced warm rice, vegetarian lasagna, bruschetta... So not only did I not have to go out and pay for my own lunch, I got a better one than I could have bought. lol And it was a great opportunity to meet a few more people in the office.
While I love the organization I'm working for and definitely know that my work is really helping people I've already learned a lot. I decided to do an internship partly to help me decide what I want to do with my life. I've discovered that those fears of working at a cubicle are completely founded. I think if this was more than an internship... if it was a career, I'd be going a little insane right now. I know it's only been two days, but it appears that the things I've done in these two days are a pretty good example of what I'll be doing for three months. Variations on a theme perhaps. Nothing has been challenging. Even slightly. I'm almost hoping my class requires actual thought because no challenges and no thinking for three months may drive me mad. We'll see though.
Here's some pictures of the office. Enjoy!

My cell... I mean cubicle. I need to decorate...

Front Desk/Reception

The wall painting in reception

Some of my coworkers and the reception area/large conference room.

Our nameplate/address label

(Oh, random note. If anyone finds a phone card to Cuba for less than $2/minute please let me know, I would very much like to call my boyfriend without going totally broke. lol)