Update: Life is Back on Track

This is very unfortunate: This morning a homeless woman was asking for money, and I figured instead of giving her some money I would ask her if she was hungry. She said she was and I handed her an apple from my lunch, then I realized as I walked away that all of her front teeth had been rotten or broken... meaning she probably won't be able to eat the apple. I felt so awful about it, so maybe from now on I'll try to carry an extra PB&J with me because it is a little more substantive than an apple. I mean she seemed kindof disappointed anyway that all I had for her was an apple. But at least I was trying, right?

Professor McCarthy, who teaches my Peaceful Solutions class, has become my official new hero. I really can't talk enough about how powerful I feel his message is. I'm in the process of exploring this idea of "peace studies" and non-violence more and I think it would be awesome to teach it one day. Yesterday morning I followed Professor McCarthy around as he taught in different high schools in DC. I am very lucky I have a lenient boss who will let me do this, because I think that if I can go at least once a week it will be a perfect way to observe direct classrooms and also learn about education policy at my internship. I'm definitely starting to pick up more about Impact Aid and the whole Congressional process. I'll have to admit it is growing on me a little bit. We have a big conference for work coming up next weekend so they have had some more work for me to do, which has me feeling more useful. I don't think that any office job will ever be for me, so I guess it is good I'm realizing that now. I have been finding that I constantly have itch to be interacting with others and helping people directly, but going to the high schools yesterday definitely helped satisfy that a little. Plus next week I'm hopefully starting my civic engagement of delivering breakfast to the homeless in the morning with DC Greater Kitchen, assuming I don't sleep through it this time.

What else about this week... I've been meeting more people after work which has also been fun. I made two great new friends, Nick and Keith. At happy hour on Tuesday I met up with them and Nick and I wound up having an awesome conversation about race and white priviledge, etc. He is going to give me some books to read -- I can't wait. Also yesterday there was a Dickinson reception, it wasn't as exciting as I had hoped, I exchanged cards with one alumni who works with preventing HIV/AIDS in India, so it might be cool to meet up with him. I don't feel confident about how I came off though because when I came back John was sure to point out to me that I was "soooooo red faced" :( but I think it is really human to get flustered when talking to older professional people. I'm realizing more and more how many awkward mannerisms I have in conversations and there is just no need for it. Like I'll make one of my stupid jokes and everyone just kindof doesn't laugh with me... right. I really need to work on that. Also still working on that self-confidence thing, it doesn't always come easy.

This morning was exciting because I went to a meeting to represent NAFIS all by myself! I was pretty flustered and probably definitely came off that way, but like I said, I really am still learning how to present myself as professional and I'm sure by the end of the semester I'll have it down. I also met another intern who goes to GW. I didn't get his number or anything, but maybe next week we can exchange cards, it might be nice to hang out with other students my age who are from the area.

Alright people, in the words of my new hero and Professor, "tell someone that you love them today" ... this new mentality is really making me appreciate everyone that I care about in my life more, which I think is something we often take for granted. So prepare for sentimental emails haha. And for anyone who is really looking for purpose: try thinking about what you are thankful for at the end of everyday (or some highlights of the day), it will make you :)

Ps. Just got a phone call from one of my co-workers, did I mention we call and email each other rather than just walk a few feet? "Just wanted to let you know there are some cookies in the other room you should go eat" <3 my office.

For real my life is a MESS.

I have been so out of character lately. Let's discuss all of my epic FAILs within the past 48 hours. Sunday I was supposed to do a FREE practice GRE that I signed up for throught The Washington Center. Well a long story short, Saturday night festivities led to my roommate and I "sleeping through" the test. No future grad school planning for me right now. So then, Monday we take off from work to go to a tour at the Pentagon that our program assistant has arranged for our group to go on. But, we leave too late (misjudging the metro time? how/WHY?) and arrive pretty much 20 minutes AFTER the meeting time. We just happened to get lucky and the security guards let us in to meet the group, but it was still kindof stressful anticipating missing the tour when we traveled all that way. ALSO, the night before I had stayed up til about 2 am working on an application for a teaching program for the summer. For some reason I thought yesterday was March 2nd and that is when the application is due. Why I thought this, I have no idea. But unfortunately, I rushed through the application and submitted it. Then I realized when it was due. I know I didn't make it the best it could be, but now I don't really get a choice of fixing it...

And what has led me to write this post of epic failures? We have a civic engagement component of this program, aka regular community service, and I slept through my first one this morning. My alarm mysteriously didn't go off... and I had to wake up and re-email the organization I wasn't coming (I hate doing that, I am so not that person who sleeps through things...) and also my boss to tell him I'll actually be in at the regular time. So, about that. I just hate letting people down. I'm already at the point of finding this all slightly amusing, in fact I've been impressed with myself for bringing humor to almost all of these situations already besides the application dilemma. I think I should be a little easier on myself and assume that it probably isn't a big deal that any of this happened, I'm just having an off weekend...ish. I know I tend to make a joke of most unfortunate little things that happen to me everyday, but this just all needed to be documented. Enough is enough... here's to getting my life back on track. I haven't even been using my planner (now that should be a shock for most), time to get my head out of the clouds!
I apparently work best with a certain degree of expectation/obligation to do well. But now to find a balance that works. It's all a learning experience, right?

Happy Tuesday everyone... I'm off to embrace America some more.

Morning metro, Pelosi pics, and I'm homesick :(

On the metro this morning I harassed some random boy who I knew was a Washington Center intern. Like he was listening to music and I started waving my hand in front of his face to start a conversation because I really want to keep meeting people. It is kindof hard to meet people... the Washington Center doesn't really create ways to meet other interns in the building, I'm the only intern at work, and I haven't really gone out to many places where I could meet people. So I don't care if I'm that awkward person on the metro because clearly that is what I've got to do. Also, I just really like talking to people. Like why is it so hard to smile and just talk to the people around you? Obviously I am more talkative than most others, but if you are stuck on the metro early in the morning crowded together, you might as well make it a lighter situation by smiling and starting an innocent conversation with the person next to you. I'm not trying to sound like I'm this crazy outgoing person who talks to every random stranger she encounters (because it is only a handful of the random strangers, and usually I at least recognize them from my building or something...hehehe), but this week hasn't been the greatest and I'm trying to make the best of it and stay positive. I was relieved to hear my roommate say in response to this story, "there is more to life than your little ipod world" TRUTH.

My roommate, Andrea, has also discovered a hilarious newspaper called The Onion; and said this article about race reminded her of me, and I promise it isn't boring, as I quote, "more than 92 percent of African-Americans have noticed a dramatic increase in the number of beaming Caucasians in their vicinity." I also found another one that pretty much summarizes one of my life fears: Head Lice Going Around Senate ... I mean if I get lice when I go to Capital Hill I'll flip..... kidding. But seriously lice is my #2 fear besides pink eye, which I also thought I had recently, but it was a fluke. Lack of sleep and waking up at 7 am will cause pink-eye like symptoms. But it isn't pink eye because it doesn't itch. Alright so moving away from my life paranoia...

I was planning on leaving a depressing blog post because work has really just been boring and awful and I don't know that politics will EVER be for me, but it is all a learning experience I suppose and I'm trying to keep my head up. Hopefully once I start volunteering I'll feel like I have more of a purpose. But at the moment I can't complain because well, the office is on (but why is it a repeat tonight?) and I have the good company of my lovely roommate Andrea and John Montgomery, a Dickinson buddy who lives upstairs. and Andrea made us muddy buddies... yum! Also, everyone should make a twitter! Go to twitter.com and find me, my name is 'fuchsie'. Basically I just talk to John on it about our awesome office lives, but you can all post little things about your day and keep in touch :)

Oh but here are pictures that one of the people I went with took of the Pelosi press conference on his iPhone; front row view baby!

I added some other pics throughout the blog, and I'll get a better clip of the press conference soon. Adding pics to facebook has been unsuccessful for some reason.

I really miss my fam (on vacation without me. meh) and all of my home and Dickinson friends... the city is still new and exciting, but I just hope I can keep meeting new people and feel more productive at my internship.. feel free to shoot me an email or leave me some comments because I am thinking of all of you...

So on Friday I got to sit in on a press conference with Nancy Pelosi announcing that the stimulus bill had passed in the house (basically celebrating the democrat vote winning). It was a completely exciting and overwhelming experience... It was all very motivational and positive! Some may be rolling their eyes at this, but I was really proud in that moment to be a democrat, or at least to feel like there were people in our government who are trying to make a change that I believe in. Pelosi emphasized how amazing it is that Obama is passing this bill in such a short amount of time. Hearing some of the leaders of our country take such a positive spin at a major transition time in US history was just priceless to me. There was a little bit of tension when questions were asked about her feelings on the fact that no republicans supported the bill, but the politics of it weren't important to me. Tony told me I'm an "idealist" because I said it shouldn't matter what party they are, if they want to vote a certain way they should (when discussing the three republicans who are voting with the democrats in the senate). Apparently I still don't understand the significance of this whole party rivalry... but "idealist" doesn't sound bad to me...

But really people, you should have seen me, I was a mess of excitement (aka overwhelmed with positive energy): I was tearing up, I was drooling, I was grinning so wide my face hurt, but all the while trying to make sure I sat up straight in case the cameras were on me!! (there were a lot of cameras) I went up to Tony (my co-worker who brought me) as we walked out of the room, practically brushing shoulders with one of the congressmen who spoke, "I not even kidding I think I'm going to fall over" Of course he had no idea how to respond, but I figured you would all find that amusing. This is a video of the event, it sucks, but it was the only one I could find for now. I was sitting in the front row, on the left side... in a bright blue sweater if you happen to catch it at some point haha.

And after when we went back to the office, I got to eat cake that my boss had. It was pretty sweet. I've pretty much just accepted that the office has a way slower productivity than I'm used to. This city in general is much slower than my NY mentality, but like I said before, this can only be good for me. Not that I was able to concentrate on work anyway... I was a mess of emotions the entire day. There was an announcement that morning that another Dickinson student passed away. I'll admit I hadn't been in recent contact with Catherine, but I did enjoy hanging out with her and she always had a great sense of humor. She will definitely be missed. I'd prefer not to comment on it too much, but I do want to emphasize that it really puts in perspective how much we need to appreciate every moment we are given; RIP Catherine.

Some weekend highlights:
1. Well, Friday night I was grumpy...
2. Three day weekend -- I forgot how Dickinson robs us of these "National holiday" things.
3. National Portrait Gallery (amazing, I went twice!) They also had a special event where they had made a portrait of Lincoln and Obama out of CUPCAKES, and we got to eat them. SO cool.
4. Free art show on Valentines Day; with free wine and I even got a kiss "for peace" that night... hehe
5. Seeing the Oscar nominated short films tonight with two of my new and amazing friends Kevin and Jen! (Kevin is going to teach me how to meditate, he has peace studies with me and has really awesome views on life -- Jen is a women's studies major from TCNJ and we were both technically supposed to be in other countries right now -- she was going to go to Africa -- but besides that we just had immediate chemistry and she is awesome hehe)

These are cupcakes!!!


Alright friends, well I'm looking forward to a brand new week :) I hope that this finds everyone with a smile on their face and know that I am missing you...

Happy Hour Observations... I'm a Big Girl Now

Ok -- so I know I just posted last night, but I need to gush! The happy hour scene is so fun! I met a bunch of new people tonight, and tried out the whole networking thing successfully! I got three business cards! (Well, one guy was handing out scraps of paper with his name and email on it... but I'm still counting it haha) The first guy I talked to was named Steve, he was a nice Jewish boy (now Brian don't be jealous... hehe) and has worked at an education reform think tank and offered to send me all of these "meet other Jewish people" websites (interesting..), as well as one about education events offered in DC, and to hook me up with a summer internship if I wanted! Despite how thrilled I was that he was so friendly, he was a talker, and I realized that I had no idea how to get out of the conversation, but finally some other girl came over to mingle and I just found someone else to talk to. But I'm pretty sure this mingling business was made for me. I just need to be taller. And I need better business cards, the Dickinson ones are kindof embarassing lol. AND people kept asking me where I had graduated from, and it was kindof awkward to be like ummm I still go to college (slash sometimes I didn't tell them? haha) I felt so young... but it was cool because everyone was into non-profit issues, which was lucky for my education interest. Other highlights: I met a fellow American Studies major (he admitted to also not being able to watch TV anymore haha) and I met a guy who is hoping to go teach in China!

Things I learned:
1. I am very short -- I need to wear heels at every singly happy hour because I felt so tiny :(
2. Martini is not the best happy hour choice (the glass is awkward to drink from while having a conversation... slash I hope my mom is not reading this...)
3. It is very unfortunate that I am working for an organization with such a long name, try saying "National Association of Federally Impacted Schools" 10 times in one night.
4. Older people are confident, enough of this awkward college student business.

I miss you all!! ... and I know you are all reading, so leave me comments (besides my creeper roommate... who was making fun of my last post btw with her comments, as hopefully you caught on)!

Over the Hump Day!

If anyone is looking for a new Pandora station, I recommend the "MGMT" station. It is fabulous and getting me through this over the hump day! Fun, upbeat tunes -- check it out :)

I've been talking with some of you about how I've been uneasy about the internship so far, but today I gained some confidence that this is really going to work out and my strengths are going to be put to good use here. I also know I will be learning a lot! It is so hard to sum all that I am learning about into a short version to talk to people about, but then again talking about anything that I'm passionate about has never been done in a few sentences! This morning my boss and I started talking about different education issues and he told me about a project a few interns started a couple of years ago and never finished that I could pick up on. It sounds really cool... basically I'm going to surveying/interviewing Native American school districts on what works for their district in terms of best performance rates. I'm going to be putting together how they successfully achieve good test scores (and other things; I have to research first) as well as what they are doing to help maintain their native culture. I have witnessed first hand how culture is being lost on reservations, so I think this will be an interesting project. After all of my research and feedback from the districts my work is going to be put on the NAFIS website so that all of the districts have access to the information. I hope it works out! I really like the idea of the districts being able to help eachother out, after reading some articles today I thought about how a dominant theme in our country is still to compete to be the best. I don't understand why we can't just learn from eachother instead of being competetive, and in the case of education, I think it would be beneficial to learn from other education systems, rather than just trying to strive above them. On Friday I was at the Air and Space museum and was re-learning about the Space Race and how it was such a big deal that America be the first in everything (even though we seriously failed) and today listening to a speech from the new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan he talked about how schools still need to be aware of the fact that we are competing with India and China. Like why can't we talk about how more and more children in schools are becoming homeless because of the economy, and how schools are struggling to give them support... or how segregated our public school system still is (guaranteed you've heard that speech from me already). But seriously I think right now we need to get our own country together before we can worry about not being #1 anymore. In one of the books my Peace Studies prof wrote he talks about being a citizen of the world rather than being a citizen of a specific country, and how patriotism can breed violence. It was really interesting.

Just letting you know, this is going to be a novel. Though I'm sure you've caught on...

Some have been asking about what DC is like right now with everything changing so quickly. Being here during the stimulus bill drama is pretty cool. Yesterday Tony and I went to capital hill just to drop off thank you notes (sending letters takes a ridiculously long time after security increases after 9/11 and the anthrax scare); and we wound up running into some people from an education reform group that Impact Aid is involved in and we last minute got in on a meeting with Virginia representative Bobby Scott. It was soo cool! But I was so mad at myself because a) I didn't have my business cards to hand out! b) I had nothing to take notes with! c) I didn't have my 30-second "this is who I am" planned out (we had a meeting about networking at The Washington Center the other day and they said we should really make one up). So I'm putting together an "emergency capital hill" kit (I told Tony this too, he seemed amused) that has my camera in it (for famous sightings), pen, paper, and my business cards for networking. As for my 30-second gig, I'm going to have to leave that to mirror practice. Tomorrow we're headed to the hill to sit in on a hearing. I'm still really struggling to understand everything about the politics of these issues...

Soo what else... weekend highlights include going to my first and last sketchy DC club. It was called Fur. I'm not kidding. We met up with some Dickinson kids though (Richard and Will), which was the point of that in the first place. But it was fun to dance. Saturday we ventured to Target and hosted our first dinner party. A successful pot luck if I do say so myself. But overall I feel like the weekend was a lot of "college partying" and I think that I'm looking for more of a mature scene this semester. Sunday I went to the Hirshorn art and sculpture museum. I will definitely be returning, it was awesome. My roomie and I also went to see Abe (as in Lincoln), and found a great place to watch the sunset, another place I'll be returning to (picture below). Speaking of my roomie, she is great. We're in love and have great chemistry. Right Andrea? Fortunately or unfortunately for me, my life here is being tagged on facebook quite a bit.

Oh, America.... sunset overlooking a highway

Tomorrow after work I'm most-likely going to my first happy hour! Some non-profit networking thing, but it should be interesting to check out the young professional scene and meet some cool people -- wish me luck! I did actually get a Valentine's Day date for the weekend, but I wound up cancelling because for the first time in forever I'm actually single on this strange (and tragically AMERICAN) hallmark-holiday and I think it's about time I embrace that. Single and fabulous has to be celebrated, right? ;-) We shall see... all of my roommates, and pretty much everyone else here is in some sort of serious relationship, which has been an interesting "test" for me. But really, I've been thinking how fortunate I am to have such dear friends in my life to love and to feel loved back by... maybe that's all I need right now.

Me and my roomie :)

To leave you on an amusing and random note: We already have a spoon stuck in our garbage disposal (it's bad).

This Internship Thang...

Hey friends. So here I am at my internship. It has been an interesting start, and I'm still sort of figuring out how I feel about everything. Monday was a really long day because I had my internship and then my class! But it was all very exciting. I have been pretty exhausted the entire time I've been here... we had to wake up pretty early for orientation stuff, and over the weekend I had some trouble sleeping probably just because it is a new bed, etc. (A pretty comfortable bed, though!) Anyway, TWC made it clear that being on time to your internship the first day was actually deemed as late. So, after rushing out of the apartment and trying not to vom all over the metro because I was so nervous, I wound up getting there so early that no one was even there yet. Most of the interns I talked to had the same experience so I didn't feel too bad about it, but it was amusing just standing outside the door waiting. My boss John showed up at about 8:50 and we just sat down and talked a lot about how the office works, what I'll be getting from the experience, and met the other people in the office. I felt bad because my sinuses were really acting up and lack of sleep made me pretty much a walking zombie, but I tried my best to stay attentive. The office is really tiny, just me, John, and three other people. They are all very nice and have emphasized that they want to include me so that I'm not just "the intern." John gave me a lot of reading to do on Impact Aid so I can really learn what it is about and how it works. For those of you who don't know I chose to place at a non-profit called NAFIS (National Association of Federally Impacted Schools). I'm still figuring it all out myself, but basically they work to get money for specific school districts that don't recieve proper tax funding. More specifically, Native American reservations, military bases, and low-income housing areas. Since these are usually federal grounds and don't pay taxes, the schools really need Impact Aid to make sure that they can function properly and keep up with government standards like No Child Left Behind. So, it is pretty interesting. Most of you already know I'm really passionate about education and I've been to a Native American reservation and have seen how much the children really need good schools. Yesterday I got to talk to the President of the board of the organization and he told me all about the problems that a lot of the military bases have. There is a lot going on, I'm not sure if you all want to hear it.. but the war is really stressful for army families, obviously, but Impact Aid really helps them continue couseling services. And most of the districts we work with all really need Impact Aid for reconstruction since most of the buildings haven't been renovated or fixed for as far back as 1994 and sometimes even longer. I talked to him about how I want to teach, but I feel like NCLB is holding teachers to unrealistic expectations in terms of test scores and how I generally hate test-taking. He seems to think NCLB is going to change very soon, I do hope so. But did you know that NCLB has been up for reauthorization for about two years now? What is the delay? It has only been about three days here, but I feel like I am learning a lot already. This is an awkward week though, because everyone in the office went to a conference and I'm pretty much here on my own manning the phones. After Monday everyone besides one of my co-workers, Tony, left for the conference, and then even he left this morning. I'm off Friday though! I'm going to take advantage of that tourist-wise.

Yesterday Tony took me along with him to Capital Hill. I was so excited and I think he was really confused as to why, but he does this all the time so it is nothing new to him. My office is a block from the capital building and it is really cool getting off the metro every morning and seeing it. To get to "The Hill" (we went to the House side... I'm still figuring out all of this government business) we had to walk right by the Capital and Library of Congress. Pretty cool stuff. I think I definitely came off as an idiot because I was asking SO many questions about everything, but hopefully he didn't mind. Anyway, the whole lobbying process isn't as glam as you all made it sound, but I appreciate everyone encouraging this experience and being excited with me. So how it works is you basically walk into different offices and talk with different representatives of congress or the house or whatever (I told you, I'm still figuring it out). But the offices are very tiny, and I kid you not, everyone is no more than 5 years older than me. It is crazy. We had three meetings to "lobby" and how it worked is we sat down at a table with someone and Tony told them about Impact Aid and what we do and why we are important. Everyone we spoke to was a young woman no older than 30. So they go back to their bosses and Impact Aid gets a mention and if we ever need them to vote for a specific bill or something we go back and talk to them again. I was the awkward and mute intern, but it will be cool if they actually let me talk to someone about Impact Aid and why it is important by the end. I think I could be good at it. But I'm not going to lie, I was really tired and might have been dozing off a little... I hope no one noticed. Once I adjust to this whole 9am-5pm business I hope I gain some more energy. It is really hard waking up so early! I feel a little isolated being in the office alone, and I really haven't met a lot of people yet since everyone has their own apartment and their own busy schedlues... but it is only the first week and I'm sure that once I start going out and having a social life things will be fine. And obviously I will get a better grasp on the internship once everyone in my office comes back. But for now... "Impact Aid associataion, this is Ariel, how can I help you?" ;-) hehe.

Last but not least, I do need to talk about my class. Because I already know it is going to change my life! It is with a Professor named Colman McCarthy and you all need to go out and read some of his stuff. He basically started "Peace Studies" and he was so convincing even in one class that I wanted to go up and give him a hug after. I'll admit his thinking isn't for everyone, but my class is all about non-violence and conflict resolution on a personal and worldly level which I think is interesting. I'll keep you guys posted but one of the books I am leafing through right now is called "I'd Rather Teach Peace," but just google his name or something. He said he spoke at Dickinson once and they sent a limo to pick him up, I quote, "that was probably your tuition money!" I wouldn't be too surprised... anyway friends, I have a lot ahead of me to learn and experience, I'm hoping for the best! This first week is going to be laid back, but I'm realizing that a pace-change in my life is necessary. This is no New York City, that is for sure. Miss you all, please update me all on your lives ... I am pretty internet accessible during the day :)