Typical DC- Cherry Blossoms, Hillary Clinton, & the Supreme Court

I haven't written in my blog for soo long! I've been pretty busy and pretty lazy at the same time, which is not a good combination for keeping up a blog. But I'll try to give an update on my exciting times in DC!

Right now I'm currently writing this blog from home! I decided extremely last minute to come home for the Easter weekend since I got Good Friday off from class.  I literally bought my ticket during the 20 minutes in between classes and I had to pack then too since I would go straight from class to the train!

Taking the train was definitely different, but it didn't end up being that bad.  I took the train from Union Station in DC on Thursday at about 4 and arrived in New Haven at 9:30.  I got to sit in a really nice car where everyone was questioning if we were actually in coach or in business class lol.  It was really cool taking the train because I got to see places I've never seen before like Philly, Baltimore, and Trenton, NJ? lol But I did get a sweet pic of NYC at sunset:

Anyways, it's been a long time since I've update this blog so I'll try to remember most of the interesting stuff I've done.

For my Foreign Policy Seminar, my Professor always takes us places and gets us invited to events and speakers a lot.  This event was definitely the best so far.  It was an event at the Institute of Peace about "The Week That Changed The World", when President Nixon visited China for the first time and established diplomatic relations with the PRC.  At the event we got to see the Ambassador of China, Henry Kissinger, and even Hillary Clinton speak!  Plus there was tons of free food and drinks, which makes any event a winner.

 Hillary Clinton giving a speech:

Then I pictured her like this after:

 

Awesome place where the event was held:

Finally I took a picture of my room with my messy desk and my roommate Lindsey on our mondo bed we had to make since our room is definitely a single lol.

Weird statue thingy inside one of the Senate building, I think it's called Clouds and Mountain or something... lol

New Haven style pizza!! We found this place up the street from my dorm! It was sooo good, I ate about a third of the pizza by myself lol.

And then I went with my roommate to anther pizza place called 2Amy's where the pizza is certified by the Italian government that it is made in the legit Italian way.  And I knew this for sure because I tweeted the picture and Caitlin DeCortin, Italian food expert, told me that it looked like real Italian pizza right away haha. It was amazing!!

Unfortunately I felt like this after all this pizza haha:

Besides eating all the pizza in DC, I have been doing some typical DC things like enjoying the cherry blossoms and going to protests!

Blossoms at Tenley Campus!

Lindsey with cherry blossoms near the Japanese Embassy

Instagramed cherry blossoms for the hipsters!

One of the coolest things I got to since my last blog post was go to the Supreme Court during the healthcare arguments.  My internship is very involved in the healthcare lawsuit.  The NFIB's lawyer was actually arguing in the Supreme Court against the healthcare law.  He actually was arguing against the constitutionality of the individual mandate, which forces everyone to purchase health care.  Besides all the politics involved in the case, it is so cool to be working at a place involved in this historic Supreme Court case.  The only other time the Court has allowed this much time for arguments was in Brown vs. BOE and I can say I was involved in a very very tiny part of it as an intern! haha

On the second day of the arguments, my work let me go down to the Court and hang out with the media team.  It was sooo cool! I got to hold the NIFB sign since there wasn't really anything to do. lol But I watched the media team do their job, which was really neat.  They would go around trying to get interviews and would do interviews and give statements on behalf of the NFIB.  They also set up interviews for the head of the legal department and the NFIB lawyer for when they came out of the the court with places like CNN or Fox News.  It was amazing to see them all so focused on their jobs.  I saw the head of the media department give an interview while there were tons of protesters chanting all around her and I could barely hear her myself. She was so focused! I definitely think this made me realize I like the media aspect of politics too, so I'm actually gonna take a journalism class next semester! ahh!

Obamacare supporters

View from behind all the media

CNN umbrella! lol

Extremely smiley tea party guy!

Tea Party flag

Another cool thing I got to do was go to the Newseum.  I was a little rushed since I had to catch my train but I really was a cool museum and I definitely wanna go back and take my time to go through the museum. 

Some of the cool things I really liked were that they had lots of stuff from comedy shows from the last election, like Saturday Night Live and Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart. 

They had a really cool exhibit where they had newspapers of the day from all over the world.

I found the Hartford Current and the Boston Globe!

They also had a 9/11 exhibit with an actual antenna from the twin towers and newspapers from the day from all over the world.  They also had a really good documentary, but I didn't watch it because I didn't have time and would definitely be crying. 

Twin Towers antenna

Cool view of the Capitol from the Newseum building, notice the Canadian embassy next door! lol.

It's been a great experience for me these past couple of weeks, but it's nice to be home.  Even if my father and brother try to chop a tree down in our yard and this is what happens:

Yeah... that was supposed to fall the other way... lol. Gotta love being home!

Happy Easter everyone!! :D

France, Club "Adventures", and God.

So a lot has happened since my last blog update, I'll try to remember as much as I can!

My internship has been going pretty good and I'm getting a lot of stuff done.  I finally have a couple of projects that I can work on when I have nothing to do too.  One really cool thing I got to do is have a conference call with three of the media directors for the NFIB to see if I could help them out on anything.  I was wicked nervous, but they all ended up being really nice and extremely funny, they were swearing and making fun of each other a ton lol.  The media director for the Northeast ended up having something for me to do.  He was the funniest of all of them and it helped that I know more about issues in the Northeast, such as how Gov. Dan Malloy is not the greatest lol.  I was able to write three different letters to the editor about the minimum wage increase in New Jersey.  I was nervous since they're eventually going to be published in a paper, but he said they were all good! That was really cool that I got to do that and a good resume builder! Woot! haha

Also at my work they had a random chili cook-off day! So I got to try a bunch of amazing different chilis with lots of yummy desserts.  The President of the NFIB answered some questions about the company and they gave out some awards to people.  It was really fun because I got free food and I felt like a real employee worker person! haha

Other fun things I did were go to a Valentine's Day ball at the French Embassy! It was sooo much fun!! It was super cute and valentiney lol. There was a dance floor and they started out with an orchestra for ballroom dancing, which was cute to watch.  Then they switched to a DJ and played salsa music for a while, then fun songs like the electric slide and dancing queen, and then finally mainstream music.  It felt like a wedding! But even better they had tons of french desserts with chocolate covered strawberries and with a chocolate fountain and the works.  And the best part was the open bar with French beer and wine! I stuck to the Cote du Rhone, since I remember drinking that in France a lot! It made me miss France because they had the same cheap beer that they sold at our school in France's cafe and that we drank at beach parties all the time haha.  And then I missed all the amazing friends I made in France! But besides that it was an amazing night!! Even better, my night ended with a lovely call from my roomie back at Stonehill :)

French beer and Wine!!

So since my last blog post I was able to go home for the long weekend, since for once I had President's day off!! I headed out on the metro on Friday and went straight to Reagan and I took the smallest plane from DC to Bradley! It was so small we could fit any carry-on suit cases and we left them on by the door of the plane to go underneath before we got on.  But I had a blast when I was home! I got to see my cousin Becky who I hadn't seen in years! Along with her new fiance, Sean.  Plus I got to see my grandparents who had came down from Maine for the week.  I also got to see my mom's side of the family and my cousins Rocky and Mica! And to top it all off I got to see my lovely friends from home, Kara, Christie, and Alyssa!! I was really happy that we could all get together and see what's new with everyone. And how could I forget that I got to skype with my best friend Cait, who is studying abroad in Vienna right now and having a blast! I hope she wants to come back, she's having so much fun! haha :) Overall it was a great weekend and I came back on Presidents' Day, so I only had one day of my internship, making it a pretty easy week!

But here are some random pictures/things I did:

This is the metro at rush hour!! So many people, so little personal space... lol

Albino Squirrel!? Just like the one at Stonehill!

I don't think you can see it very well, but I was able to snap a pic of NYC on my flight to CT.

One day for lunch we decided to go to this place called Z-Burger right near the Tenley campus, since the Tenley Cafe's food is extremely questionable.  It's kind of like a five guys and it was sooo good! I got a cheeseburger and a chocolate shake!

On my way back from an event for class we walked by this theater that had all these famous singers' hand prints. (P.S. notice my sensible work shoes! haha)

Frank Sinatra

Jay-Z

Tony Bennet

To end off this week we decided to go to the club Ultra since it was 18+ and most of my friends are 21, so it sounded like a win-win situation...

Lindsey and Hanna were having a blast with the open bar they had in the beginning, they may or may not be double-fisting here... lol

 

Unfortunately, me and my friend Justin were under 21 so we got these enormous x's on our hands, which sucked and eventually led to a not so great end to the night... if you would like more details, feel free to contact me personally and in private haha but I will say I learned some people aren't the greatest... 

Here's the horrible X! We were marked!! haha 

But besides that really sucky night I've had a great few weeks! Some other updates on my life are that I'm on the peer mentor team for this year again!! I'm sooo excited for orientation and to meet all the new peer mentors!! Let the cult commence! haha just kidding... maybe.

Also, I decided to run for Executive Board Secretary! Ahh!! I'm wicked nervous, but I've always wanted to do something like this because I absolutely love SGA and I've been in it since freshman year and it just seems like the perfect way to end my time at Stonehill.  I think it will definitely put me out of my comfort zone and be a really big challenge, but I know it will be a great experience if I am elected.  So yeah vote for me I guess? lol It would be most appreciated! :)

Also I've loved hearing from people at Stonehill! I got to skype a bit with Dave and Caitlin, which was awesome! I love getting updates on your lives! I also finally figured out my suite for New Hall next year!! I'm so excited!!

And I guess I'll end my blog post with a picture of god... the god of baseball that is haha. Bryce Harper.  I give credit to Pat McKeon for giving me knowledge of god. And some to Derek for the "POW!"  haha I miss you crazy people! 

Taxes and Healthcare! Wooo!!!

So I've been pretty busy these past weeks since I had a paper due Monday for my seminar and then an 8 page, 1.5 spaced paper due today for my elective class.  But besides my papers, I had a fun week at my internship!

These week I've been helping out with random things, but one thing I always do at my internship is to pass out newspapers in the morning.  I know it's a boring job, but it's good to meet everyone and good for trying to remember everyone's names.  It's kind of cool though that everyone wants newspapers, because it's part of their jobs, especially the lobbyists, to keep up to date on everything that's going on in government and politics.  I get about a thousand emails every day with different new sources that are meant to keep you up to date on what's going on in Congress.

Besides the awesome job of newspaper girl, I was able to pick out some articles that the lobbyists put on facebook and twitter! I found an article that talked about how the cost of healthcare and how it would go up once the new law goes into effect.  The main subjects that I'll be dealing with at my internship is the new healthcare law and with taxes! Woo!! So exciting!! haha But really those are the biggest problems that small businesses are worried about so that's what everyone's working on.

My favorite thing I got to do this week was to go to my first hearing to take notes to bring back to the lobbyists.  I went to a hearing at the Senate Finance Committee, which is one of the more important committees and it was all about tax extenders and tax reform.  It's not super exciting stuff, but it is important for small business so it was important for me to go.

It was really cool going into the Senate building and I learned that we had to wait in a line to go into the hearing and that there's something called a line holding service.  You can actually hire someone through this service to hold your place in line for you so you don't have to wait and I guess it's usually homeless people who have the job.  It would be really funny to see a fancy-dressed lobbyist next to a homeless person, but when I was there no one was using the service.

But while I was waiting in line there was a Senate Intelligence hearing just about to happen right near us and we saw General Pertraeus walk by and ask us all what we were doing wasting our time there! He had about a million security people around him, but he wasn't in his military uniform and I asked my internship coordinator who was with me who that was and she must have thought I was so stupid!

But being in the hearing was interesting,  I saw Senators Baucus and Hatch, who were the chairman and ranking member respectively and then Senator Olympia Snowe from Maine, who I think is awesome because she's moderate, but my mother may not agree. haha But overall it made me see why people are hating Congress right now because they basically decided nothing and the Senators just kept talking about the random tax credit they liked even though the point of the meeting was to talk about how the whole thing needs to be reformed! One guy literally started by saying "There's a wind blowing of the Atlantic......" and then talked about wind farms randomly.

Well that was kinda long and boring, but afterwards I had a lot of free time, so I went by the Capitol and the Supreme Court and took pictures:

Then I went back downtown and got lunch at Roti, which was a really yummy but expensive Mediterranean food place.  Then I took it to go and ate at a park right in front of the white house!

It was a pretty sweet day!

So yeah hopefully I keep remembering to update my blog, but right now I'm getting ready to go to a club called "Fur" (weird name!) where Jenna Marbles is gonna be!! If you don't know who she is go youtube her videos right this second!!

But this is what we're not going to do tonight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIk25NlP3o8

Quick Update!

So I've been pretty busy with papers and homework so I thought I would give a quick update on how my first week at my internship went!

So I went in for my first day at my internship last Monday and of course I got there way earlier than I needed to be because I was nervous about being late.  It's really nice because I only have to go a few stops down the red line to metro center to get there and the building is literally right across the street from the metro exit, so it's super easy!

My first day was pretty easy. I got my own desk, computer, and cubicle, which is awesome!! And I'm the only intern there! (Not sure if that's good or bad?)  I got to meet most of the people there and they all seem really nice and wicked smart!

The next day I got to sit in on a bunch of meetings, which was interesting because I got to see how they go about deciding what to do to influence legislation and the issue areas in government that they are working on.   Unfortunately, it's kind of hard to understand all of the stuff they're talking about, since they mainly focus on taxes and the healthcare law.

But I'm super pumped for tomorrow because I get to go to my first hearing! It's the Senate Finance Committee hearing on tax extenders I believe.  It sounds like a boring topic, but the committee is one of the most important in Congress and many high-profile senators like John Kerry, Max Baucus, Orrin Hatch and Olympia Snowe are going to be there! I'm excited, but I have to be there by myself and I'm responsible for taking notes for one of our lobbyists, ahh!!

I've also started my night class called National Security: Wicked Problems.  I may or may not have chosen the class because it had the word "wicked" in it... (unfortunately it had nothing to do with Boston).  The class seems really intense but interesting.  Our professor has worked extensively in the field and I think he works at USAID now? which is pretty cool.  He also wants to write a book at the end of the class about the things we discuss.  You know, just casually write a book.  lol Unfortuantely, he assigned us an essay last friday that is due this friday, which is supposed to be 8 pages 1.5 spaced font!!!! That seems pretty impossible, so who knows how's that's gonna be done in a week.  Hopefully I won't procrastinate that bad!

Look for another blog post probably by next week, when all my crazy essays are done!

Internships! Yay!

So the main reason I came to DC was to get an internship and it's been a long process, but I can finally say that it's over and I have an internship officially! I'm going to be interning at the NFIB, which stands for the National Federation of Independent Businesses.  It's basically a lobbying association that lobbies for small businesses.  It's a pretty big and influential organization, so I'm really excited! I'm going to be a federal public policy intern, so I'll get to work closely with the lobbyists and hopefully get to go with them to capitol hill often. 

I'm really glad I have an internship now, but it took forever! If you ever want to get an internship, make sure you start months in advance, especially if you want to get the really competitive internships! I'm so tired of working on cover letters, resumes and all that, but it was worth it in the end! I actually found some other really great places in the process that I would love to intern at for maybe a summer internship...?  Who knows?

Although I've been busy doing internship things, I have been able to do some fun things in DC! 

Last Friday, me Lindsey, both Christina's and Rachel all went to the National Zoo! It was freezing out but it was great because the animals that were outside were really active and not just sleeping all the time like the do in the summer because it's so hot.

The lions were going crazy! It was so cool!

The cheetahs were so cute!

Cute red panda!

Gorillas!

We also went and visited the new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on MLK day.  It was a really cool monument with lots of quotes of King's from the Civil Rights Movement.  It was also funny because we got to see the quote on the statue that was quoted wrong so now they have to fix it. Embarrassing!  The original quote was: "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter".  The quote on the statue currently says, "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." I think it's funny how much they shortened it, especially since it changes the meaning behind the quote a bit.  I feel like somebody got lazy and didn't feel like carving out the whole quote. lol

The temporary quote!

The whole monument

We also walked by the Washington Memorial, but no one's allowed to go up it for the time being because it got damaged from the random earthquake we had in the summer!

I also had my first official day in my Foreign Policy seminar today.  I love my Professor, he's hilarious but also extremely smart.  He's very Italian in a good way and from New York and sounds like he should be on Curb Your Enthusiasm or something! Anyways, we talked about a bunch of general topics relating to foreign policy and all the other students in my class seem really smart, or at least sound smart haha, so it should be a good semester. And he ended class on the lovely note that the U.S.'s biggest national security weakness is probably from cyber warfare and that hackers could hack so many important things in our lives like water purification systems or nuclear reactors! ahh!! Fortunately, I hope we have some smart people working in the government to stop them! haha 

Well I hoping I'll keep up with my blog , so I'll probably update it at least after I go to my first day of interning. Ahh!! I'm a bit nervous, but hopefully everything will go well!

From France to DC!

Hello everyone! So I've decided to become another one of those people and make a blog! Yay! I didn't make one in France, probably because I was too lazy and busy doing things, but I really wish I did so I could have shared my adventures in France with everyone.

But after all of my adventures in Europe, I decided that I still wasn't done adventuring yet and now I'm going to spend a semester in DC.  I'm kind of sad that I won't be back at Stonehill for a whole year, but I know it will be worth it.  I'm doing the Washington Semester Program at American University where I'm going to do a part time internship, a seminar class, and an elective at the college. I don't have an internship yet, which is kind of stressing me out, but hopefully I will be getting one soon!  So this semester hopefully I will be keeping up with this blog, so I can let everyone know what's going on with me in DC. 

Anyways, like I said before, I spent my Fall semester in Cannes, France and I had the most amazing experience, with some of the most amazing people! I miss my Cannes/AIFS family so much! I wish we all lived closer to one another. 

I thought I would put up just a little bit of pictures of my traveling in Europe, so here are some highlights from my semester in France:

My first stop in Europe was in London before we went to Cannes.  We were supposed to have about two days there with other AIFS kids, however, as my luck goes, the first hurricane in forever decided to hit the northeast the exact day I was supposed to leave so I only got to spend about one day in London.  Thank you Irene! It was still wicked cool though and I got to see Big Ben, the Tower of London, Parliament, and take the typical telephone booth picture!

So after my very short trip to London, I was in Cannes!  It was in the south of France and the weather was gorgeous for the longest time, allowing many trips to the beach when we weren't studying of course! :)

The view from my room

 Different views of Cannes

We also took a bunch of different trips with AIFS and with Sandrine, our awesome program director! 

                                            

Saint Tropez!

Provence!

The Palais du Papes

The Pont du Gard

Vaucluse

Grasse- The perfume capitol of the world!

In a perfume factory

Fancy perfume store!

Monaco!

Cool part of Monaco that was built over the ocean

The royal palace

The Monte Carlo Casino

You can see 3 countries at once- Monaco is right in front, then the surrounding mountains is France, then the very last mountain is Italy!

Paris!

Arc de Triomphe

Le Louve

La Tour Eiffel!

Nice, France

Dave came to visit me and we went to Nice! 

Also thanks to the G20 summit, which they decided to have in the very small city of Cannes, we were able to get a week off from school and go traveling since the whole city basically shut down for a week.  During that week I traveled with my friends Katie and Michel to Rome and Barcelona.  We saw so many amazing things and it was a trip I'll never forget! Here's some highlights:

St. Peter's Square

The Colosseum

The Trevi Fountain

The Sagrada Familia

A park of Gaudi Architecture overlooking the city

Tapas and Sangria!

 

The main square in Barcelona