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