Name: Gizel Gomez
Date(s): 07/01/24-07/07/24
Monday & Tuesday: 07/01/24-07/02/24
Finding Cane's
Another week, another day of programming with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI). Professor Bartels was back and had a presentation about voting rights and voting laws. We looked at the trends over the years and the reasons why people sometimes don't vote. Latinos eligible to vote have grown since the last election, but many may still not vote. We saw some of the reasons why people don't vote, and it was shocking to see how some things can be resolved. Often they forget, are out of town, didn't get the help they needed, they think their vote doesn't matter, etc. We learned a lot during the session, and since I had been craving Cane's for the longest time, I walked to Union Station during lunch. The walk was not too bad, but it was most definitely worth it, Cane's always is! The day continued with some presentations about conflict resolution and approaching a supervisor. There were some funny moments when some of the interns volunteered to act out a scenario but had to be a rude supervisor. It was a very long day, but that's every Monday.
Tuesday was another day at the office. I had a meeting in the morning to discuss some new tasks with the White House Hispanic Initiative (WHHI). They assigned me quite a few assignments, event memos, state profiles, and other things to research. The meeting went on for a while and when I got out it was time for lunch. For the rest of the day, I just worked on the assignments I was given. I had to go through emails to figure out some logistics and research the organization hosting the events. It was stressful to figure out which assignment to do first because they all felt like a priority. After struggling with that, it was 5 PM and came back to my dorm.
Wednesday & Thursday: 07/03/24-07/04/24
Early Release for Independence Day
The secretary had announced that we could leave 3 hours early on Wednesday to start our 4th of July. I knew my day would go by fast because it usually does even if I work until 5 PM. As usual, I continued to work on my assigned tasks and asked for clarification of some assignments. Sometimes, it's difficult to manage my time accordingly because I'm out of the office on Mondays when meetings are scheduled. Soon enough, it was lunchtime, which ended at 1 PM, and after, I only had 1 hour left. That went by super fast, and we all left around 2 PM. Once I got back I took my only nap of the week, it was much needed. I woke up, cooked some food, and since I'm studying for the HESI I had to do some practice problems.
We all had the day off for the 4th, but it was still busy. We weren't working, but we woke up early to go watch the parade. To our surprise, we arrived like 1 hour early and had to wait in the hot weather. The parade was long, there were so many different floats, music, and bands. It was all really cool to watch, I'd been to the parade back in Hatch, but it doesn't compare to this one. We finally decided to leave because it was really hot, and we went to get pizza at the Western Market. It was all going well until we left, and I realized I had left my purse hanging from a chair. I immediately called the pizza place, and thankfully it was still there. Once all of that was over, we came back to our rooms to get ready for the concert at the Capitol. The thing is, we didn't make it in. There were too many people and by the time we got there they were at "max capacity", or so they said. They tricked us because when we walked away, more people got in. After running back and forth, we made it to the fireworks but were only there for a while because it was just too hot and so many people were around. The day was still good, it was a nice DC experience.
Weekend: 07/06/24-07/07/24
Eating vs Serving Brunch
On Saturday, I was surprised about waking up earlier than usual. As I woke up, I saw that the interns were planning to go get coffee and bagels. They were about to leave, so I had to hurry up, get up, and get ready. We walked over to the Western Market for some breakfast bagels to enjoy our brunch time. Once we got them, we just sat down to talk and figure out our community service hours. On Sunday, we went to complete half of the community service hours required by CHCI. Juan, Cindy, Esmeralda, and I all signed up to volunteer at Shepherd's Table to serve brunch to the community. We had to be there at 9 AM and the location was about an hour away, so we had to leave around 7:30 AM. Even though we left with time to spare, we were still late! The bus was taking forever and once it dropped us off we still had to run to try and make it on time. We finally made it and immediately started to organize everything before the doors opened. I enjoyed providing food for the homeless community, it was rewarding to see how thankful and excited they were to get food. Time went by fast, we served the food and helped prepare for the next event. Even though it was somewhat far, I loved volunteering and helping out the community.
