Monday
We had our first day of programming with CHCI. We left pretty early that morning and we had some spare time, so we decided to go to a coffee shop in that area. It was a nice little wake up before we made our way to The Washington Center. The first part of the day we did a stimulation hearing in the GW portion of our day. We all had assigned roles and we all had to do some research beforehand to do the hearing. My part was a lobbyist from an organization that supports gun safety. We were fighting for a bill that wanted to ban assault style weapons. We were able to see how it all worked and realized that the outcome of these hearings really depend on who is in charge. The chair was republican in her 12th term and she really led the hearing to favor her party's opinion. I learned a lot from this session. For the rest of the day we did more programming with CHCI and learned more on business attire, leadership skills, and how to express different messages we wanted to put out. After all of this I was tired, but I ended my day with a run to the MLK statue.
First Day of "Work"
Tuesday
I started my day by going to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. I went with Daisy, a fellow vandal, that is working for the White House Liaison at the USDA. We went because both of us did not have to go into the office until 1:30pm. Since I was young, I had always found dinosaurs interesting, so I had a great time at the Museum. I got to see my favorite dinosaur, the stegosaurus, and so many other ones. After seeing all the dinosaurs, I made my way through the whole museum and saw a booth that took a picture of you and would show how you would look like in a different stage of evolution. All I did on Tuesday was go in to the USDA office to get my fingerprints done and get a picture taken for my badge. I had barely started my onboarding documents on Monday and had not even gotten my fingerprints done so I was behind. I also met Neha, which is an executive assistant in the Office of the Secretary of the USDA, and will be one of the people giving me instructions and projects. After this we went to LULAC for a presentation on USAID. It was very informational, but would be something for the future.
Walmart!
Wednesday
I went into the office Wednesday morning thinking that I was going to be able to get my work computer, but I was wrong. My background check still had not gotten through, so I ended up just going to meet my supervisor. Her name is Russellie Bongolan, she is the chief of staff in the Office of the Deputy Secretary. We discussed some of the things I would be doing this summer and I got to know her a bit. Since, I still didn't have my work computer yet I was able to go home fairly early again. I went home went to the gym and waited until my roommate was back so we could go grocery shopping. Once Joan got home we started our trek to Walmart. We were going to go get things to make for dinner, but we ended up just eating Chick-fil-A. We still went to Walmart and got more things we needed. After getting home we put the stuff away and got ready for the next day.
Asia's Art
Thursday
I was probably only in the office for about 30 minutes, and then it was time to go. I had gone with Daisy in the morning because I was supposed to go meet with one of her supervisors, but then it turned out that she could not come in today. Instead we went to go say 'hi' to Neha and went exploring. We ended up deciding to go to the National Museum of Asian Art. It was very cool to see all the different items and things they had there. The museum kept going lower and lower downstairs and we some how ended up at the National Museum of African Art. After this we went to eat and we decided to go to our State's senators' and representatives' offices to get gallery passes to go watch congress in session. I will definitely take a chance to watch during a free time that I have. I then went to the gym and did not do much for the rest of the day.
Farmer's Market & The Nationals!
Friday
I had a lot of fun this Friday. I started the day off by going to the USDA office. I finally got to meet Fabiola, she works with the White House Liaison and is one of Daisy's supervisors. She wanted to show us the USDA's Farmer's Market, so we went with her. I had some pizza and gelato and we heard some speakers that put on the market. There were a lot of different food stands, produce stands, and there was a little petting zoo. It was a very well put together event and I look forward to going to it every Friday. After this we went back to her office and she gave us the task of calling some restaurants to get some information on their catering services. We were doing this so that the office could decide on where to get food for our dinner on Tuesday. After this we went home.
I had seen early in the week that there was going to be a baseball game this Friday and that Flo Rida was going to be performing afterwards. All week I was trying to get a group of us to go and I ended up getting Joan, Mauricio, Daisy, and Yasmine to go. I had never gone to an MLB game before, but I had a great time. The game wasn't too bad, we had food, took lots of pictures, and listened to good music. The concert was my favorite part, but I will definitely try to go to at least one more game this summer.
Lots of Walking
Weekend
The rest of the weekend was pretty chill compared to Friday. On Saturday, I started my day pretty late. I woke up around 10:30 and went to the gym at eleven. I hit legs today, which was not the smartest idea because I did a lot of walking later in the day. Once I got back to the dorms, I was trying to see what people were up to and Joan and I ended up tagging along with our neighbors to Georgetown. We ended up deciding to walk there, which was not terribly far, but on the way back it felt like it was. On our way there we ran in to two more of the HEP/CAMP interns and they came with us. They wanted to go thrifting so we just followed. I was not really looking for anything I just wanted to go out. We spent the day walking around and we grabbed some Starbucks while we were there. We ended up coming back to Foggy Bottom and eating at the Western Market. We rested for a bit and went to The Wharf for a while and called it a night. On Sunday, I went to church and did some chores. It was a pretty good week, but I can't wait to actually start working.
