The positive busyness:
a. finished the feature article mentioned in the previous article, and the other was approached by the senior reporter who assigned it to me, informing me that I am (forgive the language) “a f***ing awesome writer” and she’s “really excited for me”… highlight of the internship this week, I’d say. Exaggeration on her part, but still appreciated.
b. weather has been awesome! The place to be on a sunny day after work, as it turns out, is Dupont Circle, no question;
c. in the process of researching for a paper for my course on U.S. foreign policy (and an indep. study project) and thanks to the wonder of twitter, I ran into a recent alum from Dickinson now working at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, resulting in some awesome link and info. possibilities and an equally excellent lunch at Pasara Thai…should’ve been writing the paper instead of meeting someone for lunch, but I can’t say I regret my decision!
There is one thing I am torn about thus far, however. Can’t decide if I enjoy having a direct view of the weather from my desk or not- on one hand, the natural light is, of course, excellent; on the other, it’s ridiculously taunting on nice days. Last Friday (as in, quite a while ago… yes, I know, I’m behind. Remedy in the process.), quite honestly, I left the apartment at 9 am, not to return until nearly 1 on Saturday afternoon. Wait wait wait… jumping to conclusions, are you? Come on now, get your mind out of the gutter.
After work, Medha (fellow intern) and I met in Dupont for dinner and instead wandered about, stopping at a bookstore, Larry’s for ice cream, and then to the circle to enjoy said ice cream while people watching. It is a shame I couldn’t have taken a panoramic photo; the scene was just amazing. The weather was perfect and the entire area was teeming with people enjoying the amazing start to the weekend – sitting around the fountain, listening to street performers, playing Frisbee, walking dogs, little old men engaging in or observing chess battles. Stereotype to the max, but in a wonderfully breathtaking sort of way…the beauty of the weekend and the first signs of spring. From there, it was The Burger Joint to meet some friends, back with them to generally hang around, foosball battling, and a Mexican birthday party, where I found myself needing to translate… you never know when those language skills are going to come in handy, do you?
Note a. groupie on the bench, b. IAMS for his dog observing from the sidelines, c. chess players in the background, and d.general awesomeness of this guy, from “Sympathy for the Devil” (Rolling Stones, for those of you unaware) to “Ain’t No Sunshine” (Bill Withers, if I’m not mistaken).
After Friday’s bout of fun winning over productivity, Saturday was a pretense at being productive, and Sunday was back to fun for a baby shower, believe it or not. Yes, I’ve only been in this city for a short time, and yes, most of my friends here are interns, not expectant mothers… and no, I’d never been to a baby shower before. However- thanks to my involvement with AID, I’ve had the chance to get to know some excellent folks, not the least of which including Sonika and Dushyant (previously featured), hostess and host of the baby shower as they prepare for a new family member later this month. Excellent conversation, excellent food (ever had laddu? Indian sweets- check it out), excellent day….excellent form of procrastination.
To continue the general joviality of the weekend and further put off the paper looming over my head, Medha and I headed out for a late dinner at a Malaysian restaurant near Dupont Circle, Penang, thanks very much to a wonderful little thing called Groupon. What you do: go to the website, sign up for daily emails. Result: save money but still enjoy a night on the town, compliments of “groupon” coupons to local restaurants or pretty much anything else, different deal every day. We paid $15 for $35 worth of food, reveled in 3 appetizers and 2 desserts (because who needs entrees), and caught the last Metro to our respective homes. Metro stops running at midnight on Sundays; if you ignore everything else of my babbling (which you might as well), recall this much: stand on the right side of the escalators, walk on the left, and pay attention to when they stop running!
Sooo proud of our meal choices- even the fried squid, which was a first for me. Here you see one of our two shared desserts… I’d almost feel guilty for eating it, if it weren’t so delicious.
One of my various talents: looking unbelievably awkward in photos (a forced invasion of my personal space bubble). Also entertaining was the result of flash emphasizing contrasting skin tones… my farmer’s tan has not yet made its appearance this year, so I seem to reflect at times. It’s a problem.
Monday saw morning programming with a President's Lecture speech from the Deputy Secretary of State… which, frankly, was not nearly as interesting as I’d hoped it be. In fact, I learned nothing – though, to be fair, it was a decent reiteration of information you’re likely to already know if you’ve been following basic foreign affairs in any way. Rain, hunger, and unwillingness to return to our respective duties pushed a few other interns and me into a Corner Bakery, where we happily discussed our upcoming weekend plans for Virginia Beach (end of April). Then vague productivity in researching a paper through Monday evening and Tuesday morning, and break on Tuesday for lunch. Thank you, twitter, for enabling the extended conversation over massaman curry and fried rice – though we had mutual friends (and interests, thus the meeting), he’d graduated at the end of my freshman year and we’d never actually met. The 21st century is quite something, isn’t it?
Of course, it’s also enabling this lovely form of communication… with that, however, it is time for me to temporarily leave the virtual world. Will be back shortly to report on the latest weekend and the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival – happy spring!
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