The Titanic Adventure

I have been back in NC for a week and a half now, though it feels so much longer. Not really in a bad way, of course. I went to Chapel Hill and NC State for three or four days, and it was great seeing all of my friends.

Here are some assorted pictures from our last DC adventure. We went to the Titanic Memorial on the waterfront in hopes of seeing a secret society of sorts on the anniversary of the sinking. Instead we found beautiful skies and a peaceful park - and of course the actual statue. It's a classic Titanic pose...

And this is the end...

Hey all,

Sorry I haven't updated more frequently, but here's my last post to be logged from Washington, DC. I'm about to leave the house to go to my final day of work at AEI and then I move out tomorrow. I can't believe my time here has passed so quickly!

I have so much to share but so little time to type (I'm already a little late for work, but it's my last day, so...). I think it's probably a good idea if I just let you know that I have multiple papers due within the week, but that will hardly stop me from procrastinating and writing about my time here instead.

Since I last posted I've done so many incredible things and met some fascinating individuals in the policy and political spheres. I went to the White House (West Wing!), the National Institute for Health, enjoyed a local jazz bar, wrote an opinion piece to (hopefully) be published, had a several minute-long conversation with Paul Wolfowitz (there are no words), had an intern appreciation dinner, and sat just a few steps from the Capitol building late a night to enjoy my last bit of time here.

Stay tuned for more thorough updates on all of the above. I will be seeing most of you in a few short days!

NYC Pictures

Here are a few pictures from my trip to New York last weekend.

Times Square:
(the ads are huge)
















Here's a better shot of Times Square. You can see the ubiquitous McDonald's on the right of course with an ad for Mamma Mia! on the left. This is right alongside Broadway. There's a partial ad for Wicked in the background.















Here's a picture of the skating rink at Rockefeller Center. The temperature was around 50 degrees around 10pm. It was nice outside, and a lot of people were taking advantage of the last days of skating.
















On Saturday morning we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is enormous. The art there was also spectacular, and I took some great pictures of art that I thought was unusual and had never seen before.
















For example, here's a musical instrument that I thought was really cool. I'd love to be able to play this.

















That's all for now, I guess. Most of my pictures are from Times Square (mostly blurry because I only went for night) and from the museum (lots from the museum).

The Big Apple

It's been so long since I last posted! It's hard to believe my semester is flying by so quickly. I only have two weeks left here in DC, which means eight more days of work.

Since several weeks have passed since my last post, I realize it will be impossible to cover everything comprehensively. So I'll do it quickly --

Tori came up to visit for a weekend. Alison and Patterson came up to visit the following weekend. I went home the next weekend for Easter as a surprise for my mom and to have a quick vacation. I registered for classes (History of Eastern Europe, Ethics of Peace and War, Health Policy and Politics, NC Politics and Public Policy, Public Policy thesis class, and Self Defense). I took a practice LSAT and walked around the city during nice weather. Oh, and I worked some.

And then on Thursday I went to New York with the entire UNC group here in DC. So that means all of the domestic policy students like me when along with the foreign policy students, including our respective DC professors. I would like to preface the following by saying that I had been to NYC once before but I don't remember it being quite so large or dirty. I definitely had a great time, but I've been spoiled in the much smaller, slower city of Washington, DC.

We left Thursday morning on the 7:30am train and arrived in New York around 10:45am. We checked into The Pod Hotel, as charmingly tiny as it sounds, and then immediately took off to learn. Thursday we had combined meetings with foreign and domestic policy students. First we went to Citi (Citigroup, Citibank, etc) and heard from all sorts of executives in the company about their business policies and interactions throughout the world. Afterward we went to the Council on Foreign Relations and heard about the basic purpose of the foreign policy think tank and how they compare to other research organizations. They also gave us some very interesting and valuable information about internships for CFR. If I were more into the foreign policy side of things, then I would definitely be interested. Truthfully, I have a strong feeling that my future remains solidly in the domestic policy sphere.

So that was Thursday's "class." That evening we all went to Chinatown and had some great Chinese food. Upon arrival, I immediately noticed that it was a "hot pot" restaurant -- I have very distinct memory of NOT enjoying Hot Pot when I was in Asia. But this was delicious (we opted out of the hot pot option). Sometime I really miss good Chinese food and eating with chopsticks a majority of the time. Afterward we went back to the hotel and Michelle and I went exploring around the hotel and walked ten blocks or so to Times Square and took in the crazy, active NYC nightlife in the heart of Manhattan. Ha - I say "heart" because it seems that way to me, but don't quote me on that. My knowledge of NYC geography and culture is limited as I am a good Southerner. (That was painfully obvious as I toured awkwardly through the crowded streets and tried not to gawk at the height of the buildings or cringe at the overwhelmingly commercialized Fifth Avenue.)

On Friday we split - our professors each took their own classes to the day's events. We went to Goldman Sachs, Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange (and Euronext apparently), and the Milbank Foundation. The day included a smattering of discussions about the economy, the housing market, the potential recession, North Carolina politics, health policy, and UNC basketball. So clearly we talked a lot! I wish I could go into detail about each of our speakers and meetings, but it's nearing midnight. I might have to save that for later.

We went to a genuine delicatessen that night (and a famous one!) where we had enormous amounts of food because that was the only choice. And then more Times Square and early to bed because I was exhausted. I still am, actually, but fortunately I'll be sleeping in my bed tonight and not in a bizarre hotel. Today we went to the fabulous Metropolitan Museum of Art before catching the 3pm train back to DC's Union Station.

Fortunately we made it back in time for the Final Four game. Unfortunately we played horribly, made a huge almost-comeback, and then lost the game. It was one of the worst games I've ever seen UNC play, but they genuinely tried to beat back the rather large Kansas team, scrambling for points to cut the 26 point deficit to only 4 points. But then we lost by a significant margin. Go Heels - you're still my team even if you had terrible timing to have a terrible game.

So that's my life these days in a nutshell. I'll be home in a couple of weeks, but I hope I can post before then. I have my final assignments, which are due about a week after our last class. I need to get started on those well before I get home, but I'm sure I can squeeze in some time to post!

Cheers.

Prom, work, and class

Where to start? I last updated when my parents came up and we took a day trip to Manassas, which feels like a very long time ago! I guess I'll try to cover the major events.

Last Wednesday was the annual AEI black tie event at the Washington Hilton. Interns are invited along with a guest, so I brought one of the guys in the house as my date. I had to get there early to "work", but the work turned out to be nothing at all. Dick Cheney was supposed to be there, thus requiring metal detectors, tickets, photo IDs, and more, so interns had to make sure everyone had a ticket and that people knew where to go and how to get to the bathrooms. However, the VP didn't show, nor did his wife, so the interns didn't have to work as front-doormen such specific times.

So.... that was fabulous. I wore a long black dress, put on legitimate makeup, had a four course dinner, hung out with fellow interns, danced a few times to Sinatra. Good times. I have a few pictures on flickr. It's www.flickr.com/jamie-lowe. (The best part is that my friends have no idea the pictures are online!)

So what else can I share? I feel like I'm so far behind on the blog. This past weekend my friend came up from App to visit. I had a great time. We walked around the city, went to the beautiful Library of Congress near my house, saw a movie, went to Chinatown for dinner, explored a little more, and went to the bookstore. (Yeah, we're nerdy.)

I really wish I had pictures of the LoC. They have 500 miles of shelving! At least, I think that's right. It sounds crazy. So many books, nearly every one ever published here. I can't fathom storing all of those. They had one of the three old copies of the Gutenberg Bible, remarkably enough. They also had some state-of-the-art exhibits about expansion into North America. I think the display is on loan from another museum.

Work is going pretty well. I'm actually taking tomorrow off because I have some friends coming up from home again. Fortunately for me, the ACC tournament has started and Carolina plays tomorrow at noon. I'm really hoping I have a chance to watch it. There are some other people up visiting this weekend and I think several of us are going out to watch the game. Fridays in DC are pretty relaxed, particularly in government agencies, so most of them have the opportunity to take a couple of hours off.

Speaking of which, go UNC for beating Duke last weekend!!! What a great game. It's always so satisfying to win over the Blue Devils, and no matter where I've gone even in the world, people recognize the rivalry between our schools. I've met dozens of interns since I've been here and none of them have quite the same rivalry for any sport. The interns at work talk about basketball, rugby (random), and lacrosse. A lot of them are from Northern schools, so lacrosse is a bigger deal. I actually had no idea it was so absent on the West coast. Sometimes I simply forget how large and diverse our country is.

I guess I should say a word about work and classes. I have a paper due tomorrow, but it's almost completely done. I'd finished it last night but in a late-night stroke of stupidity I saved it as a temp file because I'd downloaded a copy from my gmail account. For whatever reason I couldn't find the updated temp file on my computer no matter how many system-wide searches I did, so I had to rewrite the bulk of it. Fortunately that didn't take too long. It's all about how to solve Social Security - piece of cake, right? At least it's ten times easier than healthcare. As interested as I've become in entitlement program reforms, I don't think I have the economics or health policy background to get any grasp on how dire the situation is or exactly what it would take to fix it.

Last Thursday I had class with our professor based at UNC. He flew up to talk to us about our internships and hear about how our DC experience is going generally. We then went to Brookings to meet with researchers at their health policy center, which was interesting. A lot of what we're doing here obviously revolves around health policy, Social Security, entitlement programs more generally, and the budgeting process as a whole. All of these areas overlap and so many organizations in DC alone focus on these issues. As a result, there's a lot of opportunity for us to visit with experts from across the political and institutional spectrum. Of course Thursday we also found out about Eve Carson's death, so that put us all in an entirely different mood. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends and everyone back at school - it's definitely a difficult loss. She was an incredible person and I was lucky to have known her.

Today we had our usual class at the Ronald Reagan building, during which we talked about longterm disability insurance. It's definitely not something I think about every day and it's a difficult issue. It's starting to get late so I don't really want to go in depth. Plus, I'm not sure many other people out there share my enthusiasm for discussing government insurance programs.

Maybe I should make a list of all the speakers, lectures, and events I've attended since I've been here. It would probably come in handy in the future, especially if I want to do more research in these areas and need contacts. Maybe if I have some free time this weekend I can try to tackle that.

Speaking of this weekend, a couple of my friends are visiting for a couple of nights! I think I already mentioned that, but I'm really excited. I haven't been to the zoo yet, so if the weather is nice I think that's one place we'll visit. Maybe we'll go to the Portrait Gallery, Chinatown, National Mall, National Geographic Museum, and I can show them where AEI is. If we have time for all of that, of course.

Oh - cool thing that happened yesterday. I was walking home from work and randomly ran into two of my friends from Carolina! They were outside the Library of Congress near the Supreme Court, and it was pure chance that I was walking that way! So I brought them back to my house and then we went to Chinatown to get some dinner. It was a lot of fun, so I'm glad that we ran into each other in a city this size. What are the odds!

Okay, my internet connection is going crazy. I'm going to have to wrap this up. I hope everyone is doing well!

Manassas trip

This is a view of the first stop. We took a driving tour of the park, but you can take a one mile or six mile walking tour as alternatives. This is the site of the main part of the battle, I think. If you look carefully you can see the cannons lined up. There were some on the right as well.



Here's a closer view of the house.


This is from the other side of the house.


This is the gravesite of the Confederate soldiers. Each state has a marker. Only two soldiers were identified and they have individual markers.


This is the marker in the center.

March 2 update

Hey everyone!

This has been an exceptionally busy couple of weeks at work, so I'm sorry for not posting sooner. Things are going well in the nation's capital. Work was busy because we had two conferences at AEI on Thursday - one on the election and another on the changing demographics of voters. Since I have classes on Thursdays I was unable to attend either unfortunately, but I did have a hand in gathering data and setting them up.

But enough work-talk. It's not all that interesting. Things should be much more interesting in three days' time when the Democratic nominee could be certain. Either way, I'm excited to know the outcome.

Last weekend my parents came up! I was very glad to see them, and I knew it would be a better visit than last time because I wasn't sick. At least I've only been sick a couple of days this semester; other people in the house keep sharing colds. I definitely don't want to get that. The first item on our weekend agenda was getting a dress for me to wear to the conservative prom. I finally found one at Macy's that fit really well. We went back and checked into the Holiday Inn and went out to dinner at Legal Seafood in Chinatown. There must have been a Wizard's game or something that night at the Verizon Center, because people were everywhere. Fortunately the wait was only half an hour or so, and we had a great meal.

On Sunday we went to Eastern Market and got some fruit for me. I'd wanted to get breakfast there too, but apparently they only serve breakfast on Saturdays. We ate brunch at a tavern and then shopped around for a little while. I really like Eastern Market, and it's close by my house. Naturally, I thought my mother would enjoy it. Afterward we decided to go to Manasses to see the Civil War battlefield there. I'm a history nerd and will go see just about anything, so it sounded like an interesting trip. We started in historical Manasses and traveled north a few miles to get to the battlefield. I've put some pictures after this post of the trip. (I know I say that for every post, but I will try my utmost best this time. Blogger is not the easiest medium for posting pictures.) Pictures are now officially posted of the parade two weekends ago.

Speaking of parades, I went to another this weekend after the last one was such a success. That's my third parade in six weeks! So when I ask myself what I'm doing with my life, the best answer I can say is parades, parades, parades. Alexandrians seem to be crazy about walking down their main street in a procession of troops and oddly matched characters (there was a guy in a chipmunk costume for this one). So Jen, Kelly, and I took off around 11:30 to go to Alexandria to experience Old Town parade numero dos, and we were not to be disappointed. It was the longest and most random parade I had every seen. There were at least a dozen different bagpipes groups; honor guards from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard; Miss Virginia and Pre-teen Miss Virginia; greyhounds, basset hounds, and HUGE Irish wolfhounds; Storm Troopers and Darth Vader; several troops of Irish dancers; and so much more. It was fabulous in the most random sense of the word. Maybe it's a good thing I don't have pictures, because they couldn't possibly do them justice. It will just have to live on in my memory.

I don't really have anything too interesting to share. Mostly I've been busy at work, and there's not much outside of work to share. Oh! Class on Thursday was really interesting. I should definitely share that. Thursday morning we went to the Comptroller General of the United States' office. David Walker was very welcoming and took a while out his very busy schedule to talk with us. Honestly, it would be awesome to work at the Government Accountability Office. They are funded by Congress but are independent save for David Walker's position (he is appointed and approved by Congress). They are a government watchdog with a very reputable name and are widely recognized for nonpartisan work, as far as I know.

That afternoon we went to the National Alliance to End Homelessness to get an entirely different picture of policy work in DC. We met with the President of the NAEH and learned a lot about the progress made in the past few years with respect to ending homelessness. Apparently the White House budget has made uncharacteristically high apportionments to the cause of ending chronic homelessness, and a lot of cities have reported falling rates of homeless families. It's great to finally hear some good news in this city of stagnant politics. Homelessness is painfully visible at every street corner in downtown DC. Unsurprisingly, progress here has not been as favorable as in other cities. But any progress is better than none at all.

I hope you enjoyed a brief description of what's been going on in my life. Next time I post I'll give you an idea of how the conservative prom goes. I found out that I have a good work shift and probably won't have to work during dinner. I won't be deserting my date!

Love to you all and please send me an email or call or anything if you want to chat! Also, I've posted more pictures on my flickr account. You can go to http://flickr.com/photos/jamie-lowe/ to see those. Enjoy!

president's day pictures

Finally I've posted some pictures from President's Day weekend!

Here's a picture from the earlier part of the parade:




Okay, this isn't from the parade, but I liked the shot. This is looking straight down Penn Ave. You can see the Capitol building at the end. We're standing on a plaza thing, and directly behind me is the White House. To the right (the tower that's cut off) you can see the old Post Office and on the far right is the Ronald Reagan building (where I have class).


Back to the parade... What Southern event is complete without waving a Confederate flag? For whatever reason, President's Day requires celebration of Southern states' desire to secede...


Jen and Abe! And Jen's holding her beeswax candle, which is a perfect addition to the picture. This is, mind you, in the middle of the parade. They are literally standing in the middle of King Street.


And that's all for now. But stay tuned for a lovely deja vu when I talk about St Patrick's Day parade! There are no pictures of that one because I forgot my camera. You'll just have to take my word that there were greyhounds and Storm Troopers...

Presidents' Day Weekend

This past weekend was one of the most entertaining I’ve had since I’ve been in DC. While not everything I did was DC-centric, I’ll still post in on here because it’s definitely part of my US capital experience.

Friday night I went to a fabulous concert at the Library of Congress. I talked about that in my last post. Saturday night I didn’t really have plans but thought I would wait to see what my roommates were planning to do. Around nine I learned that there was a concert at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hotel on H Street NE. Having never heard of this place or any of the bands, I decided I would tag along for some cheap entertainment.

I got what I asked for, that’s for sure! The bands were The Bourbon Dynasty, CTC, Free Lobster Buffet, and Studly Moses. The first was country rock (funny), the second head-banging-screaming-angst hard rock (yikes), and the third pop/rock/dance (fabulous). I went with two housemates and a couple of girls from the University of Illinois. The Illinois girls left after the second band, eager to escape the vibrating walls and ceiling and flailing arms of the 6-foot, 2-inch guys running around in the pit. The third was definitely the best, inspiring the three remaining college students (most people there were 30+ or 15-18 years old) to dance like it was 1998. (We danced, or at least I danced, like crazy people.) But it was a blast and we wisely decided to leave before the fourth band even came on stage. (How could “Studly Moses” top “Free Lobster Buffet”?!)

Sunday I overslept and went with several of my housemates to Pete’s Diner a few blocks away for some coffee and pancakes. Then three of us went to explore the city a little more… well, our original goal was ice skating. The weather was slightly too warm, so we went to the Smithsonian castle instead. Then we visited the Air and Space Museum but it was PACKED with elementary and middle schoolers. I came back to the house and enjoyed the rest of my evening finishing Wicked and relaxing at the house.

Monday was President’s Day! Jen, Taylor, and I had our day scheduled pretty carefully because we (and by that I mean Jen) found a “President for a Day” event online. How could we turn down the opportunity to be a president for a day? Obviously we had to go. It was at the White House Visitor’s Center from 10am to 3pm, and we showed up at 11:30am. Abraham Lincoln was there answering questions (Does Abe like cheese sandwiches? Who would Abe elect in this election? And more…) for the kids and us. We went from station to station making beeswax candles, talking to the retired women who volunteered weekly at the visitor’s center, and learning about First Families.

Then we went next door to the old post office and went up in the bell tower, which was fantastic. The view from the tower was panoramic with no line whatsoever, unlike the Washington Monument which is impossible to get into unless you’re there at 8:30am. That’s just too early for patriotic sightseeing. Anyway, the bell tower had a great view and I took some pictures.

After the bell tower the three of us got some lunch there at the Pavilion and then took off to Alexandria, a suburb in Virginia. There was a parade scheduled there (for George Washington’s birthday, NOT for Presidents’ Day, I was told officially later) at 1pm. We got off the King Street metro stop a little uncertain of how exactly to get to the parade… or even King Street. Actually, I had no idea where the parade was. “Alexandria” seemed specific enough, and the three of us were in an adventurous moods. The weather was warm and cheerful, so we walked through the town until we finally realized it was wiser to ask directions.

Finally we arrived at the parade just in time to hear the first marching bands coming along the street. The parade was much longer than I expected, but in a good way. After the Chinese New Year’s Parade, my hopes were not high. Fortunately I was happily surprised!

There were Boy Scouts and Brownies galore, followed by town officials, more marching bands, PT Cruisers (lots and lots of them), Democratic candidate supporters (Obama08 and Clinton08 in the same car holding signs), etc etc etc. Pictures will do it much better justice than I can.

As the parade ended the first drops of rain splashed down, and we dashed back to the dry warmth of the metro. Not too long afterward, I was back at home, a little damp but happy about how the weekend ended.

So that was my weekend! Thanks for sticking around (if you did) and reading about my life. As always, comments are welcomed and appreciated!

...and pictures

Finally, the National Building Museum! I think I'm in love with these columns. (Corinthian columns, actually -- thank you, Ms. Carlyle-from-my-junior-year!)






















































Here are a couple of pictures from the Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown. We got there in time to see most of the parade. (Chinatown isn't that big.)

Happy Valentine's Day

It’s been a while since I updated, but now I have a couple of weeks’ worth of experiences to share with you so it should be a substantial post! Right now I’m contentedly sitting in Starbucks having just finished an assignment for my policy class and a grande café mocha.

Last weekend was really nice. On Saturday morning I went with Taylor (another girl who is on the DC program) to help fill food boxes to be distributed throughout DC. I had really wanted to get involved in a volunteer program while in the city, and I’m glad Taylor found this one. It was the second time we’ve been. On Saturday mornings they put together fifty or sixty food boxes in about an hour and then have drivers take them out all over the city and surrounding areas to families in need.

We came back and had lunch and showers before taking off to Pentagon City, a mall on the metro stop just past the Pentagon. It’s just outside the inner city area so it’s slightly more expensive on the metro. It’s a four story mall with a Nordstrom and Macy’s along with a hundred other smaller stores. Our goal: to find dresses. Taylor and I needed to find nice formal dresses to wear to black tie events. I get to go to the “conservative prom” of DC next month – AEI hosts an annual dinner at the Hilton and invites interns to attend. This year the speaker is John Howard (former prime minister of Australia – how cool is that?).

So Taylor and I had a mission to find dresses. She found one for another event she’s going to but I didn’t really find a dress I liked. At least, not within my budget. My parents are coming up next weekend so I’ll hopefully have more luck then.

Anyway, Taylor, Michelle, Caitlin, and I explored the mall for several hours and had an early dinner before traveling back to the house and enjoying a nice, relaxing Saturday evening. On Sunday I went with Aisha, Kevin, and Jamihlia to an Episcopalian church a couple of blocks away. The service was pretty informal and the church was beautiful. The pews (actually just chairs) were arranged in circles radiating out from the center of the church where the altar and pulpits were. It was a very welcoming and accepting church and had no problem letting us participate in Communion. Several people greeted us individually and invited us to a lunch afterwards, which was Chinese food in celebration of the Chinese New Year. We met three other interns there, which was nice. I feel like I’ve met so many college students (or recent graduates) since I’ve been here. There are multiple houses near mine that are a part of Washington Intern Student Housing: the University of Texas, the University of South Carolina, Ohio State University, and the UNC system all have separate houses or apartments within a block or two of our house. We’ve met a lot of them and I feel like I see them everywhere. In fact, at the moment I am typing this line while sitting in Starbucks I see a couple of guys from Ohio State walking past. Capitol Hill really is a great place to live when you’re an intern!

So where was I? Oh yes, Sunday afternoon. We got back to the house around 1:30pm. Aisha and I were supposed to study for the LSAT together, but as usual other things got in the way. We ended up going with a huge group of UNC and USC students to the Chinese New Year festival in Chinatown, which is not too far from where we live. It was unbelievably windy, though! So mostly we took the metro to Chinatown, saw a few dragons (see pictures) and then made our way back to the house. On the way Kelly, Taylor, and I stopped at the National Building Museum because Taylor hadn’t been. I finally got some pictures of this incredible structure. The columns inside are enormous, which is surprising because the outside of the museum is not that impressive.

The National Building Museum has some fairly interesting (and random) exhibits with everything from the history of building DC to the development of the chair as a piece of furniture. Kelly and I stopped there just so we could sit inside the huge building and enjoy watching the kids. It’s basically an indoor park; the museum is definitely designed for young children. There’s a “Building Zone” that a bunch of us tried to go to last time we came to this museum because kids get to build their own buildings. We thought that sounded like a lot of fun, but there is a height restriction – we were far too tall to get in! We had to have a kid with us to get to play with the building materials.

So that was last weekend. I can’t remember what I did last Sunday evening, but I think it probably involved me reading Wicked. I’ve gotten sucked into this book and can’t wait to read it after I finish this post. So far I have really caught up on reading since I’ve been here, which is such a nice hobby to rediscover. I used to read for hours into the night before I got into college, and for whatever reason I haven’t gotten back into that habit. I’ve read about a book a week, including The Nine, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (okay, I’m only mostly through but it’s extremely long so let’s count it for now), Dead Man Walking, and most of Wicked. I’ve bought more books since I’ve been here at some used bookstores, not to mention the fact that I’ve brought several of my own. And none of that takes into account the reading I do for class or the books I’m reading for a seminar I’m taking at AEI.

Now I’m getting ahead of myself. I’m going back to Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were average days at work. Tuesday was the Potomac Primary (VA, DC, and MD) so it was interesting watching those results come in. Whatever your political affiliation or interest in politics period, it’s hard to ignore the feeling of change in the air. A year from now we’ll have a new President and Congress will probably be more Democratic than it’s been since the early 1990s. I’ve lived nearly my entire life under the executive leadership of the Bush and Clinton families (though that could continue for another four or eight years if HRC wins), so I can definitely sympathize with those eager for a change in national leadership.

Now that I talk politics all day at work, it’s hard for me to change my focus and talk about something else. So as I’m sure you can already tell, this blog will continue to be saturated with political chatter. Please comment if you want! Even if it’s to tell me to please shut up about the election.

Thursday I had class with Dr. Podoff in the morning. (Actually, I just realized I forgot to talk about my classes the week before. We shared class with the foreign policy students and heard from an official in the Department of Homeland Security and a director from the U.S. Border and Customs Agency. Both were interesting, especially the guy from the Department of Homeland Security. He was very good at not answering questions straight.)

So this past Thursday (Valentine’s Day!) we talked about the budget that President Bush’s OMB just released this week and how Congress might respond and on what timeline. Who knew the budget process could be so interesting? As usual, I regret not taking more economics classes.

For our afternoon policy class, we have to go to each of our “internship placements” and meet with an expert in our particular placement fields. That afternoon we went to the Environmental Protection Agency where Kelly works. The specific department was the Division for Innovative Pilots, which was really interesting because we talked about the use of states as the classic policy laboratory, from which other states can borrow tested policies and adjust them to their specific needs as long as they fit within the EPA’s national policy restrictions. (Oh the beauty of our federal system! This is why I love public policy and politics.) The EPA works with states to coordinate their new and creative programs and provide technical assistance and feedback of their own.

So that was class. On Thursday evening I went back to AEI (yes, on my day off) to go to a seminar titled “The Founding of America.” Walter Berns, a constitutional academic and scholar at AEI, is teaching the class. He has taught several before to the research assistants, but this time they offered the class to some of the political/social policy interns as well. Considering the fact that this scholar is world renowned (he went to South Africa in the 1990s to work on creating a new constitution and he knows Supreme Court justices personally), there was no way I was passing up this unique opportunity. I’ve read some of the articles he has published more recently and I plan to read some of his longer works as soon as I get a chance. For the seminar we have to read the Federalist Papers, the Anti-Federalist Papers, and Locke’s Second Treatise on Government. Early American history, particularly the creation of the Constitution and its formative political years, is among my favorite academic subjects. So the seminar lasted a couple of hours and I’m already learning. I need to read several chapters for Thursday evening, though, as soon as possible so I don’t forget. I’m afraid he’ll call on me out of the blue (he’s already given one of the research assistants an assignment to write a short paper and give a five minute presentation at the next class – am I in over my head???). It’s frighteningly similar to one of the most academically challenging classes I’ve had at Carolina: History of the Constitution of the United States to 1876. That professor called on me ALL of the time and I usually had no idea what to say since he’d written a dozen books on the topic and taught the class for well over a decade, whereas I was a twenty-year-old non-history major who could barely digest his fifteen-minute-long question.

But I got a free dinner out of it. The seminar, not the UNC history class.

So this weekend. Last night I went to a fabulous concert at the nearby Library of Congress for free. I went with Kevin to hear the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin play modern and classical music for nearly two and a half hours. I’m no music expert, but it was unbelievable how good the orchestra was. And they had a grand piano, my one musical weakness. Sometimes I really miss playing, and last night was one of those times. While I think I lack significant innate skill, I still love to play. It’s a beautiful instrument. After I got a healthy dose of the Russian language and great Tchaikovsky, I went back to the house and watched Law and Order before going to bed exhausted.

Here I am today, enjoying a lovely Saturday on Capitol Hill. I woke up late this morning and went with several of my friends to Eastern Market. I got some fruit and cereal (I have NO groceries except for a couple of cans of soup and rice – I can’t wait for my parents to come and take me to a grocery store!). So now that I have cereal, I’m set for the week until they come. I spent a couple of hours at the house catching up with a couple of friends and working out some housing stuff for next year (cross your fingers, because I think we’ve found our house!), then I came to Starbucks. Two and a half hours later, here I am typing away.

Thank you so much for your patience and your desire to hear about even the silliest stories! I’m going to post pictures soon after I post this blog entry, so stay tuned.

Happy Valentine’s Day (belatedly) to you all!

It's the weekend!

This week went by really quickly since I only had to work three days. I went to a conference on Thursday and Friday at the National Press Club. The conference was an annual event for the National Academy of Social Insurance. It was part of my class on domestic policy, so I got class credit and lots of random information about health insurance out of it.

The conference topic was the viability of universal health care (of widely varying sorts) both politically and in terms of policy. I knew next to nothing about health insurance before going into the conference and came out really intrigued by the whole topic. While the largest portion of the federal budget goes toward welfare instruments such as Medicare/Medicaid and Social Security, the broader topic of the future of health insurance in the US is generally ignored at UNC. I feel that for such a liberal cause, it's not one often championed by college students. Forty-seven million Americans are without health insurance right now, out of a total population of about 300 million. That seems troubling at best, and although I shy away from the "universal health care" label, I find it hard to ignore the inherent inequalities in the health care system or the fact that something should be done.

Unfortunately, I come to that conclusion after two days of intensive panels, speakers, and breakout sessions in an organization that certainly leaned to the left. While political alignment is hardly a flaw, it typically signals a reason to be wary of drawing conclusions without giving the other side a chance. Some of the speakers, I will admit, claimed to be conservatives or from conservative institutions. Regardless, I need more information. I highly doubt I will ever develop more than a cursory knowledge of the health care industry or the complexities of its reform, but I know it's my duty as a citizen and as a voter to make myself as aware of the situation as it is.

All of that said, it was impossible not to sense a feeling of change at the conference. Not for the first time, I appreciated the opportunity to be in DC during the election season. With national politics possibly tilting left and the window of opportunity, as some put it at the conference, about to open for a remarkably short amount of time immediately after the inauguration, it will fascinating to see where we stand a year from now. While that will only be days into the next presidency, I have a feeling that the national mood will be telling of the possibility of change to come. Perhaps that mood won't translate into significant reform, but the hope is certainly there.

As for the weekend, I haven't done anything too exciting. Today I went to a local diner for breakfast and visited the National Building Museum. The building itself was pretty cool. The exhibits were less impressive, but the exhibit about the city construction itself was interesting.

We also went to Eastern Market, a great place to get produce and meat, and vendors outside have small tables set up with jewelry, scarves, pictures, furniture, and more food. I really enjoy going there just to see what the vendors have, and the weather today was perfect. Also it's usually crowded with a wide variety of people, so that's always interesting. I got some fruit and decided I would go back for more in a few days. I need to stock up on groceries soon. I'm almost out of Raisin Bran!

I went out to an Indian restaurant tonight for dinner and had a great chicken dish. I can't remember what it was called, but it tasted great. The service wasn't that great, but for the most part that's the norm here. I haven't figured out if that's because our groups are clearly comprised of college students who give typically measly tips, or if it's because that's how most people are treated in restaurants. It's a little annoying, but I'm getting used to it.

I don't have any pictures as of yet to put up. I didn't take any today at the building museum. Eastern Market really isn't photo-worthy either, to be honest. You should come experience it for yourself.

So I guess that's all for now. I'll keep you posted if anything else thrilling happens this weekend. Thanks for reading!

A whirlwind tour...

Okay, so probably not a whirlwind tour. But at least I'm finally getting some pictures up. And just so you know, if you want to see some of the pictures better, you should be able to click on them and they will open larger.

Here's me and my mom (okay, duh) standing at the front of the Capitol building facing the National Mall. I think you can make out the Washington Monument in the distance. I'm not sure why it won't show up very well. My mom's really bundled up because it was FREEZING that day.

















We went to the National Cathedral. On the left is a picture of some of the stained glass. See the bottom of my post for more pictures. On the right is the pulpit. It's unbelievably elaborate and rather large. I should have had either of my parents stand beside it to give you some perspective. Needless to say, it went above my head. Hopefully you can make out the vaulted ceilings in the background of the picture.






And back to the Capitol building. This is inside the Rotunda. You can see the statues of various historical figures that stand guard along the perimeter. The large paintings (and they are enormous) depict various scenes in American history. The picture is small in my screen at the moment, so I cannot quite make out what this one is of. I hope you get a better idea when it's put up on the blog.


These are more pictures from inside the Capitol. We came to the Capitol around 9:15am that morning and waited in line for nearly an hour. The security was strict, of course, but apparently they had some trouble with their trained dogs and it delayed the rest of the tours.

On the left is a picture of the Rotunda. I think they said it weighed 7 million tons. Can you imagine building it? You can see on the right the detail along the edge. The series tells the history of the country, and I took the first and last pictures that they depicted. The right shows the landing of Christopher Columbus and the left is the first flight. Hurray for North Carolina representation! So the history traces from 1492 to 1903. (I remembered the date!) Anyway, I thought that was really cool.

On the bottom right is a close-up of the center of the dome. The mural was done in the style of Renaissance paintings, so there are a variety of angels surrounding George Washington. Apparently Washington was supposed to be buried in the Capitol building, but his tomb was not ready by the time he died. He was buried in Mount Vernon, I believe.


















At the risk of having a very disjointed post, here are some pictures of the National Cathedral again. I wanted you to have a good idea of how impressive the structure itself is. The stained glass window is shown to the left, and to the right is the Cathedral from the front.












Well I hope you enjoyed the images, as opposed to text! I don't want you all to bore of my writing, so I thought it was definitely time to post some pictures.

Interning in DC: Part II

Hello everyone! Once again, I am sorry about my delay in posting. I usually get back to the house each evening around 6, have dinner, and then don't feel up to typing a lot. Plus, the last time I uploaded a post, it nearly deleted everything. So this time I'm typing it in a document and then loading that onto the blog.

That was probably unnecessary information, but I wanted to explain my tardiness!

Okay, now where was I? (See, I knew it was a good idea to make a list of topics to cover.) Let's start with the end of last week. I had class on Thursday as usual, which I look forward to each week. My professor is Dr. Podoff, a professor at Georgetown and an economist who worked for the Senate Finance Committee and Senator Moynihan. My morning class is at 10am, so I felt that it went by pretty quickly. We talked about the budget process and how that relates to policy. Then as a follow-up, my class (there's only four of us, so it feels weird calling it a class) went with Dr. Podoff to meet an expert at the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. The CBPP is close to Union Station, which is very close to where I live (that's the metro stop I use to get to our house 90% of the time). So we met with Dr. Johnson, director of the state fiscal project at the CBPP. For those of you who know my political and policy interests, I love hearing about states (okay, I confess, mostly just NC) and state interaction with the federal government, so this was an informative meeting. So far the structure of our class has been great, since the four-person class enables each of us to ask however many questions we have and not be intimidating at all for our guest speaker.

So that was my Thursday in a nutshell. I think the CBPP might be the type of organization I would be interested in working at, but I probably need a lot more economics under my belt before I attempt that or even something along those lines. That thought leads into my inner debate about picking up a minor at UNC - I'd love to get a history minor, because there's such freedom in that department to take whatever classes you're interested in, and I really enjoy learning history. However, I think that economics could be much more helpful in terms of career options and graduate school. That said, I should have started earlier with my economics track (there's probably no way I could minor now), so you see my dilemma. I hope. (Of course, more statistics could be helpful as well in policy-related fields, but there's no way I'm taking more of that).

I definitely got off topic there, but the digression seemed necessary. It will probably come up again when classes are posted online and I start griping about scheduling for next semester. So now you have some background.

So Friday. I woke up feeling really sick and had to call into work to tell them I wouldn't be there. I felt terrible calling in sick during my first week, but it had to be done. That's all I'll say about that.

Saturday, my parents came up to DC! I was very excited but still recovering so they probably thought I was less than enthused about their visit. That certainly wasn't the case. Unfortunately, their visit coincided with the coldest weather of the winter in DC - it was a frigid, blustery 10 degrees or so, warming up to 30-some eventually. That put a damper on our walking excursions, but we were not to be deterred. We went to museums and shopped; there's no lack of indoor activities in DC.

Speaking of museums, my parents and I went to the Holocaust Museum on Sunday. That's probably the most emotionally meaningful museum I have visited since arriving here. Each person receives a small booklet when entering, bestowing upon that person an identity of someone (probably a Jew, but there were millions of others persecuted groups) and you carry that booklet around and periodically read updates on that person's welfare. The exhibits themselves were remarkably well done, and even the dozens (hundreds, even) of middle school and high school kids seemed reverent of the solemnity of the museum.

I also visited the National Gallery of Art and saw innumerable paintings and statues, yet hardly scratched the surface of the entirety of the museum's offerings. I can say with near certainty that I will be visiting the Gallery at least one more time if not several more times. There's just too much Mary Cassatt, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, etc to see all at once.

Considering that this post could be potentially lengthy, I'll skip ahead a bit. Oh actually first, let's go back a bit. (That should be effective in making this go faster.) On Saturday we went to the National Cathedral, which was beautiful. I can't wait to go to a service there. I can't post pictures at the moment, but I'll follow up with some.

Okay now let's skip ahead. I was off work on Monday (yay!), so I spent that with my parents as well. We went to the Capitol building and toured, which was fun because I hadn't done that since eighth grade. I'm hoping to go to the White House soon, courtesy of my representative's office. I'll keep you posted on that, because that would be really cool. Later we went to Georgetown and walked a bit (it was still almost bitterly cold, so that was short lived), then went up a little farther northwest to Friendship Heights. Basically that's at the border between Maryland and DC. They had a ton of shopping complexes there, so my mom and I looked around and enjoyed the respite from the cold weather. That night we went out to a nice dinner at a good seafood restaurant, and then I had to say goodbye! Not sure the next time I'll see them, but hopefully it won't be too too long. You never know, I might jump on a train one weekend and come home.

Tuesday morning I went to work and had plenty to do after not being in the office for four days. I tracked down election data, compiled some information on gubernatorial races, and edited a report on voting reform, among other things. Most of that work continued into Wednesday. Also on Tuesday, I went to Brookings to hear one of the scholars I work for speak on a panel about Congress and its legislative efficiency and success over the past year.

I'm trying to remember what I did Tuesday and Wednesday nights, but I think it was just low key relaxing at our house. Most of us stayed in, watched TV, and I caught up with some reading. Actually, I'm taking a break from my Allan Gurganus book and I've started The Nine, a book by Jeff Toobin about the personalities of the Supreme Court. It's a great read. FYI.

And then yesterday, Thursday, I had class again, but this time our morning class was to go to the Senate Finance Committee hearing on the budget stimulus package. Ever the dork/nerd/whatever, I thought it was really interesting and definitely gave me some insight into the machinations of the Senate committees. The hearing included two panelists, one a chief economist under Reagan and Ivy professor, the other an economist at Brookings. The committee heard their testimony and quizzed them on their projections about the economy and the efficacy of various provisions of the stimulus package. I was sitting front row, directly behind the panelists' table, right in the bright spotlights, and squirming in the eye of the camera that probably caught me in the background of some of the shots (the hearing was broadcast on CSPAN). So that's two CSPAN events in one week! (The Brookings event was taped by CSPAN, too.)

So here I am on Friday. Work today was a little slow but that's okay. Fridays can be like that, I suppose. Tonight my friends and I are going out to eat, and the current proposal on the table is an Indian restaurant a couple of blocks away. I don't even know the name of it, but hopefully it will be delicious!

I hope you all have fabulous weekends. Thanks for reading.

PS - I would love to hear back from you all. If you're interested, send me an email. It's my first name, middle initial, last name, at gmail dot com. Minus the commas, of course. Thanks!

Interning in DC: Part I

Wow. So my apologies for not writing before now. I guess a week isn't too long to wait for a post, but it feels like such a long week to me! In a good way, of course.

So let's start with my first day of work last Monday. My internship at AEI is with the Political Corner and the Election Reform Project. I work every day except Thursdays (when I have classes) from 9 to 5. I have to say, starting at 9am definitely feels later than starting at 8am at my summer job. On Monday we had an intern orientation, and there were probably fifteen of us starting that day. A few had already started the previous week and a couple had even been there since the fall semester.

I quickly discovered that just because a job doesn't pay, doesn't mean it doesn't have some great benefits. AEI has good intern hours and even better, we're fed. The lunches are three courses and served in the dining room.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I should describe a little more about AEI as a whole. It has three broad areas of scholarly focus: economic policy, foreign policy, and social/political policy. Within those areas are various scholars who generate policy ideas, criticisms, and collaborative projects. I do like the think tank atmosphere a great deal, and it's a great system for taking on interns. The scholars all have research assistants, who the best I can tell are relatively recent college graduates who want more experience. I've met several already who interned just a few years ago. Then below the research assistants are the dozens of college students just like me - interns! Although, to my surprise, a few of the interns are college graduates and/or current graduate school students.

Anyway, I work for two scholars and two research assistants, and thus far it's been really good. It's an adjustment of course immersing myself in policy work, which is different than regular school assignments or even the work I do at the law firm. On the bright side, part of my job includes keeping up with the news daily, which is one of my favorite things to do. On the downside, I have to keep up with a lot more news, so that means less time idly perusing CNN, BBC News, NYTimes, etc. I'm trying to be more efficient with my news-reading habits, so that should help me get the best of both worlds - quality and quantity. Essentially, part of my job is doing what I normally do in my free time, so that's fantastic.

It's after midnight, and I do have to get up in the morning, so I'll try to keep this post brief and continue my week's tale tomorrow evening. A small taste of what's to come in the near future (though it's more of a reminder for myself than a tease for you): my second day of class, my first day of missing work, my parents' visit, and a visit to Brookings. Unfortunately, right now I really must go. The internet connection at our house is wireless and growing weaker and more unstable by the day (surprise, surprise).

Now I have a really strong urge to explain the quirkiness of our house. I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but it has what I like to call character (let's just say, intermittent water heat, suspicious 2nd floor electrical work, a rebellious garbage disposal, and more). Please add that to the list of assigned topics to discuss for the next post. For now, bed!

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week!

Getting the "tourist" thing out of the way

Hey everyone! I have some pictures to share! I uploaded them from my camera and I've tried and tried to make a slideshow on the blog of all of my pictures, but I cannot get it to work. However, I have a Flickr site with all of my pictures on it. I'll work that out and get that address to you.

For now, a taste of my exploring on Sunday!





So this is the Supreme Court building. This is about five minutes from my house.








And on the opposite side of the street is the Capitol building. There's some pictures of that more famous building below.




Here's a view from the front, I suppose. Anyway, this is side that faces away from the Supreme Court building and towards the Mall.












And this is from farther away. My initial goal was to walk from my house on Constitution Avenue along the entirety of the Mall. Ha....ha....







These are taken from around the Washington Monument:







By this point I had walked a fair bit and decided to reevaluate my trip to the end of the Mall, aka Abraham Lincoln's classic memorial. I went there a year ago, but there's something about standing at the base of his stately chair and pondering Mr. Smith's trip to Washington and famed filibuster. Ultimately, I decided it wasn't worth it. There's only so many hours in the day, and I still had H&M to discover.

Before I took off for shopping, a far less dignified and historical experience than exploring national icons, I decided to stop at the World War II memorial. I'm not sure what it is about that memorial, but it has particular meaning for me. It is not as renowned as the Vietnam or Korean War memorials, but being a more recent construction, I can see why. Still, I knew I had to stop there at least once, if not once again before I leave in the short months to come.

























And then I saw the White House... but I won't bother with a picture of that right now. I'm hoping to get a good protest picture at some point this semester. I thought there would be something going on, but it was Sunday afternoon, after all.

So that's all for now. I started work today and it was great, but I'll fill you in with more details later in the week when I have more to go on.

Oh, and one more thing about commenting: There have been reports of difficulties with commenting. I won't name names. The best way to comment would be to look at the blog updates on the main page and then click the "0 Comments" button. You should be able to go from there. If for some reason that doesn't show up, go to the blog archive on the left, click the particular entry name, and then there should be a more obvious comment option at the bottom of the page. That's all fyi on the off chance that you actually do want to post a comment.

Have a fantastic week!

Welcome to my semester in DC!

For those of you who might not know, I'm spending my spring semester in Washington, DC. I arrived last Tuesday, January 8, and I've been settling in ever since. I wasn't sure if I wanted to have a blog for this semester, but some people who read my Singapore blog two summers ago requested that I keep another one for this study "abroad" experience. It probably will not be updated as frequently as my other blog, but if you're interested in keeping up with what I'm up to, feel free to check this out as frequently (or infrequently) as you would like. That said, of course, I would love to receive an email or phone call. I mean, I am still in the country after all.

So I arrived on Tuesday with a Rendezvous loaded with plastic totes packed with clothes and, honestly, more clothes. Oh, and my parents. I drove most of the way, marveling at how big Virginia is for about four of the six hours. We got to the WISH office (Washington Student Intern Housing) and I got the key to our house and my room. It's in the neighborhood behind Capitol Hill. I won't give out the precise address due to my irrational fear of the world wide web, but if you're interested in having it just shoot me an email or call me or something. I am a two minute walk to the Supreme Court building and a five minute walk to the Capitol building. Essentially, it's a fantastic location nestled in a row of old houses.

Naturally, though, the house is not without its lovely quirks. I've been here for four days and already I've discovered a few of its less desirable traits. For instance, the hot water heater has stopped performing its one duty of warming the water. The maintenance guy said it'll take a couple of days to fix, so for now we're all taking freezing showers that take your breath away in seconds. Also, my bed creaks more than the hardwood floors, which is quite a feat, let me assure you. Nonetheless, these quirks are just part of its Capitol Hill character.

The house's location is the best part, really, and my housemates. So far things have been pretty fun, especially since none of us has had anything to do other than a few hours of class on Thursday.

Speaking of which, I guess I should explain what this program actually entails. This is a study abroad program through the Honors program at UNC. I am here studying domestic policy both in a classroom and in an internship. I work for four days a week and have two classes on Thursdays. My classes are both related to issues of public policy, particularly as it relates to national domestic policy. The other track is foreign policy. There are thirteen of us on the program and living in the house (with an extra guy from the University of Kentucky), nine of whom are in foreign policy and the rest in domestic policy. That means there are just four of us in classes together on Thursdays with Dr. Podoff. He is an economist who has worked with senators and senatorial committees, and who has taught at universities.

Class was actually really interesting on Thursday. The academic portion of the program is rigorous enough to ensure that we get a good amount of educational benefit from our studies. However, it also allows for the fact that we will be working full time four days a week. The class is taught from an economic perspective, but that isn't unusual considering the basis for most of my public policy classes in the past. Cost-benefit analysis and the balance between pros and cons play a large role in the formulation of public policy. Hopefully in my internship I will be able to see the process of researching problems, identifying solutions, devising policies, and advocating and implementing those policies.

I will be working at the American Enterprise Institute with the Political Corner and the Election Reform Project. The latter is a joint endeavor with Brookings, probably one of the most well known research organizations in the world, if not the foremost think tank in the United States. AEI is not quite as well known from what I know about think tanks (probably not that much, all told), but it is still easily recognized. Politically, AEI aligns more with conservative ideology, but like anything else, it cannot be put so easily into one category. For instance, the joint project with Brookings, traditionally a left-leaning institute, suggests that political ideology does not always dictate stances on policy. AEI is still an organization of individual researchers and scholars with their own sets of beliefs and political affiliations.

I start work on Monday and will be working 9am to 5pm every weekday except Thursdays. I plan to post again in a few days when I have something to report on my experience there. I'll also load some pictures when I upload them onto my computer.

Hopefully this has been a sufficient introduction to my blog for the semester and can at least provide a taste of my experiences here in Washington, DC. Thanks for reading!

Edit (1/14): I changed the settings so anyone can comment on the blog. They had it set automatically so only google users could comment. If my mom sent you information about the blog, you shouldn't have to worry about using her account to comment. I also removed word verification, but if I start getting spammed, then I'll turn that back on.