Let me just start by saying that having a long three day weekend has been GREAT! After the craziness of this past work week an extra day off was very much needed as was the new Avett Brothers album I’ve recently acquired ;). Conference of Leaders is only a few weeks away and quickly approaching. On top of trying to finalize everything for the conference and the service day my department is trying to put out is annual report and we are organizing several DC School Lunch visits with chefs for this week. There’s a lot going on and everyone is trying to get things done. As an intern though, while I still have a ton of work to do, I get to work on all the projects. My role in them isn’t incredibly large in these projects, but I get to be part of everything which is really cool. I’m getting SO excited for Conference of Leaders but at the same time I just can’t believe its right around the corner!! Time is flying by so fast!
Class this week was once again phenomenal and I really can’t say enough about how wonderful this class really is. If you intern with TWC (which you obviously should!) take the Power, Poetry, and Politics class!
You will not regret it. This week we met at the steps of the Lincoln memorial where we talked about Lincoln and the Civil War and how it changed the landscape of our country. We talked about why President Lincoln worked so hard to keep the Union united and how the U.S. would look today had he not succeeded. Then we stood in the very same spot Martin Luther King Jr. stood and read out loud to our professor and passersby excerpts from his “I Have a Dream Speech”. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done in a class. Standing in that spot looking out at the Washington Monument glowing the distance,
reciting the words that meant so much to so many people was really amazing. People stopped to listen and applauded us as we finished reading. Even today this speech means so much to so many people from so many different walks of life and I felt really… honored to be able to read those words.
After a long week at work and a phenomenal class, I started my weekend by having brunch in DuPont Circle with a couple of friends. It was gray and slightly rainy but the less than enjoyable weather was made all the better when I saw “Finn” from the Fox TV show “Glee”. I’m sitting outside at Circa DuPont eating a vegetable omelet when all of a sudden I look up and the guy who plays Finn is walking straight towards our table. I’ve seen famous people before (they’re crawling all over London) but it was so random to see this guy in D.C. I mean when one thinks of celebrities, they don’t tend to associate them with our nation’s capital. This celebrity sighting marked the start of a very good weekend.
After recovering from the shock and awe of seeing a celebrity I made my way to the Solar Decathlon. (Remember I mentioned this awesome event last week!?) The Solar Decathlon is amazing! There are several universities that converged on the National Mall to display solar powered homes they had built. I toured houses from Spain, Missouri, and Iowa and I have to say… I want a solar home. It was SO amazing!
***Now I should quickly note as I continue to explain the awesomeness of this event, that I am a bit of a dork and that may be why I found this to be so cool*** Every single home displayed on the mall runs off the grid. This means that they don’t use any electricity from the area and if the house generates more power than it needs, that energy is put back into the grid to be used in other buildings… SO COOL! And these houses aren’t weird look or awkward, they look just like regular homes. This was definitely one of the coolest things I’ve seen since being in this city.
Now as random as it is to see a celebrity in this city, I saw something even more random later that day after visiting the Solar Decathlon. As I made my way across the National Mall I was suddenly surrounded by a group of men wearing red dresses running and yelling “Anon”.
One runner kindly stopped when he noticed me staring and laughing. Turns out there is a club in the U.S. called the Hash House Harriers: A Beer Drinking Club with a Problem”. It’s a group of people who get together to go running and drink beer (I’ve decided I need to join this club). This was their 16th anniversary and in celebration they were having a Red Dress Run, the result was an endless stream of men running in wigs and red dresses.
It was also our last USDA Farmer’s Market event this past Friday. Hold your tears we have two more at Capitol Hill so don’t worry! ;)
This Week’s Top Two Places to Visit:
1. The National Mall: The stretch of land between the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument is perhaps one of the best places to go on any given day to see something cool. Since I’ve been here I’ve seen the National Book Fair, Solar Decathlon, Hash House Harriers, and Ultimate Frisbee tournament, AND a ukulele sing-a-long group. Every single Smithsonian museum is located here on the mall and there is always some kind of event going on. Even if there isn’t its still a great place to come hang out. Standing on the mall literally puts you in the center of activities in the city and there are always dozens of different people milling around.
2. The Holocaust Memorial Museum: This museum is one that you HAVE to seen when you come to the district. It is the most moving and poignant museum in this city. I can’t really describe what visiting this museum feels like mainly because I think for every individual it is different. I’ve been to the museum a few times now and each time I visit I know I will cry; I can’t really describe it any more than that because what you feel when you are there is so personal and profound there really aren’t words. The main exhibit spans three floors taking visitors through the chronological events of the Holocaust. There are pictures, movies, artifacts retrieved from concentration camps and the museum houses bunks from Auschwitz and the shoes of hundreds of people who lived in the camps.
Top 5 Songs of the Week:
1. The Clash: “Straight to Hell”
2. Harlem Shakes: “Strictly Game”
3. The Avett Brothers: “I and Love and You”
4. Common: “Be”
5. Page France: “Ribs”
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