The first week has been absolutely crazy! Between celebrating Neal's Birthday American style, seeing all the sights of Washington in 40oC heat, meeting Senator Leahy on the steps of Capitol Building, it's all been a blur!
I'll admit I was a little nervous (ok maybe more than a little!) last friday as I had only met my fellow WIPers at Orientation and I was beginning to wonder if we would actually get on, especially as anyone from the North decided to get the bus down together on Saturday morning, at 4AM!!!! Well, we started as we meant to go on and after 21 hours of travelling, we were all still friends, although Canadian security had been suspicious of Andy (who can blame them??). I was greeted at the airport in Washington by my host family with flowers and loads of hugs! I'm staying with a "new" family in Bethesda so I'm on my best behaviour to make sure I don't put them off the program! On Sunday, we went to Lauren's host family (the ones with the pool!) for a bbq but I spent most of my time in the pool, it was the only way to deal with the heat!
During the week we got to see a lot of the sights of Washington including a behind the scenes tour of the Library of Congress, where we got to see how one of America's greatest president's dumped an old girlfriend through a letter! That is where I got the oh-so-inspiring title for this entry, basically it's just an old fashioned way of saying "it's not you, it's me"! Other highlights of the week included a visit to the J.O. Wilson Elementary school, visiting the Newseum and the Northern Ireland Bureau Luncheon at the National Press Club, where Andy, Elaine, Sarah and Gary all gave incredible speeches and made us all very proud!
So now that week one is over, I'm officially no longer a tourist but a fully fledged intern at the Library of Congress (I've got a security badge and everything!). I have my own little office, computer and most importantly, a very official looking Library of Congress email address, so I can safely say I've landed on my feet! Plus there is a Starbucks one block away, amazing!
