So now that the blog (or journal to call it by its proper name) is finally up it's hard to know where to start.
The past week has been very hot, fast-paced, eventful and did I mention hot?
My host family are Joyce and Richard Schwartz who live in the picturesque leafy suburbs of Chevy Chase. I'm staying with Chris Andrews. The kindness and hospitality has been second to none (and whilst others boast about having a pool - we've got a great cook!)
One of the team's first visits was to the Newseum, that is the News Museum. I was a bit skeptical at first walking in thinking "How on earth do you make a museum out of the news?" But I must say I was very impressed. Great place, excellent exhibits.
Places also visited:
Library of Congress - including private viewings of important documents. Being a Law Student it was awesome to see original letters between the judges in Brown v Board of Education.
Capitol Hill - we were personally welcomed by Senator Leahey, a grandfather of the Democratic Party and a warm, friendly character. A tour followed where we gained access to the viewing gallery where Senator Chris Dodd was curiously addressing, well, the record.
Oakley's Death Tour - including the sobering Arlington Cemetery, the beautiful Lincoln Memorial and the peaceful F.D.R. monument which is more of a park than a traditional monument. The heat was intense but those soldiers guarding the unknown solider in full uniform are tight!
J O Wilson - we had the privilege of spending time with the wonderful young kids in this Elementary School. There was a song, dance, story-telling and even some Irish Language (they now know more than I do). These kids have so much potential and I hope they have the same access to the American Dream as everyone else.
On Friday, we visited the National Press Club at an event which was hosted by the Northern Ireland Bureau. Here Andrew McCullough, Sarah McKegney, Elaine MacDonald and myself delivered speeches on the future for Northern Ireland. We were well received and I got to meet some of the people I am working with - all from Northern Ireland themselves from as far as I could tell. Nice to hear a familiar accent in this cultural melting pot.
Later that night we had a fancy dress party, the theme being 90's icons. I had the honour (grr here it goes again, US spell-check distracting me) of dressing as Jonathan Chesney (what a guy!) Good food again! We also had a host family BBQ earlier in the week with Debb and Kurt, lovely people.
Last night Northern Ireland played the Republic of Ireland in an international friendly (I wish) at Bethesda. We won (of course) but it wasn't easy. There were crunching tackles, people walking onto the pitch stopping play and glow-worms!
Visited a Church on Sunday along with some other fellow-interns, further insight into how things are done a little differently over here!
Saturday night our host-family treated Chris and myself to dinner downtown before heading to the Theater to see the performance of Molière's play "The Imaginary Invalid" which was fantastic. I thoroughly recommend it.
As I read over this it sounds a little too like a holiday but I assure you we've worked hard as well. We had an interesting seminar on networking and another seminar this morning on speech-writing from a DC professional.
At the WIP office today we also had the pleasure of meeting the South Africa WIP interns. We've already included the guys in our plans for football next Sunday.
So far, so good! Hard work starts tomorrow but would I really want to be anywhere else?
On a side note, something HAS been bothering me which has called into question something very important to me. I'm a Maud's man but Giffords Ice Cream is GOOD - and dare I suggest, better?
