Kate's Adventures: June 2009

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Revision

To revise the previous post... I ended up doing 5 loads of laundry.

And those of you asking about cookies... I didn't buy the stuff because I realised I would have to buy everything from flour to sugar to egss to baking soda (and the cookie sheet here sucks), but Danielle-the other intern @ MC&FP lives in Falls Church and agreed to let me come make cookies with her sometime next week. Then I can eat some and send some to my bro!

P.S. It was raining when I got out of class... listening to Enya in the rain is one of my favorite things in the whole world. The rain makes me feel energized....like I could run 5 miles, even though I have no intention of running anywhere.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Yawn... Another Week Gone By

Yawn...it's Sunday Morning and I'm tired. I guess that's what happens when you spend your time flying from one thing to the next

Time sure is flying here! I had to double check the calendar twice; it doesn't feel like June 28th. I've been here a month, and I'm still staying busy, having fun, and have a whole list of things I want to do. This last week at work went well; I was able to help create several spreadsheets for other people in the office-it's always nice feel useful.

Yesterday, another intern and I went to Six Flags America. They had a special online deal of buy-on-get-one-free admission, and the park is only an hour and a half metro/bus ride away or 45 minute drive. Six Flags America was lots of fun and yesterday was a super hot and sunny day; thankfully this six flags has the Hurricane Harbor (water park) inside it for free! I went on all of the main roller coasters, several huge water slides, and even got a turkey leg for lunch (it was super moist and delicious). I put on sunscreen several times--so I got a little burnt on my face, shoulders, and hairline, but not bad.

Today I'm going to mostly stay home. I need to do about 4 loads of laundry (our washer is tiny, and I need to wash clothes, sheets, and towels), and I want to clean my bedroom and bathroom. I also am planning on walking to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make cookies and more lunch stuff.

I hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to the upcoming 3 day weekend and the 4th of July.

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Train Accident, Loads of food, and Mr. President

The Metro Train Wreck

As I’m sure most of you saw, two red metro trains collided Monday. Currently, there are reports of 76 people injured and 9 deaths; two riders are still in critical condition. The responses here are all the same—everyone was worried about people who commute to Maryland and felt overwhelming worry and compassion for those involved. TWC student interns were just getting out of programming when the trains collided; they are asking everyone to call/e-mail their RAs or Program advisors to make sure that everyone is ok and accounted for. The Washington Post has numerous articles, full of eye-witness reports of people (a pentagon civilian employee and a student intern at the American Sleep Apnea Association among them) on the trains; many who were uninjured spent their time trying to comfort and help those less fortunate.

I feel terribly grateful and lucky that I was not on the train, but somewhat disturbed by several of the reports coming in. The trains are supposed to be ‘impossible’ to crash, with computer systems that automatically enable the brakes if two trains are too close. There are also emergency breaks that the operator can hit, but people on the train say they neither heard nor felt any breaking. While my worry is not that this is likely to happen again, or to happen to me, I feel such sadness for those who were not helped despite supposed preventative measures. The train that ‘rear-ended’ the other was nearly 30 years old.

Going to class yesterday night was an aggravating process. The Brookland/CUA stop was closed, and the entire red train was backed up. It took well over an hour to get there, taking different metros, and then a shuttle to the final stop. There were people pushing and shoving… I felt like a sardine most of the trip.

Friday- Seeing the President x2

Friday, the President of the United States Barack Obama (yes, you read that right) came to my office building in Rosslyn. My office is on the 6^th floor, and he was visiting the 2^nd floor, so unfortunately I didn’t get to see or meet him, but I did get to observe all the preparations that went into planning his arrival. The week prior, we were sent an e-mail saying that the building had been randomly selected for a ‘government mandated drill’ in the parking garage… that they would be checking cars on Friday, and to allow extra time to get to work. As the day progressed, we realized this was not a random screening. There were secret service all over; my side of the building looked down to where the president would be arriving. My fellow intern, Danielle, was first in realizing that the President was coming to our building; she had to run outside for an errand and saw a tent being built and a sign on the 2^nd floor stating ‘Welcome Mr. President’. We watched a lot of the events unfold from the sixth floor, including the bomb sniffing dog smelling all the cubicles. We even saw the gentleman with the big guns (snipers) walk over, and then later saw them on our roof. As the time for President Obama’s arrival drew closer, Danielle and I went outside to try and stake a spot to watch from. We ended up having to move several times as they pushed everyone farther away from the street, but eventually Danielle was on the corner and I was standing on a bench behind a parking sign. The streets were blocked off, and we got to watch his whole motor brigade arrive; what a sight!

Later, that same night, two other interns and I were walking down the street near the White House when we came to a street with cops blocking the intersection. We couldn’t cross, but two minutes later, the whole motor brigade drives by. I guess the President’s car likes me. :0)

My office building

View from the 6th floor of police re-routing traffic

The Snipers arrive

The dog with the expensive nose--his handler was very nice

Danielle and I standing outside our office building before we got moved farther away

In front of the tent the President pulled into

The growing crowd

They said move behind the Parking sign, so I stood on the bench

Binoculars examining the crowd

The President's motorcycle brigade

He arrived

His limo

Seeing the President's Motorcade later that night

Weekend in Pennsylvania

Saturday morning, I traveled to Philadelphia by Amtrak. I rode the metro to Union Station (about a 45 minute ride) and my train left at 10:20. The two hour train ride went by very quickly; the seats are comfortable and the view was beautiful. I would highly recommend using the Amtrak to take a trip—it can be a tad expensive, but my Aunt and Uncle were very generous and bought my ticket for me. I got into Philly shortly after 12, and both John and Val (the aforementioned aunt and uncle) were there waiting for me. We went to Chinatown for Dim Sum and gorged ourselves; it was amazing. After Dim Sum we stopped at a Chinese Bakery and bought a coconut bubble tea to share, John got a custard bun (a bun with custard in it, lol) and some almond cookies for later. The drive back to their house took approximately an hour (they live just outside of Reading), but was filled with gorgeous buildings, green trees, lakes, and rolling hills—all picturesque views. It was an overcast day (which always makes me smile) and their two dogs Zoey (an 11 year old mutt) and Dempsi (twenty month old boxer) gave me a warm greeting. We started to take the dogs for a walk, but it started raining and we turned around. We went into the backyard, which has no fences but backs up to forest, and Dempsi and I played in the rain while John and Val sat under an awning. Dempsi and I played Frisbee and ran around the house in the pouring rain until every bit of me was soaked…at one point I even slipped in the wet grass and ended up flat on my back laughing.

After a warm shower and a change of clothes, the three of us went to dinner—we shared some cheese fries with old bay seasoning for an appetizer (which was really good) and then I ate an order of ribs, mmmm. We rented Slumdog Millionaire on the way home, but both John and I fell asleep. I felt as old as them (that’s a joke, if they’re reading this; they are very young and not obese at all).

Sunday morning Dempsi has so much energy, he had to run on the treadmill to “take the edge off”!!!! While Val and I watched Dempsi, John cooked us all breakfast…we had scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage and salsa as well as hash browns and yummy mimosas. We then all took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood, ran a few errands in town, and then sat outside to enjoy the day. That afternoon my cousin Peter (my dad’s sister’s son), came over; unfortunately his wife is having morning sickness and couldn’t join us. We had a clam bake: lots of clams, lobster, sweet potatoes, broccoli salad and bread. My aunt and uncle have great taste in food… I think I’m in love with old bay now. It seems to go on everything! We even ate the almond cookies for dessert.

All too soon, it was time to drive back to Philadelphia to catch my train back to D.C. I asked my uncle where I could get some authentic Philly Cheese Steaks to take back with me, and we stopped by a restaurant near University of Pennsylvania that was his favorite place in College. I bought 2 Philly Cheese Steaks with provolone cheese and carried them in by backpack home.

All in all it was a fabulous weekend—full of fun and food, my favorite combination. The Cheese Steaks even reheated quite well in the oven. Who could ask for more?

Video of Dempsi on the treadmill

Uncle John cooking breakfast in the kitchen Sunday Morning

Cooking Seafood

I found a seafood marina in Downtown D.C. online and walked there after work. It was about a half mile there... but I accidentally took a long walk back. IT WAS STILL WAY WORTH THE WALK!!!

I bought 12 Maryland Blue Medium Crabs for $12, and they threw in 2 extra crabs as well as a bag full of old bay seasoning. I also bought 3 mallets for $2, and 4lbs of Mussels for $7.50. YUM.

The cooking and cleaning of the crabs turned out to be quite an adventure. I'd never cooked fresh crab before, and several of the crabs did not want to go into my VERY SMALL pot. I dropped two in the process of avoiding getting pinched, but they got rinsed and thrown in anyways. I had to cook the crabs in intervals since my pot wouldn't hold more than 3 or 4 crabs at a time.

Here are some of the live crabs

The bag full of seasoning

The only time I felt guilty steaming them was when they would claw at the lid

I cooked the mussels similar to how Uncle John cooked the clams this weekend--olive oil, garlic, bacon, cilantro, onion powder and white wine... with bread to dip in the sauce. MMMM

Thanks for Reading!!!!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Rain, Rain... PLEASE stay

Again, it has been too long since I’ve written, but let me see if I can summarize all the ways I have been spending my time.

Internship

Last Friday, I had the privilege of sitting in on the ‘Defense Helping Professional Council’ meeting at the Pentagon. There were representatives from many different branches of the military as well as service areas within the branches. This meeting consisted of several presenters on military family related topics as well as an update from each attendee on current projects their office is working on. Of the presenters, I found Douglas Lehman’s to be the most interesting. Mr. Lehman is an LCSW and spoke about military families with high risk indicators; I took about six pages worth of notes.

This past week in MC&FP has gone by rather quickly. Monday I had to leave work at 1:45 (I still worked almost 7 hours that day since I arrive at work at 6:30am) to go to TWC’s ‘President’s Lecture Series’. Former presidential candidate Ralph Nader spoke, and although I don’t agree with several of his political stances, it was very generous of him to take time out of his schedule to speak to us. Tuesday and Wednesday were good days at the office, and there were several more meetings to attend. Today went a little slower. Even though I feel like I am doing meaningful work in the office, I believe my favorite part of my internship is listening in on meetings. Not only do I learn a lot in the meeting, but I usually write down several acronyms or other questions to later look up online or ask my supervisor.

It seems amazing that tomorrow will be the end of three weeks, and that I’ll only be here seven more. There is a lot of planning and work to do before I go, in order to adequately help prepare for the Family Readiness Conference at the end of August.

Civic Engagement

Part of the requirement for receiving course credit from TWC for my time here in Washington, is to actively participate in a civic engagement project. According to my syllabus,

“The purpose of this assignment is for you to demonstrate your involvement in helping to bring about positive change at the local, national, or global level through an activity with an organization. You should identify a social, political or community cause that interests you and plan to dedicate some of your free time to advocate, volunteer or serve this cause.”

I appreciate that TWC gave us so much freedom and liberty to choose how to spend our time, and so this last Sunday I began my project by volunteering at Capital Pride. You can check out more specific details here, but I have to say that I had a great time. I volunteered at the Pride Festival on the 14^th and worked the main entrance greeting people and helping ask for donations. My legs got tired and I was hot, but none of that really mattered—I couldn't stop smiling. By working in the front, I got to see almost every single person who came, and anyone who tries to stereotype LGBT should have been there to see the diversity. As I thanked people for coming and donating to Capital Pride (there was no entrance fee, just a suggested donation of $2-$5) I heard many words of encouragement and appreciation. People were continually thanking me for volunteering my time and I can’t tell you how many genuine smiles or “happy pride” comments I received. When there were not mass waves of people arriving, I got to talk to many of the visitors and other volunteers as well. People were very happy to be there and there were varying degrees of pride outfits I saw.

After 3 hours of volunteering, I went and walked around the festival—seeing the many different exhibits, food options, and displays. The food was very similar to a fair (I had 2 cups of fresh-squeezed lemonade, a funnel cake, and almost a smoked turkey leg but it was too expensive), but the exhibits were very different. While some were selling shirts, hats, pins, ect…, most of the vendors were for social services. They had free immediate result HIV testing (using either an oral test or a blood test), resources on cancer specifically designed for LGBT men and women, quit smoking programs, anti-violence programs, safe spots, and the list goes on and on. From a social services stand point, it was amazing how they combined the celebration with important resources.

I was also happy to see that there were probably close to twenty different churches represented with booths stating there church’s stance on accepting and loving everyone. Their pamphlets’ messages were not stating conditional inclusion or an agenda to ‘fix’ people, but merely that God loves ALL of his creations.

Class

Every Tuesday night I attend a class on ‘Ethics in International Affairs’ through TWC. The course physically takes place at Catholic University of America (although not affiliated with them, or religious based) which is right off of the red metro stop Brooklyn—CUA. My course runs from 6pm-9pm, which since I don’t go back to the apartment before class, makes for a very long day. The course is based mostly on discussion and a large amount of reading. There are eleven of us in the class, which creates a very intimate setting and allows for plenty of individual input.

Fun

Of course there has also a lot of fun squeezed in-between all of these other activities, including seeing the movie ‘Night at the Museum’, eating good food, and riding an interactive fighter-pilot simulator at the Air & Space Museum. The simulator was a recommendation Danny made, and while I can honestly say I make a horrible pilot (even in a simulator) I had an amazing amount of fun doing barrel rolls and flying upside-down since the simulator spun 360 degrees. Since last Thursday I’ve also eaten a fair amount of Chinese food and even some yummy Thai food. I also cooked Beer Bratwursts and Macaroni and Cheese last night, which I am eating leftovers from. Saturday morning I am taking the Amtrak to Philadelphia to see my Aunt Val and Uncle John—I’m looking forward to having a fun relaxing weekend with them. Also, my Aunt Val got me in contact with her cousin who is the U.S. Representative for Florida. Ms. Kathy Castor, agreed to meet with me next Tuesday, so that I can interview her for another TWC assignment. I’m excited that I will get to talk to such a successful woman.

The Weather

Yesterday was an amazing 65 degrees, overcast and windy. I felt like it was Arizona in winter :0)

Today I experienced the wettest rain ever. If that statement sounds a little silly to you, let me explain. After I left work I took the metro one stop past Braddock (where I live) to King Street. I was planning on picking up a skirt I had dropped off to get the zipper replaced and going to Ross to look for a cheap pair of brown shoes. Keep in mind that Ross is only .8 miles or a 15 minute walk from the Metro stop (according to Google Maps). When I stepped off the metro it was not raining. Within a few steps there were big fat rain drops, but only sprinkling; I didn't even pull out my umbrella. Within a minute it had started to rain hard, to the point where I have had showers with less water pressure. Within another two minutes it was literally raining harder than I thought possible. It was straight down, with no wind, but just pouring. I wasn't even half way to Ross and the streets were literally over-flowing. I took off my backpack and moved all my electronics from the outer pockets into the inner pockets. My backpack was still getting soak, so I turned it around and wore it over my chest to be more under the umbrella with me. When I got to Ross, my pants were wet up to my knees from plashing through the flooded sidewalk, and my shoes and socks were heavy with rain. My toes are now wrinkled like raisins. Don't get me wrong, it was wet--but not in a bad way. I was looking around just laughing at this incredible rain. Like I said, the wettest rain I have ever experienced.

Well, if you have read this whole post I am impressed. Hope your week has gone well

-Kate

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Sunday @ the Zoo and my internship

Sunday I went to the Smithsonian Zoo-another great free thing to go do. I think my favorite thing was the large Orangutan crossing... It was multiple towers with heavy duty ropes connecting them and going down into the Orangutan exhibit. They can come and go as they please and even cross right over a section of path (but a zoo intern warned people that they sometimes try to aim their excrement's at people so to stand back). They called the course the O-Train, haha

Close up of one of the Orangutangs

It's a very large course for them

These signs are near where their path crosses over the human path

The two waited for eachother... and hugged

PANDA-- the last panda I saw was in Beijing when I was 9

Sleeping Panda

so cute

She looked like she was enjoying sun bathing

I guess everyone was enjoying a lazy, sunny Sunday

Giant Octopus--I watched them feed it a shrimp

This Jellyfish was next to the Octopus in the Invertabrae Exibit

Timon- from the Lion King

Makes me think of Javelina in Sedona

he looks so awkward

The Elephants got a bath at 10:30

My Internship:

It’s Thursday, and I'm pretty tired and busy-but absolutely loving my time here in D.C. I'm not quite used to waking up so early every morning, but this newer office (not the pentagon) has free coffee. I got my cubicle Tuesday morning, which makes getting work done a lot easier, too. I thought Danielle (the other intern in our office) and I would have to share a cubicle, but they gave us our own. Everyone in both offices has gone out of their way to be a resource for Danielle and I. Everyone works really hard and long hours, but they know their doing good work and put in a lot of effort.

Today I got to meet the new Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (or DUSD--which is VERY high up) Tommy Thomas. He is very bright man, but also very friendly. When he heard I was an intern, he told me about his own experience interning as a young man. I felt honored to get to meet someone so high up in the government, and he took about twenty minutes out of his schedule to talk to me and two others.

The chain of command is:

-President

-Secretary of Defense

-Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

- Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

-Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy

At work I spend a lot of time working on an upcoming Family Readiness Conference-I'm enjoying my work more and more as I learn about the programs in depth. I get to draft speeches and concept papers for upcoming programs. I like that I'm getting the chance to do work of value- not just administrative tasks.

The rest of life:

Yesterday I went with an intern to happy hour at a place called Mango Mikes (Danny, Adam and I went there before) and we ate a feast. On Wednesdays, they have assorted seafood plates on sale; we ate steamed clams and oysters, bacon wrapped scallops, fried calamari, coconut shrimp and seared tuna. I also had a delicious margarita to drink, and got to keep the platic shaker as a souveneir :0) After that a bunch of us rented and watched Gran Torino. We all had a lot of fun laughing at some amazing quotes and appreciating what a man’s-man Clint Eastwood is. It was a very nice and relaxing evening.

When you are walking and riding the subway, errands seem to take a lot longer-I need to go pick up a skirt I dropped of at the dry cleaners to get a new zipper on. This weekend I have several fun plans. Saturday I'm going to a barbeque and probably more museums. Sunday I am volunteering for the LGBT rights festival. I'm only volunteering part of the time, then will probably stick around as a guest for the rest. The LGBT parade is Saturday evening, which I might check out as well. D.C.'s gay pride parade is supposed to be amazing.

Father's Day weekend I am planning on going to see my Uncle John and Aunt Val in Pennsilvania. I always enjoy getting to see them, but with them living on the East Coast it doesn't happen as much as I would like.

I also got baseball tickets for Amy and I to the Nationals Vs. Cubs on July 11th.

Danielle, my fellow Military Community and Family Policy (MC & FP) intern

Me in my FIRST cubicle.

It's rather bare, since I didn't bring pictures with me... I've joked about hanging a bunch of Lisa Frank posters... but maybe I'll look for ASU memorabilia to hang