The interning life

Finally. I am the proud owner of a shiny new State Department badge. Whee.

I'm done with my second week of interning, even though out of the four days worked, we've only had one full day in the office. And I'm not complaining - even when we've had to go to the Identification Office, we've still gotten the rest of the afternoon off. And you know what that means: naptime!

One thing that I like about Washington is being surrounded by people who don't harass me about being a supposed coffee addict (and having regular coffee in the morning again, as much as I love you, Basa). Just because I'm enthusiastic about my one cup a day does not make me a coffee crackhead, people! Especially on campus, everybody's just as excited for coffee as I am. I've found my people.

And the coffee is necessary because the work at ADST has been interesting thus far, but it's all on the computer. We've been working with these "lessons learned" interviews from people who have been members of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Iraq - some civilians, some military. They're giving their honest opinions of the situation that they've seen, and it's really fascinating to hear about some of these stories. It's also kind of depressing, but I like this opportunity to learn about this situation from first-hand opinion. I just got a little restless towards the end of my first full workday yesterday. And I think my contacts may permanently stick to my eyes.

It's been really great working with the other interns, though. There are six of us from the Washington Semester interning with ADST and then two other students from similar programs. Getting to know everybody is fun, especially given that three of them are international students: from Brazil, Slovakia, and Pakistan. There have already been some really interesting conversations about cultural differences, and I'm excited to have more. And of course, we've already promised to swap music, so I'll also have super obscure, international music! We all commute on the Metro and the State Department shuttle together, and then we work in our intern room, and have lunch together, so we'll all know each other probably far too well by the end of this semester.

However, it's already February! I cannot believe this. Especially since one of my friends was explaining today that we'll essentially be gone the month of March. With our week of spring break at the beginning of March, plus our three weeks of travel, we virtually have February and half of April until we're done with WSP.

I hear it's 70 degrees or something back home. Today in Washington, we didn't have the ice that had been predicted, and that was considered a success, weather-wise. Yay? But the snow has stuck around, and I still think it's absolutely beautiful. Other people just think I'm ridiculous.