Saturday: Today started out well with my first
trip to Eastern Market. I got a gigantic burrito that kept me full for the next
ten hours and picked up some chicken to stir fry with this evening.
Disappointing were the lack of produce vendors actually selling their own
produce (oranges really and truly don’t
grow in the DC area, they simply don't). I did manage to track down some cherry
tomatoes and mushrooms from Virginia though. The tomatoes were mucho tasty as
an afternoon snack to tide me over between burrito and dinner. Handy that I had
them too as Josh, Tom and I headed a couple metro rides away from Capital Hill
to walk around Roosevelt Island in the afternoon. The walk from the metro to the island was
beautiful alone since most of it is along a bike path beside the Potomac. The
island itself was scented with honeysuckle bushes in full bloom and sprinkled
with sightings of ducklings in the Potomac with lilies, frogs and a turtle in
the marshy parts of the island. And that was just the nature. The monument to
Roosevelt himself is appropriately grand while maintaining its connection to
the (mostly) unspoiled beauty of the island. Though they weren't running while
we were there, there are fountains and a moat surrounding the entire monument.
Four walls, for lack of a better term, stand to the rear and sides of Dearest
Teddy's saluting copper figure. These walls outline his ideas on Manhood,
Nature, The State, and Youth, giving you the opportunity for both pictures and
reflection. There was also a great group of yopros (Young Professionals) who
offered us extra watermelon from their picnic. Like true interns we accepted
the free food. Back at home we rejoined the rest of the WAIP-ers and shuffled
through our turns in the kitchen to get dinner done. Surprisingly today was the
first day we have had serious kitchen overflow, which is probably pretty good
given that we've been here for two weeks. Continuing Saturday's productive trend
I finally managed to see Pitch Perfect 2 in the evening! We arrived early to
the theatre in Chinatown (conveniently a block over from my office, and also
conveniently next to a sushi place) early and in walking around the
neighborhood before the movie started got to see a couple street performers.
The street performers were exceptionally flexible and the movie was a hilarious
a-cap-ella-off (sorry) to an excellent day.
Sunday: I started out the morning with a run
down the Mall, and a walk back up the Mall (its kinda very uphill on the way
back). Most of the day I dedicated to loafing/finishing Bardach's book to
prepare for the five paper my class has due on Tuesday.
Monday: Happy Memorial Day! Starting the day,
and the week off right, Olivia, Morgan, and I headed to Whole Foods for brain
food. Interns are ALWAYS hungry…..and tired. I blame the walking, sure its
great for your calves, but at what cost?? So of course that afternoon we walked
over to the Memorial Day Parade along Pennsylvania Ave.. We had a late-ish
start, so we weren't able to get any further than the starting point of the
parade, but all the same we enjoyed high school band after high school band,
veterans galore in vintage cars, and a delightful flock of hoop-skirt-sporting
civil war reenactors. I also picked up the worst sunburn I've ever had (life
lesson: Wear sunscreen. Always). Sunburn and parade notwithstanding, reality
does eventually have to return. Our reality is a five page paper due Tuesday in
class.
Tuesday: Back to work, but with the happiness
of a three day week in our sights. I made the important discovery today that
the café in the National Portrait Gallery serves tapioca pudding with guava
jam. I foresee myself spending the rest of my lunch breaks this summer
convincing myself that I really don’t need to eat it every day. I highly
recommend it though for anyone doing a day trip through the Gallery. Tuesday concluded with our policy class,
which went well. Olivia and I presented and analyzed an article on the
licensing and copyright problems surrounding Beatrix Potter's works, which made
the bookworm in me doubly happy.
Wednesday: The usual lack of anything
remarkable.
Thursday: Work by day, burger consumer by
night. I got to try out Good Stuff Eatery tonight, I kept it simple with a
cheeseburger (good) and added some pizzaz with a toasted s'more milkshake
(exceptional). Definitely a would-recommend.
Friday: PENTAGON DAYYYYYYYYY
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! We didn't need to meet
Katy as a group until 11:15, giving us some extra time to knock stuff out in
the morning. I started with a run, I've gotten my time down by thirty seconds a
mile since we got here, then looped back to the house to dress and pick up
Olivia. I had some paperwork to drop off at the office in Chinatown, so we
headed over there and met with a surprise picket line outside my building. The
offices I work in only take up part of one floor, and as it turns out, there is
a natural gas company somewhere else in the building. The picketers were
protesting the use of fracking to retrieve natural gas. Both the picketers and
the officers keeping an eye on things were very polite and let me slide past up
to the office. By the time I came back downstairs a few minutes later they were
gone and so we carried on to Astro's Doughnuts with little fanfare and no
chanting. Astro's, it turns out, very much deserves fanfare. I tried their
crème brulee doughnut and may or may not have achieved nirvana right there on
the sidewalk outside. Olivia had a strawberry lemon doughnut that was both
refreshing and adorably pink. We have already agreed that a return trip will be
necessary to sample their fried chicken as well. A metro ride later we reached
the Pentagon an hour early. Abandoning most pretensions at young
professionalism we spent the hour sitting in a row communicating via our phones
and giggling. The tour was interesting, but delivered a bit too briskly for my
taste. I would've loved more time to read all of the information someone took
the time to put into their displays. All in all, a very fast, but very fun
week.
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