Salsa Dancing at Habana Village

This past Friday, Erika and I decided to attend a salsa dancing class at a Cuban restaurant located in Adams-Morgan. Habana Village offers group salsa lessons Thursday through Sunday, and we decided to go Friday in order to take advantage of the unusually warm weather that particular night. Habana Village offers two classes, beginner and advanced, that are simultaneously taught in the same room. The instructor began with some basic salsa moves to gauge which class would be more appropriate for the student. Once the two classes split, Erika and I decided to head to the beginner side only to be stopped by the instructor who encouraged us to remain on the advanced side. We were obviously flattered, seeing as this was our first salsa dancing experience ever. Men and women were divided into two separate rows, and we would face our partners. We would rotate partners every five minutes, giving us the opportunity to dance with everyone. There were a wide variety of ages and personalities in the class, from the very awkward to the very confident alpha-male. The instructor, an older Cuban man, was hilarious and very helpful. In his Cuban accent, he would urge the women to let the man lead, and he would encourage the men to be assertive. I learned a couple of moves and only stepped on a man’s feet twice (I consider that success in my book). After the lesson, Erika and I decided to have dinner downstairs in the restaurant. The food was amazing! Although my mother’s Brazilian rice is my favorite dish, the Cuban rice at this place was a close second. After the lesson, the room upstairs becomes a salsa dancing club where people can practice their new moves or where experienced dancers can show off their moves. We returned upstairs, but did not stay for a very long time. The room was packed, and the options for male partners weren’t that great. For example, I danced with a man who was three inches shorter than me and another man whom I am almost certain was older than my father. As Erika perfectly expressed: “I like that age, just not in that way.” We will certainly be returning for another night of salsa dancing, and we will definitely be bringing more people from our group.

--Samanta

Ice-Skating at The Sculpture Garden

In an attempt to make the most of the winter season here in D.C., three of us decided to walk to the Sculpture Garden for an afternoon of ice-skating. The Sculpture Garden belongs to the National Gallery of Art and features a collection of statues throughout the garden. The day was chilly, so we bundled up in excessive layers, ready to confront the Washingtonian cold. After arriving at the Sculpture Garden, we rented ice skates for a reasonable price (and I say this because most things in D.C. are expensive). At this point, it is important for me to mention that the last time I went ice-skating, I was a fearless nine-year-old. Since then, things have changed quite a bit. The other two students, Erika and Tim, gracefully skated ahead of me, often passing me twice, as I struggled to just stand in my ice skates. Strangers could sense my fear as I skated by them, desperately grabbing onto the bar with a terrified look on my face. Needless to say, I fell twice that afternoon, incurring some painful bruises and embarrassing stories to tell my future grandchildren. By the end, I could at least make it around the ice rink a couple of times without frantically holding onto the bar. After ice-skating, we grabbed some hot chocolate by the ice rink and walked back to the Congressional in what locals would consider a snowstorm around here. In other words, it was lightly snowing. Overall, I found the experience very entertaining, and I am sure that others who witnessed me pathetically struggle that afternoon would agree, too.

--Samanta

On Friday night I was able to enjoy a meal in Chinatown with one of my graduated sorority sisters from Ohio State. She just moved here in January to take a job with the Senate. She lives on Capitol Hill as well, so we met at the metro station and traveled to Chinatown together, where we ate at a place one of her coworkers recommended, called Vapiano. While we ate delicious Italian pasta and pizza, we talked about all that she does in the Senate, and remembered how the first time we met we had talked about wanting to live in D.C., and now a few years later we are finally both here. Our dinner together also reminded me of how important connections are in Washington, because she offered to put me in contact with several of her friends and coworkers this semester that are starting careers similar to what I want to start doing in a few years. It was a wonderful night in Chinatown; you can never go wrong with great food and an old friend!

-Erika

Politics and Prose

A friend who studied in D.C. for a semester last year told me that I should definitely try to make it to the bookstore Politics and Prose while I’m here. She also recommended going when there was an event involving an author speaking at the store. I went on the website and looked up their calendar of events, and was surprised to see the number of authors that come to speak at the store... there is an event almost every day! I chose one that sounded interesting, and set off on Saturday morning for the store. Because of some metro delays, I made it just in time to hear Louis Michael Seidman, a Professor of Law at Georgetown University, start speaking about his new book, On Constitutional Disobedience. His main argument in this work is that because our country is so radically different from the way it was in 1776, we should no longer follow the Constitution. Because this is such a bold and controversial argument, many lawyers were at the event, and asked very tough and intelligent questions during the Q & A time at the end. After the event, I walked around the store and was even able to purchase a book that I had been looking for. Overall, it was a great experience, and I felt that it was a setting that one could only find here in Washington, D.C. 

-Erika

Air & Space Museum

We have already had the opportunity to see quite a few places here in DC! Part of our program allows us to take study tours on Friday afternoons to a variety of different places around the city. This past week, we had the opportunity to visit the Air & Space Museum and Voice of America. Visiting the Air & Space Museum was very interesting and educational. We had a great tour guide who catered our tour to Ohioans that played an important role in air and space. We saw many pieces of history, including the original artifacts from the Wright Brothers. We also saw Friendship 7, the mission that John Glenn was part of. Our guide also shared many stories about John Glenn as well as Neil Armstrong. We also had the opportunity to talk about more current day space shuttles, such as Discovery and Challenger. We also learned some interesting facts about things that NASA created for us that we used quite often. You'd be surprised! The National Air & Space Museum is a must see when you visit DC!

-Alissa

Mozart on the Millennium

Here in D.C., at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Millennium Stage hosts free performances throughout the year. This past Saturday I was fortunate enough to see four members of the National Symphony Orchestra perform three of Mozart’s’ pieces. The bassoonist and cellist performed a rich and vibrant Sonata followed by the Duo No. 1 in G major for Violin and Viola. The Quartet for Bassoon and Strings in C major was the finale. The National Symphony Orchestra is known for its collective and bewitching sound, but it is important to realize that the whole is made up of individual artists with their own unique musical styles. This fact was highlighted during the performance on Saturday; there was individuality and emotion that is sometimes lost with a large symphony.

The performance was a blast and I can't wait to go to more this semester. If you are interested in the Millennium Stage performances they have live Internet broadcasts at kennedy-center.org/millennium every day at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. This Saturday, the 26^th, Cirkestra is performing!

~Gabrielle Romberger

Attending the Inauguration

Through a family friend that works in the Capital Building, I was fortunate enough to get tickets to President Obama’s Inauguration Ceremony. What an experience this was. From the start of the invocation, to Beyonce’s singing of the National Anthem at the end, I could not shake the incredible feeling that I was witnessing history in the making. And despite the fact that this event will happen every four years, to me, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

  

While I enjoyed the performances and President Obama's speech, what resonated most with me was being reminded of the importance of bipartisan politics. While the event focused on President Obama, the entire legislative branch being in attendance on the platform as well was a good visual indicator that our country’s success never rests on the shoulders of just one person. It takes the hundreds of people that make up Congress, as well as the Supreme Court, in addition to the President, to make successful legislation. While many Americans today are frustrated with the political climate, I realized at the ceremony that hoping for some bipartisanship is not futile. All of the legislation that has been passed within the president’s first term passed because a majority of those hundreds of people on the platform were happy enough with a compromise to vote in favor of it. This proved to me that while the partisanship of politics might sometimes be discouraging, we are making progress despite, or perhaps because of, our many different views.

Overall, the inauguration made me aware of, and incredible thankful for, the opportunities that await me throughout this semester. If my first weekend involved witnessing the presidential inauguration, I can’t wait to see what the rest of the semester has in store.

Erika

Experiencing National Hispanic Conferences

Attending conferences hosted
by HACU and Excelencia in Education

One awesome aspect about getting placed in an internship that best matches your career interests is the effortless opportunity to further engage in that field. My interests are in Latino students in higher education and placement at the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Division at the U.S. Department of Education was not only incredible but very critical to engaging in this particular advocacy field. My division is engaged with other nonprofits in this field and I was able to learn about and go to national conferences by these organizations. I learned incredibly from HACU, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, and Excelencia in Education conferences. It was here that I was able to speak with either researchers or institutional staffers and hear about their role and efforts to improve Latino higher education attainment. I also expanded my network incredibly with individuals across the country in various industries but all are concerned with improving Latino youth's upward mobility. 

Volunteering for
 National Hispanic Leadership Institute 

To future WAIP fellows, especially the ones who will be in the spring, I highly encourage you to volunteer at these large, national gatherings. I extended my stay in DC through the weekend so that I could volunteer at NHLI's, National Hispanic Leadership Institute, annual conference. While I couldn't get registered through work this was a great substitute to be engage and interact with nonprofit organizations that I admired. Sometimes it's hard to meet with members of an organization and volunteering for their events is a great initial way to start a relationship with the staff. Plus, I met a lot of amazing young Latina students who are also interested in policy and advocating on behalf of the Hispanic community. It's these types of connections and networks you can't replace. I strongly hope that the Spring 2013 fellows make a list of at least three organizations or advocacy groups they admire, find out if they are having large scale events, and ask to volunteer!

Amber Seira  |  @amber_seira

Falling in Love

Dear Future Fellows,

When you move to D.C. for this fellowship, they will try to prepare you the best they can for everything you might encounter.  They will warn you about longer commute times, safety issues, and general living-in-a-city problems, but they can't cover it all.  Some things will come up that you aren't prepared for, but you just cope the best you can.  One of the things they won't warn you about is falling in love.  

Somewhere between my daily commute, answering office phones, giving tours, meeting new people, weekly outings to Eastern Market, afternoons on the Mall, strolling through museums and monuments, I fell in love with Washington, D.C.  It is a city like no other, and provides so many great opportunities.  Every single day I lived here with the WAIP program I woke up, looked out the window at the Capitol building and felt blessed.  I had the chance to go to work every day in one of the most gorgeous buildings, have the nicest coworkers, and chat with the Justices.  After meeting incredible people after incredible people every single day at work, I got to come home to the other Fellows in the program and forge friendships with them.  I won't forget a single one of them and look forward to seeing them again in Columbus, as well as finding out about the amazing things each will be doing with their life.  

These past fifteen weeks, my life has been changed.  I have a clearer view of what I want to do, where I want to be, and who I want to be.  There will still be decisions to make and hurdles to jump, but because of D.C., I know where I'm going and have the resources to get there. Each and every person I've met this semester has helped shape this and I am grateful to every one of them.  

As I write this, I'm finishing packing, and I'd lie if I said that it wasn't a tearful occasion.  Saying goodbye is always the worst--both to my friends and this city. But, I know, like many of the other fellows, I will be back.  And when I do, I hope to see the rest of you doing great things, like I know you will.

To my current fellows--I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to spend the semester with.  You were all fantastic and interesting, and I loved all of our differences. WAIP reunions will be much anticipated. 

So, future fellows, when you get to D.C., don't be afraid to explore, to dream, and to fall in love.  

Love, 

Katie

Just an Average Day on Capitol Hill

Two weeks ago, I had the good fortune of attending two fantastic events on the same day! The first was the Wounded Warrior event at the Supreme Court.  The Wounded Warrior Project is a great group that helps injured veterans get the care that they need, as well as raise awareness for veterans’ needs.  I had heard of the WWP because of their various fundraisers, but I had never had the chance to actually see one of their programs for veterans until that day.  Around 15 veterans arrived in the morning and were treated to tours and lectures for them and their families, all capping off with a reception held in their honor.  Several of the Justices were in attendance and spent a lot of time meeting with veterans and talking about their experiences.  One family I became particularly fond of consisted of a veteran, his wife, and their two young daughters.  All were excited to meet and talk with the Justices, but the eldest girl was so excited to meet the female Justices.  She learned that she shared literary interests with a few of the female Justices and was encouraged in her studies.  The youngest daughter liked meeting the Justices, but was a little wary of the Chief Justice because “he’s the boss.” Once she gained the courage to actually meet him, they became fast friends and shared a picture together.  This event was incredible to me because I got to meet a great group of heroes, as well as meet more of the Justices I hadn’t previous met, and see the interactions between the two.  Events like these make me even more thankful for those who serve our country, as well as for my internship because it has afforded me incredibly opportunities like this one. 

The second event I attended (late, I might add—sorry!) was the lunch with Senator Glenn and his wife, Annie.  Both were articulate and funny, sharing stories of the Senator’s time in Congress and Space, as well as Mrs. Glenn superior skill on the flight simulator.  The Senator gave us Fellows tips on working in government and we were able to get all of our burning questions answered. 

I can say that I have never met so many interesting people in one day, and I’m sure that record won’t be broken anytime soon.  Between the Senator, the Justices, and the veterans, I spent the day in awe of their great accomplishments, as well as down-to-earth natures.  I can only hope that one day I will be able to inspire others, as they have inspired me. 

-Katie