a change in the weather, it just might do you good

I read Bill Gates' annual letter at work yesterday (this is what you do working for a philanthropic organization) and I'm posting a link to it if you want a quick peak. He discusses his beliefs on improving health abroad and education at home, which are both initiatives I would love to work on in the future. There's also a little shout-out to work being done in inner-city Charlotte schools towards the end.

2010 Annual Letter

I'm starting to settle into a nice routine here, which probably means my blog is about to get boring. At work, I've been helping with some event planning and sitting in on meetings. I haven't completely left the glamorous world of database management yet though, so no fears. Today I got to edit a thousand-person invite list!

Robert and I went to lunch and some of the museums on Saturday, which was a lot of fun. We started at the Natural History Museum, where the big elephant from Night At the Museum 2 is. There were about a gazillion children, but it was still really neat. I don't think I've actually seen dinosaur fossils before.

Next we went over to the art gallery. I'm kind of picky about art because I have the attention span of a 6 year old, but they have a good Impressionist collection and lots of modern art. There's a huge Jasper Johns exhibit too. We were pretty tired and didn't spend a long time there, so I'd definitely like to go back.

On Friday, I went for a jog on the Mall in the middle of an anti-abortion rally. I think that's a pretty unique D.C. experience. I wish I'd had my video camera on me; I think that would have made great footage for my independent study. My favorite part was when I ran by a group of Asian tourists smoking and posing with anti-abortion posters.

We're expecting snow this weekend! The weather has been all over the place, so I have my doubts, but we'll see!

this is the future and you are alive

One of my roommates found out that a friend of hers passed away in Haiti last week. She'd been working in an orphanage since June. While losing someone is immensely tragic, there is also something powerful in her passing. It's really a reminder that there are bigger things in life. She loved that work so much that she gave her life doing it. If you haven't thought about donating yet, I would really encourage you to check out these sites and see if you feel led to give.

www.oxfamamerica.org
www.worldvision.org
www.savethechildren.org
www.redcross.org

Anyway, off my high horse :)

I think that the reason I am in D.C. is to learn to be more domestic. On Tuesday, we went to DC Central Kitchen, which prepares more than 4,000 meals to serve to the city's homeless every day. It also offers a 12-week culinary class for homeless adults or those living on public assistance so that can develop marketable skills. My job was to peel and cut cucumbers.

Have I mentioned that I am terrified of knives? I actually cut apples with butter knives. So, they give me this machete and set me loose. The supervisor kept coming over to tell me I was going to cut my fingers off. One of the homeless people even asked me if I had been in a kitchen before. I'm not kidding.

They later figured out they'd given me a dull knife, so that sort of explained it. But at least I could brighten someone's day, right?

I started my internship on Wednesday and I've worked the past three days. Right now I'm just getting in the swing of things, so it's not terribly exciting. I've already cross-referenced enough invitation lists to last me the rest of my life. I have signed up for some interesting listservs though, so I'm getting to read a lot of interesting blogs and articles about philanthropy. We started class this week too, so by the time I get home at 8:30 or 9 I'm about ready to fall over!

We also have a new roommate, who was hopefully taken care of by maintenance this morning -- a mouse. I really don't like creepy things. My mom says she is going to send Snickers up to protect me though, so no worries.

Overall, I am really enjoying the city! I'm about to go for a run in the freezing cold and then P90X it. I'm just having horrible flashbacks to what happened last time I sat at a desk all day...

I need to get some more memory for my camcorder and move all of the wedding footage on to a back up disk so I can start on my independent study project. I've been reading some legal documents at work to start gaining an understanding about the whole public policy side of nonprofits and philanthropies. Georgetown has labs with Final Cut Pro, but I don't think it's really going to be a feasible for me to get up there enough to use it, so I'm sticking with my iMovie.

And, of course, GO COLTS!

oh, what a wonderful world...

I can't believe I've been here less than a week! Tomorrow I'm really getting things kicked off, which is a blessing and a curse after a long weekend. I've definitely had a wealth of city experiences already!

On Saturday I walked up to the Capitol and went for a run around the mall. It's pretty cool to use the Washington Monument, WWII memorial, and Lincoln Memorial as points of reference on your workout. In the afternoon I managed to get lost on the Metro on my way out to Robert's, but it ended up in a pretty amazing experience. It's funny how God sends strangers into your life when you really need them.

I watched the early game at Robert's and then headed back to my place to see the Colts. Needless to say, I am quite excited about the AFC Championship next weekend! Sunday was rainy, so I didn't venture out to do much other than grocery shopping. My roommates and I have also converted the study room into a workout room, and we're doing P90X together this semester. Between that and running, my body hates me.

Today was another beautiful day. I went out the Mall again and then walked up to Union Station with one of my roommates. We had a potluck with the other students and then some people came over to watch a movie. We ended up staying in the kitchen and debating everything from foreign policy to education reform - certainly not a typical night in Tuscaloosa, haha.

I start my internship and classes this week, which I am really looking forward to! After living on cereal and peanut butter and waffles for the first few days, I've finally started cooking some real food. The sight of me being domestic is probably very entertaining - my roommates have to keep giving pointers on things like how to tell if water is boiling. Yes, I'm that bad.

bright lights, big city

Being is D.C. is pretty surreal. That's about the only word I can find for it. Today I rode the Metro around in business clothes and went to an office building and I felt like I was living someone else's life. I guess I haven't been here very long, but I don't know when this is going to feel real.

I moved in at 10 Wednesday morning and I've been at different orientations, tours, and meetings since then. My apartment is in a townhouse right of Pennsylvania Avenue. There are seven of us in a three bedroom, and guess who got the top bunk?? Robert couldn't believe what a great location we have; we can see the Capitol Building from our back porch and we're just a few blocks from the Mall and the Metro.

I managed to be the first student locked out of my apartment today (surprise, surprise) while I was on my way to meet with my internship supervisor. Evidently they told us that some of the keys to our front door didn't work, but I hadn't tried mine yet and, of course, it did not occur to me that it might not work. Oops...

I'm starting my internship with the Philanthropy Roundtable/Alliance for Charitable Reform next Wednesday. I'll work on everything from event support to media relations. It's going to give me a great chance to learn about public policy for my independent study and I'm going to get a lot of hands-on experience.

Tomorrow we have more tours, which promises to make me even more exhausted than I already am! This weekend we're going to try to get know the city a little more and I might ride over to Robert's to watch some of the playoff games - Go Colts!

baby, get ready

I'm still hanging out in Charlotte for a few more days before I move to D.C., but I unofficially started my independent study project today! For those of you who don't know, I'm completing an independent study about public policy and video production while I'm in Washington. I'll be researching public policy and making a short documentary about what I've learned and my experience in D.C.

A family friend got married today and decided to set me free with my camcorder - my first foray into any video work other than filming our horses when I was thirteen. I used a tripod for the ceremony, and once I got the hang of screwing and unscrewing pieces so I could swing the camera about it wasn't too difficult. Capturing parts of the reception was a bit more challenging. I had to worry about people jumping in front of me (which they often did), picking up background audio, lighting, etc. My next challenge will be editing the video, which I've never done before. Jennifer has a bit of an idea what she's doing, so I'll definitely be calling her a lot for help with this video and my independent study project.

I'm heading up to D.C. on Tuesday, and as you can probably guess, I haven't started packing! All of my books have arrived and I've gotten my work clothes dry cleaned, but that's about all I've done to get ready. The next two days will be pretty crazy, but I'm getting excited, albeit a bit nervous, about heading off on this adventure!

I'll be living in an apartment in the Capitol Hill area, so if you would like my address (hint, hint, I love getting letters) or to find me on Skype (which I also love), just shoot me an e-mail and I'll get the information to you!