look at the stars, look how they shine

I spent most of the weekend editing my videos from the protests I went to last week. I cut down about 30 minutes to 14:30, so I've got a good idea of where I want this project to start heading. I feel so lucky to be in DC while there is such big legislation going down - it's changing the trajectory of my project, but I think it will be cool.

Editing hasn't been terribly difficult so far, just time consuming. It's really, really weird to hear myself talk on camera. I've also noticed that I talk a TON. I had to edit out so many good clips because I was carrying on in the background.

I'm working on setting up some more interviews. I've been talking with a staffer in Senator Hagan's office to get a legislative point of view from a Democrat. One of my professors is helping me set up something with a think tank. I'm also working on speaking with a policy expert at one of my favorite groups, the Thomas Fordham Institute. I heard their president speak about education and philanthropy last month and I've read a lot of their publications since then. It's probably the meeting I'm most excited about!

At work I've been doing some follow-up from our event and started preparing for another conference. The annual meeting isn't until October, but it's at a resort so there's already a lot of planning to do. I made a bunch of phone calls to photographers to get price quotes and worked on guest lists. I guess event planning is the part of PR that I don't really enjoy as much. It's something I can do if I have to, but I'd rather not.

On Friday, we went to the Federal Reserve. The security is really tight, but the interior of the building is just beautiful - marble floors, columns, crown molding, chandeliers. Our briefing was in the Board of Governors room, so it was neat to be in a place where Bernake and other high-ups meet. However, after an hour and a half briefing, I am still as clueless as to what the Fed does. When the speaker got talking about the recession, it was pretty interesting, but the structure of the Fed is just confusing!

Robert and I are going home this weekend for Easter, which I am really excited about! After Easter, it's less than a month until I'm home for the first part of the summer.

and i don't know how it gets better than this

On Monday, I had my first interview for my independent study project. I met with the Legislative Director in Senator Sessions office, and I ended up getting some good information from him. I'm trying to understand a bit more about public policy, including the policy process. I'm pretty familiar with the whole Schoolhouse Rock, "I'm just a bill, on Capitol Hill" concept, but there's so much more than goes into creating policy (especially in these huge Senate offices).

The one downside I've found is that many congressional offices are hestitant to let staffers appear on camera. For my staff interviews, I'm just going to have to take notes and make kind of a video-journal entry for my project. It's not what I'd orginally wanted to do, but it will just force me to be a little more creative! I'm hoping nongovernmental offices are more lenient.

With the healthcare debate heating up, there are a lot of protests this week. Today we went out to a big healthcare protest by the House offices - it was just mind-blowing. I interviewed several protesters and got some good footage. It was really neat to see these people who had never been politically active out fighting for something they believe in so much. Whether or not you agree with them, it's great to see democracy in action. That's what America is really about.

My big work project for the semester was on Tuesday. I worked 14 hours and then had a midterm the next day - not fun. Everything went pretty well, which I think is usually a suprise with event planning. I've ended up doing a lot more event planning and support than I expected here, actually. This week and next week, I'm mostly going to be working on the followup - thank you letters, evaluations, reports, etc - before jumping into another meeting that will happen in October.

I've only got 5 weeks left here, which is a bit strange. I felt like I was waiting forever to come to D.C. and I was so nervous about this semester, but it really has been a fantastic experience.

feeling lucky today, got the sunshine

I feel like I haven't been in D.C. much since I last updated - I spent last weekend visiting in Tuscaloosa and I'm back in Charlotte for a few days over my spring break. It's actually been nice to have a little break from the city, but the snow is pretty much gone and we're heading into the home stretch of the semester.

Work has been picking up a bit with our event approaching. I've been handling all of the RSVPs, which involves transferring information from one database to two others, updating my supervisors, and researching attendees. I told my supervisor that I was interested in Gulf Coast recovery, so I've been updating her on research about community rebuilding. Last week, I attended a meeting on the Obama administration's partnerships with nonprofits and foundations. I really feel like I've just been learning so much about nonprofits and philanthropies that I forget other people aren't surrounded by this all the time!

This week, we visited the World Bank on Wednesday and the Australian embassy on Thursday. I didn't really know much about what the World Bank actually does, so it was pretty interesting to hear about. The week before, we visited the Pentagon. It's actually not nearly as interesting as it sounds - the Pentagon really is just the world's largest office building. I'm sure plenty of interesting things happen there, but not that we get to find out about.

I'm hoping to get out and see some more museums this weekend. It's supposed to be in the high 50s for at least the next week. I've also got midterms coming up, some friends visiting in a few weeks, and before I know it I'll be in the last few weeks of my internship! I can't believe how quickly everything is going by.

I finally seem to be on track with my independent study too. I've been sending out requests for meetings and interviews, and my computer (fingers crossed) is finally updated with its new software. Once I start getting video shot, I'll post up the more interesting bits. I'm a little nervous about really getting into the editing, but I'm excited to give it a try.