Settling In

I'm headed into Week Four of my FSP (foreign study program) in Washington D.C., and I'm still not running out of steam. It's been a difficult adjustment moving to the working world - part of the program is that we work forty hours a week at an internship - but I'm finding that I've learned so much from simply being on the Hill (that's Capitol Hill, for all you non-Government people).

For example, the current debate over immigration reform has been a huge part of my everyday existence here. Not only do I field dozens of phone calls and hundreds of letters a day at Congresswoman McCarthy's office regarding this polarizing issue, I've also experienced being in the middle of a protest. It was estimated that about 180,000 people marched on the Mall here in Washington, and I got to ride the Metro (i.e. the subway) with about a thousand of them. It was really incredible to see literally thousands of people, all dressed in white and carrying American flags, pouring out of the trains and onto the mall.

It's always something here in Washington. One of my '06 friends who was on this program last year remembers being in the middle of the Terri Schiavo controversy while he worked at his home district Representative's office. During our conversation, I could barely remember exactly what had happened, but my friend knew every painstaking detail, because he'd lived it.

Our free time is spent mostly hanging out at home, although we go out to dinner a lot, in addition to visiting museums and monuments on the weekend. It's great to have a group that's so close! (You can tell that we're a little family now, because we even made our own facebook group, as most FSPs and LSAs do.)

Last weekend, we drove to Camden Yards in Baltimore to see the Orioles play the Red Sox. It was a little chillier and much more rainy than we'd hoped, but we bonded over hot chocolate and trying to find ponchos at the last minute (we bought the entire supply at CVS before we left for the ballpark). Professor Shaiko, who's leading the trip, came with us too. It's really terrific to have a professor hang out with you and your friends when there's no need to talk about classwork. We actually learned a lot about him and why he's doing what he does - he's actually a pretty cool guy.

I have to work on a presentation for class this week, so I should probably get going. Keep reading - I'll write again soon!