Monday Tuesday Wednesday Synopsis...

Because I'm so behind on blogging, I've decided just to do a quick run-down of my past few days that way I can get back to writing about how I've been feeling instead of just agonizing over details of where I've been. Analyzing my experience is why I made the blog in the first place, I don't know why its turned into a Washington DC itinerary, maybe I've just been lazy. 


Anyway, Monday meant a field trip to the Washington Post, an interesting experience to be sure. Hamil Harris brought us around the newsroom likes ducks following their mother from place to place, and our tour was quite long and extensive. According to Hamil, every person in the building "is the best" at what they do and they all have accomplished something groundbreaking in their field. This might explain why everyone blushes and smiles around him all the time, and it definitely is linked to his personal thesis that "journalism is all about relationships." 









Despite the fact that we met about 100 writers at the Post on our tour I didn't link up with anyone at all, I garnered no business cards, and made no connections. According to what Terry tells us almost daily in class, I have failed because I am not reaching out for more contacts and finding new story ideas via the people I'm meeting. I have been struggling with this since week one. I go to events all the time but I don't meet up with the people in the back of the room who will be able to help me in the future. I guess I'm just scared that they will be able to tell I'm an 18 year old journalist wannabe. I'm gonna try and expand my horizons more and reach out, tomorrow is soon enough to do that, right? 


Anyway, back to the synopsis. Tuesday dawned sunny, bright, and full of promise. I ended up going to an event at the Cato Institute about how consumer protection regulations related to the recent Housing Crisis. I wrote an article about the event but focused more on the new consumer financial protection agency that Obama and other officials are calling for which the experts at the event debated the necessity of. The article can be found here. I ended up getting out of work rather early but lingered around my office doing random things, I still have no idea why, thats just what I did. 

That night, I went out to celebrate the birthday of my good friend Meagan who turned 21! A big group of us went to a cute little Italian Restaurant near Union Station. It was super delicious! I got Fettucini Primavera in alfredo sauce which had mushrooms, tomatoes and broccoli. YUMM. Although I usually cook full out meals in my apartment, its nice to just go out sometimes and splurge. To the right is a picture of Andrea (roomie of the birthday girl) and me during dinner. 


Wednesday started out similar to Tuesday, full of promise. The daybook seemed rather slim upon arrival, but I used Heather's extensive inbox contacts to find an event to go to anyways. The event I chose was at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and had to do with China's economic response to the recent downturn and whether their sustained growth would be sustainable even after their stimulus get removed from policy. 


It turns out that this is actually a hot topic within the beltway right now. The day before a group of Senators proposed a bill to Congress that would put pressure on the Treasury to create regulations that would cause Beijing to make changes to their currency policies or else be deemed "manipulators" for leaving their currency undervalued and trading it against the American dollar. China had also responded recently to these accusations, making a huge stink about how America has recently made hypocritical statements regarding international currency policies. Anyway, you can read the article here if you're interested. 

Because the weather was so nice, Sari and I decided to wander our way home on foot instead of taking the metro. Along the way we stopped at the capitol's reflecting pool to sit in the sun and take some pictures. (See top and to the left). It worked out perfectly as we were planning on attending a lecture and panel discussion at one of the Senate office buildings on how religion relates to middle east peace-keeping efforts. The main speaker was the former script writer of the second President Bush which was quite an experience. Personally, I felt his speech showed why he is a script writer and not a politician, great content,  but only passable delivery. Because the event was really long, I ended up taking off a little early with Alaina and Amy as I was completely bushed from my long day and I had not eaten dinner yet.


 Upon my return I had a long to do list, most of which I did not complete because I decided to blog instead. So you better be grateful, readers, I did this for you :)   Well, thats kind of a lie as I find blogging to be quite cathartic and calming, its an oasis in this crazy world I call my life, so really it was just what I needed as well.