article link

Oh and here is the link to my article from last Wednesday if you are interested in reading about big business, exporting and the job market :)

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

If one word could describe my experiences since my last post it would have to be Exhaustive. Both in quantity and quality, experiences recently have been overwhelming me. 


On the upside, Spring is finally arriving which lightens my spirit. The cherry-blossom trees are pretty much at peak and you can tell people are just generally happier the closer it gets to summer. I know that Spring makes me drag out my camera and document all the amazing flowers (like always, all of the pictures in this blog were taken by me) 


Quick bullet point rundown on my recent adventures...


~Went to the Newseum: pretty much the coolest museum ever, completely dedicated to the history of news, I could spend all day in there, and guess what, I did! 


~Saw the United States Navy Memorial: I even found a special plaque dedicated to the Seabeas (the division my father was a part of) 


~Saw a protest: two of them in fact. The first one was anti-war and the second was anti-healthcare. Both were pretty intense although the latter was the only one to receive press.

 
~Experienced the Healthcare vote: I sat in the House Gallery for one of the votes before the actual healthcare vote on Sunday night, It was pretty monumental. 

~Toured the Capitol Building: I spent a couple hours off work looking at the beautiful architecture and art that it holds, this is also when I sat in on the vote. 

~Went to an event on young professionals who cover the white house: going to events after work makes me feel pretty professional, its great let me tell you :) 

~Ate legitimate Baltimore crab cakes: part of a weekend trip with Amy, Sari, and Kaitlin to Baltimore where we stayed at my professor's house. 

~Spent 4 hours on a train/bus/ another train on the trip into Baltimore: at least it was sunny out! It also gave me time to hang with Amy :) 

~Went to an Eastern Orthodox Service on Palm Sunday: It was a 3 hour service with... lots of chanting/ singing, no pews, incense, a march around the outside of the building with palm branches, communion I couldn't take, and a lenten feast after service because the members had fasted since midnight. Would I recommend it? Yes, as long as you have someone with you who can explain what is going on. 

~Took a "class" on how to use Excel: pretty much, how to use basic formulas to show you the information spreadsheets can give you. Ice cream was provided which was a plus :) 

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." 

Saturday in the City

I wish I could say that Saturday dawned sunny and warm - my favorite kind of weather- but alas, rain and clouds greeted me when I rolled out of bed. I am proud to say that I didn't let that keep me inside all day as I've done in the past. Instead, I went out on a day long adventure with fellow WJCers Alaina and Amy to experience the city in all of its slippery glory. 


We started out with a trip to a little shop by Eastern Market called "Hill's Kitchen" which -- no surprise-- sells cute accessories for capitol city cooks. Although we didn't buy anything, we were enthralled by all the possibilities. There was a cookie cutter in the shape of the capitol building, a spatula for left-handed people, and even a whisk with a handle that looked like a baby chicken. WIth all their crazy products and practical stuff too, it's definitely the type of place I would like to frequent once I have my own kitchen to furnish.

Why yes, I did see Obama today : )

People always ask me as a joke if I've seen/ heard the president since coming to DC and I typically just laugh and say no. Looks like Thursday finally changed my answer. 


After spending hours at the economic conference listening to such important yet tiring speakers as Ambassador Ron Kirk and the Deputy Secretary of Commerce, finally it was time for Obama to arrive. It took him a while to get there as it seems the president has the luxury of running on his own schedule, but arrive finally did. During his entrance into the building we were all "requested" to stay in our seats-- the secret service surrounding the press pool gave a bit more of an intenseness to the suggestion-- and finally Obama strolled onto the stage from a side door I couldn't seem to locate. 


Although Sari and I were seated at the very back of an extremely large ballroom we still managed to get pictures (I took the one above) using zoom or the very large projector screens around the room. The first few minutes of his speech seemed to be almost drowned out by the flashes of cameras but soon the madness died down in respect for one of the most highly publicized men in all of America. 

Sick...bleh

So the reason I haven't posted in a while is because I have been ill. It started on Tuesday, I went to work but was feeling like crap the whole day, so finally around 2 my editor gave me permission to just head back home because I was useless at the office. I got back around 3:30 and pretty much collapsed into bed for the rest of the day. I got up for a bit at dinner time, but went right back to sleep. When I woke up Wednesday morning, I was feeling worse than the day before so I emailed my editor to say I wasn't coming in, and then went back to sleep. I got out of bed for a bit around 1 and had some milk and ibuprofen but after that I'm sure you can all guess what I did, sleep! I began to feel a bit better around dinner time, and so I got up, I think I had reached my sleep quota anyway. 


Around that time Sari, the girl from WJC I intern with, emailed me about going to an event on Thursday where the President, yes that would be Obama, would be speaking. Needless to say, I jumped on that bandwagon real quick even though it would mean an early morning for me after being sick for a while. I was lucky enough to email the contact person for the event right before she left the office for the day so I could still get registered. Phew :) I stayed up for Cereal night (prepared and provided by our RD) which was delicious but then headed back up to bed. 


So I'm sitting at the Export-Import Bank of the US conference and its 8:00 in the morning, which meant I left my apartment at a grizzly 6:30 am to get here in time. Even though the speakers Sari and I are hear to report on aren't speaking until 11, we had to arrive around 7:00 am in order to get through Secret Service Security. So, I'll report more later on what I saw, who I met, and what Obama looks like in person, come back to find out!

Article links

Oh, and here is my article I wrote Thursday that got picked up! 
Article- Thursday March 4, 2010 -- Unemployment linked to business size