“City Living, DC Style”

Thinker on a Rock

The Fall 2013 William & Mary in Washington interns are all settled into our new apartments in the lovely neighborhood of Crystal City. Move-in was astonishingly efficient with all the DC office staff there to help. As a girl with way too many belongings, moving is always such a loathsome experience. However, I pulled up and my stuff was out of my car and in my room before I could even turn off the engine!

Monday night began with pizza and a short introduction to the program by the director of the DC office, Adam Anthony. Then we took a tour of Crystal City so we know our way to the Metro and through the underground mall. Monday night, our group of 17 converged in one of the apartments for a movie showing – the girls outvoted the guys and we ended up watching the “Glee”-esque movie “Pitch Perfect”.

Chinatown

Tuesday morning began with doughnuts (yum!) and a meeting with Roma, our Community Advisor. She gave us the rundown of the building procedures and our duties as residents, and provided us with our pre-loaded Metro card (turns out you can’t walk everywhere like in the Burg…) We hopped on the Metro and navigated ourselves to the W&M office in Dupont Circle, where Javier gave us a packet of information for the program – calendars, forms, contact numbers, etc. We had a fantastic lunch catered from a Greek restaurant, and then got a presentation on stress from Dr. Reis from the campus Counseling Center. The presentation was a good reminder to manage our time, and leave room for fun and relaxation. After lunch we started our Scavenger Hunt – the winning team gets a free dinner! The items on the list were worth varying amounts of points depending on how far away from Dupont Circle they were. The list included everything from chess players to embassies to landmarks. My group made our way to Union Station and the National Mall, then up to Chinatown where we met the whole group for dinner at Matchbox, the pizza place. We didn’t think we were doing too great in the game, but when two groups showed up late and got points deducted, we once again had hope that we might win. After dinner, we met up with a tour guide at the Jefferson Memorial who gave up a monument tour. My favorite monument was the FDR one – it really told the story of his life. Also, the MLK monument was bustling because Wednesday was the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Michelle showing George Mason some lovin’

On Wednesday morning the group met at GW’s Gelman Library, our designated library away from Swem. The library was 8 stories, but didn’t seem to have as many books as Swem. Although it was only the 3^rd day of school, the library was surprisingly full of students. We then headed back to the Dupont office for lunch, and then adventured out for the second part of the scavenger hunt. This time my group was a little more motivated with the idea that we could win. We went down Embassy Row, then found our way to Georgetown University. We went past Dumbarton Oaks Park, and then trekked through a surprisingly uncharted dense forest area, before coming out at the National Zoo. We looked for the panda, but it had just given birth and was therefore not on display. Next, my group took the Metro to the Kennedy Center, where we were able to check off “Bust of JFK”, “Hall of States”, and “View of Georgetown from Kennedy Terrace.” As our time limit came close, I convinced my group to make a little detour to a coffee shop on the list that was only worth a point. It was a good thing because when we met with the rest of the students for dinner, we had beaten the group by only a 2 point margin! Dinner was at a wonderful Mexican restaurant called Lauriol Plaza – I can still smell the sizzling fajitas. After dinner we went to Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center. It was an incredibly funny murder mystery in which the audience decides who the killer is! The interaction with the audience made it different from any play I’d ever seen before.

Bust of JFK at the Kennedy Center

Thursday morning started out with an introduction lecture from Professor Abegaz to set us on the right path for our classes the next week. We had a lunch of Mexican food, and then Adam gave us our first “Slice of Advice,” a series that will continue throughout the semester. This first presentation was about being better than the intern next to you by completing assignments before the due date, communicating professionally, and being eager to learn. After our advice session, we went to the National Building Museum to play mini-golf on super cool holes. The holes had to do with environmental and futuristic building – and some of them were impossible! We ended the night and our Orientation with a Nationals game. It was Nationals vs. Marlins, so of course we beat them. The best part wasn’t so much the game, but the hype and the energy that resonated through the stadium! DC has a lot of spirit and pride!

Capitol Building

Although it was weird to go through Orientation again as an upperclassman, it was completely refreshing and really prepared us for the semester to come. I hardly stepped foot in DC a week ago, but now I know my way around completely. I was even able to give directions for a Metro stop to a foreign tourist the other day! Also, Orientation allowed us to have a little fun before the hardcore (but still fun?) work starts in September. I think this class of interns had bonded really well, and we are going to have a very successful semester.

Group Picture

Picture Credits: Ferra Chen and Donald Thibeau