Back by Popular Demand...

So I gave up on this blog because I didn't think anyone was reading it. Apparently some people are? Sweet.

So, a typical week at the office plays out pretty much the same way, with minor variations that you'll notice. I lead about three tours a week. Giving tours are really my favorite part of the whole experience-- you get a chance to get to know different people, it gets you out of the office, and the Capitol really never gets old. There's some amazing history in that building and I love sharing it. Another part of my job is answering phones. That is less fun, mainly because I get approximately one happy call per day. No one calls their Senator to tell them they're doing a great job-- that's a waste of time. The recent heavy calls have been on the subject of the debt ceiling, and most of all on President Obama's threat that Social Security and Medicare could be cut. The AARP has seniors up in arms over this, and while most are very polite when they call, some...aren't. I've only had to hang up on someone twice, and have only been directly cursed at once, so I guess that's not a bad track record for almost three weeks. Calls are tiring and depressing because people are often so upset when they call, but it's a valuable service and I am very glad we have so many people answering the phone and directly interacting with constituents.

Before I go any further, a note on the Capitol complex. The Capitol Building houses the House of Representatives and the Senate chambers, Committee chambers, and then of course all of the historical parts. There are only four offices on the Senate side of the Capitol, and to my knowledge only one on the House side (the Speaker of the House; the Majority and Assistant Majority Leaders, Minority and Assistant Minority Leaders-- maybe the President pro tem in the Senate? We never seem to interact with him). Anyway, as Majority Whip (Assistant Leader), Senator Durbin gets an office in the Capitol as well as in the Hart building, one of the three Senate office buildings. What's fantastic about the whole set up, particularly in the summer, is that there are tunnels between each of the three House office buildings, the Capitol, and the three Senate buildings. I can go in between seven different buildings without ever going outside.

One of my other main jobs, which goes along with the two-office idea, is that I help deliver mail between the two offices. What at first sounds like a grunt job actually isn't so bad because all of the Senators go the same way between the Capitol and the Hart building, so it's just like people watching in Las Vegas... well, except for the age differential in who you're generally trying to see. It's fun to see how well you know the important people in the building and to see who you can spot.

Finally, I also go to briefings (and hopefully, one day, hearings) on behalf of various staffers. I went to two yesterday-- one on hacking and one on sustainable roofing. The hacking one was less exciting than I thought it would be but still very informative, while the roofing one grabbed my attention and made me really excited to spread the message to the world: white roofs, reflective roofs, and vegetative roofs can make a huge difference in our carbon emission problem. Specifically, if all the urban roofs were replaced with one of these materials over the next 20 years, it would reduce those emissions by the same amount as if 300 million cars were removed from the roads during that time frame. I take notes and pass them along to the staffer and hope  he or she likes them enough to send me to something else.

The briefings differ from week to week, as do the quality and nature of the tours, but that is what four days a week look like. Stay tuned for my notes on our weekly volunteering!

On a semi-related note, pictures from Geneva and the 4th of July are now up on my facebook page!

Thanks for being so wonderfully supportive of all of my endeavors,
Katherine

Yep, We're Newbies

Day 1 on Capitol Hill began an hour later than usual, at 10 am, which gave me time to work out some nerves at our gorgeous fitness center downstairs. We got into Hart Senate Building with relatively little trouble before meeting the other interns, who are fantastic. We have divisions between White Sox, Cardinals, and Cubs fans within the office but they've managed to stay together thus far, and I imagine the introduction of one more Cardinals fan won't destroy the balance. 

We started the day with badges and then a scavenger hunt. The ten of us were told to work in pairs but instead we worked as one big group, which allowed us all to get the chance to know each other a bit better as we wandered in the tunnels between the Library of Congress, the Capitol, the House office buildings, and the Senate office buildings. By the end we knew... a few things about where to go. We also had a tasty lunch in the House cafeteria, so that was good. The afternoon was spent doing general training activities, including phones, tours, carrying mail between the Hart office and the Capitol (Whip) office, and generally seeing how it all works on a day to day level. One of the interns had her parents in town and took me to dinner afterwards, which was great as well. I think I'm going to really like this place :-)

Independence Day!

Another blog, Katherine? Really?

Yep.

I've got 7-8 weeks here in D.C. and have found that writing these posts, adding pictures, etc. really clears my head and helps me to remember and to share my experience through a fun medium. So welcome to my adventures, part 2.

Today was Independence Day, and it was fantastic. I went to the National Archives at 9 AM to hear a dramatic reading of the Declaration of Independence by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin as well as two sports-type people. The sports people, particularly the Capitals defenseman, were the epitome of why (to sound incredibly snobby) you leave the reading of intellectual documents to, well, intellectuals. The stumbling over words made it more difficult to catch the full gist. In the middle, however, were the crimes of King George read by the three actors, and these were fantastic. We booed after each one, and got awkwardly silent after the last, which referred to American Indians as terrifying savages who killed people in horrible ways. They then read all of the signatories and led us in rounds of "Huzzah!". Huzzah is one of the most satisfying victory words I've ever tried to use. So much better than "yay!". Then the parade started. It was an extremely stereotypical American parade, full of high school marching bands, floats, and military men.

I then met up with Annemarie, Vicky, Heidi, and General and explored Folklife, an annual festival put on by the Smithsonian. This year it featured three sections: "Rhythm and Blues" "Colombia" and "PeaceCorps", all of which are fairly self-explanatory in terms of themes. Both "PeaceCorps" and "Colombia" demonstrated new approaches that scientists and ordinary people are taking to sustainability. Among the most impressive was a bike that could be used as a maize-grinder and a cell-phone charger, and an easy formula to make your own organic pesticide. We also saw Colombian jugglers and Filipino dancers as part of our day. The whole thing was a great mix of learning and fun.

I then decided to try to walk home from the Mall myself, using the logic that I couldn't possibly go wrong by following street letters and numbers to my intersection. I was wrong. I got lost in what could generously be described as a rather deserted, predominantly African-American part of town. Panic in my voice, I called my parents and then Debra to get myself google mapped and out of there. Lesson learned: there will be no more wandering without a map and without verification of safe route by people who have been in that area before. After a stabilizing dinner at Union Pub (we got to watch highlights from that all-American favorite, the hot dog eating contest) with two of my roommates, we went up to the roof to watch the fireworks.

What was incredible was not the fireworks over the mall so much as the 360 view we had, with fireworks at every compass point. Apparently fireworks are legal in the Washington area? There were some as close as a block away, while we could also see a few far off in Virginia. The whole view was spectacular! I am now curled up on the couch, fittingly watching Will Smith vs aliens in Independence Day. This Capitol Fourth was definitely one to remember, and an experience that I owe to the wonderful people I spent it with.