The Adventures of Hillary

The Postal Museum is awesome!

The past few days have been really fun getting to know the city and the other members of my group. Everyone has been really warm and inviting. On Sunday we attended the DC singles ward. It was a very interesting experience. The ward is huge. There are over 300 members! That seems pretty big for a singles ward. The Bishop and some of the ward members talked a lot about overcoming the us vs. them mentality that the ward has toward the interns and vice versa. They are trying to encourage the interns to become really part of the ward rather than just on the periphery because they are there for a short time. I guess this is a good idea.. I just don't want them to ask me to do anything... My only experience with a single's ward calling was being a member of the "Birthday Committee." There were 5 girls assigned to give the girls a birthday card on their birthday.. pretty tough.. all FIVE of us were SO busy trying to figure out how to do such a difficult task.

After church my dad and I went to a pub and drank root beer and ate beer batter fish and chips. We watched football and the bartender make drinks from hundreds of bottles of alcohol. Then I went to the museum of natural history and saw the Hope diamond! It was pretty cool but not as cool as the huge yellow diamond necklace in the other room! Then we went to Nation Gallery of Art and they were having a free concert. The concert was incredible, they had a really famous opera singer and music leader guy (what is that called again)? It was a really relaxing way to end a Sunday.

My dad left that night and I finally got my room organized. I'm going to try really hard to keep my room clean. The room is just too small to even be a little messy. If one shirt is on the ground there is no room to walk! So far I feel pretty organized and have been successful at keeping clean.

Today we had class all morning meeting all the people in the Barlow Center and learning how to be a good intern. The most important point that every person talked about was to dress nice. They said no one will respect you at all in your internship if you aren't dress nice. I guess that is a huge part of DC culture. They also told us we can't leave our floor without looking nice in case a GA or ambassador comes to the center.

After class we were assigned to groups of five and had to find all of our internships. One girl is interning at the National Portrait Gallery. After we found her internship we went to Chinatown and ate lunch in a cute little restaurant. It was really good and inexpensive. Another girl is interning for NBC- which is right next door to the "National Brotherhood of Teamsters." Do you have any idea what that is??

On our way to the next internship we got distracted by the Postal Museum. It was so fun at parts and extremely weird at other parts.. I got to make a postcard and send it for 28 cents. I made one for Cayden and sent it to him, so he will be seeing it soon. We went through the evolution of mail tunnel thing which started out in a forest where trackers would mark trees to how where to go to reach the town. Then we got to sit in a horse and carriage and look at a sled car. The coolest part was when it showed all these security measures. They had a mini camera in a clock and fingerprint analysis stuff and fraudulent checks and credit cards being caught and stuff. I'm not really sure how that part tied in to the postal office though. The weird part was the section where you put your finger on this metal plate and a guy appears and reads you a catalogue in all these different outfits and accents- like a southern belle in a blonde wig and a cowboy. Then you have to answer all these questions and get your picture taken so you can get a card. You think that you are going to do something awesome with this card and you bring it to this huge machine. After a 10 minute video of a dancing robot guy talking about the machine you get an envelope with a 10% off coupon to the gift shop and a paper with your picture on it. It was ridiculous!! I could not stop laughing the entire time.

Then we went to the capital and the house office buildings because one of the boys is working for an Arizona congressman. The capital was completely empty. We were the only ones besides security even on the property. I was able to take a lot of pictures with absolutely no crowds.

Tomorrow a 9 o' clock I start my internship. I'm really starting to get nervous. I hope I don't do something stupid or end up being late or something. I will post again tomorrow and let you know about my first day!

My first blog ever- My arrival in DC

I have had some requests to begin a blog of my experiences as an intern in Washington D.C. I'm not sure how often I will do it but I will give it a shot! My adventures began yesterday at 9:45 AM when I boarded my flight with my awesome Dad. Luckily he is a golden onyx crown member or something like that so we were able to speed past airport security. The regular line went all the way past the escalators and was doing the whole windy snake thing the whole way. (if you can know what the SLC airport security point looks like you will realize this is a really long line) We were able to get through security in less than ten minutes and that includes the delay when my dad decided to bring a razor on the plane. (he got a mini tool kit for christmas and added to his keys and there was a razor as one of the tools) When we began to board my dad informed me that he'd been upgraded to first class and he gave me his seat. First class is awesome. I was meant to fly in first class. When I am rich and famous I will never got back to coach! They give us whatever we want including FREE access (minus the extra charge of being in first class so I guess it's not really free..) to movies and HBO and ensure that none of those nasty people in coach uses our bathroom. I got really motion sick on the plane so it wasn't as enjoyable as it could have been but I survived thanks to the entertainment the lady next to me provided. She was a TEENY asian woman that spent the flight curled up in a ball on her chair reading a giant legal brief and weightlifting magazines. She brought her own tupperware of fruits and vegetables and drank club soda with a lemon in it (yuck). During all of this she danced and sang to her ipod without seeming to care at all that we were all watching her. It started with just bobbing and swaying her head to full out body swaying and singing. Once we landed I saw my first political celebrity. I looked up from pulling my luggage off the conveyor belt (which I have ALWAYS wanted to sit on, maybe one time i'll pretend to slip onto it so that I can ride it for a little bit) and saw one of Utah's representatives, Jim Matheson, standing across from me. I almost went up to talk to him and then I'd tell him we;d met before when and I had volunteered for his campaign in high school and called people to remind them to vote but then I was worried he would ask me more about it and I would have to admit that i did it because I had to for high school government credit rather than because I am a good citizen. Yes, now I realize that he wouldn't have asked me anything that would have led to that but that's the conclusion I reached at the time.

After that we reached our hotel which was right next door to where I will be living for the next four months- the Barlow Center. The hotel room is super nice. It has a kitchen and living room and looks brand new. I decided to stay in the hotel rather than in my dorm because it is much nicer than where I'll be staying. After we checked in to the hotel we headed over to the Barlow Center to get my key and bring some stuff over. It's really nice compared to most student housing (especially compared to Heritage Halls). I will put up pictures soon. The most interesting part is that they don't use keys, the use these electronic key chains you slide over a pad for every room. You need one to enter the building itself and any room in the building. I have met a few people so far and they all seem very nice. I met my roommate today and she seems sweet. She is a public health major and cleanliness is important to her so I will have to work on my personal hygiene and cleaning... just kiddding!! but not about the cleaning part.. We went to Costco today to get everything I'll need. While I was there all my purchases seemed very important but once we arrived at the dorm and had to carry it all into my room I realized I went a little overboard. Shocking, I know. I decided that I want to live off of paper products because I hate doing dishes more than anything in the world. I got a huge costco pack of plates, cups, and utensils so we'll see how that goes.

My dad and I also went to the Holocaust Museum (which was really confusing, we could not find the entrance to the permanent exhibit for like an hour. It says the exhibit starts on the fourth floor but there is not public access to the fourth floor. You actually start on the main floor and then take a special elevator to the fourth floor) The museum was really interesting and a thought provoking experience. If you get to go there soon the special exhibit on Nazi Propoganda and genocide in Darfur are definitely worth the extra time.

One small digression, it upsets me that we are so outspoken about how horrible the holocaust was and how horrible the Germans and Europeans were to stand by while all these atrocities are being done to the Jews, yet we stand by and don't say a word about the genocide going on in Darfur. I had a professor that talked about how simple it would be to end the genocide if the US employed some of the same military tactics used in Desert Storm (I think that's what it was) but because the US doesn't really have an interest in Darfur, nothing is done. If we were to put a little pressure on the government to intervene we could save SO many lives. Sorry, just a little food for thought.

I did a practice run to my office- the Federal Judicial Center. It was really easy to get to and is in a beautiful building. I get off at Union Station and cross the street and I am there! Union Station is full of every type of food restaurant and shop so I will be able to have some amazing lunches!

I then went to Trader Joe's, which will be my grocery store while I am here. I am in heaven. I can get anything from chocolate covered pomegranate to edamame hummus. I am really excited to start shopping there. I am going to try so many weird things!

The hot water is broken at the Barlow Center so I decided to stay in the hotel for one more night with my dad so that I can shower before church tomorrow. My dad leaves tomorrow so I will soon be on my own. Wish me luck!