This is Happening

Things have finally settled down, in the most (and best) "unsettled down" way possible.

The first ten weeks or so here in DC have been rough and settling in got to be a challenge at times. There was the whole "Moving In and Buying Everything at Target" part, and the "Learning the Ropes and Getting Used to the Office" portion, then the "I Am Terribly Homesick" phase, and the whole "Bed Bug Fiasco" kind of put a stop and damper on things. And after that the "I Broke My Galaxy S3 Because I Dropped It" was saddening, leading to the "I Have to Buy a Not-So-Good Smartphone" event. And then the government shut down and then the shutdown ended and the office had to do a little bit of catch-up work, and now I think I can finally say, "Ok, I think I am good...! Whew!"

Last-last week was my ninth week in the office and I have experienced both of the drastically different "out-of-session" and "in-session" atmospheres of the workplace. I have settled into a sort of groove into the office workflow and pace, gotten used to the characteristics of staff members and the dynamics between everyone in the office, and am continuing to get to know everyone around me better. But there is still so much to learn!

I have been irresponsible in updating this blog--which is a shame because there have been so many things going on every single day that I want to remember, but at the same time, because there are so many things going on every single day, I couldn't keep up. But here I am trying to make amends and trying to be better (yeah, like, halfway into the semester...). 

Let me start by trying to paint a picture of what my life has been like for the past several weeks. 

I get up early in the morning--as early as 6:30 if I was not responsible the night before and have yet to prepare my bag, choose and/or iron my outfit for the day, and/or make breakfast and/or lunch, but as late as 7:10 when I go to sleep the night before with everything prepared! The mornings are now the coldest times--right now, the mornings are usually in the low 40s, sometimes high 30s. And it is bound to get at the very least 15 degrees colder while I am here, according to my coworkers!

I take the 8am shuttle (it runs every 20 minutes) from school to the nearest metro station (about a 20 minute walk away), and then get on the (usually) 8:10ish train towards Downtown DC area. I live on the northeast side of DC. Before the past couple of weeks, I was able to walk outside with just my work blazer and a scarf, even a skirt or dress without any leggings or tights on. But now, I have to wear leggings underneath my skirts and dresses and have a coat to keep warm during the walk, in addition to my scarf. And boots when it is raining! The leaves have not fully changed yet, but they are getting there! There were still tons of green this past week, but there are definitely more trees here and there that have completely turned to a golden orange. I can't wait for it to be completely like this--all the reds and oranges and golds and yellows!

My commute involves me transferring trains once and the whole trip takes about 35-45 minutes. I always get to work really early so that, in case there are delays on the metro, I am never late to the office. I start work at 9am and work until 5pm when Congress is not in session and untill 6pm when it is. Basically, most of my intern duties are in the morning--make coffee and prepare the coffee things on the table, make sure printers are all set with paper, check the messages on the phone voicemail, make sure our staff gets the daily newspapers (there are about four daily publications on the Capitol) on their desks. I have my own desk and computer and comfy chair and phone right by the door. I am literally the first thing that people see when they come in the office--well, when I am sitting on my desk, that is. 

During the day, I answer the phone. We have calls from other offices around the Hill, from different organizations, and from constituents. Hawaii callers don't start phoning us until after noon because of the time difference. I handle basic questions on the phone from who on our staff is in charge of a specific issue area to various constituent services like logging down people's opinions and making sure the Congresswoman and staff get these messages from people back home. 

I also open, sort, and log mail that comes in the office. Some are mail from constituents, some are publications, some are mail for our legislative staff. We also do a lot of constituent mail--the Congresswoman replies to every piece of mail that we get from constituents whether she agrees with the writer's opinion or not. So, naturally, I do a lot of formatting letters on Word, printing, folding, envelope-stuffing, and sending of mail.

I also do Capitol tours. When visitors from Hawaii come to DC, Capitol tours are available through the Congressional offices. They come in the office and we show them around, depending on whether there are meetings going on in our rooms or not. Then I take the group (I've taken 10 at the most and as little as just one person) and show them the rotunda in our building. Then we go to the basement and go through the tunnel system (the office buildings, the Capitol, and the Library of Congress are all connected through tunnels so I never really go outside when I am running around the entire Hill) and I take them to the Capitol Visitor Center where King Kamehameha has a statue. Then we head to the Capitol and I show them several key rooms and statues and paintings and we also make sure to take our visitors to Hawaii-specific things like the Father Damien statue, two Hawaii paintings in one of the Capitol hallways, the Senate Appropriations committee room where Senator Inouye used to be, etc. Tours last a little less than two hours and we get them in waves. Sometimes I will have a week packed with tours (like, next week will be packed because people who are coming up for the UH game are all here!), but sometimes we will have no tours in a week, so it varies. 

Those are all my regular intern duties. In addition to that, I am really thankful that our office staff has decided to trust me with bigger assignments early on in my internship. I attend staff briefings on behalf of our legislative staff and then write memos for them later on, summarizing what was discussed and/or presented in the briefing. I also attend hearings different presentations. Recently, my biggest assignment so far has been to research a specific bill that was brought to our attention because a lot of people back home wrote letters in support of it. So one of the legislative assistants told me to research the bill, its implications, analyze the details of it, and then to write him a memo as a way of reporting back to him. The idea was to make a recommendation at the end of my research and memo as to whether the Congresswoman should co-sponsor the bill or not. He said that if it was good enough, I could be the one to actually present the bill to the Congresswoman and pitch my recommendation to her. And sure enough, I got to do it! I was really nervous, which was weird because the Congresswoman is really nice and she is so warm and friendly. I knew that she was not going to give me a hard time, but still. I was nervous. At the end, she decided to go ahead with my recommendation and I was then given the task of contacting the committee in charge of the bill so that I can arrange for the Congresswoman to be placed as a co-sponsor. I was also then in charge of drafting a letter that will go out as a response to the constituents who wrote to us about the bill to let them know the good news that that Congresswoman will support it! It was a long process, but it was also strangely rewarding and very education. I basically did what a member of the legislative staff does regularly: research a bill, make a recommendation for the Congresswoman. It was pretty cool.

After I finish work, I head to the metro and go back to school. Sometimes, there will be places that I have to go after, but usually, because I finish late and it takes about an hour to get back home, all I wanna do is go back to the dorms. Sometimes I go to the gym, sometimes I go and buy a quick dinner and take it home. 

On the weekends, I try to do things and see the city. Almost everything is free in the city so I have only been doing those things. 

Such has been my life! I am trying to post photos on Facebook soon, but it won't be complete because one of my high school friends who goes to Georgetown here and is also doing an internship on the Hill has tons of pictures of our outings on hisnice camera and he is terrible at posting photos. He will post them though...one day!

As a way of making amends, starting with this post, I will now be blogging weekly for the rest of my time here. I promise you that, so check back on Mondays!

Cups of coffee/tea: I am going to stop counting this because really, I have about 2-3 cups a day in the office from our coffee machine. THIS IS BAD.
Number of times I've been hit on: 6
People here in DC have mistaken me for the following ethnicities: Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese (so far, no one has correctly guessed I am Filipino...)