Life in July

Hello, hello!

Well, I know I haven't been great about keeping up writing on her during my internship, but her I am with one week left, sharing life with you.

Where do I even begin? Life here in D.C. has not been what I expected, but life never is. I expected to be busy doing lots of tasks for staff, but we've had a lot of down time. In some respects that has been nice. Each day a bulletin comes out that has committee briefings and hearings in it.

From there, you can decide what you'd like to go hear. Usually, you can plan on waiting in line for 30 minutes to an hour to get into the room, and even then you may not make it because seating is limited.

Going to a Child Nutrition hearing on the house side, which was fascinating. The Intern Lecture Series has been fabulous. We've been able to see the Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Former General & Secretary of State Colin Powell, the CEO of the Washington Post - Donald Graham, and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Knowing me, you'd probably expect that I would be taking notes at just about everything that I attend. I haven't quite decided what I will do with these notes and discoveries, but at least I have them.

Some of the highlights so far have been hearings, time with the boss, going to a Subcommittee Briefing on Title IV-Eon waivers within the Child Welfare System (taking notes - 12 pages, mind you) & putting it all into a binder for staff.

Enough about work! I have spent a lot of time with amazing people from my community. The first Sunday we hung out after church together, we watched the World Cup - I wore my red cotton dress & cheered for Spain. The next Sunday was gBanga's birthday, so he invited everyone to his house & prepared traditional Nigerian food - it was delicious! And we all took time singing karaoke, while everyone in the room sang along! :) Good times. We've had prayer meetings each Wednesday, which has been a good time to pray & declare truth & fellowship with each other.

As far as sights go, I really haven't seen a lot. Right after I graduated from high school, I went on a 10 day trip to D.C. with a few classmates, led by my AP Government teacher, Rick Reed. At that time, we saw a TON! Pretty much every monument you can think of that was around 5 years ago, we saw - absolutely brilliant. Also, at the time we went to the office where I work now. Thankfully, I have been to one interview and have a few lined up for next week, so that's promising. Hopefully, when God opens some doors in this area, I'll have a start date by this coming Friday. If that IS the case - then I'll come back to DC to work and hopefully "officially move" soon. Time will tell. Thanks for your prayers, support, and following this lengthy blog.. ;)

I know that I struggle with condensing my language, but here you have it! If you made it to the end of this entry, kudoos to you. Much love, dear Kansans and other friends!

Always,
Tina Lou