"Sweet like candy to my soul, sweet you rock and sweet you roll. Lost for you I'm so lost, for you."

I cannot believe I am down to less then a week...where have the past 8 weeks gone?! During orientation, they told us how fast this would go, but it's absolutely crazy now that I am nearing the end. I have mixed feelings about leaving, definitely.

Monday morning I went to work to get started on my article that (hopefully) will get published sometime next week! It's on the congressional race in the fifth district of Connecticut. It's really neat, but I am finding out just how difficult dealing with people can be. But, it has definitely worked out in the end. More on that later...We also had our editorial meeting, which was hilarious, as always. That's the thing I look forward to the most on Mondays definitely.
Monday night was my internship seminar class, and we handed in our final papers...phew, what a relief! We had Diana Banister of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs come and talk to us about public relations and the press. It was so interesting, and I basically loved her--probably because she's a kick butt Republican woman who has awesome views about politics and agrees with me 100% on all of the issues haha :)
After, we all took my friend Kelsey out for ice cream for her 21st birthday! I am absolutely going to miss this group of people SO much come Friday...They are all in IPJ as well and the most amazing group of people, ever.



Tuesday morning I went into work again. Wrote, researched, talked, edited, read. All of the usual tasks. Mr. Barnes is in Florida all week on vacation/writing a piece about the upcoming elections in Florida, so the office has been quiet, but a lot of work has gotten done which is a plus!
Tuesday night I had my Econ midterm. No more explanation needed on that one...

Wednesday I went into my internship and worked hard to get some things done. I actually had a free night on Wednesday--shocker, I know--and it was amazing. I left the office around 4:30 and, with the recommendation of a wonderful lady I work with, went to the National Portrait Gallery. It was awesome. The Hall of Presidents was so neat, and the exhibits were just incredible. It is a actually a "2 for 1 deal" because the National Museum of American Art is the other half of the museum. Now this was very neat, but, maybe I just don't get some of the types of art people do? Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love art and I am amazed by certain people's ability to produce quality pieces of artwork. But, how is a huge slab of blue cement a piece of art? Those types of things I'll just never understand.
Wednesday night was awesome. My friends Chelsea, Sheliah and I went to a concert on U Street. If you remember reading a few weeks ago, a band called "The Honey Guns" came and performed at TFAS. Well we decided to go see them downtown because they are amazing and it's always good to support local bands.








Thursday I went to my internship for a usual day. Also had Econ class that night...wahooooooo Well, I showed my Econ midterm whose boss, so that's good at least :)

Friday morning I went to half of my class (I know, I'm such a rebel sometimes I can't even handle it) No, really. The only reason I left early is because Bill Kristol took all of the interns at TWS out to lunch for a "thank you for working and not getting paid" end of the summer. It was such a nice lunch and it just made me remember how much I really enjoyed all the work I got to do in his office this summer. It's truly been an amazing experience, that's for sure. One thing that's been bothering me a little though--okay, a lot--is the fact that NO ONE can seem to get along anymore when it comes to politics. I realize that everyone differs in their own opinions, but it has come to the point of attacking people. This whole NPR radio comment with Sandy Spitz and how, if she witnessed Rush Limbaugh dying of a heart attack, she would "laugh loudly and watch his eyes bug out." Who says this kind of thing? Whether you agree with someone or absolutely find them repulsive, these types of comments are just not portraying human decency anymore; and it's getting scary. The Journolisters wanting to shut down Fox News because they don't like what Fox has to say...well, tough. Don't watch? It's just so frustrating to me what journalism has become. It's so hard to find decent, good, unbiased reporting these days. Everyone is just attacking and bad mouthing everyone else at every possible opportunity. Especially with the JournoList exposure making news. These liberal, terrible so called "journalists" are going around accusing Republicans of being "racist"...pretty sure this is the oldest argument in the book. Just because you didn't vote for Obama or you don't like him now, it doesn't make you a racist...maybe you just think he is doing a terrible job? Yeah. Well, if you have time, read this article that Mr. Barnes had in The Wall Street last week after he was accused of being a racist by JournoList. It is amazing and sums up my feelings exactly. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704684604575381083191313448.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Okay, sorry, tangent over. Where was I? Oh yes, Friday. I stayed at work until about 7pm because my source for my article called me back Wednesday so I'm putting together everything I have so I can hand it in before next week. Friday night, I went to go see "Inception" with one of my IPJ friends Michelle. We are the only two out of our group of friends who aren't 21, so we couldn't tag along to the bars with them. It really stinks, but I won't get into that haha. Anyways, "Inception" was AMAZING. One of the best movies I have seen in a very, very long time. I'd love to pick the director's brain and figure out how the heck he came up with this movie...amazing.

Saturday I met Sky for lunch in Gtown! It was SO fun and I loved seeing her. I love being able to converse with someone who knows the high school experience I had, it makes for a lot of laughs and "oh my gosh, no way! he/she got kicked out!" haha it was quite a fun afternoon. We went to a Spanish restaurant and got Tapas, then got Ben & Jerry's. It was 100+ degrees today, and the humidity was even worse. I can't stand this heat, it's so awful. It's almost hard to breathe!

Okay well, I am on deadline for my article! Must get to work. Tomorrow I need to do 2 econ assignments, laundry, start packing (scary), finish my article, clean, and get ready for the week! Maybe we will walk to Gtown cupcake and get the free flavor of the day...as long as the line is not around the block like it was this afternoon. Why people wait in line for a half an hour for one cupcake is beyond me...

Have a wonderful week everyone! The next time I update will probably be at the end of the week when I am in my house in MD with my family! Can't wait to see them!!!

Huntley

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

And one week later, finally an update!

I believe we last left off with Sunday. So then, we shall start with Monday. Monday was a typical day at the office. It's funny because I think my office is about 20 million times funnier than the show "The Office" with Steve Carell. There are some hilarious moments, let me tell you...
Monday night I had my Internship Seminar class and we had Richard Just, an editor from "The New Republic" come and speak to us about opinion writing/editing. If you don't know much about TNR, their audience is geared more to the left, while my magazine TWS is geared more to the right. Besides the fact that he totally dissed TWS, he had some interesting things to say. It's always funny to hear how wrong your views are when talking to someone else on the opposite side of the spectrum...

Tuesday I went into work and had a small project to do and lots of editing. Another usual day! Then Tuesday night was economics class, and once again, we shall just leave it at that.

Wednesday I went into work for a few hours in the morning. Around 11:30, another intern and I went go hear Mr. Barnes speak in Virginia with a panel. They spoke to us about "pitching the pitch: selling your freelance work to editors." The panel included: Fred Barnes from TWS, David Mark from Politico, 2 editors from the American Spectator, and an editor from the Washington Examiner. It was neat to hear their views on what kind of writing they like to see in their respective publications. It was mostly younger adults, probably a lot of people like me who are here for the summer for an internship. We went back to the office for the afternoon to finish up some work. Around 7pm we had an IPJ Alumni Round table. There were about 15 alumni who all have jobs in various fields and we basically just got to sit down and have dinner with them. There were some only a few years older than all of us, and also a few that had done the program back in the 80s. I really enjoyed talking to all of them and hearing about their different jobs and how they got there. It was very cool. After that a bunch of us went and did our econ homework...wahooooo. It didn't take too long, and like the overachievers we are, we did awesome haha :)

Thursday I went into the office and did some more editing, writing, research, and reading. I left around 4 pm because Morgan was in town for a meeting so I met her at Union Station before she left. Since traffic in DC is horrific, we only got about 15 minutes to chat, but it was wonderful to see her. I miss my family, and can't wait to see them in 1.5 weeks!
Thursday night was the wonderful economics class, which was just riveting, as always. The best part was coming back after class at 9:30 and doing three homework assignments before 9am! (kidding)

I honestly think the absolute hardest part of this program is getting out of class at 9:30pm on Thursday and having to be back in class less than 12 hours later at 9am on Friday morning...I feel like I never left! But anyways, class was done at noon on Friday, and then we went to the Australian Embassy at around 3pm. The Embassy was beautiful (sorry, no pictures to show you) and the guy who spoke to so was a)gorgeous and b) had the best accent, ever. My friend Chelsea and I sat there in awe just listening to his voice...I am a sucker for accents, what can I say.
After that, Brigette and I went to explore the city. After going about 5 blocks the wrong way (we got directions from a street vendor...always avoid this if you can, they have no idea what they are talking about haha) we wound up at the Air & Space Museum. Being there made me want to go watch the movie "Night at the Museum" because it reminded me of the part with Amelia Earhart and her plane. All of the Smithsonian exhibits are just so well done, I am amazed.






After losing track of time and spending about two hours in the museum, we decided it would be a good idea to go grab dinner haha. We ran back to Georgetown to change because we were disgusting and still in our skirts and blazers from being at the embassy. We got Chipotle for dinner...I had never had it, but apparently it is a big thing in Pittsburgh so Brigette was excited about it. It was a really good Mexican restaurant...I can see why she likes it so much!

Saturday was tons of fun. I got to sleep in which was glorious. Being sleep deprived really stinks, especially when your schedule is just go, go, go. The roommates of apartment 52 went kayaking in the Potomac river for the afternoon! Besides it being extremely hot, the afternoon was great! It was kind of cloudy and overcast, but we still made it fun nonetheless :)









If you've ever seen the movie "The Exorcist" (which I haven't) you remember the stairs they used. Well those stairs are only about 3 blocks away from campus, and you often have to walk up them to get back to campus if you're coming from the riverfront.



(me being proud that I walked up the scary, steep, long stairway)

The Potmac River was absolutely the nastiest body of water I've ever seen. So when we got back from kayaking, we all grabbed a shower before heading out for the night. While we were waiting for the bus to Dupont Circle, my friend Sonja called me! It was so nice to hear from her, and it was perfect timing because we had JUST missed the bus (literally it pulled away while we were walking up to the stop) so we had a half an hour to kill anyways. Sonja is actually going on a mission trip to Haiti for a week (I admire her--I could never do it) so please keep her in your prayers this next week!
We finally caught the bus which brought us to the metro (have to love public transportation) and we set out for a night on the town. The restaurant Brigette wanted to go to was closed? Or rather, it just wasn't at the address her GPS said it was...never trust those things!! We wound up going to a place called "Elephant and Castle." It was actually where I went with my Aunt & Uncle for the fourth of July. I am finally getting to know the area now which is good! We had a great night just hanging out and chatting, and it was a nice change of pace to go to a sit down dinner and catch up on our weeks. Here are some pictures from the evening :)








Well it is now Sunday morning, and I have a ten page paper due tomorrow, wahoooooo. So I should probably go do that? Yes, good idea.

That's all for now.
<3 hunt

"No it won't all go the way it should, but I know the heart of life is good."

So since it has been almost a week since I posted (again) I'll give a quick update of some things that have been going on.

Wednesday morning we went to the World Bank for a briefing to hear about what the bank actually does. It is absolutely gigantic and in such a beautiful building. Now I knew a little bit about what TWB does, but I wasn't well versed in their happenings of the company. After sitting through the presentation, I have very mixed views of the bank. But, it was interesting nonetheless to hear about. After wards a bunch of us went to grab lunch and then we heard off for half a day of work. Transportation in this city is crazy, and I find myself having to leave a few minutes earlier each day to make it back to class on time. Which brings me to the next point in my day, class. Well, there's really not much to say about this class. Let's just say that Ethics was about a million times better, but I'll leave it at that. If you want to know more about it, ask me :-)

Thursday morning I got to go on a tour of the White House. We basically waited in line for 1.5 hours (in the 103 degree heat) to see like 5 rooms haha. It wasn't too exciting, but at least I can say I have been inside the White House, right? That's more than a lot of other people can say! I went to work after and did the usual activities: reading, editing, etc. Then came back for another fun filled class. (insert sarcasm here) We were supposed to have our first test on Friday morning, but due to ummm, unforeseen circumstances, it got pushed to next week. A bunch of us from class hung out Thursday night which was fun. It was a "study session" I guess you could call it? haha

Friday morning was, you guessed it, class! We had 12 hours of class in four days, which was really, really rough. By the time noon hit on Friday and class was over, everyone basically jumped for joy. We all came back and took a nap before our afternoon. My roommate Emmy and I decided to go to the National Cathedral for the afternoon. It was absolutely amazing. One of the most beautiful pieces of architecture I have EVER seen. Forgive the random order these pictures are in:













There was a beautiful garden right behind the Cathedral, so Emmy and I decided to go take some pictures :)







Friday night, a bunch of us took an adventure to a piano bar down the road. It was a ton of fun. There was a piano player (obviously) who played everything from billy joel and jimmy buffet, to the rolling stones and american pie. It was a fantastic evening!





After that, I went to my friend Zach's place to say goodbye since he left Saturday morning for Capetown, South Africa!

Saturday afternoon we all took a trip to SafeWay since we ran out of groceries and other necessities for our apartment...exciting, I know! We came back and made lunch and all hung out. Then Saturday night we went to the Washington Nationals Baseball game. My first REAL official baseball game--I've been to the Reading Phillies, but that doesn't really count haha. Considering we got there late and left early, this might have not totally counted either actually!








The metro was PACKED on the way back of course..we had to wait for 3 trains to even get on...it was crazy! Always an adventure with public transportation...



After the game, the "over 21" roommates hit the bars and the "under 21" roommates baked brownies and made creepes. Well, I just ate them, I didn't help make them haha. No one would have wanted me to help, I can't even make break and bake cookies without burning them...sad, I know.

Sunday morning we took a walk around campus to get our daily exercise. I came back and did massive amounts of homework and laundry. I have: a 10 page paper due next Monday, a 3 page paper due tomorrow, 2 homework problem sets, an online tutorial, and an exam to study for. Yeah, no biggie... So I got some of those lovely tasks accomplished. Then tonight there was the "TFAS talent show and date auction" which was really fun. It was sponsored by one of the other institutes IPVS (institute on philanthropy and voluntary services) and all of the money they made was going to a non-profit at the end of the summer. People sang, dance, acted...it was quiet amusing. Then there was the date auction portion and a full band at the end.














So, that was anything but quick haha. Hope you all enjoyed reading :)

Til next time...
-Huntley