Monday, January 31, 2011

Exploring the City

So I realize that I haven't updated this in a while =/. Can't promise to keep this short but I will try and make it sweet! For the past 2 weeks I have been determined to be more productive and visit more things. I would have to say I've been pretty successful.

I haven't written much about my Washington Media class that I am taking. My teacher used to cover the White House for Time magazine. He is very knowledgeable and tries to keep things interesting for us. Two classes ago, we held a mock press conference where he posed as Press Secretary Gibbs. We were all assigned different media outlets and I was assigned the New York Times. It was nice to sit in the front row and be able to ask more questions. I really enjoyed the press conference because it gave me a little feel for how cut throat journalism can be.

The next day, I had my Washington Seminar class. My original professor was sick and was absent up until the last class. We finally met him and he seems to be a great teacher. He was genuinely interested in our experiences with our internship and took time to get to know every one of us. After class, I went with one of my friends to her internship site to get something signed. We were in Tenleytown which is near American University. It was cool compare college towns. I wish there was a metro system running through my campus! That night we went out to Adams Morgan. Apparently the taxi drivers here do not mind packing people into their cars. I think we squished 8 people (including the driver) into a normal sized taxi. Interesting taxi ride to say the least.

On Saturday, my friends and I had made Restaurant Week reservations at Jaleo. This restaurant was suggested to me by the intern I work with and was absolutely amazing. It was a Spanish tapas restaurant and I could pretty much say the tapas were better tasting than the tapas I had in Spain. They even had homemade hazelnut ice cream which was to die for. We wanted to squeeze in a museum after but we were way too full.

Sunday came around and I was left with a lot of chores and errands. I took the 10 block walk to Trader Joes and forgot to pull out cash so I walked back with my groceries....my arms pretty much died. I came home and made lunch and got ready for bikram yoga. I had been wanting to try this for a very long time and I'm so glad that I finally did. For those of you who don't know what bikram yoga is, it is a form of yoga that is done in a room that is kept at 110 degrees. It is not traditional in the sense that there is no flow. There is a series of 26 poses that you go through and you basically just hold each pose for 30 seconds to 1 minute. I really enjoyed the heat after being in such cold weather for so long. It was much more bearable and enjoyable than I had expected. My friend and I were so excited about it that we went back on Monday. We had a 1 week introductory fee and were allowed to take unlimited classes for a week. Unfortunately, I got so busy after Monday that I wasn't able to go back =(.

Later that week D.C. experienced a bit of snow. It was enough to disrupt work for many. I had the day off on Thursday and even left work early on Wednesday. I heard some people had spent up to 6 hours commuting back to their homes. I don't think I would ever be able to tolerate driving in snowy conditions...I can barely tolerate driving in L.A.!

On Friday, my friends and I started the day off at Ben's Chili Bowl. This is a famous restaurant and I think Obama ate there before his inauguration. It was pretty good but we were all too full after. After, we went to the National Air & Space Museum. It was interesting but I didn't really have the attention span to really take it all in. We played in the snow on the way to the metro and had a blast. The mall was covered in snow and the view of the Capitol and the Washington Monument was beautiful.

The next day we intended on going to the National Gallery of Art but instead we went to the National Portrait Gallery. I enjoyed this museum more than I had expected. It houses all of the Presidential portraits and they also had many different types of exhibits. We were not allowed to take pictures but I took one on my phone and made it my background. I just couldn't resist! After the museum, we had an early dinner at Lupe. It was the first Mexican restaurant we have tried and it was pretty decent. Definitely not as good as California Mexican food but it was good enough. That night we went to Georgetown. It was the first time I had gone at night and I had a great time.

On Sunday, I had one of the most productive days to date here. I woke up somewhat early (9 am) and got ready. We had planned on going to the Eastern Market before our lunch reservations at Oyamel. I was surprised that it actually happened. I really liked the street the Eastern Market was on and could see myself living there..but apparently its not the best part of town haha. Oyamel is a Mexican restaurant that is in the same chain as Jaleo, the Spanish restaurant I had gone to before. It was also highly recommended. Since they were still doing restaurant week, we got to try a good amount of the menu. Our waiter liked us so much that he surprised us with one of their delicacies: grasshopper tacos. I had read the reviews on this restaurant and heard a lot about it so I decided to try it. It wasn't too bad as along as i didn't look too closely haha. After lunch, we went to the National Archives. it was really cool to see the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Magna Carta. They also had letters to past presidents on exhibit which were quite hilarious. After, we hit the grocery store to pick up some groceries for the week and for dinner that night. One of my friends invited us all over for a "Jewish" dinner. She made latkas, matza ball soup and chicken. It was fun to have dinner with everyone. This was one of the many reasons why I have lagged so much on this blog post!

Anyway, on to my internship. Since I last wrote, I have come a long way. For the past week and a half we have been bracing ourselves for an announcement that has been a long time coming. The timing kept getting switched which kept us on our toes to say the least. I also followed up with the pitches I wrote. I had been waiting for a response all last week and finally got 2 this morning. I am excited to see where they go and hopefully they will bring opportunities for our clients. I am still struggling a bit with some of my assignments which is frustrating but I have to remember that I have only been exposed to the PR world for about 4 weeks. I have learned a lot but there is still a lot more to learn and a lot of experience to be gained. My week was cut short last week due to the weather. Today, as I mentioned, I received word back from my pitches. They are both still in the planning phase but I think they both have potential to become good opportunities. The big announcement that we have been waiting for is finally set for this week and I am getting excited. The other intern and I received our responsibilities today and I am looking forward to carrying them out.

Sorry again for the lengthy post....as you can see I have been busy exploring the city. I will try and add pictures to the next post. This week marks the 1/2 way point for the program. It hit me the other day that the end of college is really close and it is starting to freak me out! I am going to start my job search this week I think...yikes! Anyway, have a great week!

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