It's been two weeks since I got here and I can barely believe it!

I have already become an insider, like my friends used to say. Two weeks ago, all I knew about the streets of Washington, D.C. was from online maps and tour guides. Now here I am, walking to my internship site, giving directions to American tourists, moving around the metro, taking buses and even recommending good places to eat, just as if I have lived in this city for many years! Time does fly while you are here!

Group shot after a Capitol building tour!

I guess that I'm just amazed by all the diversity submerged in a city such as this — from kayaks on the Potomac River to political and social conferences in fancy auditoriums; from jogging trails to astonishing monuments, Washington, D.C. is just a lot more than the pictures you get to see in a magazine.

Hector tries his luck on a kayak.

Networking, Networking, Networking

Last week I started working as an intern and I didn’t really know what to expect.

That day I woke up early and got out the door dressed in my best suit, walking to the address of my internship site. After a half hour tour through the streets of D.C., I arrived. I met everybody at my office and I was given a desk to work in. Everybody turned out to be really nice and I'm very glad to be there.

The place where I'm doing my internship is a non-profit foundation dedicated to expanding opportunities for Mexican people through effective philanthropy and bi-national partnerships. My job consists of doing research about civil societies in Mexico, collaborating with promotion and social media and also help to develop some of the programs and initiatives created and sustained by this foundation.

As a part of my internship program, I've also had the opportunity to meet different leaders from both political and social spheres in the community. Some remarkable cases are the ones of Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor for the United States, Dolores Huerta, who is a labor leader and civil rights activist and Mexican poet, Javier Sicilia, leader of the "Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity."

Javier Sicilia

Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis

All these events where were so filledwith people! That’s when you really get to understand how important networking actually is in this city — it's all about connections! So if you want to be included in the dynamics of this place you need to know the right people. Don’t forget it! Networking, networking, networking!

So happy together.

It's also amazing all that you learn from outside the classroom and office. Just walking along the RAF — The Residential and Academic Facility of the Washington Center — or even taking a walk to the nearest food market and you'll probably add some new foreign friend to your list. Now I know how Mr. Phileas Fogg, from Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, would've saved a lot of money in hotel expenses! Like I said — networking, networking, networking.

There is another great thing about Washington: happy hours. Many people, lots of places, tons of food, tasty drinks and cheap prices. That’s a winning combination.

Hector and his fellow interns experience one of their first D.C. happy hours.

There are people from all kind of professions there: lawyers, architects, staffers, you name it! All of them relaxing after work and talking of all kind of issues. That’s a place — as long as you take it with responsibility — when you can really engage with people you would never have the opportunity to meet otherwise, and listen to different perspectives from their own personal experiences. Let me tell you something — that´s precisely what Washington, D.C. is all about. A unique place with an identity different from any other place in the world.

Exiting the metro!

My time here has been awesome, so I'm looking forward to having all the experiences still to come! So, as Queen’s Mr. Fahrenheit recommended: I wont stop now!

Hector and some friends in front of the U.S. Capitol.