Yesterday morning, my roommates and I left our apartment for orientation a few minutes early, hoping to get good seats in the auditorium. We headed down the hall toward the elevators, dressed in jeans, t-shirts and simple sweaters and excited to have a few days before we had to cut the price tags off our new dress pants and blazers. At the elevator, we saw a couple of TWCers dressed wearing suits and ties. Then the elevator doors opened and we saw another group in pencil skirts and heels. We turned around, and coming toward us was a whole hallway of interns, dressed in dark pants and dark jackets, with ties, heels and blouses completing the look. We raced back to our room to change--it turns out the orientation schedule did say, in big bold letters at the top of the page, "the dress code is business professional attire." Needless to say, we did not arrive at orientation early enough to get the good seats we'd hoped for.

The business dress is just one of the aspects of professionalism I'm still getting used to at The Washington Center, and just one of many new aspects of living in Washington, D.C. Prior to this semester, my experiences at "real jobs" consisted of working as a camp counselor over the summer and as a tutor at the writing center at my school, Dickinson College. After all, as an English and American Studies double major, I haven't exactly been drawn toward any sort of "business-y" type summer jobs in the past (I've spent most of my life grouping these sort of "real jobs" under a dreary, conservative, somewhat cutthroat umbrella).

But, starting tomorrow I will be interning at the U.S. Capitol Historical Society in the hopes of applying some of the research and writing skills I've been developing at Dickinson to the "real world." Hopefully, this experience will give me some guidance (whether internal or external) toward what career choices I will make after college and will broaden my perspective on "real world" jobs into something a little more dynamic and inviting. And, I'm just excited to be leaving small town Pennsylvania to live in Washington, D.C. for a few months.

I've been looking forward to public transportation, cooking for myself, and being able to walk to nearby restaurants and stores, but now that I'm here, it's still going to take a few weeks to adjust. I mean, cooking beef stroganoff in the crockpot on a Thursday during vacation when my only other plans consist of snuggling with my dog and watching Modern Family is great. Rushing home from class at 10 p.m. on a Monday night with no dinner prepared and limited kitchen supplies and a headache... not so much. And hopping on the bus to class with my newly purchased SmarTrip card (only $1.60 a ride!) seemed simple until I overlooked the card scanner in the front of the bus and jammed my card into the dollar bill slot instead.

Anyways, this afternoon will end orientation, so tomorrow my internship will start! If Google Maps is correct, I should have an easy .8 mile walk to work tomorrow from Union Station. After that, I start working 9-5, Tuesday through Friday, with TWC programming Monday afternoons, class Monday nights, and an independent study through Dickinson, blogging, a "civic engagement project," and (hopefully) some down time to squeeze in between. All of these things in J Crew slacks and newly purchased heels because that's "business professional."