The Internship

I know that you are all anxious to hear about the actual job. I mean, it is what this is all about right? I left this part out for the first couple of weeks because I wanted to actually have something interesting to tell. I work with two other TWC interns and 3 other part-time interns, most of whom I’ve become very good friends with. We each intern for four principles: one legislative assistant (LA) and 3 vice presidents (VPs). We don’t necessarily perform the same tasks as each other but we do learn a lot from each other. My colleagues are mostly tasked by their VPs, however, I work more closely with my LA. I have been doing a lot of researching and memo/report writing for him. I’ve been spending a lot of time browsing the House and Senate committee websites, as well as reading the news and listening in on hearings from the different committees. Basically, a lot of the work that I am currently doing is keeping up with relevant legislation. I’ve honestly learned so much from it and will most likely leave here with more knowledge about how the U.S. works than Canada itself. I’m really getting thrown into how politics and policy works here in DC. I've learned a lot about how Medicaid/Medicare work within the U.S. along with the Affordable Health Care Act passed by Obama last year. As an internationl student, it really was an eye opener seeing as I came from Canada where a national health care system exists. It’s also really great to work with other interns because they really do help me out a lot, especially because I am the only Canadian, or international, intern in the office and completely clueless when it comes to how the U.S. really works.

One of the most exciting things we get to do is occasionally attend events. The most recent event we got to go to was an opening reception for Solar Decathlon at the National Building Museum hosted by Bosch and the Department of Energy.

It was a really nice reception with lots of food and drinks :)

Outside of Work

One of the other great things about living in DC is that you can almost always find something to do, whether it be involved with policy and politics, sightseeing or browsing the streets like Dupont or Georgetown.

The other day, I was able to take a day off work to attend some personally interesting events. My supervisor was rather enthused with the idea of me attending these events. I attended a conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center titled 'Is The Proposed Keystone XL Pipeline In The National Interest?'.  A week before arriving in DC, there was a protest of almost 1,000 persons rallying against the proposal for construction of a pipeline from the oil sands in Alberta oil through Houston. The result of the protest was that many were arrested, and the resistance continues. Coming from Alberta myself, I am particularly interested in the movement of this debate. The conference was very insightful and gave me various new perspectives on the issue. I do, however, feel that the debate was a bit uneven.  I would have liked to hear more on the opposing side's position as to why the pipeline should not be constructed.

Right after this, there was an open session hearing in the Senate building on the EU debt and financial crisis. It was the first hearing I have seen live. Not that I found it overly exciting, but it was pretty fun to attend something like that for the first time. I would encourage everyone to find a policy issue they are most interested in and take an opportunity to attend something like this in DC at least once.

Hanging With The Crew

The best part of the Washington Center is still the people.

Our short walk to the Capitol

Library of Congress. A very impressive building, inside and out.

A night out for some Italian in Dupont Circle :)

And we journeyed to Eden Center in Virginia for some Vietnamese goodies :)

Song of the week

From Sharon :)