Week Two

Hey Everyone,

So week two is in the books! I would have to say that I am feeling comfortable with D.C. by now and my office has been an enjoyable atmosphere. On Monday, I helped lead a tour through the Capitol Building. And soon enough, it got interesting. About twenty minutes into the tour, two older women decided to make an entrance into our group on a whim. They told me that they had no tour guide and figured they would just jump in on my group. So, being the polite and slightly inexperienced tour guide I am, I let them tag along. It paid off. By the end of the tour, I had practically gotten to know the two women as if they were family. Before we departed, one of the women proceeded to tell me that she was from Romania and had recently moved to the U.S. and married the former undersecretary to the Navy under the Reagan and H.W. Bush administrations. She then wrote down her contact information and told me that she wanted me to come over to her D.C. home and have a barbecue with her and her husband (who has a wikipedia page). This is an awesome opportunity to talk to this guy about my IB essay on Somalia. He likely will have a wealth of information concerning the piracy problem in the Gulf of Aden. This week I also began summarizing testimonials of experts that were to be cross-examined by my Congressman during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. I focused on cyber security and global airline consolidation and competition. So, I managed to, once again, maintain an international focus on my office work. As far as events that I attended, I made my way on Wednesday to a hearing on "Press Freedoms in the Americas," where I learned about the one-party dominated television in Nicaragua and Honduras alongside the twenty journalists being held in Cuba for violating press laws. On Thursday, I sat in on another hearing entitled "The Horn of Africa," where all my wishes came true. In fact, not only was I able to compile endless notes and expert analysis on the epidemic in Somalia, I got to sit among residents of Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia which made the experience all the more real. I felt like I was part of the U.N. trying to shape foreign policy. It was powerful to say the least. On Friday, I attended an intern lecture where my Congressman was speaking. And for an hour, my brain was stuffed full of court cases that my Congressman had argued on the Supreme Court when he was Attorney General for California. More importantly, I was dazzled by my representative's youthfulness that he carried into Congress. I spent the rest of the day researching links between Somali local Islamic warring factions and al-Qaeda. But to top off the week, I met three former Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who filled our office in on the type of life an FBI agent lives. Of course this wasn't the reason they made a trip to our office. They had a meeting with the Congressman.

This week was productive. I really enjoy the D.C. environment. I could definitely see myself living here. Well, thanks for keeping up with me and I hope next week has more fun-filled surprises.