Yo.

Alrighty, I’ve got another week under my belt and it feels like I have been living this metropolitan existence for the entirety of my adult life. I am not going to say I was meant for the big city (I still love chewing trees down with beavers in the woods), but I am getting used to it. I don’t feel small, or just a number, although government is so big around here you have to give someone your SSN before you can even shake their hand.

Dry humor aside, it hasn’t been very dry around here. Crazy storms; rumors of tornados; death by solar heat-ray. Yeah, it’s been hot (especially ten hours of the day in a full suit) but that is to be expected when you raise a city out of a swamp. Two centuries later, the climate is still in place that put the swamp there, and its only getting worse with global warming.

One quick thing on global warming, did you know that it is EVEN MORE of a problem here in DC? That’s what the guy with the sign told me as I came out of the Gallery Place-Chinatown subway exit. In fact, I’ve noticed that crises tend to increase in magnitude in perfect exponential proportion to how close one is to DC. They say that all roads lead to Rome, no? Well, I think all issues lead to DC—just going to put that out there…someone had to do it…

That is what makes DC such a unique opportunity for a college intern. Think about something that interests you. It’s here. Picture something you know you could get passionate about. It’s waiting. In this specific season of life, DC is a place of plenty (a cornucopia) of possibility. I am not even talking just in the political realm. Let me give you, my captive audience, some bullet points:

Politics

I could go on for-absolutely-ever on this one. If you are planning to come next semester, call your congressperson’s office—the DC location. Just ask them what they can do for you. If you are pretty sure you can come, call and they can hook you up with tickets to the White House and Capitol Hill. Also, they know the in’s and out’s of the town. They can help you get past the touristy aspect. If you want to get plugged into a cause, or you want to participate in the public forum, ask them how to get involved. They are a great resource, and they will be partial to you, their constituent. I can’t stress this one enough, especially if you are coming in the fall. You are going to have a great opportunity to see some serious Decision ’08.

If you are interested in law, the Supreme Court is going to come back into session in November. You must go. I will even tell you how to make it work into your schedule. Visit their website: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/visiting/visiting.html Get the hours and location. Okay now, you have Washington Center programming every Monday in the afternoons. Just ask your Supervisor one week if you can make a day out of it. Go watch the oral arguments Monday morning. Being a Mocker (collegiate mock trial), I will tell you it will not be boring. Each oral argument is only 90 minutes. It is like a sporting event. Each lawyer gets 30 minutes power round to argue, with nine judges grilling him/her from the bench. It is intense; it is sassy; it is sexy. Go to http://www.oyez.org/ and listen in interactively to get the feel.

Education

Interested in law school? Well, welcome to the place with the most lawyers per capital in the world! My plan for the summer? Now that I have all of the tourist things out of the way, I am just going to hit one law school a weekend. There are half a dozen top-notch law schools in the area:

Georgetown U
George Mason U
George Washington U
American U
Catholic U
University of Maryland (you can hit it by riding the Green line to its termination than catching the bus to Baltimore Washington Airport).

Check this website out for a better summarization: http://members.aol.com/alicebeard/thoughts/stats.html

Also, I recommend checking the website of the law school you are interested in. They are a great tool. If you are going to go visit, try to get an appointment with an admissions officer and a financial aid officer. Also, you can usually request more information on each website.

Careers

I will keep this one brief. Many people do the Washington Center their senior year of school. Part of the program is that you have to put together a professional portfolio of your entire experience. It is not unheard of for students to get a job offer at the end of the summer if their placement site is hiring. So if you come out, take your portfolio seriously, it will come in handy at interviews after college. In fact, if you want to go to law school in the area, George Mason is a public university and the tuition is almost cut in half if you work in the area for a year or so and establish residency.

Charity

One thing that is great is the incredible opportunities for volunteerism. If you are just a civic soul, or if you are looking for something to decorate your resume with, you can find some charitable cause to plug into. Why is it unique? It is custom-tailored volunteerism. It will afford you the chance to volunteer with something that is salient to your career goals, or directly touches the passions of your heart. For instance, when I get out of law school I would really like to do some sort of nonprofit work that connects kids from disadvantaged homes with resources that are available to them through charity, government programs, and the court system. How does that work? You got me. That is actually one of my goals for the summer. I want to figure out what kind of form that takes in the legal profession. I want to discover how to do that.

Check out: http://socialjustice.georgetown.edu/service/programs/dc.html If you are interested in social justice volunteerism or http://www.volunteermatch.org/ Right now, I have found some opportunities to work in client intake on a volunteer-basis, which should give me the observational experience I want and the opportunity to work with the people I want to help.

Nightlife

Lastly, you should enjoy yourself. DC is a town that has a definite college intern/young professional scene. I was told at orientation that in any given term, there are 45,000 interns in town. Fine establishments all over town offer crazy deals on food and beverage to attract a younger crowd just getting off work on a weekday—if you are into that sort of thing. If you are like me and don’t care about the “spirits,” but like night scenes with live music, there is plenty of that.

To find the specials, check out:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/cityguide/

I know I haven’t really been writing about my job at the Department of Justice, and it’s not because I hate it. Actually, it is awesome and there is so much work to do, I don’t know how it will get done by the end of the summer. The reasons I can’t talk about it right now are twofold: 1) it is classified until the cases are completed. 2) Right now I am working on civil rights violations related to the Prison Rape Elimination Act, so the content is not fit to publish, anyway.

Just one last pitch for the Washington Center before I (as Bill O’Reilly cannot say) “play you out.” The housing situation is sweet. Let me just lay a couple pictures on you from my extremely amateur aperture: the building where I live and the view. Oh my, the view.

!3$ over and out.