Week 9...Here And Gone!

I can't believe how quickly time is flying by. Here is yet another weekly report!

Last week I had my typical internship days on Monday/Tuesday. Conveniently, my boss let me work from home both days because she was feeling sick and working from home, too. Since I am kind of wrapping up my two big projects in the office, this did give me some time to work on my school work. I think my boss is pretty great because she is VERY sensitive to the fact that I am also a student, so she never wastes my time when there's not much to do. And honestly, there isn't much for me to do at the office right now because Congress isn't in session. A lot of our staff members are traveling or working on their own big research projects...not too much that a lowly intern can help with.

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to hear Bob Woodward speak on AU's main campus, which was pretty incredible! I found him to be very intelligent, witty, and interesting. He did not speak much about uncovering Watergate, but instead focused on the new books he's written recently about President Bush and the Iraq War. To write his books he said he's conducted a total of 11 hours of interviews with the President, so he had some fascinating insights into the personality of the man in the Oval Office. But he also addressed the subject with a good sense of humor and some anecdotes about important figures in Washington. Here were some of my favorite parts of the speech:

He asked President Bush how he felt history would remember him and the Iraq War. President Bush's response was (probably paraphrasing here...) "Who cares about the history? We'll all be dead."
OK, so that's a very scary outlook. Maybe I'LL be dead, but my children/grandchildren/great grandchildren are going to have to live with the consequences of our policies. (I hear Dave Matthews Band in my head "Well, it would take me a lifetime, old man, to undo what you've done.")
WELL...Hillary Clinton reads this response and approaches Bob Woodward and tells him that that is NO way for a President to speak. She said, "George Washington wouldn't talk like that. Thomas Jefferson wouldn't talk like that. BILL wouldn't talk like that!" Woodward said he wondered if they had carved a new face on Mt. Rushmore that he didn't know about...

Also, Woodward was having lunch with Al Gore and asking him about the role the press has in the White House. He asked Gore how much the press and the public knew of what went on during the Clinton years. Gore said "1 percent." WOW. (Woodward thought, "THAT many more women?!?!?") So Woodward asked if Gore wrote a tell-all memoir of his years as VP and said EVERYTHING he knew about the Clinton presidency, then how much would we know? Gore said, "2 percent." OK, so perhaps Gore was being coy...but still imagine that! How much don't we know?!? Crazy. From his own perspective, Woodward speculates that we know about 75% percent of what goes on in an administration.

Finally, just a word of wisdom. My favorite quote of the day: "All good work is done in defiance of management."

So...the rest of the week was class, as usual. Not even many guest speakers this week. We are trying to push through the book and the work before Europe. We did get to go to the Estonian Embassy on Friday, which seemed completely random but turned out to be very fascinating! I think now our whole class is hoping we take a wrong turn in Europe and end up in Estonia...

I did get one midterm grade back last week. I got 100% on my take-home midterm for my elective class, which was very encouraging! I do not yet have my midterm grade back for my main seminar class, which is quite a bit more important. But I felt confident about the test and hope that I did fine!

Saturday night a friend from my class called and asked if I was interested in going to a play. Her supervisor wasn't going to use her tickets to see the Shakespeare Theater Co. perform "The Way of the World" and offered them to us. So I took the opportunity for a study break and went to see a good comedy. All through the play I listened to the pit and heard some great bassoon lines...then in the last act they brought the bassoonist and a few other musicians out on stage!!!!! It was the first bassoon I've seen in months and I honestly thought of rushing the stage just to touch it...but I didn't (I think that would have been frowned upon). I had been doing a good job of ignoring my musical cravings, but seeing a bassoon was waaaaaay hard. I can't wait to play mine when I go home for Thanksgiving in one month!

This week I've got lots of work to do--3 papers and a presentation to do this week, in addition to the usual readings. eeek! BUT I was pretty productive this weekend and got 2 of the papers done and my part of the 3rd paper done (a group paper). So the week will mostly be working on polishing the presentation, editing the group paper (a job I volunteered for and I'm not sure why), reading, reading, reading, and making progress on my research paper because I also have an outline for that due this week! I do not know how I will find the time, but I'm sure I will manage!

I was pretty excited to find out that you can go trick-or-treating at the Embassies. I hope to find the time to do that this weekend...and someone who is willing to go with me!

I am now less than 2 weeks away from Europe!!!!!!! I am SO thrilled. We finally got our itinerary over the weekend and the schedule looks jam-packed, but also pretty great. We only have one free day the whole trip. We'll be in Brussels so Lizzy, me, and some others from our class are looking into train tickets to Amsterdam or Paris. Hopefully we'll make a day trip somewhere!

That's about all there is to report from the East Coast. I am getting very sad to see my days in DC slipping away...I now have about 3 weeks left to actually be in DC. I'm really going to miss this place! But I have so much to look forward to in Europe and I'm really looking forward to seeing my family and friends over Thanksgiving. It's just so strange to feel this experience drawing to a close...

Take care everyone,

~Katie