Here We Go!

My internship program at The Washington Center in D.C. has commenced.  I flew out of Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport at 8:12 a.m. yesterday, May 23rd, 2012.  Landed in Washington at the Reagan National Airport at 11:56 a.m.  Met a Randy from Hastings, MN on the flight who was coming into town for a convention, and recommended that I check out the Memorial Day Parade this weekend.  My luggage wasn't lost in transportation, and I hopped on the Super Shuttle for $15 to get to the Residential and Academic Facility (RAF), that I will be staying at until August 4th, around noon.  Two of the other passengers were on their way to the RAF as well, their names have eluded my memory, but I have seen them around the building several times since then.  I am staying in the same room as John from Massachusetts, and we have two other suite-mates, Keenan from Alabama and Pete from Connecticut.  They all seem to be pretty cool guys, and I look forward to spending time with them over the next 10 weeks.  After I settled in to the room I decided to go for a walk around the area, a handful of blocks in every direction.  It's definitely different here than it is at UW-Whitewater, let alone my hometown of Cambridge, WI.  I am just a few blocks from the Metro station that can get you close to anywhere in D.C. as I understand it, there is a bus stop right outside of our building, and a free shuttle that caters to Washington Center interns for a few select stops around the area.  We had a meeting in the evening with some local law enforcement officers, a community outreach leader (we are in a community referred to as NOMA, which is short for North of Massachusetts -> the street), and our in-house Washington Center representatives.  There was a Rock, Paper, Scissors contest toward the end of the meeting and I just missed out on being in the finals!  To close out the evening, my roommate Keenan and a fellow resident, Emma, walked around the area some more and enjoyed a couple of beverages at some local establishments.  They do have good beers here, phew, but the prices aren't quite like Wisconsin which will be limiting my already limited time to enjoy them.  We made our way back to the RAF after enjoying the outside seating, and I slept comfortably on my twin-sized bed and my brand new Badger blanket made by my wonderful sister, Karissa, with assistance from our friend Jodie.  An incredibly successful first day, and I can't wait for the rest of this experience to unfold.

p.s. I'll try to keep the rest of my posts short and concise.