1. Interns are here for the experience. I love hearing about how all these interns don’t do anything but sit in front of their computers. I believe it! Sad but true, a lot of these government agencies that actually pay for interns don’t have much time or work for them. On the other hand, some lobbyist firms really work their interns to the bone! I, for one, love the DoD. I have even heard of horror stories about interns crawling under their desks to go to sleep! Wild!
2. Most of these interns are trying to hook up with each other for the summer. This is the dumbest thing I have witnessed. One of my three roommates found her soul-mate for the summer and he is now our fifth roommate, which totally sucks for us. Just think about it, over 600 interns and only 8 housing facilities. That’s 75 interns to one housing complex/area. The odds are in their favor.
3. Casual Fridays at the Pentagon do not mean (except for me) dress casually, it means you officially - this is actually written somewhere as a policy, have a beer (if you are over 21 of course). In all of my fellow interns’ offices’ fridges there are six-packs of beer, coronas, bottles of wine… that was quite a culture shock all of us!
4. When I come to my air-conditioned office, I turn on my electric heater under my desk. (perfect sense, right?)
5. The HOV lane is ruled by Honda Civic Hybrids. When I ride the bus to work, you’d swear there was a Honda convention ahead of us and we were on tour.
6. Name-dropping runs rampid in DC. Every time I walk past a group, I hear “Joint Chief of Staff...” or “Senator...” It’s all about who you know and how many people you tell.
7. If you are a female intern in DC, you will hear the story of Chandra Levy who was a 2001 summer intern found murdered in Rock Creek Park… google it if you don’t know what I am talking about.
8. Don’t go to Walmart in DC. You will either get shot, robbed, or become disgusted at the unsanitary conditions. Cullowhee sure does have one up on DC. It’s either Target or CVS here.
9. Walk to the left, stand to the right. When you use escalators in DC (usually on the metro) you will learn this un-written rule quickly.
10. Tax is almost non-existent! Unlike NC where there’s a couple of taxes… here in VA/DC the tax is 5% and none at all on any type of first aid/medical products, and who knows what else! So this helps out since the products are so much more expensive.
11. If you have a car here you will pay for parking, be towed, or something terrible will happen to it. Let’s just say if you park in a two-hour zone, come back in two hours because the tow people are good at their jobs (just like the Campus Police are good at theirs). If you aren’t paying for parking, it better be daylight and you had better be in a parking lot at the movies or Target. I don’t have this problem, unfortunately, because I had to leave my car in NC. Traffic sucks and don’t even bother driving to the nightlife.
12. Nightlife: Don’t expect to get into anything open on a Friday/Saturday night if you don’t have an id saying you are over 21. It ain’t happening. With a bouncer at every entrance and a police car at every exit - DC doesn’t mess around. And the darnedest places turn into a club at 9! Whether it be a coffee shop or a bookstore. And they all have an upstairs/VIP type area. I have only been out two nights my whole summer here and I can sum it all up in two words: Adams Morgan. Forget Georgetown, that’s like a mall decided to put all of its stores on the street and made you pay to park. But Adams Morgan has every type of music/entertainment you could want. And Dupont Circle did not impress me.
13. The 4th of July fireworks are supposed to mean more here because you are in the capitol of our great nation. But I would rather be in Cullowhee! (as the bumper sticker says) Even though Sylva postponed their fireworks til...?
14. When you leave NC, Petey Pablo’s song means more to you - and you start defending the most popular saying “there’s nothing to do in Cullowhee.” FYI: Yes, there is.
15. I love my job, I love where I live, but I miss NC! There is no “Northern Hospitality” here, y’all!
Posted by T.M. on 07/06/2006 at 06:52 PM. Filed under:
