Just want to thank Mardy Ashe and Grace Allen for helping me find and obtain this internship! I don’t know if I could have picked a harder internship! Seriously, there is almost no time for me to sleep at night!

I’m not sure exactly all I am allowed to disclose about my internship… so I will be vague. It is extremely overwhelming, both in a good and bad way.

First, the good: I am actually working inside the Pentagon! It is so amazing, walking down the many halls, getting to know my way around. And let me just tell you, the bathrooms weren’t as cool as I had heard! And the Pentagon is like a city all by itself! I have never seen so many military people in all of my life! I feel so safe! But for those of you who watch movies or play video games, I am going to compare the Pentagon to, don’t laugh or get mad, Racoon City in Resident Evil! It is something unlike anything I have ever seen. By the way, tours are available, but you must make reservations three weeks in advance (from what this tourist told me).

Second, the bad: I have so much other work besides just my 36-hour work week! Each Monday at noon, I have to attend a Presidential Lecture Series, and write papers on two of them, and also attend all of the Congressional Speaker Series events. Then, on Wednesday nights, I have a 3 hour class at Marymount University. I was in a class that matched my International Business major, but after last night, there was just no way I could keep up with that professor (who wanted us to buy a book, read it, talk in class about it, take a midterm and final on it, write a “short essay” research paper ten pages long on corporate marketing operations worldwide, give a ten minute presentation on a current issue related to the world market environment, watch two videos each class and discuss them, while reading “The Economist” and “The World is Flat"). Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to be able to take this class because I am totally into these topics… but I have absolutely no time to do it! So I switched to a research class instead. But it doesn’t stop there! I have to volunteer at civic organizations and events for a minimum of five hours, and write a portfolio that is a small book, consisting of seven components: my resume, a learning objectives statement, an internship defense letter, an informational interview, the Washington forum analysis, my service learning, and my writing samples and creative projects. So I am extremely glad I got out of the class of death before it was too late!

After working all day, I went to class and got home to eat dinner after ten o’clock! By the time I got to bed it was after 12 am, and I wake up at 5:45 am each morning to catch the bus to be to work at 7 am! Crazy! I don’t think I have pushed myself this hard ever before in my whole life!

But other than that, I am here in DC, living the dream, going to school, making it happen. Each day is a new adventure and I have met the coolest people. I have not visited any tourist attraction except Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day, I have been so busy!

I will post the photos I took on Memorial Day over the weekend, so visit next week!