The time is going by really fast. I only have two weeks, and one weekend left. I'm excited to see my family again (they're coming up here to get me, and then we'll have our vacation here), but I think I'll miss the friends I've made here.
On Thursday, I got sorta-kinda interrogated by Capitol Police for the first time. Grassley was speaking to the Greater Des Moines Partnership at the Hyatt hotel near the Capitol. We walked there from Hart Office Building, Grassley spoke, and then he took off. He was going to meet some constituents at a lunch for one of the Senate committees he's on, so we were going to meet him there and take pictures. The staffer I was with had to run back to the office to check on something, so I went there by myself with the camera, knowing only the room number. I found the room, walked past two huge security guards, nodded, and walked in. There were a couple of caterers, eleven senators having lunch at a table (including the Republican party whip), and me holding a camera. Right. Ok, then. I decided to stand against the wall and look inconspicuous until the constituents showed up. One of the security guards poked his head around the door, looked at me, then went back out. A second later, both guards poked their heads around, and one of them motioned for me to follow them. Great.
"Who are you with?"
"Senator Grassley."
"Why are you here?"
"I'm just an intern, I'm waiting for one of his staffers." Please don't hurt me.
"Did we just see you at the Hyatt?"
"Yes." I'm not stalking Senator Kyl, I swear.
"Do you have your ID?"
"Yes." So glad this didn't happen on the day I forgot it.
"OK, just wanted to be sure. Thanks."
"N-n-no problem."
So that was exciting.
Senator Grassley flew back to Iowa that afternoon to see the flood damage with Harkin, and I got to go out to eat with Tim Moerman (from my church), and the rest of the Ankeny and Polk City councils, who were there for the Partnership conference. They were a great group, and we had a lot of fun.
Yesterday, Friday the 13th, definitely lived up to its reputation. We (the interns) had two events to go to. One was a breakfast for the Greater Des Moines Partnership at the Hyatt again. The other was a World Food Prize ceremony at the State Department. We got up early to take the Metro to the breakfast, but there was a fire in one of the main stations, so we had to get off and take a cab there. After the breakfast, we got on the Metro again to go to the State Department, and the fire reignited. So we had to get out and walk to a separate Metro line to get there. Once we got back to the office, we learned that Tim Russert had died - which was weird, shocking and very sad. It's awfully strange to think that we'll never see him on TV ever again. And then, to cap it all off, I went with a friend to see The Happening at a local theater, but they wouldn't let me in - because it was an R-rated movie, and I wasn't 21, and they serve beer in their R-rated movies. BEER! At a movie theater! Can you think of anything more absurd? Because I can't. I was rather disgusted.
That said, the breakfast and the ceremony were both very cool. It was nice to get out of the office for the day. The speaker at the breakfast was the CBS reporter who broke the Hillary Clinton Bosnia sniper story, but her normal beat is exposing wasteful congressional earmarks. Since she was speaking to a room that contained quite a few Democrats and earmark seekers, it was more than a little awkward, which I naturally enjoyed.
But the World Food Prize was fantastic. I followed the advice of one of Mr. Moermon's friends and brought a camera, so here's another round of photos.
Outside the State Department:
In the foyer:
The courtyard:
This room is full of paintings, artwork and furniture from the Revolutionary War-era:
This is the desk that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on:
The original Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, along with the original desk it was signed on:
The original Spirit of '76 painting.
The Lincoln Memorial, seen from the State Dep. balcony. (The thing they're building in front of it is the Institute of Peace):
The interns! From left to right: Adam, Abhay (my roommate), me, Tom (the British guy), Katie, Ted and Liz:
Ted and Tom have a great Dubya and Tony Blair routine:
People wait to find out who will win this year's World Food Prize (Bob Dole and George McGovern - but they weren't there. They'll actually RECEIVE the prize in Des Moines in October).
Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte speaks about the world food crisis:
I got to meet Justin Cremer, one of my former fellow Des Moines Register bloggers who works for the World Food Prize.
We did a little bit of role-playing on the way back to the office.
Abhay and I confer on critical policy issues:
President Nadipuram and Prime Minister Davenport greet their citizens:
Dubya and Tony debating where to invade next:
Stay dry everyone! See you in a few weeks.
1 comment:
I met a Tom, also British, at Summer Camp. We didn't role play, but we did play lots of football, British style.
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