Work as an intern

As an intern a lot of the duties are pretty much the things the staffer's don't want to do themselves or don't have time to do themselves. 

Examples: 

Answering the phone, staffers can't spend all day on the phone talking to people or they wouldn't be able to get their jobs done. Their jobs consist a lot of doing research for bills, understanding bills, and answering mail. Staffers have certain subjects that they specifically are in charge of understanding and helping the Congressman in understanding and getting the work done for that area. 

Interns sort through mail, every office has their own process. The office I work in we sort it into the subjects for the staffers, the staffers then decide what the response is. Also we help to get the mail ready, entering information into the computer, helping draft in some cases. 

Typical intern job running errands; it's really not that bad. I enjoy doing the errands often times because it gives me a chance to get out of the office and to do a little bit of exploring or simply stretching my legs for a few minutes.  

One of my favorite duties is giving tours. I was terrified at first thinking of having to give a tour, but really it's not that bad. You learn the facts as you go through the tour more, whether running through it in your head or actually walking through it. Plus you get to meet and talk to the people who are here to visit. Plus going through the capitol is amazing. It's so beautiful and has so much history. 

Folklife Festival

The Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Tradition that is put on every year on the National Mall. China & Kenya were the countries of this year. There are booths with activities and things cultural to the countries being recognized. There was also food native to China & Kenya that you could buy for lunch. It was interesting and very fun to hang out with a couple of my wonderful roommates (Kate & Sarah). 

The Home of Washington

Mount Vernon the home of our 1st President. Beautiful house and stunning grounds.

Here is the wonderful view from behind the house, an overlook of the Potomac. So beautiful I could spend days just being there and relaxing.

The tomb of George Washington. He and some of the members of his family are buried here.

Archives

To celebrate Mary's birthday I went downtown to the Archives. Saw the original Declaration of Independence and the original Constitution & Bill of Rights. Alas no pictures are allowed inside of the Archives. Here are some pictures that I took outside afterwards though!

There is a signing machine with a pen set to sign John Hancock's name. 

Federal Bureau of Investigation

FBI building. Pretty cool to see the D.C. Headquarters. The building takes up the entire block. Crazy as I may be I actually recognized it from several blocks away... (may watch too many crime shows).

Me with the FBI building behind me.

Up to the Skies & Beyond

Took a visit to the Air & Space Museum after work. It's cool to see how technology has changed.

These planes are so cool but would be so scary to actually fly in.

Middle of the Road...

So here is the road outside of my apartment building.

Here is me standing in the middle of the road. Had to take that for my little sis, Mary, who took a picture of her standing in the middle of the road in Paraguay.

D.C. Temple

I love to see the temple! 

It was such a great opportunity to be able to go to the temple. It is such a beautiful place. A wonderful evening doing wonderful things. Our ward had a temple night, which is very convenient as I don't have a car and it is difficult to get out to the temple without your own transportation. Plus this takes off some of the time that public transportation would take. 

The temple I have wanted to go to for years. Finally got the chance.

Beautiful stain glass on the building, something that isn't always seen on temple. Colorful and beautiful. 

Night shot after we got out of the temple.

It was also starting to rain at this point.

the Pentagon...

We may have gotten a tour of the Pentagon. There is a cool 9/11 memorial. After hours. Felt as if it was totally abandoned. Not sure if taking this picture was legal... 

(thanks to Kate Simpson for the photo)

Old Chambers

Here is the old Supreme Court chamber. It was used for 50 years before the Supreme Court building was built. Before it was used as the Supreme Court chamber however it was the old Senate chamber.

When the Senate moved out of that chamber they moved into the chamber below. That is also the old Senate chamber. These are replicas of the desks used as the original desks are used in the current Senate chamber.

Supreme Court Building

In my roommate Kate's so elegant words "The supreme court building where the supreme court hears court cases."

It's so cool that everything is so close to each other and amazing! (The Supreme Court building is across from the Capitol building)