First day in Washington, D.C. (!!!!!!)

Today begins the saga of Natasha’s Daily Postings on the Blog Because She Is Out of Town and Dr. Hurwitz Asked Her to Post Every Day. I’m currently in D.C., interning in the office of Representative Mark Meadows from North Carolina’s 11th district. Here’s a time-stamped list of what I got to do today:

8:00: Left the house to go into the city (intentionally early so that I would have ample time to get myself something fun for breakfast). I walked to the Prince George’s Plaza station and took it to Capitol South station.

8:30: Got myself breakfast at Pret A Manger

9:00: Showed up at the Longworth House Office Building. There are three office buildings for the House of Representatives, and this is where Mark Meadows works. The House is not in session this week, so he’s back in North Carolina.

9:15: I got introduced to the staff and kinda got a rundown of how things work. Each office has about 14-18 full-time staffers, with titles ranging from Press Secretary to Chief of Staff to the Executive Assistant/Scheduler. They showed me around and explained what kinds of things I’d be doing, like answering phones (“do NOT offer your opinion on any policies to any reporter ever”), to hosting constituents when they visit (“You can offer them coffee or water, but not our Coke. The Coke is sacred–only give the, the Coke if they’ve found out we have it and ask for it specifically.”).

9:30: We all chatted for a super long time. All the staffers are 24-30ish years old and super motivated to change the world. I find that very refreshing in a world of adults who like to tear away at idealism.

10:30: A family from the district came by for a tour of the Capitol, so Jesse (my fellow intern) gave it to them. I came along because I’m supposed to be able to give them next week (I can all but guarantee that I will not be able to do that).

12:30: I went out to lunch at Pret A Manger with Eliza (the Executive Assistant/Scheduler who got me the internship) and Josh (the Press Secretary). We ate outside and had really good sandwiches. Seriously, amazing.

2:00: There was another constituent tour group, this time with eleven people. They were extremely southern–one woman asked me where the bathroom was and I didn’t understand her, so they all made fun of me for not knowing where the bathroom was for the next two hours. And then I couldn’t even totally understand the ridiculing, which was what got me into the mess in the first place, so basically the whole thing was a train wreck.

3:45: Jesse and I got back to the office and didn’t really have anything to do since the House isn’t in session, so he gave me an unofficial tour of the Capitol and showed me all the cool places my badge lets me into. They gave me totally unrestricted access to the Capitol (I was wondering all day if people realized that I was just a seventeen-year-old with no credentials whatsoever except for a scuba license), so Jesse showed me Paul Ryan’s office, how to get to the very top of the dome, the crypt in the basement, and the private metro system that goes between the Senate and House buildings and the Capitol.

5:00ish: We got back to the office and Eliza and I discussed tomorrow. I’m going to a lecture on Brexit at the Heritage Foundation in the morning and I’ll be back in the office in the afternoon. And I get to pick up my permanent ID! I’ll put up a picture of it tomorrow–it’s very official-looking.

When I left I just myself to the nearest bookstore and read for a bit because I wanted to avoid the crowd and extra cost of the metro at rush hour. I got back to Maryland around 6:30 and had some really good stir fry for dinner! Stay tuned for tomorrow, and we’ll see if I can think of a new type of list by then.