Date: 10th October ’06
I learned a big lesson from the terrible winter break of 2005. I knew that it would be too boring if I stayed in the abandoned and vacant dorm doing nothing for the whole summer. I had a hard time spending Thanks Giving holidays last year not having anything to do and no where to go. I felt suffocated and depressed during that time. The whole dorm, where I lived, was locked with no visitation policy. I was in a nowhere situation. That was the most dreadful experience I ever had in my life. I do not know how Robinson Crusoe, the title character in Daniel Defoe’s novel, could live alone on an isolated island for many years. I know for sure that I would die with hopelessness in such a situation.
I was excited about my decision to go Washington D.C., the capital city of the Untied States of America, for summer 2006. I had been to D.C. a couple of times before; once during the summer of 2005 for few days as a visitor and the next time for a conference. During January, it was so cold. We went on a sightseeing tour at night due to time constraints. It was not just cold but was freezing cold with damn bone-penetrating wind. I wore the warmest and thickest winter clothes I had, but they did not work at all. I felt I was wearing thin cotton clothes which did not prevent me from that nasty coldness. I would die if I had to stay for more hours tolerating that freezing cold. I was not able to utter a single word. All the warm words which I wanted to speak out of my mouth were frozen abruptly. The coldness made me numb and dumb; it made my body frozen and made me unable to talk. My excitement was lost gradually in that extreme coldness. The tour was not worthwhile at all to me. The Capital building, Lincoln Memorial Building, Library of Congress, Memorial monument, Museums, and The White House, none of them could impress me particularly that night. I wished all those buildings could warm us that night since that powerful political city has power to create hot debate and sensation in the world.
According to my plan, I was in D.C. by the second week of May for a summer internship. After a one and one-half hour flight from Huntsville airport to Ronald Reagan International airport, my friend and I took a cab to The Catholic University of America where we were supposed to stay for the whole summer. The cab took about fifteen minutes to reach 620 Michigan Avenue, Brookland, Spellman building. I was tired that day, but I got relief thinking that we could have lots of fun with our friends. By 10 p.m. that night I became so hungry. We ordered Chinese food from the Hunan Delight restaurant.
I thought D.C. would be cool during summer and would not be as hot as in the south, where I have been continuing my academic courses. I was shocked by the weather of D.C. It was too cold during winter and too hot during summer. I did not expect D.C. to be so hot during summer because of the coldness I experienced during that cold, winter night.
I had an interview with an organization called DirectDialogue some days after I reached D.C. I was excited that it was paid internship. I had to find the location of that organization. I Google-searched the map and took the metro from Brookings station to the Capital South metro station, changing green line metro and blue line metro at Gallery Place, Chinatown and L’Enfant Plaza respectively. I had trouble finding that organization though I had printed location of the direction on a paper. I did not know which direction to follow. At least if I had known one of the directions East, West, North or South, I could have figured out the rest of the other directions and followed the paper direction accordingly. At that particular time, I realized that I had very poor knowledge about directions. Eventually, I found myself asking somebody about that organization, standing just in front of the same organization building. I was happy that I could find the right building. But on the other hand, I almost died since I had to walk more than 20 minutes under the scorching sun. I felt stupid for wearing a suit on that melting day just to be formal.
Some days after, I got an internship at Osgood Center for International Studies. It lies at the John Hopkins University building, close to DuPont Circle, Washington, D.C. The first day of my internship was to attend a book review session. It was at the Brookings Institute, DuPont Circle. Peter Beinart, a Brookings nonresident fellow, was briefing on his published book, The Good Fight: Liberals, Conservatives and the War on Terror.
The next day on June 8th, I went to a hearing at The Rayburn Office building, south of the Capitol on a site bounded by Independence Avenue, South Capitol Street, First Street, and C Street, S.W. The topic of the event was “Review of Iraq Reconstruction.” The chairman, Henry J. Hyde, opened the conference with the news of the death of Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, Iraqi’s most wanted terrorist. He mentioned that his unexpected death was a conquest in the Global War on Terror.
For the whole summer I had been to many events and hearings. Most of the events took place at The Brookings Institute, Rayburn House Office Building, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, United States Institute of Peace (USIP), American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Cato Institute, Center of American Progress (CAP), Heritage Foundation, Hudson Institute, and Carnegie Endowment. I met experts from the State Department, Department of Defense and National Security Council, members of Congress, leading minds in think tanks, ambassadors, ministers and pioneers in non-profit and non-governmental organizations in those events, hearings, symposiums and meetings.
Continuing my internship with Osgood Center, I started another part time internship with Washington Peace Center. Though I did not have to do lots of work in this organization, I can never forget the day when I had to go around the D.C. to leave newsletters of this organization by walking. It was the toughest job I had ever done in my life. I feel ashamed to disclose that I took geography class for two semesters and still I did not have good knowledge about directions. I was given map directions where I had to leave those four bundles of newsletters on a small wheeler. I was sure that I would get confused with the directions. Thinking that I would at least learn about directions, I did not refuse that work. I had to go around metro stations making 360 degree angle of Washington Peace Center and leave those newsletters at many member shops. I did not know where I was heading, but still I tried asking many people. I revisited the same street many times getting confused about which way to head. Bundles of newsletters fell down from the small wheeler many times which made me awfully tired. I bought some cold drinks to quench my thirst. My whole body sweated as if I was soaked by rain. I walked through Smithsonian museum, Federal triangle metro station, Metro center, and Chinatown. I could not imagine that I walked alone like a crazy person wearing formal dress with tie on my neck. Finally when I reached Gallery Place, Chinatown, it was already late to go back to office. So, I threw a big bundle of newsletters on the dustbin because I did not want to return with that heavy bundle of newsletters.
That day, I had to walk about 2 miles from Brookland metro station to the dorm, which made me more tired and exhausted. After taking rest for a while, I took a shower and lay on the couch in the T.V. lounge to watch the World Cup soccer match between Trinidad & Tobago and England. England scored 2 goals after 83 minutes of the game. That evening, I went to Giant with some of my friends to buy food for the whole week since we had to cook different kinds of food every night for ten people. Giant food store was two metro stops from our dorm. We took a cab from Rhode Island metro station to Spellman hall after we finished shopping.
On one weekend I went to a musical program at Kennedy Center near George Washington University. After the ode performance from a renowned musician from Iraq, there was a break for about 20 minutes at that evening. Everyone attending at the program stepped out of the building to watch the sun set in the west across Arlington, Virginia. The Potomac River below the Kennedy Center was another attraction to many viewers. We could see colorful reflection of the sunset on that river.
DuPont Circle Park was another place which fascinated me most of the time when I was tired and wearied. Most of the South Asian restaurants like The Mount Everest, Polo India, Thai herbs, or Hunan Chinese food lie at the peripheral distance of the park. The fountain at the middle of the park and grassy ground with many tables and benches to sit down made the park more attractive.
Among all the places I had visited in D.C., The Washington Monument and The United States Holocaust Museum were unforgettable. Washington D.C. seems to be well planned when viewed from the topmost part of the monument. It helps visitors to see a spectacular sight of fine-looking D.C. The intersection roads were very straight and the buildings built together at rectangular shapes showed well-organized town planning of D.C. The Jefferson monument at the middle of the beautiful Potomac River was so clear and fascinating especially, when observed from the monument. The mesmerizing Washington monument was built in honor of George Washington, the first president of United States. Typically different from Washington monument, the Holocaust Museum diverted my mind for many days. I saw the videos of many kinds of persecution of European Jews. The Nazis murdered about six million Jews in Germany during World War II.
The other famous places which visitors do not want to miss in D.C. are The White House, Smithsonian Museum, American Indian Museum, Air and Space Museum, National Gallery of Art, Capital Building, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, National Museum of Natural History and so on. The most interesting part about these museums is that most of these museums have free entrance.
Over all, I was more than happy that I could utilize my time doing internship in D.C. being far away from boredom and depression. I also got credit for those internships. The most important thing is that I learnt more about D.C. and met many people. D.C. is an important place to be visited once in a life time.
