Reaching the Heart of an Intern

Monday, I passed halfway through my semester as an intern! It’s crazy how quickly it has gone! I managed to finally get to one of DC’s “must sees”: Arlington National Cemetery.

The classic Arlington snapshot

I had never imagined how monstrous it really is! Because of this, we used the hop-on, hop-off bus tour so we could use our time efficiently (and find the important things). Seeing the Kennedy grave is certainly a solemn experience, especially after seeing the site in Dallas where he was shot. After the Kennedy grave, we rode the bus all the way around to the Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Amphitheater is very gorgeous, with the distinctive Greek feel that so many buildings have in DC. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is, without question, all it is cracked up to be. The consistency of the guard is remarkable (seriously, I sat there and timed him to see if he was consistent- he was within a second every time). The changing of the guard is also fantastic, and something everyone should see. After the Cemetery, we went down to the Pentagon. There isn’t a lot to see at the

Can you see the different colors?

Pentagon besides a massive fortress. However, the memorial for the September 11 attacks was very cool. As roughly 120 people died at the Pentagon, they were able to make a small part of the memorial specifically for each person, which was very cool. It was also very cool to look toward the side that was hit by the plane, as the new stone is a different color than the rest of the building. Sunday I spent in the apartment with a nasty cold (don’t feel sorry for me yet). As a result of my cold, I planned to watch football all day, but the only game on early was the Redskins game! (okay, now you can feel sorry for me). After that intense psychological and emotional torture was over, I did get to see some good football!

            The week at my internship was yet another good one! As part of the theme of poverty (fitting for an intern), this week I looked into the role of the retreat from marriage in poverty. Knowing the poverty rate for single-parent households is exponentially higher than those with two parents, it seemed obvious to me that a decrease in marriage would have an effect on poverty. However, seeing the difference in long-run poverty between domestic partnerships and marriages made the idea more interesting (hint: there is a very large difference). It was certainly an interesting point of view to poverty and a consequence of the retreat from marriage that is not often considered.

Story of the Week: As part of the examination on marriage’s role on poverty, I went to an event at the American Enterprise Institute, another think tank in DC. While the event was very interesting, the true beauty of the event was how it reached the heart of an intern: there was free food. Seeking out and devouring free food largely dominate intern life. However, not only was it free food, AEI has an in-house gourmet chef that cooks all of their free food. While I am not a big breakfast food fan and had already eaten breakfast, I still made sure to take full advantage of free, gourmet food! (and I mean full advantage!)