Monday, June 10, 2024
By:
Welcome back to my channel! Week two ended up being a series of unfortunate events. I learned that sometimes you have to embrace the foolish things in life.
Sunday morning, I spent with Kai and Sonja at the Dupont Farmer’s Market, where I purchased some of the best strawberries ever. The evening was filled with Indiana Jones movies, and I realized that Charlotte had never seen any of them.
All was well on Monday until the evening, when I decided it was time to do laundry. Clearly, the washer and dryer had other plans because my clothes came out soaking wet and then never dried in the dryer…twice. George Washington University, I hope you enjoy my $7 for laundry. Sonja and I hosted a game night, where we learned about Charlotte’s love for Bananagrams and that Jaden can do some impressive impressions.
I almost got kicked out of the Department of State on Tuesday. Charlotte and I were invited to a meeting at the DoS, which was interesting to see how everything works. However, since I didn’t have my official NIST badge, I took longer to get through security and had to be escorted around the building (I was the only one like this). After a long wait for my official GWU card, I could pick it up from the housing office. The people in the office had a mix-up and wondered how I had been getting into my room (Hi, Jaden and Reidyn, I’m your new roommate!). The problem was resolved!
Wednesday was spent at the ACP building with a few other interns. Thankfully, lots of work was done, and I finished my 6-page report that I had to do! We spent the rest of the evening there, where we had the opportunity to listen to Dr. John Mather and Dr. Mark Clampin’s Trimble Lecture titled “The Next Great Space Telescope: Lessons for Success in the Search for Life Outside the Solar System.” Charlotte and I were able to talk to Dr. Mather before his talk and thank him for sponsoring our internship! A few of us were also able to meet with Dr. Robert Petre (Director of Astrophysics at NASA Goddard) and Dr. Chris Stark (NASA Goddard astronomer), who were so generous as to give us their contact information and invite us to NASA Goddard for a tour. The night ended with a fashion show to see what everyone would wear for the next day, aka our dinner cruise.
The best thing happened on Thursday: I finally became a Federal Employee…. Sort of. I was in the NIST office on Thursday and met with my mentor, Susan, who gave me great feedback on the report that I had written. Artificial Intelligence and Intellectual Property are two areas of life that I will be VERY familiar with by week ten. Brad was lovely enough to buy Charlotte and I Cava for lunch. During lunch, I learned that Brad is a major Swiftie (twins) and that the deer on the NIST campus are more of a federal employee than I am. I finally received my NIST badge (so I can get up the elevator), but I can’t use it to log into my laptop because my background check is still pending (I promise I’m clean). Charlotte and I rushed home to get ready for the SPS Dinner Cruise! I learned what “cocktail casual” means and that even executives like the Cha Cha Slide and Wobble. When we returned to land, a few of us went to a club to celebrate our networking skills.
Imagine my face when I walked into the ACP building on Friday morning and my NIST laptop wouldn’t let me log in. Needless to say, I was on the phone with IT for 30 minutes to fix it (shoutout to the NIST IT). My week finally started to look better when Jaden, Charlotte, Charles, and I went to Jazz in the Garden at the Smithsonian Sculpture Garden—forever thanking the high schoolers who let Jaden and Charles in! The night ended with the fourth Indiana Jones movie and Shrek (Charlotte is uncultured about movies).
The weekend was nice and restful, with Saturday spent with Sonja. We had brunch at Tatte Bakery and checked out some bookstores in Dupont. I baked some banana bread and just enjoyed the evening. Charles and Kaden joined us later in the night to play Cranium (If you ever meet Charles, ask him to act out Jekyll and Hyde). Sunday was spent at the zoo, where everyone learned that I have a fear of birds (I think they’re using it against me now). We ended the week with intense games of Uno and a miniature indoor cookout courtesy of Jaden and his George Foreman grill.
Overall, it was a pretty good week! I was going to add the lyric from the great Dr. Swift, “You will never learn your lesson,” but jokes on her, I did.
Jenna Mastropolo