Monday, June 27, 2016
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The weeks seem to be going by faster as I get more and more into my work for the summer. I am done with two months worth of content for APS’ Snapchat account (follow us: physicscentral), and have three months left to round off the year! Researching and writing content has been both informative and entertaining, as I have had to refresh a lot of my basic physics, and condense topics to an understandable brief few sentences. However, I have also had a lot of fun looking up experiments and demos that we could recreate on our story to show people some cool physics in action. I keep thinking of more possible topics as I research, so I will hopefully be able to outline the first couple months of 2017 by the end of the next seven weeks as well.
Outside of work, my week was pretty calm until Thursday night. After work, many of the interns headed over to the Congressional Baseball Game with Courtney and Brad. We grabbed dinner and ice cream nearby before the game then headed over to Nationals Park a few minutes into the second inning. The game was pretty slow up until the bottom of the fifth, when the Democrats caught up to the Republicans, ending the inning with a 7-6 lead. The Republicans, however, won the game with a walk-off single, ending the game at 8-7.
Many of my friends from school were also at the game, so I split my time between them and the other SPS Interns. All of the people I knew from school at the game were not science majors, and are mostly interested in government and politics. Throughout the game, we were getting Brexit updates as votes were being tallied up. After the game, I was supposed to go watch more votes come in with friends, but instead opted to go home and keep tabs on the results in bed alongside some X-Files. It was almost surreal watching the votes on BBC, and was definitely surreal when they announced that the UK voted to leave the EU. The devastating outcome has been the topic of discussion among many people around me, and has definitely been at the forefront of my mind over the weekend.
On a different note, a couple of friends and I went to attend Jazz in the Garden on Friday afternoon. The event was meant to last through the early evening, but was cancelled due to storm warnings in the area. A decision I thought was fair, as we were sitting under a tall metal sculpture of a tree, and all my research about lightning from earlier in the day flooded back to me.
Saturday and Sunday were spent at the Newseum. I had never been to the Newseum, despite my two years on the school’s newspaper. I have to say, the Newseum has quickly become my favorite museum in the District. It is incredibly informative, and basically has the rough draft of modern history within its walls. Seeing front pages from around the world on the day after the Brexit announcement was incredible, especially taking into account the different angles each paper took on the story. My favorite exhibit was the Pulitzer Prize winning Photographs. Hearing the stories behind iconic images as well as the photographers’ experiences while shooting was inspiring, and it pushed me to start bringing my camera around with me, again! On Saturday, I happened to meet Judd Apatow at the Newseum right before his Kennedy Center performance. I guess it goes to show you never know who you’ll meet, or what you’ll find exploring new places around DC!
Isabel Binamira