Tuesday, July 16, 2024
By:
Week seven! It’s hard to believe that we are so close to the end of the summer – the days are really starting to fly by. This week was a rare combination of chaos week and routine week, which seems kind of fitting. Of course when I actually spell out my newfound pattern of routine week followed by chaos week it all dissolves.
This week was, for the most part, fairly standard. I bopped along with my gym and work routines without much disruption, and got to spend some time with the other interns and my friends. The weekend is where the real excitement happened, so for now I’ll give you a brief synopsis of my week and leave you in a state of extreme suspense about my weekend shenanigans.
Without further ado, here are the highlights of this week: On Monday night, after I got home from yoga, I joined some of the other interns who were watching the first episode of the new season of the Bachelorette. I’ve never seriously watched the Bachelorette before, and I pretty much only caught the rose ceremony, but even with absolutely no context I was still very amused. Now I’m definitely excited to watch episode two next week! On Tuesday I did my second (and last) interview for the new physicist profiles for the STEP UP Careers in Physics lesson. It went so well! I interviewed a woman who works at a nonprofit that is working on developing and expanding plant-based protein, which I thought was so cool. She was really nice, and super excited to learn about the STEP UP program! I have really enjoyed how excited people are about being included in STEP UP. It is cool to feel like I’m offering them something exciting and fun, especially because they are really helping me out by participating! After work, I went to happy hour with my friend Evan and one of his friends from high school. I had a great time chatting with both of them, and learning all of Evan’s high school secrets. Then, because it was crazy hot out and ice cream was 50% off at Whole Foods, the three of us trooped over to get a sweet treat. I got my favorite dairy free ice cream for only $2.50 which, in my opinion, was an excellent deal and well worth the trip! On Wednesday we had a lunch and learn conversation about grad school which, in all honesty, kind of stressed me out. I’m super excited about going to grad school, but the application process is daunting to say the least! On Thursday I went to happy hour at a sushi restaurant in NoMa with my friend Ainsley.The only available seats were outside, which was not ideal given the scorching temperatures and classic DC humidity, but it was at least shady and we had lots of ice water to drink! On the way back to the metro, we spotted a little book sale on the street and decided to explore. I ended up buying two books for only $12, which was highly exciting! I had never heard of either one, but they look really interesting and I’m really excited to read them. Then I came home and played some Mario Kart with the other interns before heading back to my room to pack. Pack for where, you might ask? Packing for home! That’s right, I was headed back to New York City for the weekend. And the best part was, I was taking my friend Evan with me!
Our New York shenanigans started bright and early on Friday morning with a 4:15am uber to Union Station. One thing I miss about home is that the subway never closes. But alas, the DC Metro does, so Evan and I waited bleary eyed in the lobby of Shenkman for our Uber. The Amtrak was pretty uneventful. I had a couple hours of (uncomfortable) sleep, and then Evan and I created the most nonsensical itinerary to perhaps ever grace the iphone notes app. She was beautiful. When we arrived at my apartment, I showed Evan around before hopping on a Google Meets call for the wildest job interview of my life (I accidentally interviewed to be a middle school science teacher? It’s a long story). We both worked for a little bit and then set out in the afternoon to bop around. Friday was dedicated to bagels and thrifting in Brooklyn with my brother Quinn and his girlfriend Maddie. Brooklyn thrifting is incredible, and I walked away with some great items. Then, we came home and quickly changed to go to a Mets game with the rest of my family! We made Evan wear a Mets jersey, and warned him not to get his hopes up for a victory. At the game, Evan and I split an absolutely massive tub of popcorn (it seriously could have fed a family of four – we barely made a dent) and thoroughly enjoyed the baseball ambiance. To our great surprise, the Mets actually won! We celebrated this with lots of high fives with the rest of my family, and played Charli XCX, Chappell Roan, and 2010s pop the whole drive home.
On Saturday, we again started our day with bagels (is there any other way?) before hopping on the subway so that Evan could go see Columbia Law School. We walked around the campus for a bit, then headed down to Central Park to take a stroll around the lake. I was Evan’s designated personal photographer for the weekend, and so we took lots of fabulous (and some not so fabulous) photos by the lake and on the rocks. Then we hopped on the subway yet again to go look at NYU Law School (in case you haven’t guessed yet, Evan really wants to go to law school) and stroll around Washington Square Park. It was ridiculously hot, so by the time we were done walking around we were thirsty, tired, and sweaty. We headed back to my apartment to flop for a while before venturing back out to do a little shopping and bop around with Evan’s friend from school Matt. Matt lives in New Jersey, so he spent the night at my apartment and the next day we all got breakfast together at my all time favorite spot. Then Evan and I spent the day strolling along the Hudson, through SoHo, and in Greenwich Village. We got some tasty tacos, got rained on, and took several more photos. Then, in the evening, we went up to Times Square. As a native New Yorker, I don’t usually go there, but Evan wanted to go to the M&M store and I was not about to say no to that. We both got an excellent selection of M&Ms (my favorites were caramel and peanut butter) before walking through the crazy crowds to take some (you guessed it) even more photos! These were honestly some of my best work – if anyone needs a photographer just let me know (I took 350 photos of Evan this weekend – I counted)! Then we went home and packed up our stuff for our even earlier Amtrak (4:20am) back to DC. It was an excellent weekend!
It was really nice to go home for the weekend, and I had a great time showing Evan around the city. But I’m also glad to be back in DC now! The end of the internship is looming in the (not so far) distance, and I’m excited to soak up all the time I have left with the rest of the interns!
Amanda Maeglin