Sunday, July 27, 2014
By:
This was quite a week! Monday began early: a 7:15am arrival to the Pentagon, for our 8am tour. Since our group was so large, we had a tour guide all to ourselves. He was very impressive, and inspired me to walk backwards on all tours that I now give. We learned a lot about the Pentagon, its history and its employees. However, I knew that we were seeing even less than visitors to the Capitol see; so it goes.
As soon as the Pentagon tour ended, we headed to the Capitol for me to give all of the interns a tour of the building. It was quite an event! I took them to every place I am allowed to take visitors, and then they headed to the galleries while Ashley and I headed back to work. In the afternoon, we visited with Ashley’s office to learn about the life of staff members on the Committee for Science, Space, and Technology. Overall, it was a pretty good day, though I was definitely envious of the other interns who had time off.
Tuesday and Wednesday flew by, as I anticipated my girlfriend’s arrival for the weekend. On Thursday, I gave her another lengthy tour, and we met up for lunch while I continued to work.
Friday was a wonderful day; it was the day of our final presentations to the SPS/AIP community. Though none of my coworkers could take work off for the day, Dr. Mather was in attendance for the presentations. All twelve of us told an audience of about 75 people about the work that we completed during the summer, and how we hope to use these experiences in the future. Overall, it was a lovely event, and it was great to see how everyone else’s projects turned out. I really appreciate that SPS/AIP gives us the opportunity to showcase our work to a room full of other scientists and active members in the AIP/SPS/APS community.
Over the weekend, my girlfriend and I explored DC, and I checked some critical museums off of my list. We went to the Air and Space Museum, the National Building Museum (with the BIG Maze), and enjoyed various delicious brunches. It was a fabulous last weekend with all of the other interns.
Benjamin Preis