Alternate Universe

DC is kinda like an alternate universe. So many things are unique to the way this City operates, and it's so neat to begin to figure it all out. Had a good second day at the House. We got to go to a hearing of the sub-committee of Energy and Environment, talking about EPA regulations.

This is mostly what I look at all day:

Except this is really pretty easy once you get it down. We take the orange line from West Falls to Capitol South, and then back. Today we found St. Peter's Catholic Church just a 3-minute walk from our office building--we're going to try to make it to 12:10pm mass tomorrow! :) 

I work with Congressman Andy Harris in building 8, the Cannon House Office Building. And this isn't quite the map I like at all day, because what I look at all day is the underground version of this. 

Tunnels. Lots of them. Underneath and connecting the Capitol, the House buildings and the Senate buildings. It is SUPER cool. And public knowledge, though very little people seem to have known about it before they came and saw it. So now you know!! It's very organized, but still veery complex.

We had another bus mix-up today, but are hoping to get it right tomorrow. We ate dinner with our host parents Dan and Maureen, and then Maureen took us and the pup on a power walk through a park, just right by their neighborhood. And I mean POWER walk. This woman is so impressive in so many ways! She knows a lot and Leslie and I are in awe of how active she still is.

If you're curious for more, check out: http://www.aoc.gov/cc/index.cfm

P.S. Anybody can just walk into the House buildings (if they pass security), find their Congressman's office on the directory, and walk right in (though the Congressman is likely to be out)! And they do so! From there you can get hooked up with a tour guide. If anyone's interested, maybe I can give you the tour ;) We get trained sometime soon.

P.P.S. I'm really excited about the fact that this "part" of my internship comes first, the highly political part that is. This is giving me a good taste of how government really functions at the heart of this country, and I think it'll give me good background when I move on to work in the Students for Life office and do work more directly related with pro-life.