Standing for something

I've been back in Canada for two weeks now, which has been plenty of time to settle back into life where I left it, and time to contemplate/reflect on the last ten weeks in Washington. I've hit that feeling right when an experience or travels becomes history, a part of the past, and I can only hold it now as a memory. It's no longer something I'm living everyday.

I know it sounds cliche, but I learned a lot this summer about the importance of setting professional goals, and creating a direction for what exactly you want, and then the steps to link together that big goal, university, and all the little steps that need to be taken in between. I was encouraged, built up and challenged by the people I worked with, and other students and interns I met to want more and to never settle.

Urban centers are full of ambitious, driven people, and the vast majority of people in the DC area can be characterized by those words: eager, hopeful, passionate, competitive... but what I think Washington  has over other cities is passion. Dedication to an ideology, policy or specific goal surrounding an issue. People go to Washington to make a difference.

To condense my summer, the one thing I have taken home with me, and I encourage you all to thread through your professional and academic goals is passion. Last night I was flipping through pictures that I had taken over the summer, and in light of the budget scandal and the presidential campaign, I was thinking back to when I met Congressman Ron Paul. He had a picture of Grover Cleveland (U.S. President in the late 1800s) hanging in his office. Under the picture was the quote:

"What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?"

That idea goes way beyond public office, and I think it's a good summary of what I have learned in DC. Building a career is about standing for something. Put together ideas and values with past schooling or traveling experiences and make a professional career your own. This idea is so central to success, and being able to stand out above the crowd, or in my case, have my resume be at the top of the pile rather than lost in the middle.

This idea, or lesson I learned this summer has already become so invaluable to me, and as I wrap up this short and sweet chapter of my life I want to encourage those reading to do the same. Get involved, plug-in, find like minded people who won't settle and go after what is on your heart. Success can only be yours.

That's it

Well, it’s finally that time of the summer—I’m Alberta bound.

I could not have asked for a more enjoyable last week in DC. I thought about going through my guidebook, and seeing a few more sights, and events that I missed, but I realized what was more important to me was visiting people, and enjoying the company of the friends I’ve had the pleasure of making.

Tuesday during the day I wandered from my apartment down to Capitol Hill one last time. I wanted to check out the Library of Congress, and also that day the Committee of Foreign Affairs was holding a public hearing on Uganda and children’s health. 

Committee on Foreign Affairs: Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health and Human Rights.

Ally and me in the Library of Congress

The hearing was smaller in size, but it was in a great committee room in the Rayburn House Office Building. A lot of events and committees are open, and I was glad to make it to one before my time in Washington came to an end. It was specifically about mental health and hydrocephalus so a few doctors spoke as witnessed. One doctor actually opened a clinic in Kampala, Uganda and trained healthcare professionals in Uganda on this specific surgical procedure that he created to help cure hydrocephalus. It was pretty great to actually see exactly how civil society can influence policy, how policy can actually be formed and how priorities are set within the government.

I went with two friends of mine, Ally and Shadia and we headed for lunch at Good Stuff Eatery. It’s not far from the Library of Congress, and the food is so delicious. It’s such a cool place, and the menu is pretty cool. Their veggie burger is called “Vegetarians are people too” burger. They also have an Obama Burger, and a Michelle Melt. I tried the veggie burger which was made of Portobello mushrooms, and a few different cheeses. It was fantastic! They also have delicious fries seasoned with rosemary. So I was there on Tuesday, and it was in the news on Wednesday that President Obama dropped by for lunch. I missed him by a day! But it’s still cool to say I went to the same restaurant and Obama did in the same week.

Tuesday night was the last day of my US Foreign Policy class. My Professor made a dinner reservation for the class, and we all met at Zorba’s Café in Dupont for dinner. It was this cute Greek restaurant, and the walls were dotted with pictures of Greek landscape. There were about ten students there so it was an intimate group. After a few classes at the beginning of the semester, my Professor opened up the class and allowed for a lot of open dialogue and conversation about foreign policy issues. I began to look forward to the class because of the great discussions we had. Every student was from a different University, in a different part of the country, holding very different values and beliefs. I’ve learned so much about the modern American paradigm from my professor, and from my American classmates. It was indeed very different from the classroom I am used to back in Lethbridge.

It was great to have a few more conversations with those friends I had made. After our Professor left after dinner, we went out for happy hour and I really enjoyed getting to know this varied crowd. If we were not in the same class together, there was no way we would have managed to hang out together, and so I was very thankful for that time, and the great learning experience the class turned out to be.

At the Washington National's baseball game. They played the Atlanta Braves that day.

Wednesday I caught an afternoon Nationals game with two friends, Ally and Lisa. It’s been cool the last week, so in the bottom of the sixth inning the game was rain delayed, but for no more than thirty minutes. I had never been to a professional baseball game before, and I really enjoyed it! We sat back, relaxed and watched the game. I had a beer and a chilli dog in true American fashion.

Thursday I planned to spend some time with the girls I interned with. Most of us lived at the TWC residence, but some of the interns were placed in housing further out of the city in Maryland. They’re apartment building had a pool, so we ventured out into suburbia to hang out by the pool all afternoon. I felt like I was finally getting a little bit of summer. The TWC program is rigorous, and life in DC is very busy, so a rest by the pool on a sunny afternoon was exactly what I needed to come down from the hi of my summer program. That morning I woke up at 6am to go for a last run down the National Mall. I went with Juri, my neighbor from across the hall, for a 7 mile run. The only people out on the Mall that early were runners. It was so peaceful. We ran the whole length of the Mall all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial, which has turned out to be my favorite DC memorial. It rained the night before so at 6am the humidity was at 90% and about 30 degrees Celcius. It was like running in a hot, humid cloud. That's one thing I found out this summer--I never knew I could sweat so much!

That night I met my friends Janelle and Armando for dinner and later drinks. It was our last night out, so we went for Italian food in the downtown/Chinatown area, then to a couple other places for drinks. I'm going to miss the friends I've made here, and the vibrant night life!

Lunch with my Program Manager, Hind.

Friday I met three girls I worked with for lunch with our Program Manager. Our PM, Hind lives in Georgetown so we met for lunch there at a great Indian restaurant. We had all went out for lunch many times throughout the summer during the work week, but this was our last chance to be all together. We had delicious Indian food, chatted for a while, then said our goodbyes.

So this week was all about spending time with the friends I've made over the last 10 weeks, and it was honestly very hard to say goodbye. I'm going to miss them dearly, but who knows what the future holds for us or where we'll cross paths next. :)

A whirl-wind of DC events: the Pentagon, Saudi Arabia and human trafficking

Monday Pentagon Tour

The Washington Center planned a visit for some students to visit the Pentagon last Tuesday. I wish I had a few pictures, but there were no cameras allowed, and all cell phones has to be turned off. It was worth going, to actually say I've been inside the building, but unfortunately we didn't see anything crazy out of the ordinary. Security to get inside was pretty intense, and the place is just crawling with military officials so that made it a pretty great experience. The group I was with was toured by a young Marine, and a man from the Air Force. The most surprising thing I saw in the building was what was in their food court! It is filled with fast food: Mcdonalds, Subway...the building is so big it's an mini city and I guess they've got an expansive gym in the basement too. A lot of the tour was focused on the 9/11 attack, and I actually stood in that part of the building where the plane crashed. 184 people died in the attack, and it's quite sombering to be there and see the memorial with all the names listed.

Saudi Arabian Embassy Visit

Last Monday all the students from the International Affairs program went to visit the Saudi Arabian Embassy. The building stands alone and is quite impressive and made with white marble. The Embassy is beautifully decorated with pictures of Saudi and U.S. leaders together. All the cellphones were taken away at the security desk, so I couldn't take any pictures. That seems to be a DC theme, that places worth visiting there are no cameras allowed. We all sat in a large theater/meeting room and the  Saudi Press Secretary spoke with us for about an hour. He had a lot of interesting things to say, so I'll try and write out the highlights. I've taken these directly from my notes-notice the diplomatic tone and language:

At the doors of the Saudi Embassy with Shadia.

• The Arab Spring was a failure of governments to provide services to their citizens. 
• Problem in Saudi is that the educational system does not stand up to the international standard. Technological change needs to happen with cultural sensitivities.
• No one should have nuclear weapons
• Problem of Arabs: living in the past
• Saudi Arabia represents the Muslim world
• Israelis are not involved in the peace process; there are talks about a two state solution, but no one wants to move forward
• In regards to Palestine's bid into the UN, statehood is Palestines last card

There was recently a woman in Saudi Arabia arrested for driving and so women's rights in Saudi have hit the international spot light this summer. A student asked him about career opportunities and the fact that women may now how more educational opportunity, but there are huge cultural realities when it comes to women actually joining the workforce. The Press Secretary actually said that the government cannot legislate family affairs. There are positions opening up for women, but there are social contraints and economic realities regarding the role of women that creates enormous resistance. I think this is all the more reason for women in the West to be outspoken about gender equality. Women in the West definitely have great opportunities now compared to twenty years ago, but there are women all over the world that are still struggling to have equal rights.

Human Trafficking

Every year the State Department writes a Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report and that was at the beginning of June and that roll-out event was the one Hillary Clinton attended, but anyways because of that report, The Protection Project wrote an analysis of the report, and I went with the girls I work with. The director of the Protection Project, Dr. M.. and the Ambassador-at-large Louis CdeBaca spoke about the TIP report, and the realities of human trafficking and the role of the U.S. government. Ambassador CdeBaca is a great public speaker and very motivational. He talked about how freedom is everyone's business and that both governments and civil society needs to address this issue. There is always room for improvement regarding human trafficking laws and what not. There was a lot of discussion about criminal justice and the realities that many victims cannot go to the police because of the harm speaking out might put them in and many police forces are not equipped to help trafficked victims.

Our culture of consumerism also drives modern day slavery, so it's also another reason why we need to be aware of the products we use, and encourage companies to understand their slavery footprint. I guess there also is a smartphone app coming out soon that will make a lot of human trafficking information available to the public.

Commencement

Today was the TWC commencement, so my summer here is officially coming to an end. I've had such a great experience here, and I could not have asked for a better summer. I'd really like to come back to this city to work, or go to school, so I don't think I'm saying goodbye to DC for good. I'm going to try and see a few more historical sites, snap a few more pictures, but mostly I want to spend the time I have with friends I've made.