Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Two, Scene Six: "Minister Goodale, I presume?"

Here (only a few days later than promised) is my next update. Brace yourselves - she's huge.

Friday I spent all day at a tax policy conference at the Brookings Institution. That's right, from 8.30 in the morning until 5.15 at night I was listening to people talk about reforming the American tax system! And, bonus, they even had a speaker during lunch, so we didn't have to miss out while we were eating!

I'm pretty sure it was the longest day I will ever have in my entire life.

Of course, it wasn't all bad. I did learn some interesting stuff about the American income tax system that I didn't know, and gained some valuable (although probably impractical) knowledge about consumption and flat tax regimes. Also, the lunch was fairly good, and included an array of gigantic soft cookies. There's always a silver lining. And Friday night turned out to be the greatest night I've had so far...

Now, the Secretary-General of the OECD is retiring, and on Friday night the embassy held a reception in his honour. Thankfully our supervisor managed to swing invites for the interns in our section, so we had the amazing opportunity to go and rub elbows with some of the movers and shakers in attendance. One of the secretaries from our section recruited a few of us to help escort the dignitaries up to the reception area on the 6th floor and back down again, so that nobody was walking around the embassy unattended. That gave me an opportunity to chat, briefly, with a number of dignitaries and bureaucrats who had come.

Specifically, I got to meet Ralph Goodale (Canadian Minister of Finance), the Ambassador from New Zealand, the Deputy Director of CIDA, and the retiring Secretary-General himself. I also saw David Dodge (Governor of the Bank of Canada), although he left before I had a chance to say hello, and the British Ambassador - who arrived in a chauffered Rolls Royce. Obviously, I was quite impressed.

On Saturday there was a gigantic anti-war protest scheduled to take place all over the city, including a march all around from the Washington Monument past the White House and down to the Capitol. I agreed to go, if only to see first-hand what such a massive demonstration (likely 100,000 plus) would look like. My plan, of course, was to act strictly as an observer, lest my presence be construed as support for the various protest groups present.

Anyway, long story short, we ended up marching with the protest up to the White House, which was a truly amazing experience. Granted, I don't think I've ever been more uncomfortable in my life (there was a period where we were stuck between a horde of Communists on one side, and a bunch of people waving the Palestinian flag on the other - talk about a rock and a hard place for me...) but I'm so glad I went.

I also got into the spirit of things a bit: at one point there were some older women singing "If I had a Hammer," and I couldn't help but join in. There were more than a few times though, when I just wanted to tell the protesters to wake up and smell the real world, or to go get jobs, or something. Especially the stereotypically creepy unibrowed Bolshevik who tried to sell me his workers' propaganda newsletter.

People were chanting some absurd things, and were carrying signs that were completely ridiculous, and I can't help but feel that if I had access to a megaphone I could have blown all of their minds. Of course, if I had made my comments to anyone other than my friends I probably would have been physically trampled by the moral majority, heh. As it was, I think I may have irrevocably alienated Marie, who, as I may have mentioned before, is a lovable hippie from the plains.

Anyway, there were a lot of awesome signs, photos of which I tried to attach below without success. I'm thinking about setting up an online photo album to showcase the photographic evidence of all these adventures.

Carrying on, my dear friend Tekla drove down from Kingston with a small cadre of anarchists to join in the protests. These anarchists were so intense that they attended a fringe protest rather than attending the mainstream one. Luckily Tekla chose to strike out on her own, so she and I met up after the protest and spent the evening together. I showed her Kramerbooks, the amazing bookstore I keep ranting about, then we went for dinner. After dinner we went to see Just Like Heaven, entirely at her insistence. Tekla was eager to be mentioned in the blog, so eager in fact that she urged me to write this entry quicky in what was an embarrassingly abrupt Anonymous comment on Scene 5. Hopefully this paragraph will placate her.

On Sunday I had planned on going to the Holocaust Museum, but ended up doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. Well, I did some homework, had a nap, and then watched Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. It was glorious - a perfect Sunday.

Monday morning we went on a tour of the OAS, which has one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. And having wandered around Washington for a few weeks, that's saying something. I won't bore you with all the lavish details, but inside was a tropical rainforest courtyard complete with a rare pink marble fountain and an exotic fig/rubber tree hybrid presented by President Taft as a symbol of peace in 1910. Elliot - It's amazing how much of Taft's legacy is out there to be discovered. Of course, it's nice to know that he's remembered for something other than his enduring Presidential taco-eating record...

While at the OAS we listened to a speaker who outlined the work of the OAS, and gave us some information about the negotiations surrounding the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). It was pretty interesting stuff. We had a couple of hours to kill before our afternoon speaker, so Claire and Kristina and I went for lunch, where we met up with our friend Patrick and his friend Blake. The five of us wandered around for a little bit, and actually made it back over to the White House where there were still quite a few protesters hanging around. I reiterated my belief that they should get jobs, especially since it was 2.00 on a Monday afternoon, before we headed off to the Department of the Interior.

There, we heard a speech by the British Ambassador to the US (the same guy who had been at the embassy on Friday night). While the majority of people seemed unimpressed, I really enjoyed his speech, talking about British foreign policy direction and their plans. I also took a good deal of pleasure in the fact that he took the time to speak favourably about Margaret Thatcher's legacy despite being a Labour appointee. Then Friday night we had class, as always. Again, we were let out early and I made it home to watch Prison Break.

The rest of the week I'll cover briefly, since it was mostly routine work, interspersed with moments of pure hilarity, including a disproportionate amount of laughter involving the Golden Girls... long story.

Tuesday was a standard day at the Embassy. I spent the morning finishing up my report I'd started the previous Thursday on my metro transit safety hearing. In the afternoon I began my report on Friday's tax policy forum for our Finance counsellor.

Yesterday I continued my report on the tax policy forum, before attending a Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing on corporate social responsibility around the world, and how the government should act to promote it which took most of the afternoon.

Today I finished my report on the tax-policy conference (I know it seemed to take a long time, but you try condensing 8 hours of talking from 15 speakers into a concise, readable report), and then wrote my report on the Human Rights briefing. Oh, we also had the opportunity to attend a fancy lunch being put on for some investment conference that the embassy was sponsoring, since they had ordered too many meals. The food was pretty good (steak & salmon - Uncle David, I ate the salmon. You must be proud. Of course, it was covered in a delicious cream sauce and didn't taste like fish...) We had a really interesting speaker who gave an amazingly (and unabashedly) pro-Canadian speech, which I really enjoyed. We also got free copies of his book about Canadian business acumen on the way out, which was an added bonus.

And just like that we're up to date! I'm going to take this last two minutes of your time offer "props" (wow, I'm so white) to Mrs. Marchant for integrating so well into the excellent West Wing cast photo she sent to Claire, which is now prominently displayed in the embassy.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Two, Scene Five: The Circle of Life

Alright, team, it's well past the time for another update.

So, here's my game plan. This morning I'm going to post about last week (Saturday to Thursday), and then tomorrow evening I'll post another entry covering this weekend (Friday to Monday). Apologies again for making you wait; I've actually received several complaints, which kind of makes me happy. So, without further adieu, here we go...

On Saturday (Sept. 14) Claire and I rode the metro up to Dupont Circle, then hiked up Embassy Row to check out come of the fancy old houses that now constitute the bulk of the foreign missions to Washington. There were some really nice ones, including a couple of surprisingly impressive showings from Estonia and Cameroon. They're definitely the little countries that could...

...could purchase fancy embassies, I suppose.

After that we returned to Dupont Circle, where we checked out this amazing little bookstore called Kramerbooks, where Claire's roommate Kristina works. After talking about it for a week, I ended up buying Barack Obama's book, as well as Thomas Friedman's Longitudes and Attitudes (which Natasha's mother strongly recommended when last we spoke). From there we actually went to the park in Dupont Circle, where we sat on park benches reading away the afternoon. It was really relaxed, and thoroughly enjoyable. Sadly, though, I've still been unable to finagle my way into playing outdoor chess with someone. I'm going to have to go back and try again.

After that we met up with some friends and went to Adams Morgan for dinner, where I sampled Ethiopian food for the first time. It was... interesting... to say the least. They served it in this big bowl, and it consisted of, basically, a variety of different-coloured mushes. It comes with this weird rubbery flat bread called injera (I think?) which you dip into the mush to eat. A couple of the mushes were absolutely delicious, but my stomach felt kind of weird afterwards. From there, Claire and I went to meet up with Adam (Claire's friend from Queen's who I mentioned before) and Brendon (Adam's friend from Washington, who I also mentioned before) who were eating at a Thai restaurant out in Foggy Bottom. We chatted with them for a while, before heading off to a bar where Claire and I were shut down, sadly, as we're not 21.

On Sunday I did some grocery shopping in the morning before Claire and I went to meet Adam and Brendon to watch some Sunday afternoon football (in the greatest of American traditions). We ended up going to this sports bar-type restaurant in Pentagon City called Champps (none of us could figure out why they needed that second p). They had four games on at once, so I found it somewhat hard to follow at times. It seemed that whenever I was watching one game, something exciting would happen in another and the whole place would erupt, and I'd be left looking around wondering what was going on. Unfortunately, all of my favourite teams (being the Minnesota Vikings, the New England Patriots, and the Green Bay Mermen) lost, but it was an enjoyable afternoon. After returning home I spent a couple of hours struggling to iron some more of my dress shirts.

On Monday we had a couple of speakers and then class. The first guy was really good, but sadly I can't remember his name. He made a stong point about finding something you really love and doing it to be happy; not worrying about making a lot of money. He also made some rather interesting points about working or interning and figuring out what you want to do before going to grad school. Whatever he said specifically, it was enough to call my entire life into question, and I've been quietly wallowing in doubt about what I'm going to do with my future ever since. The second guy was the former US Ambassador to Japan, and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was interesting, for sure, but I was still too busy reeling from the first guy to remember what he said. Luckily I took notes, so I can revisit the Ambassador's lecture at a later date. Then we hung around for the afternoon before going to class at night.

Tuesday was the first day that was fairly uninteresting. I did some research for my supervisor, and generally helped out where there was a need, but it was pretty slow. Not that I'm complaining, though, as it was nice to not have anything to do for a bit.

Wednesday morning I went to a Senate Homeland Security Committee meeting on the safety of American mass transit systems following the terrorist attacks in London in July. Among the speakers was the COO of the London Underground, and what he had to say about their efforts to increase security was quite interesting. That afternoon I went to a Senate Commerce, Energy, and Transportation Committee meeting on rising gas prices. Since I'd been to two or three other congressional committee meetings on the same topic there wasn't much new information presented, although a Democratic Senator made an interesting comment about trying to get OPEC banned from the WTO for their collusive anti-free trade behaviour. That took me to the end of the day.

On Thursday morning, we were finally set up on the embassy's computer systems, and spent about an hour in a basic training program down with the IT service people. Then we went and finally got our official embassy ID swipe cars with our faces on them. I then organized my notes on the gas price hearing, and was debriefed, briefly, by the embassy's energy counsellor. After lunch I started writing my report on the mass transit hearing for the transportation counsellor, and that took me to the end of the day.

All right. As we agreed, that'll be it for now. Sadly, I just realized that I have some homework to attend to. I keep forgetting that I'm in school right now, however nominally.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Two, Scene Four: Havana Nights

Well friends, here we are. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long... this really should have been two entries, but I kept putting it off, and putting it off. So now here I am to describe (in detail, of course) my comings and goings this week. And don't worry, it'll be complete (as always) with an abundance of parentheticals.

On Tuesday, the morning started off fairly slowly. It wasn't too long, though, before I had my first taste of excitement this week - I received a phone call back with the information I'd requested from the Department of State, which I had contacted last week. On my call diplay it actually read "US State Dept," which, being the huge geek I am, I found really cool. Even more cool was the fact that when I was writing my report, I got to cite the gentleman I spoke with as "my contact at the State Department." Awesome.

That afternoon I attended a financial policy forum at a think tank called the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). It was pretty interesting stuff. Luckily I'd researched their topic, related to the regulation of the two large federal mortgage companies, so I had an idea of what they were talking about. The moderator, who is a senior fellow with AEI, struck me as quite intelligent and I ended up looking up one of his essays later in the week.

On Wednesday morning I wrote my report on the AEI proceedings, which was later forwarded on by my supervisor directly to the Department of Finance in Ottawa. That afternoon I went to watch a meeting of the House Government Reform Committee's Oil and Gas Production Subcommittee. It took far longer than it should have, as the House was having a vote on some issue and they had to take a recess to let the congressmen go vote.

Thursday was the best day of the week, although certainly the busiest. In the morning I went to Resources For the Future (RFF), an energy and environmental think tank to hear a speech on securing America's energy future by Senator Barack Obama (a Democrat from Illinois). Obama is widely regarded as a future leader in the Democratic Party, so the embassy wanted to know where he stood on continental energy policy. Luckily, he's a hell of a public speaker, and it was a really great speech. I've now decided that I should read his autobiography (which is apparently a national best seller), and will likely purchase it soon.

After returning to the embassy, I sorted through and summarized my notes from the House meeting on Wednesday, before being debriefed by the embassy's energy counsellor. Then Claire and I went for lunch. While eating at our table, two of our fellow interns (one, a prim white girl from Connecticut, and the other, a somewhat swarthy Puerto Rican) walked in together. Claire was excited to see the two of them together, exclaiming that it was "just like Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights." It was easily the funniest thing I'd heard all week (although a rather astute poke at Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew later that afternoon was a close second), and I almost choked I was laughing so hard.

On the elevator ride back to our office, Claire wondered what people thought when they saw us together. By her logic, of course, we would be the original Dirty Dancing cast. Although as those of you who've seen my moves well know, I'm no Patrick Swayze on the dance floor. I do try, though, to have the time of my life...

That afternoon I wrote and submitted my report on Senator Obama's speech. The energy counsellor liked it, but I wrote it out in the wrong format (I didn't actually know there WAS a format, since the Finance guy lets me write however I want), so I had to fix it up a bit before he signed off on it. I also got to proof read one of his reports to Ottawa, on which I'm cited for consultation. Claire and I also took some time to watch CTV news reporting on the Prime Minister attending the big 60th Anniversary UN Conference with our supervisor. It devolved into a bunch of reporters harassing Martin about Pierre Pettigrew squandering tax payer dollars, which suited me just fine.

Today I didn't really have much to do, so I ended up doing some research for the finance counsellor regarding American opinions on the benefits and drawbacks of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the potential for revamping parts of the legislation. So I tracked down some reports (including the aforementioned essay by the AEI moderator) which he then sent on to the Department of Finance. He said they just like to be fed information from time to time, although it seems to me they (or their finance interns) could find those reports just as easily on the internet as I can.

After lunch I spent some time clearing up a bit of work from my class at The Washington Center, and I had a chance to chat briefly with my dear friend Fraser, who is currently on his own adventure, going on exchange for the whole year in Edinburgh. He mentioned that he had climbed some substantial hill or something, and was quite proud (does this count as a "shout-out," Fras?) With him in Scotland is my dear arch-nemesis Chase. It's interesting to see how many people are taking off all over the place this year.

After work, Claire and I went to happy hour in the embassy with Claire's roommate Marie (who I'm sure you remember from before) and two other people Claire knew (one from Queen's, and his friend from D.C.), who turned out to be really good company. We ended up having a pretty good time. We had originally planned to stop in at the Smithsonian sculpture garden beside the National Gallery where they have jazz music on Friday evenings, but were too late. From there we returned home, where Claire and Marie arranged to go out with the guys for the night. Feeling exhausted, I declined. So now I'm left wondering whether or not I'm going to get the late-night phone call to come escort the girls home from the metro.

--

I'm going to take a bit more of your time to comment on one topic of note this week. While normally this space is reserved for my culinary adventures, this is too good to pass up.

While I was at the House energy subcommitte meeting (I believe), Claire attended a forum on African development where she happened to sit with an intern from the Norwegian embassy. I guess they bonded over lunch, as he asked for her email address and gave her a taxi ride home (on the Norwegian government's dime. That's my girl!) . She didn't know what his name was until he emailed her, and then couldn't pronounce it until she called his voice mail to hear it (after hours, of course). Turns out it's Torbjorn (with a line through the "o" and a funky pronounciation).

Anyway, he was going to be at the sculpture garden as part of an embassy social event and suggested she stop by (which was exactly why we were planning to stop by), but because of the timing of Claire's friends' arrival at the embassy we couldn't make it. As Claire had already told him she'd be there, I'm just hoping her failure to show doesn't cause some kind of minor international incident. The last thing we need is to drive the Norwegians further into the arms of those conniving Danes. His email also mentioned the possibility of coffee or "something" next week, a possibility that has me quite excited (far more excited, in fact, than Claire, who seems fairly blasé about it). I guess we'll see what happens.

Think about it: Claire and a Norwegian intern! Can you imagine how blond the children would be!?

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Two, Scene Three: The Burberry Crashers

Hello again, loyal readers. Another weekend has passed - once again in a flurry of activity. It seems that there's never a dull moment around here! Well, that's not true, but I use those dull moments to recuperate and post on this little blog, so it all evens out.

Despite my best efforts to the contrary, I woke up at about 8.00 Saturday morning and could not go back to sleep. I was not impressed. Around 11.30 Claire and I went to the Museum of Natural History, which is home to various fossils, dinosaur skeletons, stuffed mammals, and the Hope Diamond. It was pretty impressive, although the dinosaurs weren't quite as enormous as I remembered. Perhaps it's because things that once seemed really big now seem, well, less so. Regardless of size, they had a pretty good collection, including complete Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, and Diplodocus (as you know, the longest of the dinosaurs) skeletons.

There was also a really interesting, albeit small, exhibit on Sikhism, and an exibit showing the fascinating history of the Hope Diamond (it's an impressive jewel with an impressive story). However, the object I found most noteworthy was a stuffed rhino that had been "collected" by Teddy Roosevelt on Safari in Africa. For those who don't know, that means he blasted it like a Spaniard on San Juan Hill. While I was trying to be funny, that may have come across as rather callous. I'll let you be the judge. But be aware that I'm judging you based on how you judge me. Seems only fair.

On the way home, we stopped off at the Pentagon City mall where Claire got a smoothie and I got a haircut (the woman said she was going for "respectable" - suffice it to say that it's taking some getting used to). We wandered around there for a bit then grabbed groceries and headed home. That night everybody was off to bars/dance clubs in the area of Adams Morgan (I think). So, being under 21, Claire and I went to see the Wedding Crashers at a theatre we discovered two subway stops south of our apartment building. It was absolutely hilarious, as I had been told by all of you who saw it months ago.

On Sunday morning we went down to an art festival that was happening in historic Old-Town Alexandria, which was really amazing. The whole of King Street was filled with tents and vendors, selling everything from pottery and photographs to oil paintings and sculptures. We also found this amazing old poster store that had a cataologue of hundreds of propaganda posters from both World Wars (among other posters) for sale. Unfortunately, they weren't war posters of the $10 variety (like the ones hanging in my room) but rather of the "I'll make you a print and frame it for $350 US" variety. It was a bloody shame, too, since they had the coolest "Let's go Canada" one with a Canadian soldier in front of a Union Jack. Of course, I was in heaven.

After heading home from the arts festival and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we took off to Adams Morgan (a pretty funky, bohemian-y neighbourhood) where they were having a big street festival as well. We stopped by a pretty cool used book store, and sort of slowly meandered through the masses of people and vendors. After clearing the festival, we walked down 18th St. to New Hampshire Ave., then followed that down (past the Argentinian Embassy!) to Dupont Circle where they have a big park complete with outdoor cement chess boards. We didn't stop to play, but I've vowed to return one day as playing outdoor cement chess has always been one of my goals in life, and strikes me as a perfect way to spend an afternoon.

From Dupont Circle we walked along Connecticut Ave. to the Farragut North metro station, with one stop along the way: while walking, we happened upon a Burberry store located in a beautiful old building. Claire (being a Burberry buff) just had to stop and look. Of course, since I'm in the market for a new coat, I readily agreed. We both took a bit of time to try on overcoats more expensive than our computers (P.S. Mom, I've started a birthday/Christmas list), and acted the part of young well-to-do professionals quite successfully. I will say, however, that Claire seems to need more confidence when it comes to staying in character while "store crashing." Perhaps we'll see some improvement with a bit more practice.

Sunday night was spent doing my homework for the Washington Center, including a fluffy learning objectives statement and an official journal entry regarding my first week - not something worth detailing extensively.

Today I had to wake up quite early, as we had NAFTA program events starting at 9.00 up near George Washington University , and we weren't sure *exactly* where we were going. However, we managed to make it there quite early. At the Washington Center we watched a movie on Mexico as an emerging economic power, and then we had a bit of time off. Our friends Jake from Cleveland and Jorge from Peru joined Claire, Kristina and I for a bit of lunch, before we all headed over to the U.S. Department of Commerce. While we had a few problems getting through security and into the building, everything resolved itself eventually. The speaker at the Commerce Department was an officer in their NAFTA section, who had worked on a couple of other free trade agreements - including the recently signed CAFTA - so he had some pretty interesting stuff to say. A lively question and answer session followed, but I resisted the urge to ask a pointed question about softwood lumber.

After that we returned home for a bit before going back up to the Washington Center's building near GWU for our first NAFTA class. It's getting late and I need to go to bed, but the class looks pretty good, and the teacher is absolutely amazing! On my walk back to the metro I called home just to check in and had a nice little chat with my brother who had, apparently, been at the cottage all week doing his artist's deep "man vs. nature" thing. I can't wait to read his great American novel.

Thankfully class ended early (it's scheduled from 6 to 9, but we ended a little before 8) so when I came home I was able to catch this week's episode of Prison Break, which is the only new show I'm watching with any interest so far (check it out, you know you want to).

Over the weekend I received a couple of emails from my supervisor at the embassy, regarding upcoming projects. It looks like this week is shaping up to be just as interesting as the last. As always, I'll keep you informed.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Two, Scene Two: Thank Goodness it's Friday!

Well, what a week it's been. As I'm sure you can tell from the sharp reduction in blog entries, I've been quite busy.

I've been leaving my apartment around 8 every morning, and getting home after 7 every night (in fact, this was the first night I've been home before 7!). It's been three days, I think, so I'll give you a quick overview of what I've been doing.

Wednesday was the big embassy fundraiser for hurricane Katrina, which turned out pretty well. They had a US military band and a big tent set up, and I think we ended raising over $20,000. Claire and I helped take donations for an hour and a half, before grabbing lunch with Pratima, and taking off to a House Energy Committee meeting (basically, the house counterpart of the Senate meeting we watched on Tuesday).

Yesterday morning I went solo to a Senate Banking Committee meeting, which I feared would last all day, but thankfully only took about three hours. I got lost trying to leave, and while wandering around the bowels of the Senate office building I ran into Joe Lieberman and a cadre of press people following him around. So that was cool. However, it took me like 1/2 an hour to get back to the Embassy. Claire was quite concerned.

After returning to the Embassy, being debriefed on the Energy meeting from the day before, and grabbing lunch, Claire and I went off to represent the Embassy at an Economic Forum at the IMF (International Monetary Fund). This was easily the highlight of my week. The panel of Oxford-grade economists were talking about the pros and cons of loan conditionality, and ended up mentioning about all kinds of economic things that I actually kind of understood. I decided that I should probably get an economics degree, too.

This morning, I wrote and submitted my first written brief, on the Banking Committee meeting I'd attended yesterday morning. After lunch, I spent some time working on some class stuff for the Washington Center before researching a couple of bios for people attending a special lunch with the Ambassador next week. Then I was charged with finding answers to some questions related to US trade organizations, which culminated in the second highlight of the week: me calling and talking to about four people at the State Department! It was awesome. When you tell them you're calling from the Embassy, everyone is extra nice to you...

Then, Claire and I went to the gym (as we've actually done every day this week, except for Tuesday 'cause we didn't know there was a gym). It struck me today, as I was reading the Foreign Policy Journal, while riding a stationary bike, in the gym of the Canadian Embassy, that this is probably the best time of my life.

That brings us up to now, as I'm sitting here watching a Red Sox game with one of my roommates. This blog entry ended up being fairly concise (for three days' worth); I suppose the key is to just touch on everything briefly. How uninspired. As for tonight, I'm optimistically estimating my bed time to be 9.00 pm, and estimating my wake-up time as somewhere around 2:00pm on Sunday. We'll see.

--

Oh, I think I forgot to mention on my blog for Tuesday that Claire and I ran into John Kerry as we were returning to the Embassy after the hearing on our first day of work. It just goes to show what total political geeks we are that we were totally awestruck. However, I'm proud to say that we maintained our composure until we were in the elevator at which point we both freaked out in a fairly embarrassing manner.

Also, I'm supposed to mention my dear friend Natasha, who's feeling left out as far as this blog goes. I pointed out to her that she's neither in Washington, nor has she left a comment on the blog, so I really had no reason to mention her... but I feel bad leaving her in the dark. (Natasha - I was going to mock your earlier geographical mix-up, but after reading your posted comment I figured It'd be like rubbing salt in the wound...)

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Two, Scene One: Sheena Easton's Revenge

That's right, loyal readers, today Claire and I ACTUALLY took the morning train, we ACTUALLY worked from 9 to 5, and then... we ACTUALLY took another home again. But sadly, there was no one waiting for us.

There. Having expended my Sheena Easton/Morning Train joke early on, I'll pause for a moment to say a big hello to my Grandma, who I've just learned (from my mother) has become quite an avid reader. Apparently she's been calling my mom about everything she reads on here. Unfortunately, I've doddled while writing this, and she'll be in bed long before I actually get this posted. (Grandma - I hope you're feeling better! Love to you and Gramps)

Today started off with a bang... I accidentally set my alarm clock for 6.30 PM, instead of 6.30 AM, so when I woke up a little after 7 (with orders too meet Claire at 7.50) I almost had a heart attack. Luckily Miguel had been up since 6, and was practically out the door, so I was able to wolf down a quick breakfast and fancy myself up without obstructions, and in fairly short order.

After that, we caught the train just before 8, and arrived downtown around 8.15 - ridiculously early. So we stopped by the Starbucks near the Naval Memorial, where we sat for about half an hour (getting more and more excited about the fact that we were actually starting our jobs in Washington!).

We arrived at the embassy a little before 9, where we went through security and checked in with the receptionist (who works in a little glass box beside the internal door), and were told to wait. While waiting, we met two other interns, and chatted with them briefly before the intern coordinator came down to greet us.

She gave us a quick tour of the embassy and went over a few of their standing orders, before dropping us off at our desks. It's a pretty awesome building -- we have a heavily subsidized cafeteria, a big gym in the basement, and some amazing views of the Capitol building. More importantly, they get Canadian news stations and papers, as well as Macleans magazine and the Canadian edition of Time. I'm happy, since I've been jonesing for a National Post since I got down here.

As soon as we sat down a strange man (who I'd later learn is the embassy's energy commissioner) wandered in and snagged Claire and I to go with him to a press conference they were holding in the embassy's new press centre (for those of you who watch West Wing, think of the White House briefing room, but with Canadian flags everywhere).

After that we returned to our desks, met our supervisor Pratima (who hadn't been in when we'd first arrived), and spent a bit of time setting things up and getting supplies. We then went to lunch with Pratima and got to know her a little bit; she seems really great, so I'm looking forward to working with her.

From there we ventured to the Public Relations department to steal some Canadian/American flag pins (which I'd looked for unsuccessfully in Canada), then spent a bit of time looking over a Congressional information circular that the embassy receives, and finished sorting out our desks.

Then, came the highlight of the day: Pratima dropped us off at a meeting of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee up on Capitol Hill. I was so excited at the fact that we were sitting in an actual Senate meeting chamber, watching actual Senators, and taking notes that we'll actually be using (when we're debriefed tomorrow!), that the lack of interesting subject material wasn't much of a concern.

That took almost three hours, after which we headed back to the embassy where we picked up our bags and headed home. On the way, we stopped and I picked up several boxes of All-Bran bars, including a new flavour I didn't know existed, which should keep me stocked for a little while at least.

Tomorrow the embassy is holding a big fundraising benefit to raise money for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, so Claire and I will be volunteering with that for part of the day. It's possible there will be a trip to a House subcommittee meeting tomorrow as well. It sounds like we're going to be doing a lot of different stuff without much structure for the first little while, which suits me just fine.

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I was actually just watching Fox 5 news as I was typing this, and they mentioned the Senate Subcommittee meeting I attended today, and I thought that was pretty cool.

« intermission »

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act One, Scene Four: The Miracle on Independence Ave.

As I'm sure you can tell from the frequency and duration of my postings, I'm really enjoying this whole blogging thing. I'm saddened, of course, that once business starts to pick up with work and school the amount of time I have to dedicate to this latest pursuit will be substantially reduced.

This morning I slept in, had a solid breakfast, and had a good conversation with my roommate Miguel about life in Puerto Rico. At noon, I met Claire and her roommate (whose name I'll now reveal), Marie. At dinner last night, Claire and I had agreed to accompany Marie to the Smithsonian's modern art gallery and sculpture museum (she's an art major, you see) today.

Marie is interning at the EPA which is located just north of the National Mall, conveniently behind the Ronald Reagan building. After testing the metro ride to her office, we set off. First, we went through the "Castle," which was the original Smithsonian Institution and is now the central office/directory for the entire Smithsonian system. Smithson's crypt (James Smithson is the man for whom the Smithsonian is named) is just within the entrance, which I found kind of creepy... but I suppose he earned it.

From there we went out the back of the castle and through its manicured gardens to take Independence Ave. to the gallery. It was there, on Independence Ave., that the most amazing thing happened. As we were walking, this very kindly woman stopped us, asking if we'd be around D.C. all day. Confused, we replied that we would, and she offered us her tickets to the top of the Washington Monument for that afternoon. Now, for those of you who don't know, the tickets are given out every morning starting at 8.30, and are usually all gone by 9, as Claire and I had found out much to our chagrin the day before.

So, with our tickets in hand, we headed to the gallery. As the tickets were for 3pm, we only had about an hour and a half at the gallery, but we were able to go through their entire special temporary exhibit on visual music. There was some pretty psychadelic stuff in there, let me tell you.

From there we headed back across the Mall to the Washington monument, where we rode the elevator to the top. Now, I can't exaggerate how tremendous the view was from the top. Washington's a very flat city, and the weather was perfect, so from our vantage point 500 feet up we were able to see everything! I must have taken 40 pictures. Most amazingly, we could even see to our apartment buildings back in Alexandria.

As we headed back down, the elevator began to slow. Thanks - as the Park Ranger operating the elevator pointed out - to the miracles of technology, fibre-optics, and the United States Parks Service, the elevator's door panels turned from opaque to transparent, revealing the inside walls of the monument. Now, I had no idea, but a number of states, cities, countries, and private donors paid to have special commemorative stones placed into the monument, and in so doing provided the funding for its completion. All of these stones were placed facing inward, so we could watch them all go by as we went down to the bottom.

Once our feet were back on the ground, we headed up the Mall towards the Capitol. Marie left Claire and I to go see the National Gallery (where, as I'm sure you'll recall, we had visited several days ago) while Claire and I headed over to the National Air and Space Museum.

Unfortunately, there were only a couple of hours left before the museum closed, so we only managed to make it through a bunch of the space race exhibits, and to learn a bit about telescopes. We also checked out the Wright Brothers' Flyer just as the museum was closing. Suffice it to say we'll be returning there before our time in Washington is up.

After that we took the metro back to Alexandria and did a bit of quick grocery shopping before going home. While they didn't have any of my beloved All-Bran bars (I'm going to have to make a special stop on my way home from work tomorrow!), I did manage to pick up some of those delicious Keebler Fudge Stripe cookies which my grandparents used to buy for my brother and I when they'd go shopping in Buffalo. Jerko, if you're reading this, you know what I'm talking about.

Tomorrow, of course, Claire and I head off to our first day as interns at the Embassy. I can't wait; I feel just like a little kid on Christmas Eve.

Bah, who am I kidding? I feel like myself on Christmas Eve.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act One, Scene Three: Lions and Tigers and... Panda Bears? Oh my.

As I write this, the sun has just set on another glorious day in the District. These last two days have passed in a flurry of activity, and I expect more of the same for tomorrow. The weather's been magnificent, although a little hot for my liking.

Yesterday, Claire, Kristina (and her roomate), and I went to the barbeque in Arlington that I had mentioned previously. There we chatted briefly with their roomates, and with mine, before taking off for an afternoon at the National Zoo.

So, we rode the subway the farthest north I'd yet been, and wandered up Connecticut Ave. to the zoo. The zoo's a pretty neat place, with some of those ornate and classically designed zoo buildings that years of working at that God-forsaken Safari had made me forget.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) one of the two famous Panda Bears at the zoo had recently given birth. So, the mother and cub had been removed from the exhibit, leaving only one Panda, Tian Tian, wallowing in his own filth. While he was cool to see, I think it might have been better to see a couple of them interacting. A number of other animals were also missing, apparently due to a combination of the heat and ongoing construction.

There were, however, a number of really interesting animals. The highlights for me, of course, were the elephants and hippos (as I'm sure you know, I'm all about the fat animals). The best though, were the pygmy hippos. They were only like half a ton and ridiculously adorable. Don't worry, I took movies of them on my digital camera, and will be happy to share. There were also some pretty cool boar-type things from South America.

After leaving the zoo, we walked all the way down Connecticut Ave. to Dupont Circle. The walk was awesome: we went over this beautiful bridge with giant lion statues at either end, and past a number of fancy buildings which contain what I can only assume to be luxurious apartments. In fact, I think I've found my future home in a rounded French-looking building called the Dresden.

Down near the circle we stopped for coffee before taking the metro home. We must have been on our feet for at least 8 hours. I was so wiped that when we returned home I retired for the evening and finished my book on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire (RLJ would be proud!) before bed. I know. Wild man.

Today, we did the requisite national mall/monuments seeing. We started off at the Washington Monument, before walking through the WWII memorial on the way to the Lincoln Monument. After that, we accidentally stumbled upon the Vietnam Memorial, which I had forgotten about, but am certainly glad to have seen. I was especially moved by a simple bouquet of flowers left there, at the bottom of one of the many panels of names.

After that, we made our way up to look at the White House, and then we wandered around for a while looking for a place to get lunch. After eating, we headed to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Claire's like me - she reads just about every plaque and comment - so we spent about 3 hours seeing less than half of the museum.

The museum contained what I believe to be the real Oscar the Grouch muppet, as well as the famous Star-Spangled Banner that inspired the poem that inspired the national anthem.

They also had this amazing section on the Presidents of the USA, including a lot of cool election stuff. Then there was a really informative section on the famous case of Brown v. Board of Education. In the gift shop I almost purchased a little bust of Ronald Reagan, but quickly thought better of it.

Finally, we met Claire's roommates and one of their friends for dinner in Chinatown. As luck would have it, Washington has the world's largest single-span Chinese Arch (apparently), which we walked under on our way to the restaurant. After a pleasant dinner, we came home to relax, having again spent almost all of the day on our feet.

Tomorrow we're possibly going to see some kind of sculpture exhibition with one of Claire's roommates, who is an art history major. If that doesn't pan out, I'm definitely feeling the National Air and Space Museum. I suppose I'll keep you posted.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act One, Scene Two: Once upon a time in the District.

Well, here we are, on a hot and humid Friday afternoon. It's been a day or two of considerable activity so I figured I'd fill you, my loyal reader(s? (Is anyone other than L. Mains reading this?)), in on what's been happening.

Yesterday morning I had arranged to meet Claire at 11 to go and practice our route to the Embassy, and then do a touch of sight-seeing downtown. It took us maybe 20 minutes to get downtown, and the Embassy is only a couple of blocks from the metro stop so it shouldn't be too bad getting in and out of work every day. Of course, we walked the wrong way initially, but soon found our bearings.

Now, for those of you who've never seen it, the Canadian Embassy in Washington D.C. is excessive in almost every sense of the word. It's gigantic and impressive from outside, and includes what I'll refer to as an "echoing gazebo-type chamber," a wall of water, and the inuit statue that appears on the back of the new 20 dollar bill.

After going inside the lobby and chatting with the amicable security guard, we checked out the little art gallery they had downstairs and then made our way across the street to the West building of the National Gallery.

The National Gallery was a really impressive place. They had a myriad of sculptures and paintings and statues. On the second floor is a massive fountain surrounded by gigantic marble columns. The building was actually almost as spectacular as the works it contains, although inside it's absolutely labyrinthine. They had a really cool exhibit on a photographer who specialized in platinum prints (I think that's what they're called), but the highlight for me was seeing Van Gogh's self-portrait. Also, they had a statue of Romulus and Remus suckling the she-wolf, which nobody but Mrs. Marchant will find interesting. I took pictures (no flash, of course) which I'll try to attach below:

After that, we went for lunch and visited Bed, Bath, and Beyond where I picked up some essential housewares. Then we returned home, where Claire presented me with a wonderful magnet that her mom had bought for me (thanks Mrs. Marchant!). It's got a picture of Family Guy's Stewie with his Flintstones phone demanding that they put him through to the Pentagon. Apparently when she saw it at the store it made her think of me. Hmm...

Later, we went to the crappily-organized social event for that evening. It was good, as we met a few people... however, I'll have to work hard to try and remember their names.

Then, today was our official Washington Center Orientation Day. My roommate woke me up at 6am, and I couldn't get back to sleep, so for the first time in my life I was early to pick Claire up, and she answered the door with much hesitation and confusion.

We took the train out to George Mason University in Arlington VA and basically spent some time listening to people talk about our responsibilities and their expectations - essentially reiterating the handbook they had given us when we arrived. We then broke for lunch, after which we divided up into our actual program groups, and met some of the people we'll be taking classes and doing activities with. So far we've only managed to find about 4.5 Canadians, three of whom are from Queen's. The guy who's going to be teaching us seems pretty cool - he's from Newfoundland, and during his speech he was totally pandering to the Canadians in the audience.

After that, we stopped by Arlington National Cemetary on the way home, but since it was so hot we only made it as far as JFK and RFK's tombs before turning back. Luckily the grave of William Howard Taft was on the way, so I took a couple of pictures for my brother. I wasn't sure, but it looked like it might have been a double-width plot... I plan to return when it's cooler to walk all the way up to the unknown soldiers, the Challenger/Columbia memorial, and the mast of the USS Maine. I know, I'm a geek, but it's why you collectively love me.

So, I've returned home now and have been writing this for quite a while. It's funny how these blog entries tend to run-on and generally get out of hand. So this will be where I call it quits for today. And don't worry, this time I won't cheat and add on two more paragraphs about food (although I did try black-coloured sour grape Mountain Dew, but I digress). Tomorrow afternoon there's some kind of bbq in a park somewhere that I think I'll be attending, and then... who knows?

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act One, Scene One: Enter three roommates...

As I'm writing on this, my first morning here in D.C. (you'll have to excuse me, but I'm going to refer to my apartment in Alexandria, VA as part of D.C. to avoid confusion and make it easier for me to write), it's a beautiful, sunny day. But I'm hardly here to discuss the weather; I'm going to regale you with my arrival and first day in the States.

My flight in yesterday was spectacular. As we came in from the North along the Potomac River, the plane banked around to turn towards the airport and from my seat I could see the entire National Mall, from the Lincoln Monument past the Washington Monument to the Capitol Building. It was awesome, and excitement about actually being in Washington quickly replaced the feelings of nervousness I'd experienced previously.

I hopped a cab from the airport to my apartment building, where I arrived around 2 pm, and met the first of my three roommates. A second roommate arrived a few hours later. They're both from New England and know each other from the University of New Hampshire. In fact, one's from Massachusetts, and I can't stop laughing every time he says something is "wicked bad."

The three of us set off to explore Alexandria and we walked around for about an hour. After that, we returned and went to our large building meeting where I ran into Kristina Athanapapadapadapalapalous (I'm not sure exactly, but its starts with 'A' and she's Greek) from Queen's, and had my emotionally charged reunion with Claire. All told, I think there are about 60+ interns living in this apartment complex.

After that we went grocery shopping at Pentagon City, which seems to be a giant mall and power centre about three metro stops north of here. When we returned from grocery shopping, we met our third roommate, who had arrived late. He's from Puerto Rico, which should be interesting.

Claire then came up to my room to hang out and catch up for a bit before bed, and she had to use my computer since the internet's not working in her room. Wow, I was planning on keeping this pretty brief, but it seems to have become long-winded and mundane.

So I suppose I'll stop for the moment. Today, Claire and I are going to go downtown on a dry-run of our commute to the Embassy, and we might swing by one of the Smithsonians if we have time.

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One thing I wanted to comment on: While grocery shopping, it was like I was in an entirely different and futuristic wonderworld. They have food stuffs and candy bars and varieties of pop ("soda") I've never even heard of. I felt like such a tourist, going ooooh and ahhhh at everything. For example, I had a Cherry-Vanilla Dr. Pepper! It wasn't very good, but still...

Also, some of you may be shocked to learn that All-Bran bars in the States are not the flat, wide, dry, solid products that I force myself to eat in Canada. Instead, they're like granola bars with all-bran cereal mixed in, and are soft and chewy. Also, they don't taste like crap. AND they have more fibre than their Canadian counterparts.

Frankly, I have no idea why they would sell such inferior bran products in Canada. Moreover, I have no idea why anyone would take the time to manufacture two different All-Bran bars.