Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Three, Scene Six: "Y'all ready for this?"

Alright kids, here we are again - back for another update. This post is going to cover the period from Friday Nov. 18 to Wednesday Nov. 23.

Oh, I forgot to mention that on Thursday night (Nov. 17) Claire, Jake, and I went to see the movie The Weatherman after work. It was all right - neither great nor bad. Just one of those movies where I left thinking... meh, it's over. Of course, that said, Michael Caine was spectacular, as he is in every role he's given.

So, Friday (Nov. 18) after work I went for dinner with my friends Jen (from the embassy) and Karen. We were going to go to this really awesome-sounding place up on U Street (their menu included gnocchi in some kind of an acorn squash sauce with blue cheese, but I digress) , but by the time we got there the wait for a table was well over an hour, so we ended up going over to a surprisingly empty (albeit fantastic) Thai restaurant instead. After that, the girls went out to a bar and I came home... it was a fairly long dinner, though, so I didn't get home until around 11.30.

Saturday night we had a little party at my friend Kristina's place. The original plan had been (I think) to eventually go out to an all-ages club (it's so degrading to be back in a place where I need to go to all-ages nights), but it didn't take long to realize that we were not going to make it that far. That didn't matter, though, as Kristina's roommate had an absolutely brilliant CD collection to satisfy our musical needs - it was complete with Phil Collins, Bruce Hornsby (most random CD find ever!), Jock Jams, and a really obscure Hits of the 80s compilation. Suffice it to say there are a number of hilarious pictures from that night, including a number of various people wearing construction-paper crowns, or with "NAFTA" written in Sharpie marker on different parts of their bodies. That's just how we roll.

Sunday, of course, was another day of rest and relaxation.

On Monday (Nov. 21) we had a pretty busy day. First we had a speaker from the Pan-American Development Foundation, then we went to the CATO Institute (the crazy libertarian think tank I mentioned a couple of weeks ago) where we got a lecture about the virtues of free trade from the director of their trade policy section. After that we went back to the Washington Center for an 'advocacy forum,' which was basically a couple of lobbyists talking about their work. Then, as always, we had class Monday night. Luckily our group presentations were fairly short so I was home in time to watch Prison Break.

On Tuesday and Wednesday not too much was going on - Congress is in recess, so there hasn't been a whole lot for me to cover. On Wednesday, though, I had a meeting with Colin Robertson, who is the Advocacy Minister at the embassy. For our internship program we have to conduct an "informational interview" with someone whose job we might like to have someday. I'd met him at an intern briefing he'd given us a few weeks ago, and decided I'd like to talk to him some more.

He's a really interesting guy, with a tonne of really amazing stories to tell: he's worked at Canada's missions in UN and Hong Kong; he helped negotiate NAFTA; and he worked on the Charlottetown Constitutional Accord. I had arranged to speak with him for 45 minutes and we ended up chatting for over an hour and a half! I also thought it was also pretty cool that he knows a couple of members of my family who are/were in the Foreign Service, although I really shouldn't be surprised - everybody pretty well seems to know everybody else.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Three, Scene Five: The (tax-free) Final Frontier

Alright, so in the interest of readability (that's right, loyal readers - I actually care about you), I've decided that making one post for an entire week isn't really practical... so I'm going to try to split things up a little. This post is going to cover the period from Sunday, Nov. 13 to Thursday, Nov. 17.

That said, this is probably going to be quite short. Nothing really happened on Sunday - I worked on my report on the pacifist speaker (which I mentioned before), and basically vegged as I do most Sundays.

On Monday, (Nov. 14) Claire and I missed our 11AM speaker, as we had been invited out to lunch by the heads of our section at the embassy as a bit of a 'thank you' for all the work we've been doing. We went over to Gordon Biersch, which is this cool brewery restaurant where they serve about eight kinds of their own unique beer. Again, I was thwarted by my under-agedness and ended up drinking Sprite. But it was actually a pretty great time, I had a really good talk with our section head about her experiences in the Foreign Service, so that was cool. She had some really interesting stories about her time in Cameroon...

After our lunch, Claire and I went over to the Department of the Interior for a speech by the Treasurer of the United States. They had arranged it in a very odd way, I thought, with some random low-profile TV personality "interviewing" the Treasurer. This lasted for about half an hour, and then they opened it up for questions from the audience. However, questions from the audience were not particularly forthcoming, so Claire and I were recruited to ask questions as part of an effort to prolong the interview. I asked a question about federal tax reform (my area of (relative) expertise), which the woman didn't answer, and then Claire asked a question about the security of American money, which the woman... didn't answer. I love politicians. That night, as always, we had class.

Tuesday (Nov. 15) was a pretty slow day. I thought I had a House Ways and Means Committee hearing to cover, so I hiked over to the wrong House office building, before hiking to the right House office building, only to find out that the hearing had been postponed to Wednesday morning. So, I returned to the embassy and finished my report on the previous Thursday's sugar policy lunch. Then I ate some candy.

Wednesday morning (Nov. 16) was the complete opposite of Tuesday - I had two committee hearings to cover, one Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on "Foreign Policy and the High Price of Crude Oil" and the aforementioned Ways and Means Committee hearing on reforms to the tax code. Since I can't be in two places at once (...yet), Claire graciously agreed to cover the Ways and Means hearing for me. So, while I was over on the Senate side learning about exciting geopolitical ramifications of the United States' dependence of foreign oil (as told by former Secretary of Defense Schlesinger and former Director of Central Intelligence Woolsey), Claire hiked over the the correct House office building only to discover that the hearing had been moved, again, to Wednesday afternoon. She wasn't feeling well, and since I could now cover the hearing myself, she went home.

So Wednesday afternoon I was back on the House side for our third try at covering this tax reform hearing. It took all afternoon, as 25 Congressmen and each presented their own ideas of new exemptions and reforms that should be included into the current tax code. The most interesting idea, following a number of family and building tax exemption proposals was a Representative from California's plan to declare outer space as a special tax-free economic zone. His plan was quite specific and clearly thought-out, he had plans to made capital gains tax-free on investments in companies who earn 75% of their revenues in space, and to offer tax breaks on dividends paid on space-based investments. Surprisingly, I appeared to be the only person who laughed... although I swear the Chairman almost cracked up, too. I didn't get out of the hearing until almost 5.45, and as I was walking back to the embassy it started pouring rain and I got absolutely soaked. So I skipped out on the gym and just went home.

On Thursday I ran over the Ways and Means hearing with the embassy's Finance Counsellor, who agreed that nothing of any real interest was said, so I didn't have to report on it. I also prepared my report on the Foreign Relations hearing for the Energy Counsellor.

Wow, wasn't that brief and relatively painless to read? Excellent.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Three, Scene Four: The Wide World of Hats

Well, loyal readers, here we are again.

I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd last posted, so once again I'll be posting a couple of entries in fairly short order. This entry will document the period from Saturday, Nov. 5 (night) to Saturday, Nov. 12. Then (hopefully) tomorrow I'll update you on my comings and goings this past week.

On Saturday night (Nov. 5) we went to the movie as planned, but Marie was experiencing weird stomach pains so we took her to the hospital after the show, where she stayed for the next day or so (thankfully she was fine - it was diagnosed as a weird stomach flu or something). I must say, the American emergency room wasn't quite as I expected it. I guess I've always pictured it as kind of like a medical McDonalds - you know, a number of cash registers where you'd walk up, give them your insurance information and get immediate service. Instead, we had a really long wait (Brendon and I were dismissed around 11pm, Claire stayed with Marie until 6.30am), which kind of felt like home!

On Sunday (Nov. 6) I helped Claire move her and Marie's stuff out to their new apartment in Arlington. It was a long and laborious process, although I had the nicest cabbie from Ethiopia who updated me on the current political situation in his homeland. Marie's mother had flown in flown in from Iowa when she heard Marie was in the hospital, so she took Marie, Claire, Brendon and I out for dinner on Sunday night, which was nice.

On Monday (Nov. 7) morning, our Washington Center event was actually a visit to the Canadian Embassy, which was fun. I got to feel all official with my staff pass, and I knew a couple of the people talking to us. They gave us a presentation about Canada and our foreign affairs, which, of course, Claire and I already knew. The Mexicans, however, really ate it up. That afternoon we were given a lecture by a peace-studies coordinator, who is also an avowed pacifist and anarchist. While I won't go into it at length, as part of our program we have to write essay responses to three of our lectures - I'm currently writing one of mine on his lecture, and try as I might to avoid it, I'm coming across as a bit of a warmonger. That night we had class, as always.

Tuesday (Nov. 8) I spent some time finishing up my report on the CATO monetary conference I'd attended the previous week. We also had another intern briefing, this time with the head of the Embassy's Public Relations section. He was a pretty interesting guy and talked about the importance of understanding the American political system for successful diplomatic efforts. Best of all, he was very... blunt... in his assessment of the Liberal Party's current manipulation of anti-Americanism for their own political gain coming into the next election.

On Wednesday (Nov. 9) I was off to the Senate, where the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held a joint hearing to look at high energy prices. Testifying on behalf of the oil industry were the CEOs of all five major oil companies. It was the longest hearing I’ve attended yet, in part because with two committees in attendance there were around 30 Senators each taking time to ask questions of the witnesses. As some of you may know, this hearing was later used for a comedic bit on “The Daily Show,” which I thought was pretty cool since I was there and saw everything they were spoofing actually happen. My archnemesis Barbara Boxer (D - CA) figured prominently, wreaking havoc as usual.

Thursday (Nov. 10) morning I finished my report on the previous day’s joint hearing. After that I attended a lunch seminar on behalf of the embassy’s agriculture counsellor at the German Marshall Fund. The topic was related to ongoing reforms of American and European sugar policy, and was about as exciting as it sounds. The reception was attended by a number of diplomatic missions, although I'm pretty sure I was the only intern at the table. Once that was over I returned to the embassy to start my report.

We were given Friday (Nov. 11) off, but I went in to work for the morning since the embassy was holding a ceremony in the courtyard for Remembrance Day. It was a very “Canadian” ceremony: they had a bagpiper, played O Canada and God Save the Queen, and read In Flanders’ Fields (although the reading was poor; I should have volunteered).

It was really interesting because representatives were there from the armed services of a number of Commonwealth and Allied countries, including a couple of high-ranking British officers who had very interesting uniforms (one had quite a spectacular hat - feathers and everything). The Ambassador gave a great speech, telling the story of an American pilot who volunteered to join the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940, and who died in Europe in 1942. That afternoon Claire and I went to the mall, and then she went to meet up with somebody (I can't for the life of me remember who, or why) while I went out for some Chinese food with my friend Jonathan.

Saturday (Nov. 12) morning, Claire and I finally made it over the Holocaust Museum, which was quite an experience, although a bit of a downer. The museum itself was brilliantly designed; as you entered the permanent exhibits you picked up an ID card, which followed the life of a person who lived during the Holocaust. As you progressed (the museum was laid out chronologically) you would check to see where your person was. Unfortunately all of the ID cards I could find (and I shifted through that pile for a while) were women, so I picked the pretty Romanian one with the fabulous hat. I guess that British officer must have put me in a 'hat' kind of mood.

As far as the museum itself, I couldn't believe how much authentic stuff they had brought over from Europe. For example, they had paved the second floor with cobblestones taken from the actual Warsaw Ghetto. During the tour you walked through one of the train cars used to ship people off to the concentration camps - and it was sitting on train tracks they'd brought over from Birkenau! They also had a copy of the famous sign over the gates to Auschwitz (you know, "Arbeit Macht Frei"), which I found particularly striking, and a recreation of one of the prisoners' barracks complete with actual bunk beds from the camp.

That took us several hours, and afterwards I didn't really feel like doing much else, so I went home. To try and make myself feel a bit better, I picked up some McDonald's for dinner - it helped for a little while, but then I just felt gross.

And on that pleasant note, I'll end for today.
Abrupt? Certainly.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Three, Scene Three: Teddy Roosevelt, We Hardly Knew Ye

Okay, now aren't you proud of me for posting these so close together? This entry is going to detail the period from Monday, Oct. 31 to the present (being Saturday, Nov. 5).

On Monday, Oct. 31, we woke up early, and headed over to the Washington Center for our 10am speaker, only to discover that they had cancelled. So I had some time to run over to the embassy to pick up some of my notes that I'd left there over the weekend, which I wanted to look at before my midterm Monday night. Our second event was a briefing at the Pan-American Health Organization, which was actually kind of interesting - it's this big 1960s era building that looks not unlike a miniature UN.

Monday night we had our midterm, which was possibly the most profoundly stupid exercise of my life. They had given us a list of about 40 terms which we had to know. So we got up in front of this panel of "judges" and drew a term from a hat (in reality, it was more of a porcelain jug), and then had to discuss the term for about 4-5 minutes. It was a very odd examination, I thought, but it went okay.

On Tuesday we had an intern briefing with the head of the embassy's Washington Advocacy secretariat. It was tremendous. He was involved with negotiating NAFTA, and knew all about dealing with the American government, and he and I got into a rather long conversation about what should be done to fix Canada-US relations, and about how Mulroney was a way better PM than Chretien. It was enjoyable to say the least. He also offered to take interns with him when he goes to meet with Senators and Congressmen on the hill, so I've put my name in for that. Claire's already gone with him, and she said it was awesome, so I'm understandably excited at the prospect.

On Wednesday I went to a House Energy Committee meeting, which was long but entertaining. My favourite committee member, Congressman Markey (D - MA) is a really intelligent, eloquent, and rabid socialist. He turned every comment into an attack on Bush, badgered the witnesses from the administration, and ended up pissing off just about every Republican on the committee - especially some guy from New Hampshire who favoured locating offshore Liquid Natural Gas projects off the coast of Massachusetts.

On Thursday I attended the 23rd Annual Monetary Conference at the CATO Institute all day. For those of you who don't know, they're like the most right-wing/libertarian think tank in the universe. I mean, these guys make the American Enterprise Institute look like a bunch of Marxists. They had portraits of famous libertarian thinkers (or, defenders of individual rights) hanging all over the walls, including Adam Smith, Thomas Paine, John Locke, Henry David Thoreau, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Ayn Rand. It was awesome. And they even give out pocket copies of the Constitution!

On Friday morning I put together my notes from Wednesday for the energy counsellor, and started to work on my report for the finance counsellor on the conference from Thursday. At lunch time, the band from the Royal Military College in Kingston played a little concert in the embassy's courtyard, which put me in a really good mood for the afternoon - it felt like I hadn't heard bagpipes in ages. I was quite happy, and sang along quietly when they did a rendition of "Scotland the Brave." They also had this guy who just stood there holding a mace (I'm not sure what else to call it... it was a big stick with a large metal bulb on the end), and during their last song, he stepped forward and started throwing it up in the air and catching it and spinning it around his head and through his legs and stuff with one hand. At one point he threw it (spinning!) like 40 feet up in the air and caught it; it was really impressive. After work I headed home, and like most Friday nights, I was exhausted. Knowing I had to be up early the next morning, I watched some TV and went to bed early.

This morning I awoke ambitiously at 6.15 am to shower and catch the first train into the District. The plan, you see, was to score some tickets to the D.C. Christmas tree lighting ceremony on December 1. After hopping on the train shortly after 7am, I arrived at the Ellipse (it's a big elliptical road and park in front of (or behind?) the White House) around 7.30. I was immediately told by the park ranger to go home - the line had been cut off at 7.10 because more people had already than they had tickets for. So, I was understandably bitter.

But, I figured that since it was an absolutely beautiful morning I would wander around the National Mall taking some artsy photographs of some monuments and sights before things got too busy. I ended up walking down to the WW2 monument and then along the shore of the tidal basin (across from the Jefferson Monument) before heading down the mall to the subway. I've attached a couple of my pictures for your enjoyment:












Since it wasn't even 9, I figured I may as well do something new and exciting, so I took the train out to Rosslyn (in Arlington, Virginia) and I walked along the Potomac to Theodore Roosevelt Island. There's a foot bridge over to the island, which is basically a wilderness preserve in honour of Teddy's history of conservation. There's also a little memorial area in the middle of the island with a statue of the , and a number of Roosevelt's inspirational quotations. I didn't realize how spectacular a man Roosevelt was; in addition to being the youngest person to ever serve as president (he was only 42 when he took over for McKinley, JFK was elected at 43), he was the first American to win a Nobel Prize of any kind (he won the Peace Prize for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War) and is the only President to win the Congressional Medal of Honor (for leading the cavalry charge on San Juan Hill). He also spearheaded construction of the Panama Canal - arguably the world's best canal - after the French wussed out.

So, after walking around the island I followed continued walking down along the Potomac (they have a really great trail set up), planning to go see the Iwo Jima monument that I had missed on my previous trips to Arlington National Cemetary (the monument itself isn't in the cemetary, but is further North - ostensibly on my way in from the island). However, since I didn't really know where I was, I didn't turn down the street I needed to and walked past it without knowing. So I ended up back at the bridge from the Lincoln Monument to the Cemetary, and decided to just head home. So I caught the subway outside the cemetary, and got back to my apartent around 10.30.

It made me realize that it's amazing how much stuff you can do in a day when you wake up before noon. That said, don't expect me to wake up before noon very often.

This afternoon I'm going coat shopping with Claire and Marie in Georgetown, then we're going to meet up with Brendon and Kalan and Jay (two of Marie's friends) to go see Jarhead. I'm cautiously optimistic about the movie, so we'll see.

--

On a sadder note, Claire is moving out of our apartment building. That's right, loyal readers, our heady days of commuting to and from work together are at an end.

The hot water heater located beside her apartment has been leaking into her place on and off for several weeks, and the maintenance people are now concerned that it might burst. So, she and her roommates are going to be shipping out to another apartment building in Arlington tomorrow, which sucks.

Mr. Scott goes to Washington - Act Three, Scene Two: He's a Lady (whoa, whoa, whoa)

While this post didn't materialize as quickly as I'd originally planned (due to unforeseen and entirely legitimate circumstances, I assure you), here it is at last. It details the period between Monday, Oct. 24, and Sunday, Oct. 30 with the startling accuracy you've come to expect.

On Monday (Oct. 24) we went to the World Wildlife Fund to learn about what they do, and I've got to say that with the amount of money that they are obviously spending on their swanky headquarters, I wonder how much of the money one donates actually gets to the Pandas. You wouldn't have believed this place... I guess I always pictured non-profit organizations as groups of dedicated individuals working in run-down hovels of righteousness. We also did something else, but neither Claire nor I can remember exactly what it was - we usually have one really good event, and one substantially less good event. So, as she put it, "all the crappiness is running together."

This week, I was originally supposed to write a report on the Democrats’ new energy plan, but for some reason or another, it wasn’t put out. However, I was assigned a new project by one of the counsellors in our section. She asked me to follow the ongoing discussion about reforming the mandate of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is the body that reviews foreign acquisitions of American companies by foreign companies and can (if the need arises) block them on national security grounds. So for Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct. 25 and 26, respectively) I did a bit of research on that, but otherwise I didn't have too much to do.

That night,though, I had the adventure of a lifetime. Brendon invited Claire and I to join him and some of his friends from work for what was described to me as "dinner and a gay drag race." Now, when I heard gay drag race, my first thought was pink race cars. But I was wrong. The annual High Heels Race is, in fact, a footrace where a cadre (I'm not sure what the correct name for a group of drag queens is... I'm thinking it should something like "A sashay of drag queens") of drag queens literally race up 17th Street. And let me tell you, some of these guys can really haul-ass in heels.

First they sort of had a parade, where the drag queens walked up and down 17th Street showing off their costumes, before the actual race. Then, after the race, the crowd (and it was a huge crowd, let me tell you) was allowed onto the street to mingle and have pictures taken with the drag queens. Claire and I had our pictures taken with a bang-on Princess Di (she even had body guards and a Dodi) but I've yet to get the picture from Brendon. In the mean time, here's one of Brendon and I with a dude dressed up as (what I assume was supposed to be) a Playboy Bunny:
Funny story! Since I'd come directly from work, I was still wearing my blazer, and with it, my Canada/US flag-pin. It turns out that drag queens (or, at least those with a knowledge of vexillology) are huge fans of Canadians. We had a rather hilarious encounter with a particularly hairy cowgirl which ended in a bunch of us yelling "a-boot" instead of "cheese" while we were getting our pictures taken.

It was arguably one of the most entertaining nights of my life - clearly the highlight of the week. I was left thinking about the Family Guy representation of English humour:
Englishman #1 - "I say, you know what's rather funny? A man dressed up in womens' clothing."
Englishman #2 - "Yes, quite. Ripping good laugh."

On Thursday (Oct. 27) I attended a meeting of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which was much more subdued and involved far less cross-dressing than the night before. Once again, they were discussing reconstruction after hurricane Katrina, and American energy policy moving into the future. It started late, and went fairly long, as the Senate was having roll-call vote and they had to delay it. When I returned to the embassy, I started my report, which I finished on Friday.

After work on Friday (Oct. 28) I had volunteered to help out at a reception being held at the Embassy related to the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. It was pretty interesting - the public relations department put up a whole lot of posters and information showing how requiring passports to enter (or re-enter) the United States from Canada will negatively impact the economic relationship between the two countries, and also how it will personally impact those living in a number of border communities.

The high point of my night was mingling successfully and discussing the United States’ plans to drill for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge with one of Senator Murkowski’s (R – AK) aides. The Senator is greatly in favour of drilling in ANWR, and Canada is vehemently opposed, so it felt very official to discuss our positions. Of course, since I'd been following all the energy related stuff, I was actually able to comment with some level of intelligence.

On Saturday (Oct. 29), I met up with a few friends for brunch at a weird little boutique hotel near Dupont Circle. The food was really great, and since one of my friends had one of her friends in town for the weekend, we ended up walking around to most of the monuments down near the National Mall. It was pretty cool, I got to go see the Korean War Memorial, which I had missed before, and we walked around the tidal basin to the FDR Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

In contrast, I spent most of Sunday (Oct. 30) studying, as I had my midterm the following Monday. Although, in the interest of procrastination, I slept in, watched a movie, and had a nap.