Work Week 1

This post is a bit delayed as I tried to walk that delicate line between recording the experiences of my internship for my own recollection later and the fact that the internet knows everything about everyone and is full of people who could very well find out where I work and creep hard.

So, here's a vague idea of what I did this week!

Item 1: I went on a tour of the Capitol Building, and it was super cool, so I'll definitely be back!

Ceiling near the Old Senate Chamber 

Item 2: I got French Macarons. I've been wanting to make these for months, but they require special ingredients not readily on hand and, from what I understand, are super time consuming to make. Feeling like I should be doing something afterwork other than going home and watching "Madam Secretary" or YouTube videos, I headed into the great wide somewhere and acquired these beauties.

Flavors & Rating:

Vanilla Violet *

Pineapple Sage ***

Hazelnut ***

Raspberry *****

Blueberry something Thyme ****

Lavender ** 

There were a few on the online menu that weren't in store the day I visited, so I'll have to go back, but I picked up a few flavors I wasn't sure I'd like. I've recently found I have to be in the right mood to like lavender, so wasn't surprised when I didn't like that much. I'm not sure when I've had violet before, but that was not the time. 

On my walk home, I passed the Capitol, all lit up, calm, sans tourists. It looked pretty cool, so I felt obliged to stop and take a few photos. It was also craaaaazy hot outside. 

Item 3: Tidal Basin Paddle Boats

Checked this off the D.C. Bucket list! It was super hot outside and I ended up just allowing the current to move the boat, so I would only have to put in the effort to get back.

Item 4: Post Tidal Basin, I visited the closest museum (as I was desperately in need of A/C). It just so happens the closest museum was the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum. I was expecting something a bit different from the reviews online than what I ended up seeing when I walked through the museum, but there were several things they did that I have to give them kudos for.
1) They had a large display on how the Holocaust affected Eastern Europe. I'll admit, I'm partial to Eastern Europe, but much of the history taught on this subject in the U.S. focuses on Western Europe and Poland, and I was glad to see the emphasis on how widely people were affected by the Holocaust. There is even a room several stories tall filled with pictures of people who lived in an almost entirely Jewish town in Lithuania which was wiped out over a short period of time.

Video of Holocaust survivors from Latvia & Lithuania

2) They had a floor dedicated to the genocides that have taken place since the end of WWII. For all our "Never Again" speeches, genocide is still a daily reality and has been since our first "never again." We say we'll never let it happen again, and while nothing has happened on the 6-million-victim scale, genocide has occurred again and again, in Cambodia and Africa.

3) They discussed the U.S. reaction at the time. History classes teach "The Nazis did this, the French did that, the USSR did this other thing." What did we do? Essentially, nothing. I didn't listen to the entirety of all 5 ways the U.S. reacted, but I sat through most of them. President Roosevelt removed the U.S. Ambassador to Berlin, and we thought, "That'll do it. They'll give up." knowing full well many many many people were being killed while we shook our heads.

4) One floor as the history of Jewish persecution. The Nazis weren't the first; not by a long shot. It took the Vatican nearly 1500 years to apologize for their initial persecution and subsequent centuries.

5) The translations into Hebrew. The poem below rests above a collection of shoes from a concentration camp in Poland:

We are the shoes. We are the last witnesses.
We are the shoes from grandchildren and grandfathers.
From Prague, Paris, and Amsterdam.
And because we are only made of fabric and leather
And not of blood and flesh,
Each one of us avoided the Hellfire.
-Moses Schulstein

And finally, 6) The exhibition pieces from lesser known concentration camps continue to show how many there were, not just Dachau or Auschwitz, but many many more from all across Europe. In addition, many of the pieces were casts, or replicas, which I think is important. Those artifacts should remain in situ to be teaching tools for those cities and regions. In terms of the piles of clothing, shoes, hair, etc. that are on display at Auschwitz, removal of portions of those piles kind of diminishes the effect. The United States had no concentration camps like these, and we stood back and watched for so long, why should we take important pieces of history from the countries to whom they belong and who suffered for them to exist? 

It's a museum visited by a lot of senior citizens, and that's just fine. But the standing in the middle of hallways, walking directly in front of someone to press up against an exhibit so no one else can read around them, the inability to whisper... all diminished the overall experience at the museum; I was ready to be far away from all the people.

Item 5: I visited the Flea Market at Eastern Market. I'll have to time my visit next time so I can snack or pick up some fruit for the road. Not much to tempt me, though one skirt made an impression but isn't in a style I'd be able to wear to work. :( 

And those are some of the big things I did this week. I'm still getting into gear at work, with full-time employees adjusting to having interns around there haven't been many projects to do, but as time goes on I'm sure things will pick up.