New Experiences & Early Mornings

Monday

Today I began my day earlier than I usually do since CHCI would be taking us for a site visit to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), where we got to learn about the work they do and even practice a Case Study. This was such a cool opportunity since I personally had never heard of GAO until then, but I learned there was an office in Seattle, which interested me, as I could potentially intern with them in the future. We ended our site visit at 1 PM and were allowed to spend the rest of our day how we saw fit, which is when Yaisy and I decided to go to get some appetizers near Capitol South at a place called Santa Rosa. After, we met up with our friend Brandy, and decided to go to the Mt. Vernon Campus of GWU to swim at their pool. After swimming, we went for some Mexican food at a place in Columbia Heights, which was decent food and felt good finally having some food from my culture.

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Tuesday

I began my day today even earlier than the day before, since I would be lobbying with the National HEP/CAMP Association throughout the day, and speak about my experience with the program in hopes of getting funding unfrozen for the programs. I met with Representatives and Senators from Mississippi, Florida, and Texas, which, although nerve-wracking, was a great experience. It took a few attempts not to get nervous when speaking to the congress members, but once I got to the final two meetings, I was comfortable with speaking about my experience openly. This internship has opened me to so many opportunities, and as I continue to learn new skills, I'm glad to be put in new situations and adapt to them. Once we finished with our meetings, it was time to run over to the House side for our CHCI graduation ceremony. It was nice hearing all the speakers and even got to stand next to Rep. Chuy Garcia & Rep. Darren Soto!

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Wednesday

Today, my day started just as early as the day before and involved the same activities. I did some lobbying on the hill throughout my entire day, but this time, once Jackie and I finished, we decided to go visit the Library of Congress and got our reading cards. This was such a cool experience, as I had been wanting to visit. Following our side quest, Andres and I met up one last time with our LULAC friends to hang out for a final time, as this was their last week in D.C., which involved some really good laughs and a really good chicken Caesar wrap. We ended our hangout with a movie night by watching 500 Days of Summer, which I really enjoyed. Luckily, all the summer interns are being taken to the LULAC convention, so there is still an opportunity to create some final memories with them!

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Saturday

Unfortunately, I was forced to wake up early today again, but this time it was because I had signed up to get a tour of the White House with the HEP/CAMP crew. Only three of us ended up being the ones to make it since we had to get up so early, but it was worth it, and I got to learn some very cool history! After the tour, Andres, Ivette, and I got some breakfast at a place my director, Ray, from LULAC took Andres and me the first week we were here in D.C. The food was really good, but I had been so tired from waking up early so much that once we got back to the dorms, I rested for practically the whole day.