Real Life

Well, real life started today. Holy Crap. I think I might die. I'm going to be a very, VERY busy person. I won't have a life. I won't get to do anything for fun. (Ok, that might be my overwhelmed self freaking out a little bit, but there is still a ton of work I have to do).

So, first things first. My internship started today. Just in case you forgot, I'm working for the Business Civic Leadership Center, which is a division of the US Chamber of Commerce. This is a really cool, artsy photo of the building that I found on the internet. The 5th floor is mostly US Chamber of Commerce people. There is one office that is not. I don't know who those people are.

I was only there for half the day today, and nothing too exciting happened, some pretty classic intern duties, filing mostly. I'm working with another intern who is a study abroad student from Germany. She is studying at American University and is a Business major. We'll only work together on Tuesdays, other than that we have opposite schedules.

The I came home and had class half an hour later. I was a little rushed, but I think I will get better at using that time well. At least I think it will stop flustering me as it did today. BUT, then I went to class, and I am sufficiently overwhelmed by the work we have to do. OMG! Basically, I have to become an expert on the prospect of renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa. I don't even know the countries that are considered Sub-Saharan Africa. I'll google it and then I'll know, but I'm so far from knowing anything about this. I'm going to learn about two kinds of renewable energy that I didn't even know existed. And I'm going to learn all about business, even though I've never taken a single business class. Then I have to figure out how corporations, governments, and NGO's can, should, and do work together to make this happen. Basically, anything and everything at related to the prospect of developing renewable energy in Sub-Saharan Africa I will know. PLUS, I have to read a book and other articles to grasp an understanding of the general concept of global development.
So yes, that is what real life in Washington DC will look like for Kim. Who decided it was time for me to become a grown up? I don't like that plan.

(But, we had a discussion today about how the most mature of us are those who are mature when they need to be, but then let their inner child out at all other times. By such a definition I am the most mature of all! Yes!)

Novelty

So, after a week of blog silence, I'm here to tell you all what I've been up to. Sorry about not posting quite as often, I guess the novelty of it all has worn off

We had more service learning this week. I was at Cornerstone School, which is a small private Christian school in Anacostia. We got there and they really didn't know what to do with us and most of the time we felt like more of a burden than a help. But, on Thursday I got to spend the day with the Preschool class. Oh my gosh, they were so fun! The teacher was so sweet and the kids were just freaking adorable. I loved them so much.

For our Topics in Leadership & Vocation class we had a paper due on Friday at midnight (actually at 11:59 pm, to be exact). This consisted of four short essays, totaling 7 pages, and then an annotated bibliography for all of the readings and lectures of the previous two weeks. The bibliography was as 6 1/2 pages long. Shoot me in the face. But I finished it and turned it in and had a little celebration for myself.

On Wednesday we went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was incredible. So well designed
and informative. It was also really intense, in a way that can't be described in words.

Thursday night I got to talk to my friends back at APU. I miss them so much. Relationships are so integral, sometimes I wonder why I left them. But it was so good to talk to them and get the low-down on what's going on in their lives. They'd had two days of classes at that point that, so I got the first impressions of senior year. This is a screen shot I took of them on skype. The quality is terrible and they all think they look possessed, but I think they look absolutely perfect! (Left to Right: Gracie, Katie, Alicia, and Emily)

Friday we had a guest speaker come, so we had to dress up. Thus far I have worn dress pants and a blouse, but that day I wanted to try something different. This is the result. I was so proud of myself when I put it together (can't you tell by the smirk on my face?). I think I'm getting the hang of this business attire thing. We'll just have to wait and see though, because I'm working on Fridays and I definitely have to figure out how much of a difference there is between business professional and business casual. That'll be a fun adventure. :~)

Well...That's all the exciting things from this past week....excluding the roommate drama that ensued. But I'd rather pretend like that didn't happen because it's all better now. We also decided that all the apartments will have drama, we just got ours out of the way at the beginning and they all still have yet to suffer through it. Haha.

Ok, well I love you all. Stay tuned to hear about real life that starts tomorrow. My internship and the main classes start tomorrow, so there will be much to tell.

Oops!

Ok, so I know it's been a few days since I've posted. It's not because nothing has happened. A lot has happened. Thursday and Friday were two very full days. Hang in there with me as I go through them. I will do my best not to be to lengthy, and only highlight the important parts.

Thursday
1) I found out I got a student worker job. I'm the Administrative Assistant to Abigail Linser (who is quickly becoming my favorite person because of how sweet she is). It will mostly be office type work, a combination of what I do at APU in the Admissions Processing office and what I did as the High School Intern at Hope Chapel (or at least the administrative side of that job). I'm looking forward to it.

2) We also got a little bit of a head first dive into what the Global Development track will be like. We weren't supposed to start that until September 13th, but our client was leaving to go to Europe for 3 weeks, and thus wouldn't have been here when we started the track . So heard from our client on Thursday night. We are looking at the area of Renewable Energy in developing countries. The company we are working for generally is contracted by foreign countries to bring businesses from America to them. It's generally focused on the creation of jobs within those countries. In this process they do A LOT of research. They find out everything about the country, are they ready to have this kind of industry developed in their country, do they have policies and mandates in place, etc. Then they call companies and talk to people who actually know things (ie no the customer services reps that answer the phones) and ask them questions about the field they are in and what the market looks like globally. Then they do what they can to get the country ready to be pitched to these different companies. The whole process usually takes several years. If you don't understand, that's ok, I'm not really sure how it all works either. Basically, they work with foreign countries, American businesses, and sometimes NGO's (depending on if it is applicable) to create jobs in foreign countries. They are a for profit business, which means as they make profit by working with countries that are already developed (like France, who they are working with now) they are able to work with developing countries who wouldn't be able to pay them as much.

Our job for them is to look into renewable energy and African countries. The first phase is Northern African countries, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt. The second phase will be a few Sub-Saharan countries that are still to be determined. The crazy part is that our work, the research we do, will actually be used by this company in their relationships with these countries. Holy freaking crap, talk about pressure. This is real life, not just a class assignment. It freaks me out just a little bit, not gonna lie. But I totally see the value in it. I'm really excited and really scared.

This is the project part of the course. Gerry (our instructor) didn't tell us a whole lot about what the actual course would be like, but it will be similarly based. The idea of working with government, business, and NGO's to create jobs and develop countries in ways that actually work. Did you know that the world has given $2 trillion in aid to southern africa, and none of the problems have actually been successfully addressed. That tells me that we've been helping in the wrong way. Instead of throwing money at them, lets give them jobs. That's what this course is all about. I'm freaking stoked.

The cool part about this though, is that my internship with the US Chamber of Commerce, BCLC is EXACTLY what we are doing in this course. Their conference that I have to help plan as a part of my internship that is at the end of September. Gerry, who is friends with my boss's supervisor, asked me to try to get tickets to one day of the conference for all of the people in Global Development. Talk about applicable. I knew God had a plan all along for my internship, I just didn't know what it was.

3) I got my camera!! It's pretty and blue and wonderful!

Friday
1) Well, we had class all day. We had four different sessions in which we talked about different church traditions (not necessarily denominations, but traditions). Pietism, Reformed, Ancient, and Evangelical. Most of the students were confused as to why we were talking about this. The class is supposed to center around vocation and calling and we didn't see the connection. I think it was supposed to include how each of these different traditions view vocation. But that didn't really come across that well.

It was interesting to learn about them. I really enjoyed some of the talks. Having grown up in Maui in a Non-Denominational church, I didn't really know anything about traditions. I'd never heard the word "evangelical" until I went to college. I didn't know that denominations even existed until I was 13. I don't think I'd ever used/seen a hymnal until I was 18. These things are all VERY foreign to me, so it was interesting to learn about what they all mean and how they all developed. They did through around some words that they never defined, and so I don't think I got the whole message, but I got enough.

The hard part about the ongoing conversation throughout the day was that it became very divided and critical. I think it's the nature of most political science students to be very critical and to focus on what's wrong with something. But, by the last lecture of the day, people were getting a little bit vicious with their questions. It mostly just frustrated me that there was little emphasis on how all of the traditions are right and that we all make up the same body of Christ, that we are all united. I think that perspective could have eased the division and tension of the conversation.

2) Everyone was very flustered, so Virginia, Jon, and I decided to just get out of the building and go for a walk. We ended up at the Capitol building. It was closed, so we couldn't go inside, but we just sat outside and looked it. It's such a beautiful building, so imposing and grand. Then we wandered across the street and looked at the Supreme Court building. Again, immense and very supreme. There are 16 massive columns that are so beautiful. Jon said it's supposed to represent the grandeur of the law. I really enjoyed just getting to look at these buildings. I can't wait until I can actually walk through them. Pictures (Blogger won't actually upload photos to my blog, and I don't why, so go look at the pictures on Facebook).

3) Later that night we watched Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Episode 3). I love star wars! I also really like bad movies. It's so wonderful.

Internship

Yes, it is true I finally have an internship! Praise God! I am working for the US Chamber of Commerce in their Business Civic Leadership Center. Like I said last time, they do some pretty awesome work in getting big business together with NGO's and government agencies to do humanitarian work in the US and abroad. Their website has a lot of great stuff on it, mostly in their About - Who We Are section. Lots to learn, you should definitely take a look.

Today started with class. We had two lectures, at two different times about how Christians are supposed to relate to their culture. We heard about different authors and their opinions on the matter. They were really interesting lectures I just don't feel like explaining them right now. We also got a bunch of groceries today and had what the ASP folk call family dinner (basically faculty, staff, and students all eat a meal together, hey, I'm down for free food). After dinner we watched Thank You for Smoking. We poli sci kids like to watch cynical political movies apparently, it's the third one since we've been here.

Today has been hard. I'm getting to that point where I'm really over this new people thing. I want my friends back, especially because they give me hugs. It seems the older I get the more I realize just how important physical touch is for me. Without I really start to feel disconnected from humanity and no matter how many people I'm surrounded by I end up feeling lonely. I know this phase will pass and people here will get to know me, it's just hard right now. Sorry for downer....I'm just being honest though. Sometimes days a downers. If you want help you should fly to Washington, DC and come cuddle with me and give me countless hugs. That would be nice.

Tomorrow I should get my new camera. That'll be exciting. I should also be finding out about my student worker job. Hopefully I'll have some updates for you all. Love!!