Lessons in City Life

First full day in DC!

My first night was quite cold and restless. The first challenge of our apartment was turning the heater on. Somehow we failed. In our defense, the heater was broken and the maintenance man had to come fix it. Because of our freezing night, Rachel and I strongly thought that acquiring more blankets should be our first mission today. Easier said than done!

We struck out around 11 and stopped along the way at a small French cafe called La Bon Cafe (The Good Cafe) where we grabbed coffee and a sandwich. In the cafe, we ask a lady where we could buy blankets. She was unsure but vaguely mentioned maybe some store somewhere on the other side of town. In desperation we inquired if there might be a WalMart close by. She looked at us with a strange expression on her face and said "Maybe somewhere in the suburbs...towards Virginia". We quickly realized we are very out of our element. If these people frown on WalMart, where do they get their groceries? Their clothes?? Their hosehold items??? We left the cafe no closer to finding a blanket than when we entered. At least we were no longer hungry.

We continued walking down 2nd St, the street our where apartment is located. It took us past the Library of Congress and The Capitol Building, eventually running into Massachusetts Ave., where the Talk Radio News and WISH Offices are housed. We beelined for the WISH office, where they directed us to the metro station, then a Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

The metro swept us several blocks away, into Chinatown. By Chinatown, I mean everything written in English and translated in Chinese underneath it. We got off the metro and had no idea where to go from there, neither did any of the other metro riders standing around us (yes, we ask them all). So we ducked into a public library we saw and ask the lady at the Information desk. She quickly set us in the right direction and within minutes we were in front of Bed Bath and Beyond.

Now, this is no regular Bed, Bath and Beyond. To get to it, we had to descend an escalator into a cramped store front. but at the bottom of the escalator, was a long, ow, winding store, full of more Beyond than Bed and Bath!. It was like a market, Walgreens, and Hobby Lobby combined. They sold things from shampoo and soap to kitchen mixers and spices. An assortment of things that I have never seen together in such a small area! So we loaded up with our pillows, blankets, and bathroom stuff, and headed back to our apartment. Orientation was in an hour and a half!

Orientation at the Talk Radio News office was rather uneventful and involved meeting the four people who would be handling us as interns, going through our intern handbook, and some Q and A time. Tomorrow the REAL orientation begins!

More to come!