When people find out that I am in Washington D.C. for the semester there are two questions that they always ask. How’s the internship? and do you like living in D.C.? I have not been in my internship long enough to say much about it, but the D.C. question always throws me. I never know how to answer it because it is always changing. So many things happen in Washington D.C. in just a week, it’s a little hard to keep track.
A few things that have happened since I got to D.C. in mid-January, the inauguration, and the People’s March. This was our first full week in Washington D.C. There were so many crowds of people on the metros all weekend that week. Even on inauguration day, even though it got moved inside.
For Luner New Year there was a parade in Chinatown. It was really fun to watch all of the people with the dragons. Giant Pandas at the National Zoo are also now open to the public again. I went last week, and I don’t think there is a better animal. There are also kids everywhere with Panda stuffed animals
While these are big one-time events, they each bring an impact to living in D.C. When there is large events, the metro becomes very packed, and this winter they are doing repairs and maintenance so every weekend, two of the stations are closed. This can make getting around to these events and going to the grocery store or work more difficult. On President’s Day there was a protest and the two stations that were closed were Rosslyn (the one I use) and Court House (the next one on the VA side). This made getting to the grocery store that was at the stop after Court House very difficult, because the shuttles were focused on getting people into D.C for the protest.
I am still trying to figure out what I think about living in D.C. It has its ups and downs, but almost anywhere you could live will have ups and downs to it.
Nina Earle
Staff Reporter
