I cannot believe that an entire month has passed since my last blog. Time sure flies by quickly around here! Many exciting things have happened since the end of September, and I am happy to say that I am really starting to like this city. Sometimes (and at the risk of being slightly creepy), as I pass by quaint little apartments lined up neatly on the streets with their fancy fall decorations, I can even imagine myself living and working here in the near future.
Compared to my life at Berkeley, where I have the regular schedule of going to lectures, sitting at FSM for hours, attending club meetings, and hanging out with friends, life in DC feels a lot more exciting as my schedule is a lot more unstructured and unpredictable. Sometimes I would hear about an interesting conference 30 minutes before it starts and attend it spontaneously, and sometimes my friends and I would suddenly decide to go on serendipitous outings.
For example, I got the chance to go on the White House Garden Tour last Saturday. Despite the chilly weather and getting 5 hours of sleep the night before, it was a lot of fun as it was the first time I've visited the inside of the White House. I also got the chance to reminisce about middle school memories as I attended the Owl City concert at the 9:30 Club. Similar to the Fillmore in San Francisco, the 9:30 Club is a hip and relatively small concert venue that showcases really good talents, like Youth Lagoon and Shakey Graves. I'd highly recommend you check it out if you are ever in D.C.! I will probably go to another concert at 9:30 before I leave. Speaking of concerts, I finally visited the Kennedy Center and listened to a performance by the National Symphony Orchestra.
As my daily internship tasks involve in-depth research, I often deal with materials from the Library of Congress. Because of this, I've become a frequent visitor to the Library of Congress, navigating through its maze-like structure, looking at microfilms through archaic-looking microfilm readers, reading and soaking up the tranquil energy in the Main Reading Room. The Library of Congress is the biggest library in the world, and so far, it has yet to disappoint! The librarians and information desk volunteers are extremely helpful, and the Library also has cafes in case researchers and visitors get hungry.
Til next time,
Lucy
