So... I made it.
After almost four years away from Washington DC, I have returned to find it every bit as wonderful as I remembered it to be- a beautiful sprawling city with so much both familiar and entirely unknown. I’ve got a nice student apartment at Georgetown University with some pretty cool roommates (including a Polish law student who’s always up for a good philosophical discussion on government), and I feel more relaxed than I have in a while. At the same time, maybe it’s the distance, but I miss a lot of the people and things I love about MSU-the kids here are great, but I’ve had more than one occasion where I had some amusing observation or comment and nobody that would “get it”. At some point following graduation I will reside here, no doubt about it, but I’m not in a huge hurry to either, I guess… I’m not quite through with East Lansing yet.
Enough introspection, though-the job is far more interesting. Starting at 6am tomorrow, we’ll play host to a group of 150 high school kids (and this is one of the smaller weeks- the international summit at the end of summer is over 400) at the Georgetown University Conference Center. Based out of essentially a row of converted hotel rooms, its our job to make sure these kids make it from Point A to Point B all week long, without losing their minds or being incredibly stupid along the way:
If they miss the bus, we have to find them.
If they’re throwing up at 2am, we have to comfort them.
If they sneak out of their hotel rooms at night to try and get some action, we get to bust them and put the fear of God in them (I’m really looking forward to this).
As if that wasn’t enough, we’ll also have angry parents to handle, VIP speakers to roll out the red carpet for, and staffers to assist. In the third program week, I’m responsible for organizing and presiding over a moot court program, which will in all likelihood involve me being awake at 5am and not going to sleep until 1 or so. Two weeks later, I have graveyard shift, which is just about as fun as it sounds: midnight-6am working in the student services office (luckily, I don’t have work during the day that week).
Somewhere in there, I have to find time to enjoy this wonderful city (its kind of like Disneyland for me, to be honest), meet up with old page school friends, and of course keep in touch with all of you wonderful people (expect some phone calls, and feel free to distract me whenever I’m on AIM).
For now though, some sleep (I’m trying not to dread my 5am alarm clock tomorrow too much).
Enough introspection, though-the job is far more interesting. Starting at 6am tomorrow, we’ll play host to a group of 150 high school kids (and this is one of the smaller weeks- the international summit at the end of summer is over 400) at the Georgetown University Conference Center. Based out of essentially a row of converted hotel rooms, its our job to make sure these kids make it from Point A to Point B all week long, without losing their minds or being incredibly stupid along the way:
If they miss the bus, we have to find them.
If they’re throwing up at 2am, we have to comfort them.
If they sneak out of their hotel rooms at night to try and get some action, we get to bust them and put the fear of God in them (I’m really looking forward to this).
As if that wasn’t enough, we’ll also have angry parents to handle, VIP speakers to roll out the red carpet for, and staffers to assist. In the third program week, I’m responsible for organizing and presiding over a moot court program, which will in all likelihood involve me being awake at 5am and not going to sleep until 1 or so. Two weeks later, I have graveyard shift, which is just about as fun as it sounds: midnight-6am working in the student services office (luckily, I don’t have work during the day that week).
Somewhere in there, I have to find time to enjoy this wonderful city (its kind of like Disneyland for me, to be honest), meet up with old page school friends, and of course keep in touch with all of you wonderful people (expect some phone calls, and feel free to distract me whenever I’m on AIM).
For now though, some sleep (I’m trying not to dread my 5am alarm clock tomorrow too much).