Safely "home"

Here I am fellow blog readers, a tad bit late with my post about my travels to the nation's capital but with good stories nonetheless. I've got pretty interesting stories so far and I've only been here for two and a half days. I can't wait to see what happens the rest of the summer :)

Ann and I woke up at about 3:30am on Wednesday to get ready to leave by 4 to the airport. Ann took a shower while I stumbled to try to wake up and get my stuff in order. We did really well too as we left at 4 and embarked on the 45 minute drive to the Des Moines airport under a thunderstorm. We got to see some pretty cool lightning displays and had an awakening experience. As Ann's driving along the highway with the rain just pouring as hard as it could some car decided not to stop at the STOP sign on the fork of the road. This meant that it almost hit my side of the car and we didn't know whether it didn't see us or what. In any case, we kept going along hoping that was the end of the unexpected happenings.

We got to the airport and went to the NWA check-in booth to start getting things sorted. I give the lady my suitcases so they can be weighed and I don't think there were going to be any problems. Apparently I read wrongly on the NWA website when I purchased my tickets that the luggage had a 75lbs limit. I thought 75lbs would be quite a stretch of what a suitcase would be capable of holding but thought nothing of it. That limit was restricted to international flights and the limit for domestic flights was 50lbs. As luck would have it my suitcase weighed about 9lbs over the limit and I had to find a way to switch things quickly. The first thing I took out was my Bible since it weighed about 5lbs by itself (I have a huge Bible now) and since I kinda need it for Church and for life I had to keep it :) I put it in my massive Adidas slingpack and proceeded to take out shoes, and towels from the suitcase and add them to one of my carryons. I got the suitcase to weigh an even 50lbs and then got the suitbag-case checked-in and it was under the limit. So I said goodbye to Ann and continued to the next phase of my journey.

I waited for about an hour for the plane to start loading and we left and arrived safely and quickly to our first stop in Detroit. I had quite a bit of time to kill in Detroit before my connecting flight. I read the last bit of my ESPN Magazine and I talked to my mom on the phone for a while to let know of my whereabouts and ease her worries. I hopped on to my plane to D.C. hoping for a smooth arrival and the hope that I could get to my apartment safely and start settling in. I arrived at Reagan National Airport (I love the sound of it...it's conservatism at its greatest :)) at about noon and my luggage came out pretty quickly. I met a girl who studies at Iowa State and is in the TWC program. She's in a different program but under the TWC umbrella so we talked for a bit as we waited for our luggage. I was debating on whether I should take the Shuttle Bus or a cab because I was so anxious in just getting to my place. The girl was taking a cab but I hedged since I didn't know how much a cab would cost, plus the Shuttle Bus has a fixed fee although it would take a bit longer. Even though I didn't think a cab would cost more than $26 I ended up taking the shuttle bus and I think I got my apartment building along with someone else and got checked in.

After doing some paperwork stuff and getting checked in I took all four of my luggage pieces (laptop backback, slingpack, 2 suitcases) up the elevator and to the 19th floor. I then realized that if the building were to light up in fire I would probably not be able to get out, but I was still excited :) I opened the door and noticed that the TV was on and there was one of the roommates unpacking his stuff and we introduced each other. Here's the kick, he's Canadian so not even in D.C. I can escape from the Canadian presence :) He's pretty cool and all and I picked the empty rooom that was left and called all the friends and family that I arrived safely to D.C. and was unpacking my things. Of course calls to Mom, the Rankins, the Wilsons, and mostly everyone who knew I was traveling were made so I could ease their worries. Had a pretty good talk with Ashley too and I told her I would try to take as many pictures as possible and post them on Facebook so she could have something to do during her summer :) I've got to make good on my promise.

The hours passed and I watched some TV and noticed we have about 200 channels in our cable system. The apartment is overall very nice but not the exotic thing it was advertised on the housing website. There are no Internet jacks in the room...the only way to connect to the web is through the single cable router next to the TV in the living room. So right now we just take turns using the web on our laptops so we'll most likely pony up for an extra router or something. Oh and since the connection acts up we basically have to turn the router off when we plug in the cable to our laptops. Ridiculous.

On another front our apartment basically came with no pots or pans. There was no pan and the only pot available was a vintage 1970's, rust-filled device. So of course we would have to go out shopping for the necessities. We did that yesterday as we took the Metro to the stop that is closest to the mall and a Target. Finally we would be able to partake of American capitalism since all we can see out of our window are a bunch of trees, the parking lot and an apparent interstate behind the massive trees. So we go take the Metro and try to find the "nearby" Target and we can't see anything. Me being the no-nonsense kind of guy that I am I decide to ask some random guy where Target is and he directs us the way that we should go. Yeah the "nearby" Target was a 15 minute walk, about a mile from the Metro and then walking around the biggest, grandest Target in history.

The biggest task in itself was figuring out what pots and pans to purchase. I kept looking at all these aluminum pots & pans sets and I knew that would not be a smart purchase. I remember my mother and Kim once telling me that cooking with aluminum utensils is a health hazard but the guys wouldn't believe me. I called Kim and mom to confirm the fact so I could be sure. We found this awesome copper bottom/stainless steel 8 piece set and we got that. We bought some other stuff like laundry detergent, toilet paper, etc. The interesting part comes in us carrying this back about 15 minutes back to the Metro stop. As we're walking back we stop at Papa John's to order pizza so it could be delivered to our apartment and hopefully the delivery guy wouldn't beat us to our place. The guy at the register must have thought we were playing a prank on him or something but we were able to buy pizza and continued our march to the station.

In the midst of all this, we notice how foolish we look carrying all this stuff. The Canadian is carrying a 12-roll of toilet paper, the white southern guy carrying a couple of grocery bags, and the Puerto Rican carrying the box with the cookware. Quite a trio if I do say so myself :) We got to the station and noticed three girls with Target bags and a rolling suitcase. "Genius" I thought, only girls could come up with an awesome idea like that so as to make the shopping experience easier. The Canadian notices girls and the Puerto Rican guy goes into action by being the outgoing guy and initiates conversation. It seemed like they were part of TWC so I didn't think it would be harmful to get some talkin' going on :) They were pretty cool and we started sharing stories as to what our apartments have and didn't have. The girls' place had pots but their cable didn't work. The typical guy that I am, I'd rather have the 200+ cable channels than pots and pans. Pretty cool people overall...the program is challenging though but it should still be fun.

I've noticed I haven't talked about anything regarding my internship. I got an interview placement on Thursday and it was about 2-3 blocks from Capitol Hill. I would say say it's even closer than that. The cool thing is that if I do receive the internship I interviewed for I just take the Metro straight to Union Station and not have to worry about transferring or anything like that. Let's see what happens in that regard. I have an interview with another agency on Wednesday afternoon so that should be cool as well. My first class is Tuesday night and it's a long weekend this weekend so it should be cool. If I get the internship with the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislatures I'll work Tuesday-Friday. That'd be cool, plus I'll be really close to Capitol Hill.

I hope this story is eventful enough for all of you and that it's kept you amused. I'll try my best to provide good entertainment for ya'll :) Have a great Sabbath guys!

Going, going, gone

I'm off to Washington, D.C. bright and early tomorrow at 6am. That's when my flight leaves so I have to wake up at 3:30, leave by 4:00 and make it to the airport at least 75 minutes prior to the plane leaving. It should be fun, I make a stop in Detroit and then land in D.C. at around noon. I then have to take the shuttle bus and all the heavy luggage to North Bethesda, Maryland where I will be living for the summer. Oh the joy, I've got some good stories so far and surely more to come once I get to the nation's capital :)

The Journey

I went too long in between posts but what can you do when you're in my shoes. In the month of April I was saddled with 3 papers, finals preparation, work, internship information, sleep, sports, more work, and beer. Ummm...scrap the sleeping part but you get the picture. I was out of this world busy as I finished up my last semester of undergrad.

When I read Annette's blog I see how contrasting and different we go about things as we approached the same milestones. She's all organized, packing beforehand, finding storage with plenty of time, and she's going to keep going for a Master's degree. You go girl! On the otherhand, I decided that I'm too burned out from school to go for a Master's immediately, I have half of my possessions packed in my car, I have an opportunity to go to D.C. this summer, but I find myself hesitant to accept it. Partly it is about money issues, partly because I am afraid of stepping out of my "comfort zone".

I have had an internship opportunity with The Washington Center for the past year. I had it deferred from last summer to this year for a number of reasons. What attracted me to the program was that this organization places students in internship positions with different agencies, lobbying groups, private corporations according to the interests expressed in the essay we submit. You get to attend a lecture series with important in the government, meet a whole lot of people, and become interconnected with a network of powerful people. Very few of the internships are paid and since it is an academic program as well there is a tuition fee to pay along with room and board. The room and board is not too bad since it is an upscale apartment, fully furnished with the whole shabang, but combined with tuition the program comes to about $9,500. I can get financial help and all but it is mostly through loans and I wasn't exactly wanting to add about $10,000 more to my student loan. Hence the indecision of committing firmly with TWC and having a brief flirtation with graduating in May with no experience on my resume and head back to PR and start the job hunt there.

Graduation came and went and I did not do the paperwork needed to switch some things around so I am done academically but not officially. Go figure. I had applied with TWC with the hope that I could work for a cool agency that I know I could contribute to (through my academic knowledge) such as the State Department, Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI, or be able to work at the Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner's office in DC or the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs office. Something sorta close to my interests would have been fine. Nevertheless I don't hear back from my program advisor about any of these. I do have an offer to do some work regarding labor rights violations in Latin America. I put LA in my essay, but labor rights and economic policy aren't my forte...it leans more towards the government/institutions/politics side of things. Basically I did not want to get stuck in an internship where I was not enjoying or learning something from it and having to foot a $10 grand bill on top of it.

I haven't been fair to TWC because I've been pushing this to the last minute. I'm going to be in D.C. at the end of May, I just don't know where. I did send in my housing contract earlier this week so I could have a place to live when I get there, regardless of program. The kicker was two days ago when I received a call out of left field. It was a representative from HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities) calling me about potential placement with an agency. I had applied to HACU in February because they actually pay their interns, they place them in federal agencies according to their interests, and (this one is key because I thought I could pull this one off) they target Hispanics students for their placements. I saw this and I thought this would be perfect because not only would I not have to worry about financial matters but since I am a good Puerto Rican student this would be a shoo-in right? No, the only thing I heard from them was that they had received my application. So the months go by and I hear nothing from HACU and I see my student loans bloating to an even bigger unimaginable number. That is until I get the phone call from HACU saying they've got a position available with the Department of Labor and wanted to know if I would like to be referred to them. I'm thinking, "uhhh, sure...it wouldn't hurt even if it's more labor related stuff" and I get Dept. of Labor will be calling the 5-7 other people in the next week with hopefully a decision by the middle of the week. Oh man, this is getting precariously close. The check-in date for TWC is May 24 and I have yet to purchase my ticket because of all this uncertainty!! Craziness! So now there might be a door opening but I don't really know until I get the call and ace the interview. The job did sound like a lot of data entry, office stuff that really doesn't interest me but it's the Feds, they're all interconnected :)

On the surface all this physical stuff has kept me busy while I've rotted on the inside. It wasn't exactly the highest point of my life because of the things I was doing. I allowed myself to become hurt due to life's issues and allowed it to eat my insides. One thing I hate is to have something taken away from me. I love having the excitement inside of me when talking to someone or just thinking about them. Yet it seems that my life can be described by having those feelings be taken away from me. Love and relationships aren't supposed to be complicated yet we make it that way. How are we supposed to live life fully if we're afraid of to let something good happen to us/other people. Just when we think that we're doing the other person a favor by not getting involved with them we realize that we're just really acting out of a selfish attitude. Instead of protecting the person we "care" about we're really protecting ourselves and thus only really worrying about the "me" and "I" instead of the "we". Real outgoing concern puts both people's interests at the forefront and you can only know how something is going to end up if you give it a shot. You don't know the ending unless you take the journey.

And that ladies and gentlemen sums up my last month. And there's more craziness in the days and weeks ahead. Oh the joy.