President's Day Part 1

As always you can go to the group's flickr page for more photos.

On February 15, most of us got the day off for Washington's Birthday (The official, government name for President's Day). All federal offices, but some people working in the private sector had to go in to work and were not able to join us. For me, it was my 10th day off from work in a row. With two weekends, the federal government shut down for snow, and my boss kind enough to give me Friday off as well, this acted as sort of a mid-winter/spring break.

Most CMC students know that one of the perks of the school is that if we get enough people to go to an activity together, we can get funding from Jim Nauls at the Dean of Student's office. Many people on campus use this for things such as tickets to an Angels game, a concert, or Universal Studios. One of the neat things about the DC program is that you are still eligible for money from Jim Nauls. With Monday off for Washington's birthday, we decided to try out Fogo de Chao.


For those of you who have never experienced Fogo de Chao, it can be a little overwhelming at first. It's pretty much an all-you-can eat steakhouse, with a massive salad bar. You have a coaster, with one side red and one side green. Red means stop, green means go. If you're ready for meat, there are servers assigned to each dish, and they will come to your table and see if you would like any. These range from filet mignon to chicken breast wrapped in bacon. They will pretty much come at you non-stop until you tell turn your card over. You can see one of them serving Isaac in the first picture. The best part was that instead of being the usual $40 for lunch, it turned out to be about $12 per person because of the generous support of CMC.

Orientation Day 4

As always you can see more on the group's flickr page.
Sorry for the long delay between posts.

Our fourth and final day of orientation started bright and early with a 8:30 tour at the Pentagon. Getting off the Metro, you could tell that this wasn't a normal Metro Station. We were greeted at the top of the escalators by a Police Officer with a some sort of scary looking automatic rifle. After going through security, we met up with CMC and program alum TJ Devine (on the left in the picture below). In addition to setting us up with the tour, he helped Ben F. get set up with his internship at the Defense Department. We were split into two groups for the tour, which was given by members of various military branches. My tour was given by someone from the Air Force and one person from the Navy. We did quite a lot of walking. Although most of the time we spent was in the hallways (people do indeed work there), we learned a lot of fun facts about both the military and the Pentagon itself. For instance, the Soviets used to think that the building inside of the Pentagon rings, was some sort of nuclear bunker, when in truth it was a hot dog stand.

After the tour, we went to a local shopping mall and Costco to pick up some things for the various apartments before our lunch with CMC and program alum Andy Barr from the Politico. We needed to drop off the items before lunch, so we stopped by Ben's apartment and got a nice look around. We went to Cosi for lunch, which CMC was nice enough to pay for. We met up with Andy there and headed over to the offices of the Politico.It turns out Politico shares facilities with the local Washington ABC station. At the Politico, we got to meet in the executive meeting room. Andy talked to us about the always evolving news business and how Politico is adapting to it. He brought in a couple other writers. One was in charge of the new "Politico 44" which focuses on the Obama administration. He discussed how the project started, and how the focus of it has evolved since the beginning. He mentioned that they try to get Obama news up on the website within 2 to 3 minutes of it happening. We also talked with Anne Mullins who is the gossip columnist for the Politico. She told us how she got to her position and what it entails. She likes to know who is at what. Whether it is a congressman at a fundraiser or an important staffer at a cocktail party.

After our time at the Politico, our orientation was officially over. However, the CMC Alumni Association in Washington was nice enough to buy us tickets to the Wizards/Clippers basketball game on Sunday, the 24th. It was nice to talk with alumni working in Washington before we started our first days at work.

Orientation Day 3

As always, you can go to the group's flickr page for more pictures. Also, sorry this blog post is a bit lengthy.

For the third day of orientation, we went to the Capitol for an 11:45 tour with program alum Tyler White (far left in the above picture). He currently works in Congressman Jerry Lewis' office. During the program he interned on Capitol Hill, but for a different Congressman. After asking us about our living arrangements and catching up with Dr. Spalding, we started the tour by going up to the House Gallery, where we could watch as Congressmen cast votes and simply chatted amongst themselves. Before we went in we had to surrender all our electronics, including Tyler who is a staffer. He explained to us some of the traditions of the room: no assigned seats, the rotating Speaker, the cloak rooms, etc. Next we went to the rotunda (which you can see in the picture above). On our way he explained the paintings, and the statues, including the new California statue of Ronald Reagan. As we were standing there, learning about the room, in walked a couple of Capitol policemen, a photographer and an entourage of people.


It turned out it was California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He had come to take a picture with the new Reagan statue. The room was divided in the middle with a roped off walkway. We happened to be the only group on the Governator's side. As the groups in the room pressed up against the ropes, we got a closer look, and presumably got into many people's pictures. After that we walked to the "Center of Washington". In the middle of the room, there was a compass built into the ground. It was the original center of Washington, DC when the City was first designed. The picture below is us standing around it, and some with our feet on it.
After that it was time for lunch in the House Member's Dining Room. The next week when I handed the "CMC Washington Packet" to my supervisor with the orientation schedule she remarked that she had only eaten there once or twice in her ten years, so this was quite the experience. On our way there we saw Dennis Kucinich hurry past us and as we were waiting to be seated, out walked Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures. But we were joined by a CMC and Washington Program alum whose name escapes me at the moment. She also worked in Mr. Lewis' office and had interned there during the program. We talked about how CMC had changed since they had been there, Claremont Hall, the Kravis Center, and even the Pomona construction blocking our walk to Frary. We talked about the long-term plans for CMC renovations as well as their suggestions for the future of the program. Not only did we get great food, but it was covered by CMC (always a plus).


After lunch, they took us to Congressman Lewis' private meeting room (I think I got the name of the room right) (Picture above). It had an amazing view of The National Mall. After we were done, we went to the steps of the Capitol to take a couple of group pictures. I already posted the picture before, but I figured it's a pretty good picture, so I would post it once again.


After that we had a little break before we went back to the office for our first class with Professor Haskell, who works at Georgetown during the day. He handed out the syllabus, gave us free copies of our textbook (which he wrote), and showed off his impressive random knowledge of all of our hometowns. After class was over, we all headed home for some rest before our early 8:30 am start time the next day.

Snow Week

I've written all week about the closing of the Federal Government. The government finally opened today. Although the start was delayed, so I got a call from my boss saying that with the delayed start I should just enjoy another day off. So I ended up getting a snow week, a late winter/early spring break. With the streets a little clearer, I was able to go out to lunch and do a little shopping. It was nice to have a break, and with Monday's President's Day holiday, I will ultimately get 10 days off between work days.

Orientation Day 2

As always, you can see more pictures at the group's flickr site.

The second day of orientation, we met at 12:45 inside the Supreme Court. Myself, Jenny, Carlos, and Angela got there a little early and apparently the court was still in session and the Great Hall was closed off, so we had to go in through the side handicapped accessible entrance and didn't get to go up the steps that you see in all the movies. We were then escorted to one of the conference rooms by a member of the Supreme Court's police force. We waited there to meet with Elizabeth Papez, a law clerk for Clarence Thomas. She came with a couple of her colleagues and we talked about the types of cases that come before The Supreme Court and the thought process that goes into making the decisions.


We then got a tour of the building by the Curator of the Supreme Court. She showed us the courtroom where they argue cases. It was surprisingly small and the lawyers stand very close to the the justices. The curator gave us a rundown of what all the pictures meant and details such as where the President sits when he visits, and the seats that are designated for guests of the Justices. After that we went to the the Meeting Room for the Supreme Court. In the past it used to be used for meetings with the Justices, but recently it is just used for press conferences, photo ops, and meetings for outside groups. Our last stop was the chambers of Justice Clarence Thomas. It was cool to see go behind the scenes of the Supreme Court and see where the Justices work. We saw that his office was decorated with various college football paraphernalia. Before leaving we got a picture on those famous steps which you can see above.

I was surprised that you don't need a pass or anything to get into a Supreme Court case, instead you just have to be one of the first people in line. For the big cases some people camp out the night before, but for others you can just show up at about 8:30am (They start hearing cases at 9 am).

We then had a little break, a couple of us went to a little deli near the Capitol and Supreme Court to grab a late lunch before we headed back to the CMC office for a "Panel on professionalism and working in Washington."


Giving the presentation were Vanessa Carter and Nick Piatek who were both on the program in the Spring of 2006. Joel Malina from Wexler and Walker was also there. Although Joel didn't go to CMC, he has supervised a Washington Program participant every semester for the last 9 or so years. This semester Meredith is working there. The panel told us what to expect as an intern. We are indeed at the bottom of the totem pole. We were told good strategies for making sure we did substantive work while we were at the office. We were also told the proper way to interact with our bosses. We were also given tips on how to handle our internships along with our classes. It was good to get the perspective of both program alumni and bosses of people who have been on the program.

Orientation Day 1

I think I covered everything I can think of in terms of what you do in Claremont in preparation for the Washington Program. I'll add anything if I can think of it, but I figure I should tell people some things that they will encounter once they are in DC on the program.

Orientation is a 4 day program, and instead of trying to guess what goes on at a generic orientation (the events change slightly every year), I'll just give you a rundown of what happened at our orientation.

Although most of orientation was filled with trips to various sites around Washington, the first day was spent entirely at the CMC office. It started at 10:30 in the morning with Dr. Spalding welcoming us all. She handed out packets, we went over the schedule for the week, and got a little tour of the office (I'll have a post about the office later).

We then got Potbelly sandwiches, paid for by CMC (One of several lunches picked up by CMC during the week). Professor Haskell joined us for lunch. We went around the room and introduced ourselves for him, he displayed his impressive knowledge of our hometowns as well as his knowledge of local eateries.

Then was one of the more interesting parts of any orientation to which I have ever been. We got a "Session on safety and security in Washington, DC." We weren't really sure what to expect, we got a 6 foot 4 inch ex-marine by the name of Ken Barksdale. We learned about a CMC safe house that we were supposed to go to if the city of DC was evacuated. We learned how to react if someone grabs us, tries to use a knife, tries to use a gun, and grabs us from behind. He had us stand up in a circle, and practice the self-defense moves on him. So, we should pretty much be able to handle everything. Before he left, he gave us a CMC emergency packet, with a map to the safe house and what to do in the case of pretty much every different situation possible. He was one of the more interesting characters we encountered. As CMC Celeb Isaac Goldberg put in his recent Forum interview about his favorite unknown CMC tidbit:

"That the CMC Washington D.C. Program has an ex-Navy Seal in charge of student safety. He once told me, 'If you use the pepper spray, empty the can.'"

At the end of the security presentation, we got bright red emergency bags, which had boxed water, hand crank radio and flashlight, light stick, mask, goggles and more.

We ended the day by having our first class, Government 125 on Liberal Internationalism. We went over the syllabus and the expectations for the semester. We were each assigned a day to lead class discussion. The first presentation should be coming up next week from Carlos and Isaac.

Snowmageddon

As always you can go to the group's Flickr page to see even more pictures. Ben H. was kind enough to let me post some of his pictures on the site (including the one above).

You have probably seen on the news that snow has been hitting the DC area pretty badly, in a blizzard (blizzards?) called snowmageddon. The federal government closed early on Friday, and has been closed completely the last three days, and will be again today (Thursday). If you're curious, you can always check on the status of the federal government here.

On Super Bowl Sunday (before the second wave of snow), I was going to the CMC office to do some work, and decided to go to the National Mall to take some pictures.
The scene was beautiful with people playing on the mall, building snowmen, and even some people literally sledding down Capitol Hill.