D.C. isn't always so Bon Appetit

If you knew my family, it would be no surprise that the first thing I talk about after a couple weeks of posting is food. And what better way to lead than with a photo of Julia Child brandishing what appears to be the knives of all knives.

Last weekend my roommates and I made the trip out to the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Soon enough, I found myself gazing into the original kitchen of Julia Child (there's an entire exhibit) and joining a crowd that watched replays of old Julia Child episodes with eyes bigger than our stomachs. Beyond Child's renown love for butter, I believe there's another aspect of bravery that I admire her for. She took on challenges--new recipes, the french language, deboning a duck--with as much confidence as a woman with a large knife could muster.

And so, that's how I've felt these last couple of weeks--a struggle to brandish my own small butter knife in a business world of machetes and cleavers.

The last two weeks I became an expert on topics I never knew about: adult ice skating, homebuyer assistance programs, foreclosure auctions and grand cycling tours. I've had to research to build confidence. I've had to decode acronyms. I've had to pray to God that I could decipher documents. It's a thrilling feeling when you find the answers to your long list of questions but the beginning always feels like a new recipe (in Bulgarian rather than French). You have no idea what you're doing but by the end of the last sentence and once you hit "send," you learned something. You're always learning.

I think that's the part of this experience that keeps me going under the pressure. I have an uncanny desire to learn and to be a part of something foreign to me. You're knife becomes sharper when the questions you ask become more specific. At the foreclosure auction I ended up covering, I felt like a pro as I discussed homebuyer programs with realtors. I had become just as hyped about HFAs and how the VHDA was providing SPARC while the DDOT was helping employees (basically the conversation was mostly capital letters). The same happened with the grand cycling tour story which took me to the Italian embassy to chat with the Mayor of D.C. at a huge gala. By the end I wanted to jump on a bike and compete myself (I just learned how to ride a bike a couple years ago).

I'm never knowing what my internship or my time in D.C. will take me. I've been trying to fill my free time with short adventures (which can be hard to do when you would rather sleep than walk a mile). In the past two weeks I cruised around the Library of Congress and got a research card. I saw the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. I attended a feminist book talk at the Busboys and Poets coffee shop. I celebrated Valentines Day by eating a bananas ice cream dish with my roommates. I interviewed the CEO of a nonprofit against poverty. I gazed at rows and rows of fish at the Chesapeake fish market. I worshiped in the Lincoln theater. I listened to an interview with my professor and Denzel Washington for a class assignment. I watched the remains of the snowpocalypse slowly melt away. I ate tacos with crime reporters at the National Press Club. I got my shoe stuck in an escalator. I walked past the Capitol building for the twentieth time and still felt amazed.

I'm still deciphering the "Cookbook for D.C. Interns" but with each experience and editor critique, I can feel my confidence getting a little sharper. Now, if only to master national politics...

An ode to snow

The snow has stopped and the sun has finally made its way back from wherever it was hiding...Florida? Farewell Snowpocalypse of 2010, you made grocery shopping a game of survival of the fittest and tested my patience at the Metros. But all in all, thank you for giving me my first snow day. I leave you with this wonderful view of the Capitol and the snow protesters that have assembled there. I blame cabin fever for this stunt.

The Semester of the "Snowpocalypse"

Remember when I put up that picture last week of the alley behind my apartment? Well, it's snowed a lot since then. And I mean 20 inches with more to come. Here's what it looked like this afternoon (left).

The news has dubbed the unwelcomed fluff the "Snowpocalypse" and it's said to be one of the worst blizzards Washington D.C. has ever experienced. Funny websites such as this one have also erupted that give you an idea of what people are feeling here...all aside, people are freaking out and with good reason. Metro lines are closed, trees are falling under the weight of the snow and the threat of possible electricity problems are rumored.

So how would one start a glorious winter day such as this one? Perhaps, brew a cup of coffee or stay in bed protesting the cold? Well not me unfortunately. I woke up at 6 am and marched to Union station (a half mile walk) to interview people stranded at the train station for the Washington Examiner newspaper, where I'm currently interning. The walk was like something out of I am Legend. No one was out and it was difficult to distinguish between the street and the sidewalk. I walked in the middle of the road, the only clear place where I could step without getting snow in my rain boots. I got stopped once by a passing vehicle who was concerned as to why I would be outside in the midsts of the Snowmageddon (this was runner up to Snowpocalypse, I like it better). I wasn't sure why I was out either or why I volunteered in the first place but the experience was still rewarding. I interviewed two people, including a man from London who was waiting to travel to NYC to see his daughter. Here's the article, note the "Examiner intern Kaitlin Schluter contributed to this report."

And so begins the list of bylines by reporter Kaitlin Schluter (I hope). My internship started last Tuesday and within the first day I was writing and sent out covering stories. My editor thankfully allows me to pitch story ideas like crazy and a couple have been picked up. I covered a coalition in the Georgetown area who are fighting to bring streetcars to their district and am currently researching a bill that will grant trainers of guide dog the same rights as the physically disabled with a service animal. Daily I contribute a brief and have been adding the "Heart of the City" brief which gets your name on it (twice now!). Thursday I was asked to write a sidebar about etiquette that got published with the cover story.

The internship has been going well but I would be lying if I denied how stressful it gets. I keep hearing stories from my journalism program about students who reach an emotional breakdown at least once a semester. That was almost my first day. I was handed a brief and a story to cover due that day within the first hour that I entered the newsroom. I freaked out a little, but enough to leave me feeling physically ill from the stress. Not to mention I stayed up til two in the morning writing an article to file the next morning. But don't worry, things have gotten better and I'm in for a very exciting internship experience.

I'm a bundled up journalist, officially.