life in the capitol

After being in New York City, living in DC is a bit like moving your bed from the closet to the backyard — everything is wider and luxuriously spread out. I love my apartment and the city, while not quite the same charm as New York, still feels immensely impressive.
I've been incredibly busy getting oriented, learning the overwhelming amount of projects I must complete this summer — at The Washington Center — and getting ready to start at The Post tomorrow. All the remaining time has been sight seeing. I've already seen most of the national monuments at night and toured two Smithsonian museums — the National Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of the American Indian.
I just did the Native American Museum today, and it was incredible. Not only was the history and story telling fascinating, but in particular, an art exhibit by the controversial Indian artist Fritz Scholder blew me away. It was great to learn about his work, mostly done in my home state, Arizona. I had no knowledge of his art or the steps he took to advance Native American culture.
Another definite highlight was the all-authentic, Native American food hall. It was delicious. My girlfriend practically demanded we eat there, and while not culinarily complex, the food was very flavorful. It is segregated according to its region of origin, and many of the ingredients are grown on-site using traditional native farming techniques.

Like I mentioned, tomorrow I start interning with The Washington Post. I expect it will be a lot of training and getting oriented — again — but most first days are.