One week in

Before wandering to DC, I had a conversation with a friend of mine about how I would spend my time in DC. Picking the guitar back up? Shedding some of my soft college skin? Building "social capital?"** Catching up on the stack of books that have been building for the last four years? Being a museum junkie?

The days are just packed. And until they invent a pill that eliminates the need for sleep, I have to make some choices.

DC has intensified those choices; my internship with Family Health International has made them a bit easier by sheer dent of the brain-space it requires. In the last week-and-a-half, I have had real-time, sink-or-swim courses on corporate restructuring and office politics, clinical pediatric AIDS care, the public sector penchant for acronyms, non-profit funding crunches, the shameful politicization of crucial public health issues, and best-practices for orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC). I work hard from 8:30 to 5:00 every day, learning on the fly. Give it another week, and it will be 5:30... then likely 6:00...

That is how I like it, going to bed every night knowing that I have a full day ahead of me - and that the following night will be the same.

More later; I need to get back to life.


**"Building social capital" basically just means going out for drinks. People in DC make up buzzwords for everything.