Friday, July 3, 2015
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I played tour guide for the weekend as my family drove down on Friday to visit me and do some sight-seeing. On Saturday, we briefly stopped by Capitol Hill and then went to the Museum of the American Indian. I had seen the New York edition of the museum the weekend before, so I was very interested to see the differences. Though many of the displays and exhibits were certainly unique, we were most intrigued by the renowned cafeteria, which serves food from all different regions in the Americas. After that, we went to the National Gallery, one of the most robust art museums I had ever been to. I was especially struck by the Rodin sculptures; I have always been blown away by the concept of chiseling a block of stone into such fine detail. That evening, we went to a Korean restaurant in Adams Morgan that I will have to take the SPS interns to at some point. On Sunday, we set our sights on the classic Mall monuments, but were distracted along the way by the Museum of African Art. It was by far the coolest building I’ve ever been in, with multiple levels of abstract colors and shapes built into the infrastructure. The current featured exhibit is an African reimagining of Dante’s Divine Comedy, with floors dedicated to Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.
After my parents left, I began the week with a tour of the ACP building where half of the SPS interns work. Working on the Hill, I often get caught up in my work and don’t pay much thought to what the other interns are doing, so it was nice to go there for a day and get to listen to updates on their projects. As a political science major, I especially enjoyed seeing the history center. In particular, it had a microfilm on display showing a document from declassified plans for the Manhattan Project.
The rest of the week was rather short, as I was off of work on Friday and was let out halfway through the day on Thursday. Additionally, all of the Congressmen had left the previous Friday to return to their districts, so there were no hearings or briefings to attend. Drew and I spent much of the week setting up meetings with science policy folk around the hill, and I worked on a mini project regarding Apple Music. It was very cool to learn about the way different royalty schemes work in different music services. I also continued to work on my long term project, and finished the research for it. I hope to begin writing sometime next week. My friends from college arrived on Thursday night for an exciting 4th of July Weekend!
Elias Kim