You know the song Don’t Stop Believin’? Journey sings about a small town girl living in a lonely world- well that’s not me. I’m a city girl from Atlanta, and living in DC is anything but a lonely world.

The Washington Center program has been going on for almost two weeks now, and the city is already starting to feel like home. After mistakenly riding the Metro trains the wrong direction (oops), making snow angels after the “snow storm” (sorry to all you Yankees, a foot of snow is the equivalent of a blizzard to a Southerner like me), and burning multiple chicken breasts which were originally for dinner (sorry mom), I’m finally getting my footing.

And you thought I was kidding about making snow angels…

I have been working at my internship with the Quebec Government Office for a bit over a week. The office is small, friendly, and busy. Even as an intern, I’m doing real work to help my supervisor monitor policies that affect Quebec and the relationships between Canada and the United States.

While the office has been great thus far, it has been a transition going from the college life to real world. Working 9-5 is surprisingly exhausting, and that does not include the amount of effort it takes to commute to and from work. While the Metro is the most efficient commute I have experienced in my life, my previous transportation habits won’t make you jealous…the locals here say that the Metro can be unreliable and slow, but I have yet to see it that way.

My apartment is 5 minutes away from the Grosvenor-Strathmore stop on the red line, and it is about 35 minutes from the center of the city. The living situation is not shabby--2 bedroom 2 bath with a kitchen and living area. Honestly, except for weeknights, my roommates and I don’t hang around the apartment much. Weather permitting, we have a goal of visiting one notable place or participating in one unique event each weekend.

This past weekend we visited the Arlington National Cemetery. It was extremely easy to find (just on the blue line of the Metro) and it is a great area to explore. The snow on the tombstones made practically everything white, and it really made us understand the expanse of the cemetery.

So I’ll keep writing about my time here with The Washington Center as well as my adventures around the city.

Que Sera Sera.