Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan

I've decided to devote my blog entry to one of the most important things in the District...the Metro. Coming from Michigan, where we have absolutely no public transportation (more to come about that later in the post), it is amazing to actually be able to go wherever I want, without having to get into a car. Everywhere I could ever possibly want to go, there is a Metro stop close enough where my walking time is mere minutes.

The Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan stop is my home stop. It's literally 3 feet outside of my apartment building and is super convenient. I get on a train every morning and I'm at Union State in about 15 minutes. It costs about $2 and is incredibly efficient. And the best part of the Metro is really how clean it is. There is no food or drink allowed on the trains, which is great, and the stations are super clean and safe. I've been on the subway in NYC, and it's actually disgusting and perpetually smells like urine. This is not the case in D.C., and for that I am extremely thankful.

I've been assigned to Healthcare and Finance for my topics for my internship, which are both really cool. Healthcare is a huge deal so I'm happy to be learning a lot about it, but I've also taken a lot of interest in transportation and how it affects big cities. That's why I've dedicated this post to the Metro and transportation.

If you're from the Detroit area, you know that there is no public transportation to and from Detroit, but there's also very limited transportation within the city. The SMART Bus, which travels within the city and also to a lot of the suburbs, has cut down its service drastically, making it extremely difficult for Detroit residents to even get their groceries. This is largely due to the vacant fields that literally separate individual residences for miles upon miles. Detroit, lacking funding to support transportation for less than 1 million people, basically allowed all of its public transportation to crumble. The People Mover, which had high hopes when it was first built, travels a short loop and is beneficial to very few people.

What most people don't realize is how important transportation is to a metropolitan city. Not only does it transport people to and from the City, it provides an essential lifeline to those living in the cities. Michigan is in an interesting position because of the Big Three. Back in the 1970s, Detroit so a massive shift of people moving from the City into the suburbs. The only way for people to get back into the City was via the highways. Detroit was the birthplace of America's highway system, and it's something the Big Three hugely profited off of. People had cars, so they had no reason to take a train or a bus into Detroit. But with the recession and growing environmental concerns, people want a better way to travel in Michigan, and a train system is vital to that.

There is a group that is pushing for the development of a Light Rail System that would provide rapid transit all the way from the Birmingham area into the heart of Detroit. If successful, the program would extend around the suburbs, connecting Michigan communities in a totally new, eco-friendly way. While difficult to imagine, this could be the key to the revitalization of Detroit. With easy access to the City, businesses might be more inclined to have offices downtown. More businesses lead to more money. More money leads to better roads and buildings. Detroit has an incredible history and a lot of it has been lost to people who know the city and grew up near it. Investing in the proper developments can have a huge impact on what the City can be.

Every morning, I get off at Union Station (top). It is a hub for Amtrak trains and has a mall inside it as well. It was built in 1908 and is still an important part of transportation for the Eastern seaboard. Detroit once had a similar station, the Michigan Central Station (bottom). Today it is an abandoned station, with broken windows and destroyed ceilings, despite its position on the National Register of Historic Places. People want to demolish it, much like the City demolished the historic J.L. Hudson building. But it has potential. Potential, that, if used properly, can really help to revitalize the City.

It's PANDA time!!

Thank God I've made some friends here in D.C. Getting here so early in the intern season made it really hard to meet people, especially since I live way up in the NW quadrant, a little far away from the Hill and the local colleges. But the guys I work with, Dustin and Charlie, are AWESOME. They both go to Michigan State (which is a bit of a problem, but we're working through our issues), and they're both really great guys. We goof off at work a lot and we spend a lot of time together outside of work too. Charlie and Dustin are lucky enough to work together and live together, and they're even luckier because their office is not even a two minute walk from our office. The did their housing through WISH housing so they randomly got paired together and they also have 9 other housemates, some of whom I met on Friday night.

We decided to go to the D.C. National Zoo on Saturday morning. It's a bit of a joke in the office because I love panda bears. And the zoo has a live-streaming panda cam, which i actually watch in the office sometimes. Yes, I am that cool. So we ventured off to see every nook and cranny of the zoo. And of course, the pandas were the best. People were legit FREAKING out over the pandas. Following them around as they moved, jumping up and down...it was pretty INSANE. But I was pretty excited too so I can't judge too much.

One of the coolest parts about the panda exhibit was seeing the information on how the pandas

were able to have a baby. Tai Shan, was born last year, and recently shipped back to China. But it wasn't easy for his mom to have him. Smithsonian scientists literally stayed up for months making sure that the female panda was actually pregnant after they performed an in vitro fertilization process. Thankfully, a healthy baby boy panda was born and the Smithsonian scientists help provide years worth of data for panda conservation. So while D.C. might be the heart of national politics and history, there's plenty of science breakthroughs that happen here too, which I think is pretty cool.

After the zoo, Charlie and I were convinced to join Dustin and their other roommates at the Nationals-Orioles baseball game. I shouldn't lie, it didn't take me much convincing because I love baseball, and this was a rivalry game. The stadium was nice and you could see the Capitol Building in the distance, which was pretty sweet. The Nationals were having a rough time, but they finally managed to pull it together and beat the Orioles 7-6.

Alright well my apartment is in desperate need of some cleaning so I am off to surround myself with cleaning products. Hope you enjoyed hearing a bit about my day and seeing the pictures!

What took me so long to do this??

Here it is, my first blog entry. It took me a long time to actually decide to blog. I thought about it for a long time when I first got to D.C., but I kept getting hung up on the title, so I kind of let the idea go for a while. But then I realized that EVERYONE wants to know details about what I'm doing here, so a blog will probably be the best way for people who care (which, quite honestly, I don't know why you would), to see what silly shenanigans I'm getting into here in the District.

So most of you already know about my celebrity sightings. It's a big joke here that D.C. is "Ugly Hollywood." And considering my obsession with Perez Hilton, you'd think I'd be pretty mad about that...well, I'm not. Being in D.C. is like celebrity heaven. Every person I see or run into has actually done something amazing and they're really the kind of people who Perez needs to talk about. And for those of you who hate my Perez obsession, I'm slowly being weaned off of his website! I don't know nearly as much as I used to about the world of celebrities :(...Most of you have heard about my sightings so far so I'll just list them here:

1) Neil Armstrong (Yes, the first man to walk on the Moon!)

2) Mariska Hargitay (Detective Benson for Law and Order: SVU...she is STUNNING in real life)

3) Madeleine Albright (Definitely unexpected and a really mind-blowing experience. She was one of the women who really helped influence my political aspirations)

4) Elena Kagan (Yes, Solicitor General and Obama's SCOTUS nomination....SHE SAID HI TO ME!)

I'm pretty lucky. I've seen some amazing people and I have no clue who else I'm going to be seeing in the future, but I can't wait. Washington D.C. is an amazing city. History, parties, politics, celebrities. This city actually has EVERYTHING. And I'm really lucky because I've made some great friends too. Don't worry, you'll hear all about them.

So I don't want to make this post too long, but I'll probably do a couple of posts tomorrow. I want to introduce you all to my co-workers and show you my apartment and the rest the fun things I've been doing.

Thanks for reading!