The Internship Has Landed

The internship has landed. It’s back to being a full-time employee for the next twelve weeks.

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Monday was Memorial Day here in the USA, which was spent getting settled into my new accommodation (read: catch up on more missed sleep from the last year of MBA work), so it wasn’t until Tuesday that I had my first day on the job at Americans for the Arts. They’re in the heart of the action in central D.C., and arriving on the metro that morning was the first time in over a decade I had been in the city. Being early, I took a detour to go past the Whitehouse, which was a few blocks away. Even in the early morning there were already groups of tourists taking selfies at the fence, watched on by security.

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The first day itself went well, mainly orientation and meeting with my new supervisor to discuss my work. I’m going to be heading up a project for them, which is a big responsibility but it will be a great experience. The rest of the week was spent putting together all the planning documents and beginning the research work. It’s nice to be applying many of the skills that they’ve taught in the coursework over the past year in a practical context. It’s also nice to have my own desk, with my name on it and everything (they really do make us feel part of the team).

That said, it’s taking a little while to adjust back to full time work. It’s a different frame of mind than what’s required in the MA/MBA; a day is a sustained effort from when you get in until you leave, whereas study and classes always came in neat, shorter blocks that allowed for some brief recuperation between. For the first couple of days I was coming home physically and mentally exhausted, but it’s starting to get easier as I adjust to the different lifestyle.

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And having the weekend off is great. Today I went and did a little bit of the tourist thing, going into town with the interns to check out one of the markets and visit an art museum. The group of interns seem like a great bunch of people, and already we are organising social activities and trying to make the most of our summer. 

And there’s a lot of Washington to make the most of...

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