Summer's Work Begins: Day 1 at Internship

Hello from NOLA! I landed last night, settled into my new place (a sublet bedroom in a 4-bedroom house in a "good" part of New Orleans, occupied by 3 other mid-twenties females and TFA-ers), met my new roommates, took a run this morning on the trolly tracks on the "neutral territory" (what the rest of America calls the median), got lost on my run but found my way back, arrived 5 minutes early to my workplace, met my boss, read and talked about charter schools and the state of education in this city with her and two other coworkers for about 5 hours (off and on), and now I am nearing the end of the workday. Already I went out to a delectable lunch with three coworkers to a place within walking distance from my workplace called Tartine New Orleans, where I had an open-faced, salmon-and-locks covered baguette. Y-U-M. And, already another coworker has talked to me every time she passed my cubicle and invited me out with her two other friends Wednesday night! AGH! So exciting. Social life is easier in the workforce than in grad school, I think. Or maybe my mentality is more amenable to growing friendships when I am not in school...no, that can't be it. I don't know, but I can say I welcome this change! In Atlanta, I made friends, but boy, it was more of an effort to grow those friendships, and time spent together is small in comparison to people you work with all day everyday.

I think it's gonna be a good summer. I was apprehensive about whether getting back into the groove of a 9-to-5 job would be hard, but I've found that it's not! I really like my boss, and these young people at the think tank I'm interning at are brainiacs. I love to belong with them. I definitely think I am going to GROW this summer. Professionally and socially, definitely, but I hope also personally and spiritually too.

Two photos to get this summer reflection blog going (more scenic ones to come, I promise!)

You know you're in N.O. when there's Tony's creole spice in as close of reach as salt n peppa.

This alone will make my eight weeks working here fantastic. Talk about great working conditions: coffee on tap within the water cooler! AND, it is really great coffee, brewed just to my liking.