No Work and All Play, then some work.

Just as I was getting ready to work this afternoon, the boys, Dan H., Steven, Joe, and John, came by to see if I wanted to go to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. I decided that sounded like alot more fun. The festival is something the Smithsonian puts on every year to showcase 3 different cultures from around the world. This year was Africa, the Americas, and Whales. They bring over organizations, artists, and musicians from the respective countries to have booths on all aspects of culture from food and crafts to building materials and music. The Whales exhibit was the coolest, they had a really good band and an interesting exhibit about natural building materials. The word below is the worlds longest place name, in Whales. Then Jen and Cheyenne and I went to the Capital BBQ Competition. You couldn't have the competitors BBQ, that was just for judges, but they had lots of yummy BBQ restaurants and good blues and rock bands. I got home at 10 or so and was asleep by midnight, telling myself I would work tomorrow. I slept in and went for a run when I woke up, then went to the grocery store, a new one (Whole Foods), and then went to work. I was very productive, but got only a section written. This is going to take alot longer then I think, but it is always that way. I'm going to try to write a section each day. Enjoy the pictures, they are at the bottom because everytime I try to move them, explorer closes. Oh, computers.

Getting Out

I don't have any fun pictures for this post, and it will be rather short, but I thought I'd just give an update. Thursday, the recycling day of the conference, went really well. I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know, but I did meet alot of people and make some good connections, plus it was interesting. On Thursday, during lunch, I went a bought a new phone, the kind that has a calendar and maps and email and everything on it too. I thought I never would, that I liked being unplugged, but I really like it now. And it's way lighter and more compact than my red book, which is nice. On Thursday night we had a big group dinner because one of the interns, Ian, had some friends in town, which was fun. Then on Friday we had a meeting on capital hill with a staffer who did technology, and particularly DOD, stuff. We wanted to go to the House gallery to watch the vote, since if you weren't aware they voted to pass the House Climate Bill on Friday, but the line was SUPER long and full of tourists, so we decided to go to work and watch it on CSPAN. It was an amazing debate, very heated and valid points made on both sides. Friday night we took the metro down to Alexandria, VA. We went to dinner at this restaurant called Bilbo Baggins. I was a little disappointed that the door wasn't circle, but it was good food and had a lovely selection of microbrews. They even had Rouge, which is an Oregon beer that I like. After that we went to a movie at this old fashioned theater they have there that you can have food and drinks in. We saw the Hangover, which was actually really funny. I got home and went right to bed because I wanted to go biking with this group on Saturday. But, when I woke up I couldn't find my water bottle anywhere. I'm still figuring out my life in this new place and I just can't seem to keep track or everything, or anything. But I knew I couldn't go on a long ride without one, so I waited until the bike store near my house opened at 9am, went and bought a water bottle, and then went on a long ride by myself. I had looked up a long ride online and brought the directions with me. The first part went out through this park that closes the road for bikers on the weekend, then I got into the Maryland countryside, which was really beautiful with lots of hilly, windy roads, and lots of amazingly big and expensive houses and estates. In the end I was really glad I got to go out by myself, because I got to go for longer than the ride would have and got to go where I wanted, at my pace, and explore. Now I am going to hopefully go and get myself motivated to work on my paper. More later.

new pictures

http://www.wise-intern.org/alumni/2009/index.html

FCIX

Tuesday i went to my first day of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) Fuel Cycle Information Exchange (FCIX). As you can see, EVERYTHING is an acronym here. The conference is attended by a bunch of NRC people, industry representatives, DOE people, basically anyone involved with the nuclear industry at all. I am clearly the youngest and least informed person there, but it is really interesting. Or parts of it is anyways. Each day as a "theme" and the first day focused on "Lessons Learned", so a bunch of people gave presentations about their experiences building and licensing the first nuclear facilities the US has seen in 20 years and the problems they had. Wednesday was about Safety Culture and IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards and proliferation concerns. I attended the morning, but left early because the WISE people had a meeting at DOE with people in the Solar program there and I thought that would be more interesting. And it was. We heard from a guy who focused on PV, from the Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy Directorate. Then we heard from a guy about Concentrated Solar. Both of them were VERY optimistic about their technologies and talked about the current installations and where they thought solar would go, or had the potential to go. The most interesting thing I learned was that they just published a report about dry cooling for concentrated solar and that there will probably not be another tower built in the US with wet cooling. Then we got a tour of the solar installations they have on the roof. They have a big installation that generates about 500 kWh a day, which is only about 1% of the buildings energy use, but it's something I guess. Then they had a demonstration project that was 1 kW installations of Concentrated PV, CdTe, CIGS, and Thin film cells (just 4 different kinds of new solar technology). It was interesting to see the different sizes of them, it gave a really good impression of the relative efficiencies. Then I went for a bike ride this afternoon, which was short and traffic-y, but felt really good. I wanted to work tonight, but I sat down and just finished checking my email 15 minutes ago and it's already quarter to 10, so maybe I'll try to do a little. Tomorrow is the most exciting day of the FCIX conference, it's all about reprocessing, so I'm excited for that. I'll let you know how it goes later, but I thought I'd post know since I know you are all waiting with baited breathe. :)

Misadventures on the road to Liberty

We got on the bus to Philadelphia at 7:30am this morning on our trip to the ASTM International Headquarters, a national standards organization. We had a really great meeting about the way standards are established in the US and the role they play in industry, and had a great presentation from a guy a Oak Ridge National Lab about nuclear standards and one about alternative energies.
Then we did some touristing at Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. They had really interesting exhibits about the "road to liberty" from the original Declaration of Independence to civil rights and women's suffrage. They also had pictures of Chief Sitting Bull and the Dalai Lhama in front of the Liberty Bell. It made me think about how liberty is really a journey, or a trial, not a destination. It is not something that can be achieved, but something that must be fostered and encouraged and grown. I also enjoyed that the chairs in the signing room are just like the desk chair I picked out from that old hardware store on Brooklyn with my mom. At about 4pm, we headed home only to hit horrible traffic about 2 hours in, so the whole trip would take 4 1/2 hours before we finally got back to the dorm. Part of that was because there was a horrible metro crash on the red line, if you haven't heard. Which is doubly unfortunate because I am supposed to take the red line towards the direction of the crash tomorrow morning to get to a Fuel Cycle Information Exchange conference at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tomorrow. Hmmmm... I'll figure it out in the morning. Good night!

What a weekend

So Saturday morning Jen and I went to Alexandria, where the Red Cross was having a fundraising festival. Alexandria is a fun, kind of yuppy, historic town in Virginia. We got there and it was pouring, so we stopped in a couple shops on the way to the waterfront. Cheyenne then met us on the way and buy the time we got to the waterfront, it was sunny and hot. We walked around the pier, saw the tall ships, and looked at all the shops. The best thing, I thought, was these parrots they had (for no particular reason that I could discern) but they ate french fries, which I thought was awesome. After that we stopped in "the Torpedo factory", which is building that used to be, you guessed it, a torpedo factory, but now is an artist colony of sorts. it houses three full floors of artist studios and you can just wander around and look at all the art. It was really cool. We made our way back home, by way of the nine west store, and got back around 5pm, famished. After dinner we all my roommates and my roommate Caitlin's boyfriend, who is also interning in DC with the state department, Carlos, walked over to the French embassy. They were having a Solstice party with all sorts of musicians spread all through the big white, modern building and all across the gardens. They also had grilled sausages in baguette and wine. There were TONS of people there and it was really fun. They had a really good acapella group, fire throwers/dancers, these crique du solei type performers, and lots of other bands. They had fun dancing at night too. Then today I woke up early, went for a long run, and went with the roommates to the National Basilica, which was beautiful. The ceremony was very formal, but it was nice to just sit and think about all there is in life to be grateful for, like dads. Happy Fathers Day Dad! I also think religion is amazing in the ability it has to bring people together, from all backgrounds. There were very different people at the service we attended, and they offered probably a dozen other masses that day in all sorts of languages. After the service, we took a tour and got to see and hear about all the unique things about the church. It is a sacred site because it is the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and it has 19 atriums, each dedicated by a different country. It also has the most amazing tile work and stained glass. Dad told me that the stained glass artist, when interviewed, said he didn't believe in god but he agreed to do the work because he believed in the goodness of people, which I think is alot of what religion represents and celebrates.

We stopped at Five Guys, a popular burger joint in DC, on the way home. It became really popular recently because Obama and his wife go there. It was delicious, and now I've just been hanging out at home. It's been nice to relax for a few hours, before the whirlwind starts again, a little calm before the storm.

good and bad

so today was good and bad, and i don't have any pictures to go with it. It started out really well. I met with Thomas Lee, the energy staffer of Jay Inslees's office. He is the IEEE congressional fellow and I was excited to meet with him to find out what was going to be the response of dems like Inslee, moderate to liberal supporters of renewable energy, to nuclear energy. I had to wait for him to get out of a hearing of the energy and commerce committee, but when I finally got to meet with him, we had an hour long meeting and after about a half an hour of talking about nuclear and him definitely being receptive, and posing questions for me to think about and me answering them, he finally started to actually take me seriously and actually asking questions like what is the current technology on nuclear fuel recycle and what are the issues and what is the best plan, etc. He started at least listening to what I had to say, which was really cool. Then he said that he would like to see my white paper when I am done with it and I think I, if not sold him, at least brought to his attention, the importance of the nuclear issue. Then I went to ACS and started to write again. Then at 1:30 Genetta, the secretary that's desk is right next to mine, told me we had an ACS Public Activities and Government Relations Office Staff meeting. So I went, it was kind of interesting, but mostly boring. Then when I got back to working, I got stuck on some numbers that didn't agree and realized I needed to go back to compiling my notes before I wrote my technical sections. By then I was kind of frustrated, so I went to the gym. Then I went home and bought a wine opener on the way home, so I could have a glass of wine. I had a really good talk with Kurt tonight and it cheered me up. So now I'm in a much better mood and know what I have to do tomorrow, so I'm excited. I'm going to the Library of congress early tomorrow morning early and then going to work all day on notes. Then at night we are going to a Marine Corp Parade tomorrow. Here is the website if you want to know more: http://www.mbw.usmc.mil/parade_eveningdefault.asp I'll try to take pictures of this at least, so you can see it. but I'm really excited. I love parades!

It's all coming together

Today I went to a House Science and Technology Committee Hearing about Nuclear Fuel Recycle, which was amazing. Mike Peters, the director of Argonne National Labs, Alan Hanson, the CEO of AREVA, Lisa Price, the head of GE-Hitachi, and Charles Ferguson, the Science and Technology Congressional Fellow for Foreign Relations, were the panel and all the congressmen there, except for 2 seemed really excited to be talking about it and very supportive. I learned alot about what the important issues were and what people's questions were that needed to be answered. After than I came home and started writing, which also felt good. I got the first two sections written, which is a start. Then I went for a run and we went to Chinese food in China town for dinner. We walked past the White House on the way home. It's weird, everything is definitely still new here, but I'm feeling like I'm finding my place too. I hope I can get something good written and actually contribute to the nuclear recycle debate that is happening now. I'm going to go to sleep early tonight now, because I was really tired this morning and I want to get to work early to get some things done before I meet with Thomas Lee from Jay Inslee's office tomorrow. Night!

These are pictures from Jenn, who is clearly more of a photographer than me. This one in particular is Dan Hendirckson with the "Water Horse" AKA Hippo statue near our dorm. There is a plaque in front of the "water horse" that claims it represents pride or something. I think it's kind of a stretch.

TOP SECRET

Today we woke up early and went to the National Security Agency. We met at the museum they have, which is open to the public. We arrived a little early and waited for our host to arrive. This is Joe (ME from Minnesota), Cheyenne (ME from Alaska), and Jennifer (ChemE from Texas A&M) waiting outside beneath the NSA logo. And some of the other boys (from the left: Joe again, Dan Kreis Nuclear Engineer from University of Missouri, Dan H. Aeronautical Engineer from Florida Tech will be going to GWU for aerospace policy in the fall, Steven EE from UPenn, and John Nuclear Engineer from Ohio State). Not pictured, just to complete the list, is: Caitlin (my roommate and Industrial Engineer from University of Miami), Stephen Timothy (ChemE from Cornell), Charlie Haack (Architectural Engineering, ASHRAE, from Penn State), Iam Hoffbeck (EE from Calvin College), and Milad Alemohammad (EE from Drexel University). We were first led on a tour of the museum, which was basically a history of cryptology from the Rosetta Stone to the Enigma used in WWI and Information Intelligence. It was really interesting and we learned alot about the role of cryptology in war as well as how the NSA has changed to what it is today, which is much more computer based. Then we met with a guy who works there, but was also a recruitment officer who just talked about what it was like to work at NSA and somethings about NSA, although obviously he could not say alot. These are pictures of one of the first uses of signaling in the civil war, when "flaggers" would move this falg in special ways to spell out encoded messages that were just signal alphabet codes, like cryptoquip in the newspaper. Each flagger would get one of these flags as a reward for having such a dangerous position (standing up waving a flag during battle) and the words on the points of the star are battles the soldier fought in. The picture below is symbols Hobos used during the Great Depression to help each other. I just thought they were kind of funny. We got done at the NSA and back to our dorm around 2:30. Then I went and picked up my bike, which arrived today, and did some errands. I also met a woman at the gym who rides on Saturday with the DC Tri Club, which she said is a good ride, so I think I will try to go this weekend, if I can get myself a helmet which I just realized I left in Seattle. Kurt is going to send it to me, but we'll see when it gets here. Didn't get alot of work done today, but hopefully I will tomorrow.

Day One of a New Era

I don't have any pictures from today, so I am putting all pictures from graduation. I was back in Seattle for 24 hours for graduation, but it felt like so much longer. And now I am really done with school. It's weird because I feel like I have already started the next part of my life, here in DC. It was like going backwards to go back and be a student again. But I will definitely miss my friends and being a part of UW ChemE. My flights went well and I got home pretty easily and went straight to bed. I even slept in, until 8, which was wonderful. I had a good day today too. We started out with a meeting about energy policy with a guy from ASME, which was a good broad overview of the important policies that have been passed or are currently in congress with respect to energy and what each of them do. Then I went to the tailor to get some pants tailored and stopped at work before going to the gym. They had a pilates class at the gym that I wanted to try, and it was ok. Then I did some reading on the elliptical machine and did my shoulder exercises. I got back to work at about 2:30 and worked until 7 or so tonight. I was really productive, but definitely realized how much stuff I have to do and how long it will take. I am way ahead of all the other interns because I started beforehand and I know alot more about energy in general, but it will still be a push to get something I feel good about by the end of this summer. Time is going to fly by. I want to have a draft done by the end of next week, so I'm going to work hard to get that done. I came home and all the interns were in my room, apparently they had just had an impromptu group dinner. I missed it, but that was ok. I ate a quick salad and then we all went for ice cream. It is perfect ice cream weather here, so it was really good. I had peach. Now I'm just at home doing non-work related things, like writing thank you cards. I'm going to go to sleep soon though, because we have to get up early tomorrow to go to the National Security Agency where we are going to learn about national security and cryptology. But I'll tell you about that tomorrow. Good night!

Learning new things

I learn so much hear everyday, it's amazing. Talking to people is by far the most effective way to get information and I do so much of it everyday I barely have time to collect my thoughts! Today we started out at MN mornings. I talked to both Amy's energy staffers and will set up a meeting with Charley next Friday I think. I learned alot about political opinion of nuclear and the battles any sort of nuclear commitment will face in Congress. I didn't get to meet or get my picture with Amy, because she was really busy, but Joe and I decided we would go back another Thursday and do it, this meeting was about getting meetings with the staffers, so mission accomplished. Then we had WISE meetings about "how to meet your senator", which was less interesting and more common sense. But still had good tips, like make sure to emphasize WHY this is important to their constituents, not to you the scientist. It's just a completely different way of thinking about issues. Then in the afternoon I went with 2 of the other interns to meet with their mentor, a guy from the American Nuclear Society and that works for Avera, the main nuclear plant contractor. He also serves on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, so we talked alot about nuclear regulation, the old system and the new system and possible changes for reprocessing. I also learned alot about what is feasible from an industry perspective what would make that happen. Then I came home and went out to a whiskey tasting with a couple of the other interns. All in all it was a great day. I'm excited for tomorrow though, when I can sit down and put some of my thoughts together and type up some notes. Tomorrow should be mostly working in my office, so not as interesting. Then I'll be back in Seattle on Saturday! Can't wait!

Library of Congress and Resource Overload

Today was another crazy day. We started out at the Library of Congress, which is beautiful! It was amazing the amount of knowledge there and the respect all of that knowledge received. This first picture is of our faculty mentor, Dan Deckler, who hoped behind the reference desk and checked us in for our meeting. We were ushered into the Science, Business, and Technology wing and shown around. Then we met the head librarian of this wing, who was the cutest little old lady I have ever met and served us homemade cookies and lemonade. Then we went into a conference room and two of the reference librarians had gathered special materials for us in a folder full of resources, made a special shelf of materials reserved for us about science policy, and we had a 3 hour-long overview of all the resources available to us at the Library of Congress. It was thoroughly overwhelming. It felt like even if I spent my whole summer researching, I would never finish, much less writing. But they did offer for us to come back individually to talk to the main reference librarian, John, who gave us the presentation. He said if we emailed him our topics in advance, he would hunt up useful resources for us and we could come in and talk to him and he would always be available to help us find anything we need. He was so excited to help us, I have never met anyone so excited about looking things up and researching. He was literally giddy. Then we got our library reader cards, so we can come back. So now I am a card carrying member of the Library of Congress, and they are good for life.

Then a few of us went to a briefing by the Brookings Institute about Carbon Cap and Trade and the Need for Technological Innovation. It basically talked about the need for a whole new scale of investment in R&D for energy innovation to really happen on a useful time-scale. Congressmen Inslee and Wu from WA and OR, respectively, were also there and some professors and congressional fellows. It was a very interesting presentation about steps in the right direction that are happening right now (in the Fiscal Bill, the Stimulus Bill, the Energy Bill, the Climate Change Bill), but alot about how this is not nearly enough.

After that we went to the House and Senate galleries and watched them both, which was not as interesting. There were just a few people debating in the house, although they did call a House Full Committee while we were there. There was only one guy talking in the Senate, but he was talking about universal healthcare, which was interesting to hear about. Then I finally went to the grocery store, so I can stop eating out, and Steven, a guy from Cornell, and I went to get memberships at the gym and workout. Now I am getting ready to go to MN mornings tomorrow and maybe finally get some work done! Raining again tonight and very humid. Night.

where change is possible

Another day in the center of the action. That is really what this place feels like, so much is happening all the time and there is so much information everywhere, it is amazing. I ran this morning around the mall and to the Lincoln Memorial, where I ran the stairs. I read the Gettysberg Address and Lincoln's second Innaugural Address and stood in the spot where Martin Luther King gave his I Have A Dream speech. It made me think about all the things this country has gone through and that this country can change. And about how that capacity for change is what really makes this country great. Then we had a doom's day presentation about all the problems this country faces that no one is talking about, like water and health impacts from nanotechnology, and lots of other problems. It was from a very interesting guy who works for the Office of Science and Technology Program, which oversees science advising, in a sense. He also talked alot about the different organizations that exist for science advising and what their roles are and how we could make the process better. Then we had lunch and another presentation from a guy who lobbies for IEEE, the Electrical Engineering organization. He wasn't an engineer, but he just talked about how democracy is an amazing system that works best if everyone (politicians and voters) act in their own self interest (partially true), but the most important part was speaking up (totally true). He also had a lot of good resources for the softer, public policy part of my paper and is helping me hunt them up. Then we went to the Hill and I visited all my congressmen from MN and WA, or some of them. The picture is of some of the WISE interns walking in front of the Supreme Court House, betweem the House and Senate Office Buildings. I went to congressmen Ellison and Insley, and Senator Klobuchar and Cantwell. It was important for me to go to the WA congresspeople because they are both very active in energy. I am trying to set up meetings with all of their respective energy staffers, and so far am 1 for 4, but it has only been one day. And Jay Insley's staffer called me back personally. I will also get to talk to Amy Klobuchar's staffer on Thursday when I go to MN mornings with Joe, the other intern from U of M. After that I headed back sans the rest of the WISE interns and though about how self-important Washington DC seemed, but yet how amazingly effective in the true sense of the word. In DC, every action has an equal or greater reaction on the entire nation in some instances. This is the place for real change and it is exciting to be a part of it. I also realized I forgot to give my address, which is:

Sarah Widder
George Washington University
Dakota #201
2100 F St. NW
Washington DC 20052

Now I am trying to work at my desk and make sense of all the new information and experiences I have been inundated with today. And get ready for another day of more tomorrow. Good night!

The Nation's Capital

So today I begin a new chapter. I finished my last day of college, ever, last Friday and promptly boarded a plan for DC on Sunday. I am living in the dorms on George Washington campus, which are....dorms. I haven't lived in dorms for so long, but all my roommates are awesome, so it will still be alot of fun. We have 2 doubles off a central living room with a kitchen and our own washer/dryer, so I guess I can't complain. I live with a girl named Caitlin from the the University of Miami that is also interested in energy stuff. I love all the interns, everyone is so interesting and smart. There is a guy from U of MN too. I will do formal introduction in another blog, otherwise this one will get too long. But they are all great. Today, Monday, was our first day. I woke up and went for a run in the morning, which was awesome. Washington has alot of great bike trails and a ran along the river for a lot of it. Tomorrow I'm going to go running on the mall and do sprints on the Lincoln Memorial Steps. How cool is that. At 10:30 we met at the IEEE office, which is about a mile walk from our dorms. We got a brief orientation and got to meet our sponsors. Mine is this cool guy named Dave Richmond. He worked for the Atomic Energy Commission and the DOE and is very smart and funny, and not too serious either. He is older and retired and really wants to help me, which is awesome. He is already setting up more meetings for me with people from the American Nuclear Society and energy people from AIChE that he knows. After lunch we walked down to our offices. There are 2 other AIChE interns, Jenn from Texas and Steven from Cornell, and we have offices in the American Chemical Society Building. Our building is about 4 blocks from the white house and right in the thick of things on Capital Hill. It is also an amazing resource. There are people working on energy there and also an extensive library and librarians to help us. Everyone we have meet so far has been so nice and welcoming and ready to give us whatever resources we need to work on our papers. The amount of material available is actually overwhelming, I feel like I'll never have time to read it all! We had an early day today, left work at about 4, and heading home to go to Target and pick up some essentials that we had all neglected to bring. We had dinner at a cute little bar by our dorms called "Quincey Pharmacy". I'm getting some stuff together for graduation this weekend and then will go to sleep to get ready for a busy day tomorrow. I'll tell you all about it after. All in all, I am so excited for this summer, it is going to be great!