This is a strange place

As our time in Kenya was drawing to a close, we made the decision to move to Washington, D.C., and we did so for many reasons. We had wanted to move to the East Coast for some time, even during the time we had lived in Chicago, and we wanted to be close to the excitement that happens in the federal government. I am interested in politics and eagerly followed the presidential campaign from Kenya.

When I arrived here and began searching for a job, I continued to dream about working in some place in the government, either for an agency or on Capitol Hill. But I knew I wasn't likely to get a government job after I learned that agency jobs are so specialized and one often needs obscure knowledge or skills, such as knowledge of government printing regulations for the type of jobs that I was looking for, or that one needs previous Capitol Hill or legislative experience to work in the House or Senate. Still, I ended up getting a job working for a government contractor, a nonprofit that receives all of its funding from the federal government and that is influenced a bit by the whims of Congress. Plus my office ended up being just two blocks from America's most powerful address: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. At least two times a day, and more if I leave the office at lunch, I cross 16th St. and catch a glimpse of the White House at the end of the street.

A funny thought struck me the other day, in the midst of all the hubbub of the hearings for Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Here we are living in the city, a place we've chosen to live, unlike so many people who move to the area and choose to live in the suburbs, where some of the country's biggest news stories take place. We know that when the president holds a news conference, it's taking place mere miles from us. The biggest story lately, the Sotomayor hearings, has taken place in our home city. What makes the national news is essentially the same as our local news. So, given all that, it struck me as strange that I'm probably not following any of these happenings, events or news stories any more closely than I did when I lived outside D.C. or the country. During the Sotomayor hearings, I was sitting a mere mile or so at work from where the hearings were taking place, yet they didn't affect me personally or in my work at all. I did not see in person any sign of any disruption or the excitement surrounding the hearings.

It has also been strange to move from Geneva to Nairobi to Washington, D.C. In both of our jobs in Geneva, working for international organizations, we spent a lot of time worrying and thinking about places all over the world, from Indonesia to Colombia, from Sudan to China. We were internationally minded. In Nairobi, we were still concerned with many of the same issues from our jobs in Geneva - refugees, hunger, poverty - but still on a fairly large - a regional - scale. We expected to have much of the same mentality here in D.C. when we moved here. It's not only the country's capital, but it's the world's capital in many ways. One of the reasons we wanted to live here is because it's fun to be near the center of the excitement, where big, important decisions that affect the whole world are made all the time, much like Geneva. Yet what type of news am I reading more about and am I more concerned about? I read the Yahoo discussion group for Brookland, our neighborhood, and I am reminded that all politics is local. Even though politics in this city is the main industry and is something that everybody across the country knows about, what people in the capital city often seem more concerned about is if their representative to the city council is behaving well or not, or if the police are doing their job fighting crime. We have gone from such global concerns, such as worries if hundreds of people will be helped next week in a disaster or through a new well, to worries about cars being stolen on the block north of us. I'm not really following the international news much anymore, which is harder to get in the U.S. anyway. It's funny how our mentality and outlook has changed - and how quickly.

I still have a desire to be connected to more of the world in the ways we once were. I am working for an organization that works nationally, which I appreciate. Maybe in a future job in this city I can return to the international arena or get into more government-type work where big decisions are made that affect people far away. But for now, we're sort of caught and wrapped up in this city that's got a strange mixture of local, national and international concerns.

A Wet Wolftrap

Last night we packed a picnic lunch, took our lawn chairs and headed to Wolftrap which is a national park/concert venue in Virginia. We had tickets to sit on the lawn. This place is a similar concept to Ravinia outside Chicago. The lawn tickets here are more expensive and there is actually less lawn to sit on. All of the lawn seating is on a slop above the stage and indoor seating; you can probably see the action on stage from all points of the lawn. Therefore, people sit rather close together, lawn chairs can only be used in the upper areas and people want to see what is going on on stage.

The gates open 90 minutes before the performance starts and we were there early enough to stand in the throng of people waiting to get in. You have to have a tickets for kids - no matter what age - so there weren't a lot of other kids there. But it was cheaper to take Lexi than to get a babysitter. We keep an umbrella in the car and were so glad that we had taken it with us as about 15 minutes after we got set up on the lawn (with our picnic out, chairs set up, etc), it started downpouring. The sky had been getting darker and we hoped it would clear up, but it didn't. Stephen stayed with the tipped over chairs under the umbrella while Lexi and I ducked under the eave of one of the surrounding buildings.

It finally let up and we did manage to finish eating but about the time the music was ready to start, it started up raining again. We ended up fairly wet. The program was music by John Williams and there were people dressed up as characters from Star Wars and at one point, a light saber fight among the audience. Lexi seemed to enjoy it all - including the rain but Stephen and I would have appreciated it more if it was dry! Comparing Wolftrap to Ravinia, I would say that I like Ravinia better - cheaper and less crowded in terms of not sitting on top of each other on the lawn.

A Job and the weekend news

I am happy to announce that I have a new job! I start on August 3rd as the Senior Finance Officer for PACT, an international development organization based in DC. Their website is pactworld.org if you want to check it out. I am excited to 1) be done looking for a job, 2) to start something new and 3) to interact with more adults. This job is very similar to the job I did in Geneva and I think has some of the same challenges. Hopefully, the frustrations will be minimal. The office is near to Stephen's so we will be getting off at the same Metro stop.

Lexi and I went back to the day care today that will work best for us in terms of location (and has no waiting list) to get the application material. I will hopefully get her paperwork submitted tomorrow and see if she can go for a couple of half days next week before having to go the full day the first day on my new job. I think she will enjoy being with the other kids.

This weekend, we took a tour of the Capitol Building. This tour was ticketed through the B.U. Alumni Society but we didn't even meet up with any of them. Lexi loved the echoey sounds in the big halls and the rotunda and wanted to keep shouting - not the best tour behavior but we made it through. I had been in it before but couldn't remember what all we had seen. After that, we had lunch at the National Art Gallery and then saw a silent film they were showing. It was 'The Raven', a biography of Edgar Allan Poe and accompanied by a pianst. Lexi made it through about half of the film before she and I went out to a different part of the museum and looked around.

Sunday we went to church at the Rock Creek Parish Church (Episcopal) which is surrounded by a very large cemetary. The church was established in 1712 (think I got that right) and was rather small. After lunch, we hit several open houses. We saw one place we like - it has everything we want. The only thing is that it is not in the first choice neighborhood and we haven't seen much in the preferred neighborhood yet because price was a factor. With my additional income, we can look at some more places there but this might mean losing a chance at the place we saw on Sunday.

Job Interview

I have a second interview for the job I interviewed for on the last day of June. This interview is on Monday; I know that they have narrowed it down to 2 candidates from 10 that they had interviewed. This is a public forum so I will leave it at that but let you know what happens. Lexi will go to another child's house for the morning. I think she will enjoying playing with a new set of toys.

This weekend, we are going to drive up to Pennsylvania to visit one of Stephen's friends from Chicago and her family that now live there. Weird to think that this is the closest that I have ever lived to by birth state (PA) since I was born. Hard to imagine that it is so close that we can drive there in about 2 hours.

The weather has been really nice this week. Warm but not really humid and we have spent a lot of time outdoors. It truly feels like summer.

A little Jerusalem, right here in our neighborhood

We are currently renting the first floor of a house in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Because we are only a few blocks from The Catholic University of America and many other Catholic institutions, the neighborhood is also known as "Little Rome." Our neighborhood is also home to a Franciscan monastery, which is only a few blocks from our house. It is designed to be a re-creation of Jerusalem. In fact, its full name is the Franciscan Monestary of the Holy Land in America.

Similar to Epcot, the monastery grounds are a re-creation of many of the famous buildings and sites in Jerusalem (and a few other places). In general, it is a beautiful place to visit because the gardens are immaculate and peaceful.

The rose garden is well-known in D.C., and they have an annual garden sale every year.

It is a quiet retreat in the middle of the city. But it's an especially fun place to visit because we have been to Jerusalem and have seen many of the sites that they re-create. Only it's kind of odd to see them in a quiet and peaceful setting and modern iterations of them. Jerusalem's Old City, where most of these sites are, is a crazy place to visit. It truly shows its 2,000-plus year age. (Many parts of Jerusalem are clean and modern, but stepping into the Old City is like visiting a Third World country.) The Old City is old and dusty and dirty, with many narrow streets and alleys at various levels. You're always going up and down and climbing uneven steps and walking over dirty and unven pavement and through sometimes smelly, bustling, crowded and noisy market areas. Or you're being shouted at by the owner of a store who wants you to come inside and browse. Or it's a certain time of day for prayer for one religious group or sect, and funny-costumed people are rushing past you to get to the synagogue or the mosque. Plus all of these buildings are extremely old and crumbling and are dark and smoky inside. Regardless, it's a fascinating, wonderful, deeply meaningful place to visit, since it's where Jesus himself trod. But to visit these re-created buildings in Washington, D.C., that are modern, all fixed up, restored, bright and clean is almost amusing.

Yikes! If you've ever seen the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in person in the heart of Jerusalem's Old City, you might not recognize this stand-alone, cleaned-up, restored version of it in America.

The gardens of the monastery are a wonderful place to visit. In the garden is a re-creation of the tomb where Jesus was buried (a place you can visit just outside Jerusalem's Old City). The fake stone kind of ruins the atmosphere of the place, however.

There are beautiful flowers and plants everywhere at the monastery. These are outside the pavilion like the one that's built over the spot where Jesus ascended into heaven on the ridge of the Mount of Olives. I visited the original site of the Ascension early one morning in Jerusalem, and I tell ya, the neighborhood around this pavilion wasn't as beautiful and flowery as the one in Washington, D.C., is!

Monticello

Friday morning, we drove southwest into Virginia to Charlottesville where the University of Virginia is and where Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, is located just outside of the city. Traffic on the interstate was really slow but the drive through the countryside was beautiful - rolling green hills and a lots of trees. We ate lunch at the 'tavern' near Monticello where they had a buffet with more traditional foods. We drank our apple cider out of tankards and the servers were dressed in period costumes.

Our tickets to visit the inside of Monticello weren't until later in the afternoon so we headed into town to check out the U of V campus. We went inside the rotunda that Jefferson had designed. It was a neat space; he was certainly an inventive man. The campus was lovely and felt very southern. Edgar Allen Poe had attended school there for a semester so we also got to look inside the room he stayed in. Kind of funny that they would put a stuffed raven in a room that he barely lived in..but they did.

Back at Monticello, we arrived at the house a few minutes before our tour. It was a beautiful home and really reminded me of places in Europe. Which makes sense when you consider that Jefferson was really influenced by Paris; he even had his cook go to France to learn French cooking. Lexi managed to stay fairly calm on the tour so that was good as well. The grounds of the house were well maintained and we walked around them a bit before heading back towards the car. The views from the terraces looking over the landscape were more of the rolling green hills; quite picturesque. On the walk down the 'mountain' (they called it a mountain but it didn't seem that tall to me), we saw Jefferson's grave. There is a small sized cemetery not far from the house with several family members buried there.

We stayed overnight in Charlottesville and left early the next morning to drive back to DC to attend an organ concert with an Independence theme at the National Cathedral. Going to Monticello was a nice 4th of July weekend activity; it seemed quite appropriate considering that Jefferson died on the 4th of July.

Introducing the newest member of our family

We are delighted to introduce "Ladybird," our new car. She is a 2010 Toyota Prius II (a hybrid). And as you can see, she is bright red, hence the name. (In case you didn't know, a ladybird is what European English speakers call ladybugs.) She also got the name because the first time we got into her, Sarah spotted a ladybird on her. We figure it's also an appropriate name because the car's namesake, Mrs. LBJ, was also a resident of Washington, D.C.


We've already broken her in well. We just returned from a one-day, one-night trip down to Charlottesville, Va., to visit Monticello. More about that trip later.

We went to the dealership in Silver Spring, Md., on Monday after work and purchased her. It was the first time Sarah had ever bought a new car (all her other cars had been used ones), and it was the first new car I had bought in ten years (we did have a car in Geneva, but we bought it used, and the car we drove in Nairobi was a "company" car). It was also the first new car of our marriage (I brought Lyla, the Saturn I bought in 1999, into the relationship). It is also the first time we've gone into debt since we sold our condo and moved to Geneva.

Saturns are fairly easy to buy, since the process does not involve haggling on the price. We didn't end up doing that for this car either. Since Priuses are very popular, the dealers can afford to sell them at their asking price. Nevertheless, the buying process was pretty painful, lasting more than three hours.

But we're pleased with Ladybird. At least we've passed that major hurdle in our resettlement process back here in the U.S., and now we can concentrate more on that house purchase!

Update on my new job

I have been on my job for a little over a month now. As I wrote earlier, in the first couple of weeks, I really did not know if or how I would learn everything I needed to know about the areas the organization works in (drinking and waste water systems in rural areas, which is all new to me) and how the organization operated. Many times I had thoughts of despair and even just considered literally running away from the job and the office suddenly, hoping that nobody would say anything about me just abandoning the job. (If you know my story from kindergarten about me jumping up and shouting “Mrs. Tartar!” in the middle of a classroom-wide project, this is the same feeling of panic I was experiencing.)

I still have a lot to learn, and I am still trying to get straight what has been told to me so far. But I seem to have reached a basic understanding, which feels good. It was just a matter of time – not so much forcing more and more information into my mind and pushing my brain to understand it. My mind just needed several days to absorb and organize it. I am pausing a bit at this place to let this much information sink in and while I concentrate not so much on learning the next level of information but more on learning my duties and what in the communications area I can contribute to the organization.

By my fourth week in my position, I passed one milestone and was feeling a lot better about the work – not so bewildered by how I was going to get settled and how I would find my place. For the entire third week on the job, my three other coworkers in the office were away in San Diego attending a conference. So I was all alone for five long days in the office (I didn’t mind it a bit). I spent a lot of time reading back issues of the magazine that I am now the editor for. So that helped me understand what types of stories I needed to be looking out for to put into future issues and how topics were written about (or how I could help improve the coverage of topics). It also helped me learn about the subject matter, but in quite a non-linear way, which isn’t exactly the best way for me, a linear thinker, to learn. So I didn’t retain much from my reading about the subject matter, but still, this was a valuable exercise.

After a lot of reading, I needed to get into the editing of articles for the upcoming issue of the magazine. All feature articles, in theory, are supposed to be written by staff in the organization’s regions (or someone they designate, such as a freelance writer, which happens in some cases). At first I was afraid to start editing these articles because I felt I didn’t understand the subject matter well enough. But once I started the editing, I realized editing them was exactly the best way to start learning the subject matter. I’m taking a fresh approach to how articles are appearing in the magazine. While there’s not a lot I can do about their content, I can at least put interesting and sometimes funny headlines on them. Just because the subject matter is technical and on water and waste water doesn’t mean articles have to be boring, does it?

I’m also feeling more comfortable with my place in the office and my duties. I’m learning what decisions I can just make and implement on my own. I’m gathering information from my coworkers and then using that to make proposals about new things that can be done and how things can be improved. A lot of my new comfort level has to do with the fact that I also have a lot of work to do now. I have three major projects to work on at the moment:

• Editing the summer issue of the magazine
• Re-establishing the organization’s web presence, which essentially means overseeing the redesign of the web site. For this, I am the overall project manager, and I have hired a freelance web designer for that part, who happens to be Sarah’s cousin (Pam, in California), which is, well, by design. When I started in the job, two other web designers with some connection to the organization had submitted bids for this project, and I went to Pam, whom I knew did this type of work, and asked for a bid from her. She was proposing the best tool for what I wanted the new website to do, so I went with her.
• Being in charge of logistics for the organization’s annual conference, which will be held in Rosslyn (across the river from D.C.) in mid-September. I am working with Joy, the coworker who lives and works in Colorado. Although these duties largely aren’t communications-related, there is still a lot I can take the lead on in the planning and implementation of this conference. I am doing a lot of the work and am taking a leading role in establishing a set of five new employee awards for the organization. So this area is a good chance to show how I pay attention to detail, can take the lead and that I can get things done.
  

I feel a lot of pressure now, mostly from myself, to show what I’m made of, to prove myself, and to show how I’m worthy of the title “Communications Director.” After two or three weeks on the job, I really felt like I should have been producing – having something tangible (as communications staff) to show. I couldn’t quite do that right away with the magazine or the website. With the website, I could put a temporary site up (currently there is essentially no site up), but I am deciding to do the thorough redesign first and launch the site after it’s all done later in the proper way. But I am finding a few areas, such as the conference, to show some tangible results.