Instead of packing up my car and making the drive from my Boston suburb out to Smith this fall, I squeezed as much as I could into a suitcase and hopped on a plane to Washington, D.C. Instead of going abroad for my junior year, I am participating in the Internship Program at the Smithsonian, a partnership program between Smith and the Smithsonian for students to intern and conduct independent research. I moved into an apartment in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, located my nearby grocery stores and necessities and prepared for my first day of work at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Culture Heritage. As part of the program, I intern Monday through Thursday, and take a class on Friday mornings with the other Smith students in Washington for the semester. After getting settled, this is what my normal day looks like in D.C.
7:00 a.m.: Wake up and smell the coffee! After getting ready for the day, I eat breakfast and pack my bag with all the notes I will need for the various projects I am working on with my supervisor.
8:30 a.m.: Heading out the door, I walk the block and a half to a nearby Metro stop, making sure to stay to the right if I am walking down the escalators – D.C. commuters take their customs very seriously. Luckily, my commute is short, and in three stops, I have arrived at work.
9:00 a.m.: After putting my bag at my desk and looking to see if there are any email updates to the office, I might check in with my supervisor Betty Belanus, education specialist and curator for the center. Otherwise, I get right to work, researching topics and testing out ideas for future programs.
12:00 p.m.: Lunch time! Like most in my office, I bring my lunch, but just outside the building is a daily line of food trucks, offering everything from Peruvian chicken to Korean bibimbap bowls. When the weather is nice, it is a nice change of scenery to eat outside, enjoying the sun and delicious smells from all the vendors.
1:00 p.m.: Back to work. I may be listening to recordings for stories, or generating lists of questions for interviews. Every once in awhile, I like to walk around the office, which is decorated with art and gifts from the Folklife Festivals of years past.
3:00 p.m.: As an intern in the Smithsonian Institution, I am encouraged to visit the other museums and attend events, especially if it relates to my projects. Perhaps I will swing by the United States Botanic Gardens to look at the herbs from various regions, or meet with a curator at the National Museum of American History to explore their new exhibition on immigration. If my requests from the Smithsonian Library system have come in, I’ll head over to the Hirshhorn Museum’s branch library to pick them up, stopping to take in the new notes on Yoko Ono’s latest installation, “My Mommy is Beautiful.”
5:00 p.m.: It seems as though the entire city is riding the Metro home along with me. The ride is just as quick as in the morning, and in no time, my stop has arrived. On the walk back to my apartment, I might stop at the local supermarket to pick up something for dinner, or peek at the movie theater schedule to see what is playing over the weekend.
6:00 p.m.: My roommate Susie Howard ’19 and I chat about our days while making dinner. After eating, we work on homework for our Friday morning seminar with the six other Smith-Smithsonian program students and watch HGTV, because who doesn’t love watching house renovation projects?
10:30 p.m. At some point, I make my way into bed and turn off my phone for the night. I read a chapter or two of a book for background on my independent research and then call it a night. Living in a city is very different from living at Smith, and by the end of the day, I’m ready to get some sleep, so I can do it all again tomorrow.
