Romanian Rulers, and Changing Dynamics
I can’t believe this is my Fifth Blog Post! Time flies.
Weekly coffee shop update: I’m in “Compass Coffee”, which is right in the middle of DC, close to China Town. The décor walks the line between a “rustic exposed brick” vibe and a more modern, minimalist style. And they roast their coffee in-house; I can see the roaster from here! Very cool.
The dynamics of the Library are shifting! Since I last wrote, we’ve gotten two interns, and Aras, who was the only other intern my first week, has left. I was sad to see him go, but we’ve got a good crew with the new people coming in!
The three projects that I’ve been working on are drawing to a close. The exhibit I was working on is still being organized, but my part in it has ended. I offered up a few pieces, and haven’t heard anything about it in a while. We’ll see if I get to keep working on it, I enjoyed the hunt for exhibit pieces, and hope to do more “curation” stuff in the future! My first project, tallying up research subjects by country, is finished! I turned in a report to Mr. Harris which outlined the results: Russia was number one, with France and Germany close behind. Mr. Harris presented my findings during yesterday’s staff meeting; it will affect the division’s funding, etc., which is cool! And my final project, compiling a list of our Romanian-American periodicals, is almost over! I made the list and now need to talk with Mr. Harris about the next steps.
My plans for this evening have changed! At the beginning of this week, Mr. Harris and I were planning on organizing an event for the president of Romania. He’s here this week to meet with president Trump to discuss the valuable relationship between the two countries. He was going to stop by the library at 6 pm today, to see our Romanian collections, and hobnob with other politicians. But unfortunately, his team wasn’t able to reserve the “Congressional Reading Room” in time for the event, so he won’t be coming. This was kind of a relief for me; I wasn’t looking forward to testing out my shaky Romanian skills in a conversation with the president of the country!
I was also able to connect with some fellow Demon Deacs this week! I went to a lunch with some alumni and other interns set up by the “Wake Washington” staff. It was fun, and it was cool to see the things people from Wake are doing in the city. It was my first attempt at networking, and it went well! The alumni were really encouraging, and wanted to connect me with people they knew. I got the name of someone who works with the Librarian of Congress who went to Wake too, and we’re getting coffee next week! Turns out networking is very casual and fun; I’ll try to go to more events like that in the future!
All told, things are going well. I’m trying to stay motivated at work, sometimes the reference work can be unexciting, but my goal is to do even that stuff with energy and quality! I’ll be back next week for another update!
