Exploring the City
by Leslie Morales-Noyola (’22)
This semester is the first time I have been in D.C. since eighth grade. Back then, I was so excited to explore the city even if it was just for three days. Now, I feel the same excitement, except I get to live and work in the city for three months. Despite how excited I was to come to D.C. for the semester, I was nervous to start a new job and be away from my family for this long. However, I received nothing but support from my family members who said they were proud of me for representing them in D.C. When I received loads of kind messages from them on my way here, I felt emotional at the fact that I had so much support around me, and I knew this would be a great semester.
My first week in D.C. was spent completing orientation activities. I got to see and learn so much about the city’s history and artistic culture by completing a scavenger hunt with alumni and going on a mural tour near our apartment complex. We also toured the Library of Congress and got our reader cards, which I will make sure to use when I want to study there! I genuinely enjoyed our orientation activities because I think it would have been chaotic for me to start my internship without having known the city and its energy. Additionally, orientation helped me map out the city so that I could pinpoint places I want to visit someday. Thankfully, everything went smoothly for me during orientation, so I felt great about the semester ahead. What I loved most was that orientation gave us a window of time to explore the city before we started our routine of having work during the day and classes at night.
In my second week in D.C., two major things happened. First, I celebrated my birthday! After class that day, I went to a Salvadoran restaurant (El Rinconcito Cafe) to try some food since my co-workers back in Winston-Salem told me that I was bound to find good Salvadoran food here. After a night well spent eating delicious food, we all started our internships the following day. This semester, I am interning in the Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs at the U.S. Department of Education. Although I was nervous and excited to start this internship, I knew that it would be a valuable experience for me to learn more about education since I am interested in education policy, especially bilingual education programs since it also ties with immigration, which is another policy area I am passionate about. While the first few days of the internship were calm, the pace of everything quickened before we knew it and while it was stressful, it was nice to have a little challenge I could take on with two other students I am interning with.
After this week, I decided that it would be a good idea to celebrate the fact that I made it through the first week of my internship and class. On my run Saturday morning, I noticed there was a setup happening for a festival near the National Mall. When I got home, I found out that the festival was for Fiesta DC, which celebrates the beginning of Latinx Heritage Month, which is like Fiesta in Winston-Salem. That night I went to the festival with a friend and felt very happy to see the large presence of Latinos in the city and the sense of community there was. The next day, I went to the parade where they displayed all the Latin American countries and their cultures. I felt so much excitement during the parade in knowing that I found a connection to my culture here in D.C. At that moment, I felt like I was at home with everyone else in the crowd. I had so much fun and had amazing food and free stuff, which I only hope to enjoy more of during the rest of my time here.