A routine Monday before an exciting Tuesday

After having had a fairly relaxing weekend, I was ready again to get my week started. I am not sure if I was too excited to get started or if reality brought me back to earth when realizing that I actually had to do constantly something administrative. In addition to a vast amount of e-mails, calls, event registrations, and other secretarial tasks, I had a lunch meeting with the president of the Young Trade Professionals (YTPs; a sub-organization of WITA, in other words WITA for mid-20s).
The meeting showed me that the executive committee of the YTPs, of which I am also supposed to be part of, is actually not necessarily interested in incorporating the intern's personal inputs about newsletter graphic or event ideas. I was subtly told that I am good enough for copy pasting!! I thought I did not hear right!! Of course I smiled diplomatically, like I have to do it at first in the DC world (actually in every other world as well). My first executive meeting with them will be next week, and we'll see if I will still only smile and nod.
The afternoon was filled with preparation for the board meeting for Tuesday, and it was great to see that both the Program Coordinator and the Executive Director felt good about the achievements of WITA according to budget, membership increase and event planning.
In addition to this positive vibe, I was told that I can attend an embassy briefing about the Bali package, of the law firm that is giving office space to WITA Tuesday morning. After that I will attend right away the board meeting, and in the evening I planned to dedicate my attention to the State of the Union.

Tuesday morning I was full of energy for the day because I knew that I will make interesting observations both at the briefing and the board meeting.
Starting with the briefing I got the confirmation that law firms not only consist of lawyers, but also of lobbyists that represent the firms interest in receiving potential clients. Therefore, the actual intention of the briefing was not to make a detailed analysis about the Doha round, and the Bali package, with a specific focus on trade facilitation, but to network with the present ambassadors especially from developing Asian and African countries that might have issues with US companies. Consequently, these countries might become paying clients for the law firm. All in all the lobbyists did a good job on trying to persuade that trade facilitation is the only way for developing countries to get out of poverty (however, I still did not buy it, and also the ambassador of South Africa was not convinced).

Second event of this day was the board meeting which was not that interesting like I hoped it could have been. I was busy taking the minutes and did not grasp and comprehend too much of the content. Nevertheless, in the last five minutes was decided which board member is going to talk to which Congressman/-woman who might be a potential speaker for upcoming events, and who might be willing to reveal certain trading secrets that the U.S. intends to implement.

My Tuesday finished with watching the State of the Union. Being in D.C. right now gives it a complete different feeling because first of all, I am in the same city like the people present on TV, especially considering Obama!! Second, I understood better why people shake hands all the time, smile to each other, or give standing ovations, even when being from the opposite party.
That is diplomacy, the art of pretending to enjoy the company of those that are extremely annoying to you.

January 23 and 24

On Thursday, my first real working day started. I had to be at the office at 9 am but, since I wanted to prepare a little for the day, I arrived there around 8:40. As soon as my program coordinator ran in, my training continued and I learned more about website updating, and how to make membership and event payments. I also made myself familiar with talking rules on the phone because I felt that my coordinator wants me to talk professionally, and not too casually on the phone.

During my lunch break I attended a seminar organized by the internship coordinator from DC, and we got to know the head of the Washington office of Brystol-Myers Squibb, a drug company. He explained us his role and the role of pharmaceutical companies and their impact on federal policy. I am honestly no expert on pharmaceutical policies, but what I superficially know is that these companies are responsible for high drug prices, an immense variety of different drugs for tiny physical issues, and for profit hunger. His answer to some questions were pretty standard without a lot of content. I mean, we obviously know that this is how it works in DC, and anywhere else where decisions are being made. 

On Friday my training basically finished, and I got several tasks that I had to fulfill by myself. I enjoyed it already a lot to be actively involved in the responsibilities of the Association. Since we will have an event coming up on Friday January 31st, it is pretty busy right now when registering interested people. However, I I prefer being busy instead of being bored. 

Tomorrow I will have a lunch meeting with the president of the Young Trade Professionals. I will also play an active role for the YTPs especially according to event planning and marketing. 

I am excited for this coming week since several interesting events are going on for instance a board meeting on Tuesday, and the Congressional Trade Agenda on Friday that I mentioned before. 

My First Day (after a starting delay due to snow)

Since yesterday almost whole DC was closed, at least most of the federal agencies and other institutions under OPM (Office of Personal Management) schedule, including mine, due to six inches of, and inexperience with, snow, I was unfortunately not able to start my internship.

However, today I finally was able to go to the office which is located in the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, with another two hour starting delay. 

I was warmly welcomed by the Program Coordinator, and both him and the Executive Director took me out for lunch to a very nice and elegant Italian restaurant. While having a delicious catfish with artichokes and mixed greens in balsamic vinaigrette, we all tried to make ourselves familiar with one another. 

I was asked again to explain myself what I hope to gain from the internship and which areas of trade are most interesting to me. I answered that energy, natural resources, and agriculture are highly interesting to me. However, in general I want to learn more about development and how developing countries can be supported the best in order to improve their economic and social circumstances. 

The rest of the day, I was trained how to register members, how to act when receiving phone calls, how to make deposits, and how to manage e-mails. All of these things are very administrative but I know that without these tasks a non-profit is not able to run. 

Tomorrow I will get a tour of the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center, I will learn more about the Young Trade Professionals, and I will attend one of the KU/WSU program's seminars with the head of the Washington DC office of the Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), one of the largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide. 

The day before the first working day

Tomorrow I will finally start my long awaited internship with the Washington International Trade Association, short WITA, in Washington DC. The organization is non-profit, and it is more or less a forum that wants to enhance the discussion on how international trade can be improved.
Even though I am a political science major, I think this internship will set a great basis for my Master program in which I would like to focus on International Political Economy and Development Economics.

I have pretty high expectations about the output of the internship because I want to comprehend, how exactly it works when trade regulations have been set up, especially by the WTO.
I hope to get a detailed insight of the trade interaction, and interdependence, between developed and developing countries.
Moreover, I am highly interested in the people who I will get in touch with, and with who I will be able to network.

In this sense, I am very excited about tomorrow and what I will experience!!