Tuesday, May 13, 2008

First Two Days

Its late and I need to go to bed, but here are some highlights of my first two days of interning at the Washington National Opera:
  • The offices are actually located in the Watergate complex (its a cluster of buildings, including the famous hotel, residences, offices, and shopping). The Kennedy Center is directly across the street and a great place to wander during lunch hour.
  • Only two interns, including me, started this week. Everyone else starts this coming Monday. Therefore, my big project this week is updating all the information the new interns are given and putting together the binders for everyone. I literally read the entire notebook yesterday to proof for grammatical errors, update any old information, etc. I also searched the internet and made a list of free entertainment in the area - good to know!
  • Office hours are 10:00am to 6:00pm. Nice because I can take I-66 into the city, which is entirely HOV during rush hour, and with a 1-hour lunch that makes for only a 7-hour work day. Bad because the kids are asleep by the time I get home at night.
  • I found out that a lot of people in arts management careers are musicians who realized one day that they needed to grow up and get a real job. I was nervous about being in Human Resources with no business education. On the contrary, I found out that the reason they selected me is because I was the only one they interviewed that seemed to really know something about HR and act interested in it.
  • This Thursday I get to attend the opera Elektra by Richard Strauss. Placido Domingo is starring, and after the performance he is having a party exclusively for WNO staff and I get to go! I'M GOING TO MEET PLACIDO DOMINGO ON THURSDAY!
  • Next week I get to attend the last opera of this season, Handel's Tamerlano. I am really excited about this one because it is a very early opera - most operas performed today were composed much later than this one. Every performance is completely sold out, so my ticket is "standing room only." At least I get to go!
  • I get to attend the Opera Ball in June. This is a black tie affair held at the French Embassy. It is THE major fundraising event for the opera and apparently considered one of the the top 5 fanciest parties in DC all year. I volunteered to help out- I'm not sure exactly what that entails, but they did tell me that I might be in costume....? I'm just excited to get to go to the ball!
  • DC roads are insane and don't make any sense. I have lost count of the number of times I've gotten lost, turned around, on the wrong road with no way out, etc. Seriously. Last night I actually went back to the Kennedy Center to start over after getting so turned around I had no clue where I was but saw a sign that said Kennedy Center. About half an hour later I went back to the Key Bridge to start over from there. After over two stressful hours, I finally made it home. One wrong turn and you're doomed forever. There are no easy U-turns in DC. NONE!
  • I went to Institute tonight and met some of the ward. They seem like a nice friendly group. The #1 question following my telling them I'm here for the summer was, "From BYU?" ...No
  • I seem to be having a very hard time getting to bed on time, but whats new?
To hear about my fun weekend with Nancy & the family, check out Nancy's blog.

3 comments:

Rebecca said...

I have to laugh at the BYU thing: I did go to BYU but my husband certainly did not. We're living in Australia now and people always say, "So you met at BYU, right?" It's just an assumption. We're from the states, that must be the only way LDS people met each other, huh.

Jessica said...

So fun! You get to go to all these opera's, and go to black tie events (no matter that you are helping). I can't wait to hear if there are any cute non-bug-boys in your ward.

Kelly Jo said...

This is Kelly (Worth, not Ashurst) married to Kevin here in Virginia. I went to the Shenandoah Ward (that's where I met Kevin) and I believe Kat Chapman is the RS president. She was my old roommate and is wonderfully fabulous. Tell her you know me (it's ok that we haven't actually met. . .;). .) and she'll take real good care of you! I think there are still a few friend there of mine, Tyler Berg, Kat, Collin Rouche (might be home for the summer) um, ok so I can't think of the rest. It was a wonderful ward when i was there, I hope you find it the same.