But first things first. This is the house that I live in. It's owned by a guy named Matt who I found on craigslist. He's a cool dude. He lives in Arizona for half the year because his wife goes to school there. I haven't met her yet. Matt owns the house and has a contracting business. He actually bought this house, which I think was condemned (it's in one of those "transition areas," but it's completely safe - the guy leaves the door open all the time), and completely gutted it. He's still renovating the house, especially the outside, but all the important areas, including my room, is done. Michelle really likes the porch, and so do I.
These are the various facilities (they were posted on craigslist, so I'm not doing anything creepy). Except the dog. That was a picture I took. There is also another dog, which I'll post later. They are both pretty nice. They bark when they can't see me, but when they see me they just chill and are friendly. I thought dogs had a good sense of smell? This dog is definitely the more friendly and independent, but also wants the most attention. Anyways, they will be gone to Matt's wife's place in Arizona next week, so c'est la vie.
This is the Obama office at 323 East Locust St. It's an old ice hockey rink. Hence, it's really bipolar temperature-wise. I alternate between freezing in the building for an hour and then stepping outside into the 100 degree heat to thaw out for like five minutes. There are about 25-30 staffers and about 15-20 interns in the office, and they are a good crew. Some have been there since February or March, but there was also a big hire wave in June.
The picture on the left is what the interior looks like without giving away company "secrets." The campaign is actually not so anal about that (big surprise: our strategy is get people to vote for Obama during the caucuses... shhhhhhhhhhhh), but I have been told that the Hillary campaign has told their staff not to fraternize with the enemy. The picture on the right is just really funny.
Anyways, I got to the office at around 9AM, and for like an hour and half the people I was going to work for were not in, and they also kind of forgot I was starting work today, so they didn't know what to do with me. Then, however, all hell broke loose, and I have been pretty busy since. I like it. I am "officially" supposed to be doing Asian and Young Professional Outreach, but like all the other interns, I kind of do a little bit of everything.
Below is the beautiful Iowa State Capitol building, which is about four blocks from the office, and the other is a picture of "downtown" from the steps of the Iowa State Capitol building. I will say I have been very pleasantly surprised by Des Moines. It's a funner place than one might think.
The photo on the left below is my first night out in Des Moines (actually the second night I was there, but it seemed like I was there a week). I went to "work" at the Drinking Liberally - Des Moines chapter, who drinks at the Lift, and met some cool liberals. All drafts are $2 on Thursday nights, including Guinness. Guess what I drank a lot of? I met the people who run this chapter, and they asked me to pass on an invitation for Barack to come to the Drinking Liberally convention, which is going to be in Iowa this year during the Harkin Steak Fry, to make it more convenient for the candidates to attend. I guess that makes me "connected." After I had worked the crowd, some co-workers, including the intern coordinator Bret, showed up because it was another intern Thomas's last day. We hung out, and somehow we got talking to football and Bret (the guy in the picture), who went to Chapman, was saying his team was so bad (keep in mind I went to MIT) that they were beaten by a team called the Poets. The girl, who was there with an anti-war group collecting petition signatures, then said she went to Whittier College, whose team are those very Poets. Small, freaking world.
I leave you with the picture on the right. I was going to my car to go home, when I heard some loud music playing. Curious, I checked it out. It turned out there was some two day music festival on the banks of Des Moines just three blocks from my office. Who knew? As you can see, it's not a bad scene at all. Iowa...
1 comment:
My cousin's nickname in high school was the "silky llama" and his girlfriend is a big Obama fan. Weird.
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