Sunday, June 4, 2023
By:
If there’s one thing I’m glad I packed before coming to Washington, D.C., it’s my sneakers.
Seriously.
Though the city is full of things to try and do, I’m first and foremost here for physics—the rest of it comes after. After moving in the first week of working 9 to 5 was a whirlwind of computer setup, Teams meetings, and spreadsheet-making as the folks at the Niels Bohr Library and Archives, the place I’ll be calling work-home for the next ten weeks, prepared for the first SPS event of the summer: our Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon.
The Edit-a-Thon is this coming Thursday, and I’ve been spending all week simultaneously getting to know my coworkers (and the names of their cats) and sifting through a gargantuan list of underrepresented people in the field of physics. It sounds tedious to the library-untrained, but for me? Sitting at a wooden table, staring out at the forest around the American Center of Physics (where NBLA is housed), and sorting information surrounded by books is something akin to a paradise I get to work from twice a week.
After work each day is when the rest of DC comes crashing in to meet us. The metro commute home is the best place for overhearing conversations you’re not expecting, and changing shoes into my trusty sneakers to head back out feels like shifting into second gear.
The highlights? Food, drinks, and meerkats.
Friday started off strong For Five Coffee Roaster’s cappuccino with Tiffany, and finished even stronger with Union Market’s food stalls, where after a full lap around the market stricken with indecision I settled on a Persian-themed bowl from Immigrant Food.
Saturday continued the feast with Rose Ave. Bakery’s garlicky scallion bun and a black-sesame filled donut that… wow. Let’s just say I’m glad the bakery isn’t near the dorm, or I’d never leave! It’s a convenient ten-minute walk from the gates of the National Zoo, where we saw everything from sea lions and sand cats to elephants and pandas, who all seemed determined to sleep facing away from our cameras . Luckily, the zoo’s animal statues are wide awake, and Emily and I snapped pictures with those, instead (see picture). Our collective highlight was the baby meerkats (see picture), who toddled unsteadily on skinny legs and plopped down to sit as the rest of the mob watched. Though they recently welcomed a new baby gorilla, the ape house was too packed to get in—I guess we’ll have to go back!
All in all, I’m exhausted, my feet hurt, and my pedometer app can’t figure out why I’m all of a sudden clearing ten thousand steps a day easily. Spoiler alert: I’m not stopping any time soon. But it’s been an incredible week, and I can’t wait for the next one—especially now that I know my way around the metro!
MJ Keller