Friday, June 21, 2013
By:
That concert was good! However, I like faster pieces… Week 3 has passed, and I would say this was the music week, since I had the opportunity to attend several concerts-presentations.
The last two interns finally arrived (Katherine and Fiona), and we started getting along very well. We have a nice group, and I’m glad we all hang out very often. On Saturday, we went to the Newseum, and saw several interesting things, such as parts of the Berlin Wall brought by the U.S. to this museum about news. The building is huge, and I really liked seeing the photographs which have won a Pulitzer award. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to play the piano at Friendship Heights, and it was nice to remember some of the pieces I learned in the past.
The beginning of this week was quite active. I started and finished the document about how to write a cover letter. I found about 40 common job titles Physics BS obtain when they graduate from college and I am working on a brief description for each job title, so that students can learn about it on the website. I am about to start working on how to do a phone interview, as well as how to prepare for an interview.
On Tuesday, we went to Tuckahoe Elementary School to do a Physics demonstration in front of 100 kids for an hour. We showed them the importance of having a standard way of measuring things, and we explained to them why light is an excellent way to measure things. We also shone a laser connected to an mp3 player across the room towards a solar panel connected to some speakers, and we played some music that way. Finally, we explained to them the difference between a laser and an LED with the use of diffraction glasses. It was a great experience, since we got good feedback and responses from the kids, and I believe we made their last day of school very interesting and informative.
The next day I went with Caleb to see the 6pm free performance at the Kennedy Center. The presenting group was called “Mother Falcon” and I really enjoyed the music, since it was composed of violins, cellos, trumpets, guitars, among others. On Thursday, at the Kennedy Center as well, they celebrated the UNHCR World Refugee Day, and Cheick Hamala Diabate presented this time. The event closed with some deep words from the international bestseller author Khaled Hosseini, who was doing a book signing. I have been reading the “Kite Runner” throughout the summer, and luckily I had the book in my bag and got him to sign it. I also bought the next novel he wrote, called “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” and got him to sign that too. I am very pleased with his books and words, so I strongly recommend reading his great novels.
Today, Friday, Jean-Yves Thibaudet is playing a piano concert, and I am looking forward for this event, since I am familiar with some of the pieces he is playing, such as Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 Op. 46 by Edvard Grieg. So, I’ll talk more about it in my next journal.
Keep reading to know how it went!
Cheers!
Jose "Ro" Avila