"Cultural Immersion"

Going onto my eighth day in DC and I can surely say that my favorite aspect is being surrounded by politics and history, particularly with the election events quickly gaining speed.

At work, I have access to the news wires that delivers the latest news headlines as soon as they are released by the Associated Press and other big news sources. That has been great to discover the biggest political stories as soon as they are released. It is like the Twitter fanatic's cocaine.

Plus, I also do research for the show, which allows me to further envelop myself in politics. (P.S. Three things I found for the show ended up on the show this week... HOLLA.)

It is not even the perks of my job that makes me feel as if I have immersed into a new culture of politics. The casual discussions with the other people in my Holy Cross group have been stimulating. It is absolutely thrilling to be in the center of policy-making with young, college students who are passionate about politics, yet are still developing their ideas and career aspirations, too. As someone who has never even taken a political science course before, I love listening to others' views and I am learning a ton from them. I am truthfully not as familiar with state politics, so listening to others speak about various senators has been incredibly informative as well as simply interesting.

This past week was also the Republican National Convention (RNC). The group gathered each night at someone's apartment to watch it. It was definitely my favorite part of the week so far because I always enjoy hearing what ridiculous statements Republicans make (kidding, but not really). More importantly, it was so fun to watch it with political buffs from our little snarky side-comments to the full-on conversations that branched off of someone's RNC speech.


I might not have a host family or be spending Euros, but this week only already has been convinced that the Washington DC Semester is equally an immersion experience like study abroad. Although it is entirely different than a year in Europe or Australia, I feel as if I am also becoming more proficient in a new language, too. That language being bullshi--- I mean politics.