Week 10: You're going to miss me when I'm gone.

This was the last week of my internship. I can’t believe how fast it has gone. I’ll talk a little about the last weekend though. Saturday was packed full. I went to the Hirshorn museum of art, which was really cool. I have realized that I enjoy art museums more that I originally believed. I also went to Eastern Market for the last time and bought $10 worth of nectarines so that I could bring some to Julie’s house the next day.

I then caught up with Jamie and Darren and grabbed a bite to eat at Good Stuff Eatery. Their burgers and shakes are SO good. I chilled at home the rest of the afternoon before heading out to Virginia to go with Julie to a mosque to celebrate Ramadan. We went to the Lutifullahi Asalta International Mosque which is a Nigerian mosque in Hyattsville, Maryland. I learned how to tie a mean hijab beforehand and I looked really legit. So legit that people kept greeting me in Arabic once I got there.

We prayed with them, which was a really neat experience because although we are of different faiths, we both can commune with God. It was then time for the feast. We had spicy rice with spicy meat and spicy plantains. They also had a molasses soda, water and a ginger drink. It was a little too spicy for my palate, but it was a good experience. It was also nice to talk to some of the women there.

I don’t know if it was the food from the night before or simply that I was getting sick, but I woke up Sunday morning really sick to my stomach. I felt pretty terrible the whole day. I did end up feeling well enough to go out to Julie’s house for dinner one last time. We had hot dogs, watermelon, potatoes, nectarines and bread. It was delicious and helped settle my stomach a little.

Monday was our presentation practice. It went way better than I expected especially considering that I was feeling really sick. I wanted to present earlier, but Toni had a meeting and wanted to see it, so we presented right before lunch. We had lunch with Fred Dylla, the CEO of the American Institute of Physics, and Beth Cunningham, the Executive officer of The American Association of Physics Teachers. It was fun to talk to them a little about our experience because they couldn't make our presentations on Tuesday. I left shortly after lunch because of how ill I was feeling and worked on finalizing our presentation for Tuesday at home.

Tuesday was our final presentation day. My family, parents, brother and sisters, few in the night before, so they came to my presentation. My mentor from NIST, Mary, also came and it was really nice to see them all. Caleb and I did our presentations together, and I thought it went really well. We talked about our kit, did an activity, did a demonstration and then talked about NIST. After all the presentations, we had lunch as a big group before heading off to the state department tour. On the way to the tour I felt sicker and sicker, so by the time we got to Foggy Bottom I just decided to go home for the rest of the day.

Wednesday was our last day of work. We wrote thank you notes and filled out information about the internship. Then we had lunch together and did a little tour of ACP. We talked with Beth Cunningham of AAPT, Kate Kirby of APS and toured the library. After I finished a few things at the office, I packed everything up and headed home. It was so sad. I finished packing up all my stuff at the dorms; cleaned and headed over to the hotel my family is staying at as we tour around DC for about a week and a half.

It was really sad that the internship was over. I can’t believe how fast it is gone. This has been a really great opportunity for me and I have learned a lot. I will miss all the wonderful people I worked with and all the great friends I have made. We have been singing “You’re going to miss me when I’m gone” from Pitch Perfect. Now it’s true.