First Week at NCSC and A Visit to Supreme Court
From May 27, I started working at the National Center for State Courts, International Programs Division, in Arlington, VA. I’m settled into a nice house in Falls Church, right on the green belt of DC area. I found the place from Airbnb, and my host is a psychologist who teaches at George Mason University. She is a wonderful person and her house is very beautiful with a large backyard and access to a private lake. There are four lovely dogs in the house, so I never get bored. One of them has won two prizes from the local dog obedience competitions. There is also a Giant Chinchilla Rabbit in residence, who weighs 15 pounds. Yes he is humongous.
First day at NCSC International was very smooth for John Satira and myself. We both departed early, and texted each other on our way to NCSC talking about how excited and a little bit nervous about the first day. It turned out we didn’t have to worry about anything. When we arrived at the lobby, we were warmly welcomed by the staff and introduced to everyone. We sat down with the Vice President Jeff Apperson and had a nice introductory conversation. At lunch time, our supervisor Tim Hughes took us to lunch with other colleagues. Later we sat at our workstations and officially started our life at NCSC.
After 8 workdays, I can say for sure that I like working at NCSC. People are very friendly here. And the best part is, they trust us. Starting from the first assignment, we are involved in NCSC International’s ongoing projects and our work products have been included in the final presentations (I will write about our projects in my later blogs).
Monday June 1 was the highlight of the past week: Jeff brought the three of us (John, myself, and another intern from UNC) to Supreme Court. We attended the 40th annual event hosted by Supreme Court Historical Society - commemorating the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. Brenda Hale, Baroness of Richmond and Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, delivered the Annual Lecture. Her talk was focusing on the shared legal heritage drawn from the Magna Carta of the United States and the United Kingdom. The lecture took place in the courtroom. It was amazing to be sitting at the place where Supreme Court decisions are made, and staring at the nine high-back leather chairs. What made the trip even more wonderful was that Justice Ginsburg attended the lecture. It was so nice to see her in person.
After the lecture, we took a guided tour. My favorite part of the building is the beautiful library (unfortunately taking picture was not allowed).
Before the lecture we had lunch at the Supreme Court Cafeteria. Surprisingly enough, the price is even cheaper than our Zime. We had curry chicken for lunch at Supreme Court – very weird (but delicious) combination.
Tim said ten weeks would pass really fast – I think I can see that now. It has been a great one and half weeks, and I am excited about the new week and new assignment.