NYC
For the past couple years, I haven’t been able to spend the summer in the United States. Summers are usually the perfect opportunity for me to intern in Europe, which allows me to visit my family in France. Living in D.C., however, has given me the opportunity to travel around the country. This weekend, for instance, I visited my college friends in New York, which always feels like home to me. As much as I like D.C., New York has a unique energy that I’m always happy to rediscover when I spend a few days there.
Since I hadn’t traveled to the City in a while, my friends and I decided to redo some of the “touristy” activities that New York has to offer. On Saturday, we walked on the 1.45-mile-long High Line, which used to be a railroad on Manhattan’s west side. We also visited the newly relocated Whitney Museum in Meatpacking District, where I’m always awestruck by some of Warhol’s less famous pieces. At the end of the day, we went to a rooftop to admire the city’s skyline and wonderful sunset.
On Sunday, I came back to D.C. for one of my last week of work at USIP, during which I will keep focusing on Burkina Faso. Thanks to JSD’s wonderful field coordinators, I was able to get some helpful feedback on the inner-workings of the country’s criminal courts. For example, I learned that some aspects of the National Pact for the Revival on Justice had been implemented to enable a better access to justice for all. I will also be working on developing mediation materials with my coworkers in D.C. for the upcoming workshops in Burkina.