Week Eight: Fourth of July

Last week was the week of the fourth of July. During the first half of the week, I drafted an internship guidance document for the Ukraine project. This would include the types of things that interns and hosts would or should do during a virtual internship, and what issues to look out for especially during a tumultuous time in the country. It was a fun exercise to look back on my own internship and legal interning experience in the past and what I liked, disliked, or could have used help with. I felt it (and the whole project in general) reminded me that during tumultuous times, people are still expected to continue. I feel like I've heard that a lot, especially during the pandemic, and it has never made much sense to me, but that's the world I suppose. At least here, we can help maintain some sense of normalcy.

The fourth of July here was surprisingly very quiet. I thought it would be louder, considering that Columbia is the capital of South Carolina and one of its most populated cities, but a couple of members of ROLC were talking about how other people were leaving for the fourth so I stood corrected. It wasn't entirely uneventful though. My mom and my brother flew in to visit me.I We spent the fourth at the South Carolina State Museum and walking for a bit around the campus, and on Saturday I got to show them the State Farmers Market. It got me thinking about the downsides of international legal work. If I were traveling/overseas all the time, I would not be able to easily meet with the people I cared about – many of the other people working these internships are overseas, after all. The weekend definitely gave me some food for thought.