• Home
  • About
  • Fashion
  • Home Decor
  • Travel
  • Lifestyle
  • Shopping Guide
  • Beautycounter

Down in the Hollow

Fashion•Lifestyle•Travel

What Was I Doing in DC?

June 24, 2019

Hi friends!

I know it’s been a minute since I published a blog post, but I’m back! As many of you might already know, I spent the last two weeks in Washington, D.C. and my schedule was so packed that it didn’t allow for any blogging at all. In fact, I couldn’t even squeeze some time in to go take blogger-worthy pictures in front of the DC monuments and grand marble staircases! That’s when you know it’s real, am I right?

The weekend before classes started, Adam & I enjoyed oysters at Hank’s on the Wharf

I touched on why I was in DC a little bit in Instagram captions, but I wanted to write a post about exactly why I was there and what I was doing for anyone curious/interested. This is a little different from the usual posts of highlighting trends, classic styles, brands, etc but as I’ve said before…to blog is to share life and this is mine.

Be smart, dress smart

If you’ve been around here for a while now, you know that I’m currently a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma working on getting my Master’s in International Relations. After undergrad, I spent 6 years in the career field and now at the age of 29 I’m a student again. Slightly weird sometimes, but it’s a field I’ve been passionate about my whole life and it’s also a topic I think I could just perpetually learn about. I literally never get tired of talking about it, doing research, writing papers on it, etc. I guess that’s how you know you picked the right thing! This last semester, I dove pretty deep into security policy and wound up realizing it was my preferred niche inside of IR so when a professor of mine told me that George Washington University was holding a Nuclear Security Boot Camp for two weeks in June and applications were open, I jumped on it. Number one, I used to live in DC and it’s my favorite U.S. city so I’ll pretty much take any excuse to go spend time there. Number two, nuclear security is one of the most relevant conversations facing international order right now and the field desperately needs more people becoming experts on it. Number three, I totally nerded out over the possibility of becoming one of those experts and gaining so much knowledge on something I’m very interested in. So, I applied, was accepted, and happily joined 26 other students from universities across the US in DC to dive into nuclear policy and the technical science behind it as well.

This was taken directly after the Welcome Reception

Every day started with a breakfast at the GW Law School building at 8:30 (which I skipped in order to get extra sleep haha) and lectures began at 9:00 a.m. Most days we would have various lectures until 5:00 p.m. and then either a reception or a documentary at night. I think all in all we maybe had 4 free nights where we could leave at 5:00 and spend the night doing whatever we wanted. There were also a few days spent outside of the GW campus; we visited the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the State Department (my fave, I was such a fan girl) and the Rayburn House building on the Hill (House Capitol offices and committee rooms). It was one of the most time-intensive things I’ve ever done in my life. There were very few breaks and most days, although lunch was brought in for us, we ate it while continuing to listen to speakers. So, as you can imagine, it was very mentally taxing to continue staying engaged as the days went on. Thankfully, the material was incredibly interesting to me and so I was able to maintain brain absorption even while running basically on empty for the second week. But, as exhausting as it was, I learned a WEALTH of knowledge and can now speak confidently about things I’d only previously had surface-level knowledge of, or no knowledge of at all. And that is a huge accomplishment.

Basically, this was the highlight of my trip right here haha
Standing in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall
House Committee on Science, Space and Technology

Fun fact: if you add up all of the hours I spent actively learning nuclear security policy in two weeks – as in not counting free time, but time strictly spent learning – it would equal 87 hours. In a regular class setting, you spend an accumulative 45 hours on 1 class in a semester. So this means that GWU packed in almost a two-class semester….in two weeks. Mind. Blown.

Here’s a peek at the topics covered, in order of when we learned them:

-international governance 
-nuclear history
-nuclear weapons
-who has what and how much
-mutually assured destruction theory 
-deterrence theory 
-international treaties 
-export controls and 123 agreements
-delivery systems and Triad
-stockpile stewardship 
-weapon complex modernization 
-missile defense
-India and Pakistan’s nuclear programs 
-verification and forensics 
-Nuclear Posture Review 
-Russia and China’s nuclear programs

-nuclear energy policy

-nuclear waste policy

-nuclear energy security

-uranium enrichment

-plutonium

-IAEA safeguards

-fast reactors

-embassy views on nuclear policy

-North Korea’s nuclear program

-Iran and the Middle East nuclear programs

(no idea why the spacing wound up the way it did, but it indicates nothing other than I don’t know how to work tech haha)

Whew! It was a whirlwind, y’all. But thankfully, I was able to squeeze in some time to explore, eat, drink, shop and enjoy my favorite city. Not very much time, but honestly I’ll take what I can get. Every time I go back to DC I learn something new or discover something I never knew about.

Sitting on the Exorcist Steps in Georgetown

The pictures featured in this post are a handful of the ones taken while I was in DC. Most are either older or not linkable on Shopstyle, but have no fear…I’ll be highlighting some of my top fashion finds from my shopping adventures in DC this week on the blog, so keep an eye out!

Before I took myself out for a nice dinner!

What would you like to learn about DC that you’d like to see me blog about? Drop suggestions in the comments below!

XOXO, Thessali

district of columbia Fashion graduate student international relations Lifestyle nuclear security security policy Travel washington dc

0
0 Leave a Comment

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Related Posts

Why I Joined Beautycounter

Travel Guide – 48 Hours in Monterey, CA

Trends: Drop Waist Dresses and Beaded Earrings

Financial Travel Hacks

How I be looking at the arrival of Friday. Like he How I be looking at the arrival of Friday. Like hey hi hello there 😍 

P.S HAPPY EARTH DAY

@liketoknow.it #liketkit http://liketk.it/3dAbz
You see..what had happened was..I took a batch of You see..what had happened was..I took a batch of photos today in my work #ootd but posted a different one earlier today. This was the one I liked more but I stared at it until I convinced myself that it wasn’t good enough because my bow was tied haphazard, my glasses were askew, my hair was blowing in the wind...and the list goes on. But the bow reminds me of how often I was up and down, in and out of my chair at work today because today was the first day since Covid started that the majority of my colleagues were back in the office and it was SO fun hanging out with them. The glasses remind me of how often I slipped them from my nose to pushing back my hair as I worked diligently towards big goals for my department. And the wind?? Well...that’s Oklahoma for ya. So here I am deleting what I posted and replacing it because I refuse to be my own worst critic ESPECIALLY in the social media space.
Temporary post on my feed, but in case you missed Temporary post on my feed, but in case you missed it in my stories...I created a curated guide to all things hydrangeas! I celebrated a great start to a beautiful spring by treating myself to a few things featuring my favorite flower and wanted to share some inspo here for you too 🌸 @liketoknow.it #liketkit http://liketk.it/3dnfU
For the past week I’ve been slowly working on a For the past week I’ve been slowly working on a blog post detailing how I got to a point in my life where I feel like I am THRIVING more than ever. While I work on it, I want input from you...what areas of your life do you feel like you’ve lost pieces of your former self and how do you feel like you’re not really living your best life? What would you like to read about in this post that you think would be helpful to you? I’ll incorporate your comments into my post! 
 
P.S. You can instantly shop my looks by following me on the LIKEtoKNOW.it shopping app @liketoknow.it #liketkit http://liketk.it/3deXk
Looking at my headshot for my new job makes me fee Looking at my headshot for my new job makes me feel a lot of emotions. I’m standing in front of a model water kiosk. These are branded kiosks that my nonprofit has been able to scale for district wide coverage in multiple countries in Africa. We employ women to work at these kiosks; women who previously bore the responsibility of walking miles and miles to fetch dirty, disease-ridden water - risking their safety as women are often victims of gender-based violence and sexual abuse on their way to fetch water, risking their health by gathering water that will most assuredly infect them and their families with typhoid, dysentery and more and also sacrificing their personal potential since walking distances to gather water steals their ability to attend school or gain employment. Now, these women do not risk sexual assault just for the chance to drink dirty water - they have clean water for them and their children to be able to flourish in good health - and they have gainful employment in a safe environment. 
Every day I enter our warehouse and sit down in my office I think about the lives that will directly be impacted by the work that I do that day. And then I work like hell.
Is there anything better than a rooftop happy hour Is there anything better than a rooftop happy hour, a gin & tonic and a shirt with sardines all over it?? I think not. 
But for real this top is from the Kendra Dandy collab with @Anthropologie and it was one of those purchases where I saw it and bought it within less than 30 seconds. Obsessed! Whimsical, beautiful, comfortable, conversation starting...love it.
Shop your screenshot of this pic with the LIKEtoKNOW.it shopping app  @liketoknow.it #liketkit http://liketk.it/3cElz
Puffed sleeves and puffed up pride because ya girl Puffed sleeves and puffed up pride because ya girl got that SECOND DOSE of the vaccine today and honestly...I got a little emotional and spiraled a little bit on stories 😂 
It’s just been such a long year+ of heartbreak, loss, distance, isolation, depression, confusion, vitriol, division...the list goes on. But I’m feeling so achingly grateful that we are marching forward. I never want to hear the word coronavirus again in my life, YA HEAR?!
Also, this outfit is linked on @liketoknow.it and honestly this bodysuit is an entire mood. #liketkit http://liketk.it/3cnT3
Copyright © 2021 Down in the Hollow
Theme by SheShoppes