My name is Cameron Khodabakhsh, and I'm a sophomore at the University of San Diego. I was born in Lakeland, Florida but was raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm currently majoring in International Relations with a double minor in Economics and Spanish. You may find this shocking, but my last name doesn't look quite as American as "Smith" or "Johnson". My father is of Iranian descent and my mother is a second-generation American. I have traveled to Iran several times and take great pride in the fact that I'm an Iranian-American.
It's pretty remarkable how much I've done and learned these last six days. I knew my life and the atmosphere of DC in general was going to be hectic, but for some reason that hadn't really hit me until I had arrived that it would get so crazy so quickly. When I learned about all of the work I was going to do this semester, which consisted of a full-time internship plus all of the TWC assignments plus my class assignments plus my home institution assignments, I definitely felt overwhelmed at first, but had also realized that this semester will probably go by faster than any semester in college just because of how much time will fly when I get so busy.
On Friday, I met all of the interns I would be working with as well as some of the people in the International Affairs Program. Instead of the conventional morning orientation lecture, the program manager split us into small groups and sent us off on a scavenger hunt around two different Smithsonian exhibits, the Freer and Sackler Galleries.
Here is the picture of our small group. This picture was taken after a long, but still exciting day on our feet.
My apartment is located in Alexandria, VA on the seventh floor. The view is great, especially considering most of the apartments just get views of the neighboring apartment buildings! (See picture below.) It comes with so many different amenities which made packing much easier, such as a toaster, pots and pans, cutlery, beds, and a cable TV, and our TV has hi-definition channels! Needless to say this will make watching the Super Bowl that much more enjoyable! It also helps that my roommates Ryan, Jezer, and Tim are all really nice people as well.
You can see the capital from here!!!!
My internship is at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies under the National Defense University under the Department of Defense, or NESA for short (wordy, I know). As I continue to write this blog, I’ll write more about what exactly NESA is and what my job entails, but writing it all out in one sitting would bore you (and probably me) to death. However, what I can tell you is how much I enjoy working with my other interns, Jim, Joelle, Ali, and Dan. It’s always great when the people that you’re going to see and work with 40-50 hours a week are kind, intelligent, and helpful people, and so I’m very grateful for that.
Next week, I’ll let you know about more of my internship responsibilities and how my class on US Foreign Policy in the 21st Century is going. I'll also post pictures of some of the places that I’m visiting in Washington DC. Thanks again for reading this everyone, and I can’t stress this enough, anything you think I should add to future blog posts, please don’t hold back. Take care, and hope you all enjoy the rest of your week.
Peace!
