One thing I am not a fan of is getting up in the morning. Getting up at 6 a.m. to leave by 7:30 a.m. is not my cup of tea. Truth be told, I actually got up at 7:30 a.m., but one thing I’m good at is getting ready in a short amount of time.
When I emerged myself in the hustle and bustle of the metro rail (that's the train, I soon found out) my first morning, I thought, “It seems easy enough. All I have to do is get on the metro, wait for my stop and get off.” Like most of my life, I was wrong. Of course, I went by myself the first time aside from my sister usually riding the same line. I had no idea what I was doing.
That Monday morning was one to remember. I got on the right line and everything was fine. However, I forgot to see where I got off exactly. I was freaking out because all I knew was the place of my internship was in Arlington, Virginia, and I had an address, but you have no service while you're on the train. There was this sweet lady sitting by me and I kindly showed her the address and asked her where I get off, she told me. All was well. Luckily, where I was sitting on the train there was a beautiful sign full of stops and colors. I figured out where I needed to get off, and boom! I was there... 55 minutes later.
On the escalator going up, I was too tired to walk up them, so I waited for it to do its job. But what I didn’t notice was I was standing in the middle of it blocking everyone behind me. I had a couple of not so nice comments said behind me, until my sister told me the next day to stand on the side and be courteous of the people that still wanted to walk.
Getting off the escalator, I was immediately taken away by the scenery of the beautiful city of Arlington. It was magnificent.
The next step was to figure out where my internship was. My directions said that my internship was 0.2 miles away or about four minutes. The directions said go east on some street and then south. I was so confused -- who knows where east is when you're walking on a street? When I realized “Never Eat Soggy Waffles” didn’t work, I once again panicked. I went to the closest building in a frantic state to ask the concierge where exactly I was, and where I am supposed to be. While I was asking these embarrassing questions, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Are you Alexis the intern?” Distraught and sweaty, I nodded. He laughed and said, “Don’t worry. I did the same thing my first day. We're so excited to have you! Follow me.”
At that moment, I thought to myself, “I think I’m going to like it here.”
