My first official day in the District led to some lessons learned, brief networking opportunities and fun with fellow interns.

So I learned a hard lesson in spending on the Metro trains. To all out-of-towners, when in doubt, buy a day pass if you’re on a budget. Long story short, if you go too far without enough money on your train ticket, you must pay an exit fare. A day pass is a flat rate. What you are willing to pay is what you will spend. Period.

Moving on.

Interns, facebook.com is your friend because many of the progressive groups like Campus Progress and Center for Progressive Leaders have groups that you can join, receive updates and meet other interns. Well, I did both.

I met up with another intern from North Carolina who is here for the summer. We’d communicated via facebook.com for a couple of weeks. We decided to go to PIN (Progressive Intern Network) Kick-off Bar-BQ at the park behind one of my favorite restaurants, Busboys and Poets. We ventured from Union Station to U Street Station and walked up a few blocks to a pretty empty park, confused. After seeing a group on the porch of a house in the neighborhood, we asked them if they knew anything about said social. For some unknown reason the party had moved across the street, where the front yard, back yard and house were full of young politicians carrying on various political and social conversations. Although the food was practically gone (and by practically, I mean chip crumbs), there was plenty soda and conversation. Immigration and African colonization were among the topics of discussion.

After making my rounds and introducing myself to some other interns [see you all at the next PIN social ;)], I hooked up with some of my friends’ house mates and went to Salsa Thia. I could have gone for take-out at Yums, but the group wasn’t quite feeling that one. Salsa Thai was good, though. It’s a nice atmosphere with low lights and wooden floors. Their fried rice was excellent and they have this fried banana and ice cream dessert this is something special. But you may not want to go if you have a group larger than five because they have problems with splitting bills and returning cash change. I’m thinking our waitress took the liberty to assume a tip even though there was definitely mandatory gratuity. Apparently, a storm was raining on the rest of the city, but we missed all that by the time we closed the place down as the last guest.

I had a good time and am ready to meet more people as well as see what else the city has to offer someone like me.

PS. For anybody looking for something to get into tomorrow, I just heard about a “Hoops for the Homeless” event at the Verizon Center from 9am to 5pm. Magic Johnson is one of the many celebrity guest of honor.