Sunday, July 3, 2022
By:
I opened up this week with a horror movie at AMC in Georgetown. Although it turned out to be more of a thriller the walk back from Georgetown waterfront close to midnight made it worth my time.
I spent most of my time at work writing intverview questions for several academic directors and coaches for the International Physics Olympiad story that I got assigned at work. The politics around the world and the recent invasion of Ukraine made it difficult to maintain the competitions in Belarus as decided in the previous years. Therefore more than the medals and the individual accomplishments of physics students from all around the world, the competition is, unfortunately, more about the political conflicts this year. On Friday I had my first face-to-face interview and I was quite excited about it. I found it best to maintain a continuous converstaion with the interviewee than to ask my questions one by one, as that proved to ease teh air and break the ice.
I have been looking forward to this week because of two events I had planned in the prior weeks. The double date with my high school friends at Cafe Milano, a Georgetown legend, and seeing To Kill a Mockingbird at Kennedy Center. Whenever I bring two friend groups together, I am always very much nervous to see whether they'll like each other or not. However, the date went smoothly and I am afraid we occupied our table a bit longer than it would please our waiter. The play on the other hand was legendary, adapted by one of my favourite screenwriter Aaron Sorki, who by the way has an entire dialogue technique named after him: Sorkin Dialogue. The subject matter of the play is unfortunately still very much relatable in today's America. It was my first time in Kennedy Center and I must say we took advantage of the Student Rush tickets released every once in awhile in getting seats for such a big scale Broadway production. I want to go back as soon as possible for Hamilton next month!
As it was the July 4th weekend, we took advantage of the long weekend and went on a trip to Virginia Beach. I got to swim in the ocean after a long time and tried to make the most fun out of the giant waves that welcomed us. Due to an outflux of people trying to leave DC it took us six hours to get there and if you know the area you must know how much of a frustration that was. Fortunately, we managed to leave as early as possible on Sunday to keep our drive down to 3-4 hours. The short vacation has definitely fueled me up for the rest of the my time at Physics Today.
More on next week's blog!
See you then...
Gizem Dogan