State of the Blog: Going live from DC

29 December 2009

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Christmas period; it's certainly been an exciting time for us here at the USSC blog. Exciting and filled with upheaval, actually: We've shifted the entire blog, that is, we've shifted Erin Riley and myself over here to Washington D.C. Erin and I will be spending the next couple of months interning at Capitol Hill, under a program arranged through the USSC called the Uni-Capitol Washington Internship Programme. We're both going to be working for American Congressman, Erin with Democrat of California Sam Farr and me with the House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina. It's going to be hugely exciting, and now we're both settled into our digs here in Arlington, Virginia, we're gearing up to get the blog ready for a new American 2010. Don't look for secrets from inside the Capitol - that would be highly unprofessional of us, I'm afraid - but we will be taking a look around the idiosyncrasies of this glorious mess called the United States of America and telling you guys all about what's happening here and what we make of it.

Other than a cold day trudging up and down the wintery Washington mall, snapping photos of the Washington Monument , the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and, indeed, nearly everything else we came across in this incredible city, our lives to date have consisted mostly of acclimatising to those strange American practices that I forget until I'm back in the country. Like: their light switches are upside down! What's the deal with tipping? Do people really want the prescription drugs they advertise with laundry lists of terrifying side-effects? Is there any finer creation than the Denny's innovation of serving breakfast 24 hours a day? And hang on, was that really the 2008 AFL Grand Final we saw while flicking through our cable channels? (It was.)

So playing tourists for a week, the USSC blog will be up in New York City for the remainder of 2009. But come 2010, we're going to back better than ever, with our totally unvarnished view of the USA, as directly experienced by the two of us. And a bit of the same old content you devoured this year, like, um, me talking about Maine. Hope you'll enjoy!

Tags: State Of The Blog