Receptions

One of the best things about being an intern is the amount of receptions/congressional hearings we have access to. First, most of the information about these receptions/hearings comes from either;
Your friends/fellow interns/fellow staff members
Reading the Congressional Quarterly/Daily, which provides a rundown of all the hearings that week/day.

Why is this important? FREE FOOD!!!! Living in DC can be expensive, and if free food is available, why should you go out and buy your own food. Coupled with the fact that we are broke college students who are used to free food, as colleges know that the only way to get students to any events is to provide free food, you are guaranteed to find at least a couple of interns at any given reception. Sometimes the food provided at the receptions are light fare, other times you can eat your dinner there. And the food is usually good. For example, I went to a reception hosted by Agriculture, and it was a cheese and pizza tasting. They had a lot of cheese, as well as pizza and vegetables and a salad. The one caveat; get there early/in the middle, as the food tends to run out as the time goes by. (Note: The main point of the receptions is to actually network, and that does happen while eating your free food. ;.p )

Hearings a bit different. Hearings are usually more serious than receptions, the point is definitely NOT networking. You are usually there to listen to a testimony or information session. Hearings are held inside hearing rooms, which means seating and food is limited. You also must be quiet, and at the very least, pretend to be interested in the subject matter at hand. For example, I went to the Food and Water hearing, which was composed of the said organization presenting with the engineer guy from BP who was fired because he kept bringing up safety concerns on the Atlantis oil rig. Lunch at those are usually provided by the Hill Catering. You receive a bag filled with 1 cookie, 1 bag of Sun Chips, 1 cup of pasta salad (YUCK!), an apple, and a sandwich. You can choose your drink, which is usually soda, orange juice or water. For a free lunch and a chance to learn something new, thats not bad.

Moral of the Story: Go to receptions/hearings. You get to eat free food, network, and enjoy yourself. Whats not to love?