Bengfort.com

While in Washington (the State), I had a discussion with my family over potentially dropping my first name, as my parents (and consequently the rest of the world) have always called me by my middle name. My parents were against the name drop -they did give me my first name for a reason after all- and so I have decided to join the ranks of F. Scott Fitzgerald and E. Annie Proulx and officially become C. Devi (It’s on my new business cards, that’s what makes the change official).

Now that’s been decided, it is my new goal to embrace the C. In addition to my two concrete New Year’s Resolutions -stop biting my nails and write more blogs- I have three abstract goals for the new year which I have deemed the “3 C’s:” 1) Become more Cultured, be more Culinary, and Contribute more to my community (if Contributive were a word, I would have used it, but it’s not).

Be more Cultured

I am lucky enough to live in a city rife with history, art, events, galleries, museums, artifacts, architecture and all sorts of other culturally uplifting things, but until yesterday, I had not taken advantage of it once in the four months I’ve lived here. School and internships and friends do take up a lot of time. Yesterday, however, I ended my uncultured streak with a trip to the National Portrait Gallery with my sister and a couple of friends. It is amazing how much high school history I have forgotten; names like Cotton Mather, William Henry Harrison and Chester Alan Arthur were all distant memories. I also learned a lot of interesting things at the museum that I could use to trick people into thinking I was an American history buff, such as the fact that the first Bible printed in America was in the Algonquin language. Which begs the question, were Algonquin Indians even literate? I can’t imagine that reading was a useful skill for Native Americans back then. In any case, it is for little tidbits like this that I would like to visit more museums while I am here in the heart of DC.

Be More Culinary

I love to cook, but alas, school and internships and friends again have hampered any culinary conquests more adventurous than pasta, curries from a packet, and fried rice. With all the new kitchen gadgets that I received for Christmas -one slap n chop, a rocket blender, an olive oil mister and 2 slow cookers (one large, one small)-I’d like to start being an adventurous chef again, that is if other people’s diets don’t get in the way of my culinary genius.

Contribute More to my Community

In high school, volunteer work looked good on your college applications. In college, it looked good on your resume. Neither of those matter for me any more, but after living in China where altruism is rarely seen, and after benchmarking Corporate Social Responsibility reports as part of my internship duties for Vz, I’ve come to realize how important social responsibility is. Altruism is a beautiful thing, and I’ve decided that I’ve gone too long without doing anything that didn’t directly help myself. I’m still on the lookout for ways to volunteer my services and skills in the DC area, if you have any good ideas, let me know!

I first apologize to all readers for the woeful dearth of blogs. I have in the past four months transitioned to a completely new life and lifestyle, and have not yet managed to revamp my blog to match the changes in my life. I do hope to change this.

The major adjustments in my life are threefold: I have moved back to the U.S after 3 years in China, I have started a Masters program at GW’s Elliott School of International affairs in DC, and I have entered the high-power corporate world that is the ICT industry, telecoms specifically, as intern for Verizon Government Relations.

Like my new neighbor Barack Obama has promised, I have experienced change. So far the change has been mostly positive. I am thoroughly enjoying my studies and classes, I love living in the beautiful city that is DC, I am thrilled with my position at Verizon, I’ve made a great new group of friends, and I have begun a couple of new recreational activities- salsa dancing and frisbee.

The only negative change is that I’ve had to say goodbye to my boyfriend, who is still in China doing a year long bicycle trip. My fingers are crossed that he will join me in DC next year.

I hope to change the nature of this blog to coincide with the changes in my life. I will still write about China within the scope of my studies, but more likely than not, my blog will be about life in DC, just as I had written previously about life in China. Hopefully this will still be interesting to readers!