Allyson Bird - Internship Diary

Oct. 4

When you tell someone you're spending time in Washington, you're first asked what you do and then asked where you live. Since I've been working on a lot of the same articles lately -- and since I think it's unlucky to talk about an unfinished story, I'll tell you a little bit about where I live.

The Young Woman's Christian Home has three rules: no boys, no booze and no cigarettes. You laugh (I did too), but for $700/month you get your own room, weekly cleaning service and two meals a day.

Thomson Markward Hall, established in 1887, is a pillared brick building right on Capitol Hill. It's directly across the street from a Senate building and has the security of a police check at every nearby corner. The lobby is inviting, with couches and portraits and pink paint. There's a library with a piano and a dining room with French doors overlooking a garden. The building has three dormitory floors above the lobby and a TV room in the basement.

It might not have been fun lugging all my stuff up to my room on move-in day, while my dad watched me from the lobby. And I occasionally still find myself waiting for the manually-operated elevator doors to open for me. But this place has its comfort and charm.

It's known around the Hill as "the Virgin Vault" (Click here for write-up and photos from "The Hill"). And it's home to 120 women ages 18 to 35 at any given time. Residents can only stay for two years. This semester

I'm one of them. And since I know you're wondering, no, I don't have a curfew.

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