1. Finding an internship. You finally figured out where you're crashing or who you're subletting from for the summer. Problem is, you submitted about 40,000 applications for internships in March, and no one has responded to you yet. Uh, oh.
2. You see Hill interns all day, every day. You can pick them out from a mile away - briefcase, suit, and coffee-making skills at the ready. Whether you drive by them on Mass. Ave. all the time or you work with them, there is just no escape from these D.C. fixtures, especially in the summer.
3. You are an intern. If you're in D.C. for the summer, chances are you're interning (if those NGOs ever got back to you, that is). It's important to get your foot in the door of that nonprofit that, if they did decide to hire you after graduation, will only pay you $20,000 a year anyway. Good thing Mom and Dad haven't cut you off - yet.
4. Dealing with the Metro. Maybe you aren't used to taking the Metro at rush hour. Maybe the concept of "tourist season" hasn't hit you yet. Maybe you just got back from studying abroad in a European city with a much more efficient subway system. No matter your situation, the Metro's crowded cars and constant braking can make your commute anywhere full of headaches, especially when you're wearing that power suit.
5. The gas prices could make a grown man cry. You thought that since you hated the Metro so much, you would just bring your car down to D.C. It makes grocery shopping so much easier, right? Yeah, until you don't have enough money left to pay rent because you were too busy filling up your tank at that station with the unlisted prices.
6. You can't go out Friday nights because you work Saturday mornings. Since your internship obviously isn't paying you, someone has to. Too bad you chose Starbucks, but someone has to make the early birds their coffee.
7. You can't go out Friday nights because you work Friday nights. You sold your soul to Clyde's, the Cheesecake Factory, Chef Geoff's or any of the other restaurants that populate the Tenleytown/Friendship Heights area. Social life? What's that?
8. Apartment hunting for the fall. Unfortunately, subletting means "temporary," so it's time to start apartment hunting for the school year. That's a little hard to do, though, when your future roomie is still abroad and no building will accept your beloved pet bunny as a fellow renter.
9. Heat + humidity = unhappiness all around. Besides the general heat of D.C. summers, they also tend to be humid, creating a sauna-like atmosphere that only reptiles and amphibians can truly enjoy. So much for good hair days - you'll be lucky if your hair doesn't go Diana Ross on you during those torrential downpours that happen every afternoon.
10. Long-distance relationships. You found that special someone at that frat party last spring, and she chose to go back home and actually make money (damn her for being so intelligent). You're stuck in D.C. making no money, riding the Metro with everyone and their mother in a power suit and dying in the heat. Ain't life grand?
