Enter the life of a Presidential Intern

February 11th- Will never forget. Today is our last day on the campaign trail in NH. It is bittersweet. We woke up extremely early 5am, to head to our internship to get our last walk packet. We all went together this time to cherish the last canvasing day we would have together. We spoke with a lot of people this time and surprisingly there were many that did not know who they were to vote for. The responses we received were either they were voting for Biden or they are going to decide the second they see their ballot and vote. For me that was hard to hear as I was not sure what the thought process was when they see that ballot, what difference it will make at that time rather than a few days before. Either way we tried our hardest getting people to vote for Biden because now was the time. One person put a huge plant in front of their door so people would not bother them.  We then got picked up and drove all together with our campaign to the hotel where we had the elect...

February 10th- Today was a fun day at the office! We helped set up for our volunteers and prepare for Dr. Biden's arrival! It is so amazing that within such a short time we were able to meet such amazing people and for the most part all of the candidates. I was extremely eager to meet Dr.Biden as she has been a huge supporter of the community college system which is close to my heart and breaking down barriers and stereotypes that community colleges are not as important as Universities. She took the time to meet all of us individually and took the time to talk to us rather than a simple handshake and a thank you which was very humbling to witness. She genuinely thanked us for all of our work and even went canvasing herself! How cool is it to open your door and Dr. Jill is there?! Such an Honor to have met Dr. Biden! #womenpower Then we went to St.George Greek Orthodox event which Biden had a GOTV event. This was not set up by our campaign so the organization of this event wa...

February 9th- Today was a huge canvasing as we were trying to get to our goal of finishing the rest of our walk packets before the election! We were canvasing in Manch today and thankfully there was some sun outside so we did not freeze right away. The apartment style houses were interesting to figure out because we would walk up to the door and there are three different doorbells depending on which floor you needed to reach and we did not always know which floor they were in so that was quite difficult at times. Because of that we did not get many people to the door but we had a few which was always a happy moment! We decided to stop at an asian restaurant to have some warm soup after walking in the cold for so long but it took about an hour and a half to get our food which was unfortunate but we ate, got some more energy and kept walking! We ended up walking about 9 miles that day! crazy.

Our day today started pretty early. We had left the hotel at about 6:30am in order to go to the rex theater to set up for the upcoming GOTV event with Joe Biden. When we got there we helped the advance team set up chairs, signs, banners, media and so much more. It was amazing to be able to work an event from start to finish seeing every little thing that goes into making an event happen. I was tasked with being the count leader and to deal with any issues that may arise with the event. It was such an honor to be tasked with something as for me it was important no matter if I was getting coffee for people. The team saw us for our talents and abilities and actually put us to work and for that I am eternally grateful! As people started lining up we went around to each person and had them sign in, talk to them, ask questions and really have conversations with people rather than a simple thank you for coming the event will start soon. I met so many college students from Boston, Ohio and eve...

February 7th- So tonight was absolutely an experience for the books. We were asked to do visibility for the democratic debate which of course we said yes thinking we would only be there for a couple of hours.. little did we know it would unfortunately turn into about 5 hours. The weather was literally freezing with sleet pouring down. I was not mentally or physically prepared for that. I had a fabric coat and red leather gloves on. As the rain is coming down it is going through my fabric jacket onto my body...I honestly thought after about one hour I would have some form of frost bite. I am not happy about the cold one bit. As I am holding the huge Biden sign, I notice red dropping down the sign...its my red gloves that are dripping the red color from the cold and the rain. Now the sign looks like there is blood on it so I was not too happy about that either. Then after about 3 hours in this cold our driver comes back and I am thinking finally we get to leave and go back to the warm ...

February 7th- Before even coming to New Hampshire I started researching Greek restaurants to eat at since I knew New Hampshire has a big Greek community and I found this place called the Gyro Spot in Manchester which serves AUTHENTIC greek gyros. I cannot express how excited this made me. I have not had a truly authentic gyro in about 6 years! so sad. So today Manuel, Ireland and I went to the gyro spot to finally get that gyro I have been craving for 6 years. Just walking up inside the building I instantly was overcame with emotions of pure happiness, the smells, the greek writing all of it was part of the experience. We all ordered the authentic pork gyros, loukoumades which is fried dough with honey syrup and cinnamon and sat down to enjoy our much needed lunch break. After so many years of not having luck to eat a truly authentic gyro, my standards were high.....but let me tell you it was absolutely phenomenal! The first bite I took took me back home to Greece eating gyros with m...

February 7th- So today was a full day at the office! During the morning we went canvasing and we had a packet for downtown Manch. I loved today because it gave us the opportunity to walk around the downtown area and get to explore Manch. Funny thing happened while we were going through our walk packet, we had mostly apartment buildings since it was downtown area but what we didn't realize is that you needed a code to get into the building so we were trying to figure out how to call the person on our list by clicking buttons. We were pretty determined but ended up with no luck and the system started its alarm which of course freaked us out! no worries it stopped after a second and we moved on to houses instead of apartments, lesson learned! We then went back to the office to do some phone banking and a surprise was coming for us. Michelle Kwan, two-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champion came by our office to meet all of the volunteers! She was so sweet and talked to ea...

February 6th- Today we went on a tour of the Saint Anselm college in NH! some amazing facts about his college, 1. They have their own polls about candidates. 2. They host candidate forums. 3. They even have tv interviews! We were taking to their green room to be shown what goes on behind the scenes. Tip, if you ever have to do an interview there will be a tv in front of you so do not look into that make sure you keep looking in the camera! If it distracts you, you may ask to have it be turned off. We then went to our internship offices where the Biden internships were phone banking for the remainder of the day. During my phone banking I came across a name which was extremely greek and I spoke to this lady Stavroula in Greek which was an amazing experience. We discussed the importance of this election and how excited she is to have someone who is Greek interning for Biden! We exchanged phone numbers and met up at an event and even introduced me to her family. Her father w...

February 5th- By this post you are probably realizing just how many things we have done each day! packed like crazy and this isn't even half way! After the state house visit we went to the New Hampshire Democratic Party office which Ray Buckley the party chair himself walked us through the office and talked to us about the primary process and answered all the questions we had. He took a few jabs at the Republican party office which was an interesting experience. I had asked a question regarding why is there so much hate with the President in office today which is unlike nay other and how we can get back to a time where we can all be respectful rather than creating hate and division in the nation. Mr. Buckley was very thoughtful with his response which did not have an answer as no one truly knows but did explain where the shift was and acknowledges it is a big divide which is why this election is so important for a majority of us. I had spoken to him after the meeting and informed...

February 5th- We went back to the state capitol and met with the infamous Bill Gardner, the longest currently serving Secretary of State in the United States! He took us to his office where each Presidential hopeful must come and fill out the paperwork for their candidacy in order to be on the ballot. It was a wonderful experience and walking through the office which had thousands of Presidential hopefuls signs, buttons and campaign materials all over the walls! He even made us copies of the original ballot with the candidates that filed for their run for the Presidency. We then went to see the executive council which was in session and got to witness how their process of the agenda goes and how they discuss agenda items. This meeting they started with a couple of ladies playing traditional music which was great to witness. This is an original phone book that is in the State Capitol! 

February 5th- We went to the Youth Climate Town hall where Klobuchar, Yang, Steyer and surrogates spoke about climate change as well as their plans to combat it. One of the most fascinating aspects of this was the students which asked the candidates questions regarding climate change. Each student was extremely well informed and their questions combated tough issues on climate change and illustrated the fact that young potential voters are involved in this conversation and need to see change. We were able to get pictures with some of the candidates and Steyer even posted our picture we took with him on his instagram because his campaign manager is a USF alum! Go Bulls!

February 4th- In the afternoon we were picked up by JSM and driven to our first event where we were in charge of placing signs outside the event, decorating the space and signing people in the event. When we started placing signs outside I found out that the ground becomes frozen and it is extremely hard to place signs in the ground! Being so used to living in Florida, I completely forgot about the effects of cold weather. We ended up placing the signs on the snow and areas of the ground that were not as frozen. The advance team for Biden walked us through how the event will work and even discussed the plans they have in place in case there are protestors. This was an aspect I was unfamiliar with but it was so interesting to learn all that goes into events. We have a media entrance, an accessibility entrance and then the common entrance. Media must always sign into the events and go to the designated area. What I enjoyed most was the trust that the advance team had in us volunteers t...

February 4th. At the Biden campaign we had an influx of volunteers so we opened up a new office in Manch to host our volunteers! We were given the honor of decorating the office from scratch to making it look like a campaign office, full creative responsibility. This was on the most fun tasks we have had. We placed Biden signs all over the office and even created boarders on the wall from the door handle packets! We made the windows look like they had a wall trim and even spelled out JOE from the brochures on the wall!! It came together so well and we were extremely proud of the work that we did knowing that people that came in felt the hard work and appreciation we have for the cause and Biden for President!

We went to the State Capitol which was in the beautiful downtown concord! We learned of their state motto which is "Live free or die" which is a wonderful motto to live by especially for the independence of states and the nation as a whole. They are the oldest continuously used legislative chambers in America and still use their original constitution as well as the pay for the legislative body which is minimal, $100 a year, they truly are doing their civic duty! They have the largest number of state representative in the us, a total of 400! When you walk into the state capitol you will notice two walls of flags which are 107 flags which represent regiments and batteries from the civil war, some are almost completely torn apart and others in relatively good shape. such amazing history in New Hampshire.

Very first day waking up to be driven to our internship placements. I was so excited walking up to the front office and knocking on the door, it felt like a whole new experience was just about to begin. We were introduced by the Biden campaign supervisor Milton and then met the rest of the team, Tiffany, Sal, and Carrie. The first thing I noticed at the office was a cardboard cutout of Biden which excited all of us so of course we took tons of pictures! They had Joe written out of balloons above the stage in the office and decorations throughout the building. It was one of the biggest field offices I have seen and extremely well decorated! Once our excitement subsided and we stopped taking an insane amount of pictures, we were given our first assignments, canvasing! usually I would be more excited about canvasing but it was about 30 degrees out and I do not deal well with the cold. We were driven to a neighborhood in Manch which while walking around with Ireland for a few minutes ...

If there is one thing we would get used to being on the campaign trail is an endless amount of pizza! First night we got to New Hampshire we went to a pizza place in Merrimack to go over the weeks itinerary and get the time to discuss about our expectations and ask any questions. I enjoyed this night because it was the one and only relaxed night we really had. we ate pizza, salad and thoroughly discussed with our groups about our excitement to start this campaign trail. Fair to say day 1 was successful, aside from relatively freezing.