I was thrilled to learn on the first day of my internship last week that the Vice President and Dr. Biden would be ending their European visit this week with a stop in London. Today was the big day! My supervisors, the other intern in my department- Godfrey- and I all headed down early to get a good spot. After being “demagged” (word of the day) by the secret service, we decided to stand along the rope line to get a good view of Ambassador Susman, the VP, and the Second Lady as they entered. An hour later, when they walked by two feet in front of my starstruck self, I had your average stereotypical intern aha moment. It probably didn’t help that “Hail to the Chief” was playing in the background. But really, I feel so lucky to get to work in a place that enables me to experience something so incredible and so patriotic almost each and every day. Where else can you end every workday with a 5:00 office chant of USA! USA! USA!?

Ok, so that only happens in my head. But still. This place is awesome. I digress…

After hearing from the Ambassador, the Second Lady, and Joe (yeah, we’re friendly enough to be on a first name basis now… keep reading), we waited behind the rope for the trio to make their way along the line to shake hands. Dr. Jill raced by and thankfully I was able to grab a shot with her, but we had to wait a bit for the Veep.

The Vice President picked up his pace near the end due to time constraints and because I was standing nearer the end of the line, I became super convinced that he would have to leave before he reached me. So I prayed to the God of unpaid interns to have the chance to complete my duo of hand-shakes from President Obama (shout out to Lily) and now his right hand man.

Maybe it was the red dress that caught his eye in a sea of black suits, or the smell of fresh potential-recruit-for-the-foreign-service meat, or maybe it was just my lucky day because Joe stopped in front of me, held out his hand, and asked me to tell him “my story.” I was so taken aback I am honestly proud I answered coherently instead of following through with the “I really enjoyed your cameo in Parks and Rec” line I had prepared. By the end of the introduction he was still holding my hand, which should have been a red flag but, hey, it’s the Vice President of the United States we’re talking about here so I was honored. USA!

Then things got weird. The VP wrapped his arm around me so tightly-while still holding my hand- so that I was more or less in a headlock. He and I proceeded to share laughs with Godfrey (who was standing next to me now holding Biden’s other hand) while bantering about the trials of being liberal in Indiana, how Chicago thinks it’s invented everything, and the joys of being an intern… while I remained in headlock. We were basically a human knot at this point. Next, he leaned over to kiss a woman behind me on the cheek who made a witty comment about Philadelphia actually inventing everything (suck up). Because of the human knot situation, I was shoved into her upper chest when the kiss happened. At this point all the other FSOs and interns nearby stood watching and snapping pictures in awe. I couldn’t stop laughing or figuring out what the heck I was supposed to do with my hands.

The banter dragged on for a few more minutes, we snapped a blurry formal picture (of course the candid ones are perfect), and the VP’s entourage went on its way leaving me as the Public Affairs department joke of the day.

Definitely the most wonderfully awkward and incredible 5 minutes of my life. Thank you, Joe Biden

Pics from the past two weeks coming your way soon!