They've put me to work

I had a busy day today, the first so far at the newspaper office. I finally got to write a few "real" stories as opposed to filler. My previous editor's last day was Thursday, and the new editor started yesterday, so I didn't really have anything to do until the new editor showed up, and even then it took a few hours for her to get settled in and find me work to do. But things are looking up, and my editor tells me I'll be doing more in depth stories, while the senior editor told me yesterday I'll be helping the entertainment section on a few projects coming up, which should be, well, entertaining.

Yesterday I spoke to a lovely couple who are celebrating their 70th anniversary next Wednesday. They told me interesting stories from World War II, and I had a good time writing their story. The editor liked my story, which made me feel better, but there are a few nit-picky things that they do in print and in the London style of journalism that I'm not used to, coming from American broadcast. Ages and street names are always given, for instance, and the London style is different from the AP style (you American journalists know what I'm talking about), so things like abbreviations and punctuation is a little off from what I'm used to. Luckily, a coworker let me copy her cheatsheet into London paper writing.

The weekend was mixed. It's been cloudy here most days (big surprise), and the sun shone through a little bit on Sunday, but by the time I got to Hyde Park, it turned cloudy again. I walked for several miles in and around Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, snapping a few photos here and there. It's a nice, spacious green area, but I bet it will be much nicer in the spring with a lot of plants and trees coming back to life. The highlight of Hyde Park on Sundays is Speakers' Corner, where anyone with a stepladder can plant him or herself in the corner and shout out anything they like. Most of the topics this weekend were religious, especially given the protests over the Muhammed cartoons. I've got some video of Bible thumpers and others that I'll share once I find a computer that I can hook my camera up to.

Saturday night was a little awkward. I went to the RoadHouse Bar in central London to meet with the Internship director and fellow interns, but when I got there I was the only intern to show up. So I basically talked awkwardly with my Internship director sucking down cocktails while top 40 music was being blasted. At about 10 the night's band showed up: basically a cover band, but they weren't bad. Once the band was done and the internship director left, I had no real reason to be there so I went back home before midnight. The good thing though is I got a mobile phone, so y'all can call me whenevs now.

So to sum up, it's cloudy, I'm finally working, and the food is still good. I got lucky having a Ukranian cook my meals, which means I get to sample her recipes from around the world. So far she's made dishes from Ukraine, Russia, Tajikistan and India, not to mention basic food like chicken, sausage and mashed potatoes. I'm hoping once I get to know people at work better I'll be able to go out with them more and have them show me the city. They all seem like a fun bunch.

Cheers