Oh hi...me again :) I'm going to have to keep this blog post short because Prince Harry and I would like to go back to England soon.
I survived the buses again today! AND I saw purple coat lady again!! She is so sweet...I'm going to call her Ruth! There is something I decided about the buses. You just have to be confident. If you get on the wrong bus, don't panic, just deal with it. Don't freak out and have a panic attack or you will look like a freshman. Just go with the flow. Get off in a few stops so you don't look as obvious and take a redo. It's as easy as that. As long as you look like you know what you are doing you will still have complete control of the situation. There was a young woman with a baby today who got on the bus and sat next to me. She was too busy talking on her phone to notice the baby grabbing my headphones and trying to strangle me!! It was terrifying. Future hooligan FOR SURE. OH! And then there was this guy with HOT PINK skinny jeans on...probably tighter than my jeans are. He had on a black fitted t-shirt and a black and silver scarf. He looked fun. But then he sat down on the seat...which is hot pink/black/gray striped....it was like camouflage!!
Today at work I had to make a lot of phone calls, hence the title of this post. One of our correspondents is looking to do a story about people who were excited about Obama back in 2008 when he was first elected and who are now disappointed and may not vote for him again. Seems simple, right? Wrong. Don't get me wrong, I know there are a ton of people with these exact thoughts...but who is willing to get in front of a camera and say how they feel? No one. So it was my job to make phone calls to see if anyone would be willing to talk. And again, like yesterday, it was a lot of contacting people who would tell me to contact someone else who would tell me to contact someone else...and you get the idea. Did I ever find anyone willing to talk? Possibly. Senator Joe Manchin (democrat) recently stated that he may not vote for Obama in 2012. I contacted his "people" and they said they would get back to me. Better than a 'no' I guess! Lisa is also working on an article about US veterans and how they deal with war trauma once they get back to the US so I helped her do research for that.
Max also had a number of tasks for me to do today. I had to contact some people from the Alberta oil sands to see if he can get a media tour (check). I had to research different helicopter tours over the oil sands and compare prices (check). Then I had to research some anti-oil sands groups in the area so he can cover both sides of the story (check). Then for the NHL story we might do about German players in the NHL, it was mostly just looking information up. Washington and Boston are currently playing in game 7 of the first round tonight. Boston has a player from Germany, Washington does not. However, the Florida Panthers have 2 players from Germany. Florida plays in game 7 tomorrow night. So there are several options here. If Washington keeps winning and Florida keeps winning they would play each other in the 3rd round, meaning there would be a few games in Washington and Max and I would go to a game and get interviews with the Florida players from Germany and what not...which would be totally awesome! But there is another option. If Boston wins tonight they will most likely play Philadelphia in the next round. Philadelphia is not a long drive from DC at all, so we could possibly go there to cover the player from Germany on Boston's team. SOOO hopefully this all works out, because that would be awesome to cover!!
Deutsche Welle fun fact: all the clocks are on military time...which means after 12:59pm I have to start doing math. All I know is my day ends at 17:00!
Tonight Lee and I went to a sports bar, Touchdown, close to his apartment. We had dinner and watched the Washington/Boston hockey game. It was a really fun environment, even though I'm not 21 yet!! There were a lot of really excited hockey fans!! We are now back at his place watching the game...it's tied 1-1.
Ok....so I didn't meet Prince Harry today :( BUT I'm not giving up hope! I will find him somehow. Someday my prince will come :) I feel like we'd really hit it off. I have lots of conversation starters!!
I received really good news at work today!! There are 2 other interns who come in on Thursdays/Fridays and this is their last week. I was told it would be too crowded so I have the next 2 days off unless something comes up!! PLUS Monday is Labor Day in Germany, so we don't have to work that day either!! 5 day weekend!! SO MUCH EXPLORING TIME!!! I'm very excited to go sight seeing and take lots of pictures and learn lots!!! I think I'm going to start by finding "Georgetown Cupcakes" from the show DC Cupcakes on TLC!! So be prepared for an awesome blog tomorrow complete with pictures!!
Well I'm going to get back to watching hockey!! Have a great night everyone! More tomorrow :)
Shelby*
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Day 2: Bus. Conquered.
Happy Tuesday! I survived day 2! And let me tell you, it was quite the day.
Today was the first day I had to attempt public transportation. By myself. Scariness. Lee (the guy I'm living with) drew me a map and wrote out directions and everything! So there was no way I could mess this up!! And sorry to disappoint everyone, but I didn't mess it up! It was very easy and there were no tears involved!! ACCOMPLISHMENT!!
I had to take 2 different buses each way....so I had 4 opportunities to get completely lost....and I didn't!! Woot woot! And let me tell you, the people who ride the bus have some GREAT outfits! AND when I was on the first bus this morning a really old lady with a big purple coat got on.....then.....when I was getting on my second bus this afternoon the SAME old lady was getting off!! I wonder if she just rode the bus all day!! Which I may try...cause how awesome would that be? But...that also raised another thought....what if, out of ALL the buses in Washington D.C., I rode the SAME bus in the morning and in the afternoon?! Mind blowing, I know.
At work today I did research all day. It was a lot of contacting one person, them telling to me contact another person, who would then tell me to contact yet another person....and so on and so forth. So I didn't really get very far :-/ unfortunately. Other than that nothing too exciting happened at work today.
But....that *%$#@*& German keyboard....it doesn't like me. The 'y' key and the 'z' key are switched so every time I type my name I type Shebz (or any word that has a y in it). And it's not ctrl-alt-delete to log on....it's strg-alt-enf. And there are a bunch of other symbols and letters. And I still don't know German....yet. Oh, and today while I was doing research google decided to join the party and switch to German....so the titles of all the articles and the descriptions were all in German and it didn't switch to English until I clicked on it. Neat.
A few things I forgot to previously blog about: the other day I passed a building for Johns Hopkins University. You know, I smoked pot with Johnny Hopkins. It was Johnny Hopkins and Sloan Kettering, and they were blazin that shit up everyday. Oops...I guess this isn't a family blog anymore. (Oh...and Grandma, or any other adults who are reading my blog and haven't seen the movie "Stepbrothers," I don't actually smoke pot...) OH! And the Neuseum is next to the Canadian Embassy...which is exciting because as all of you know, I'm from Canada. It's like a slice of home here in D.C.
Oh and food is expensive here.
The weather here was really nice today...partly cloudy and in the high 40s/low 50s.
I guess I should talk a little bit about the guy I am staying with other than the fact he has a British accent! His name is Lee and he is good friends with Jo Dorrance (the internship coordinator at Wartburg). He is super nice and really cool (and I'm not just saying that because I know he reads my blog!) He works for WWF, saving the animals one day at a time! Tonight we ordered Italian and we are watching Dear John because we were totally in the mood for an unrealistic love story! Thanks Nicholas Sparks!!
Oh, and apparently the green power ranger is in NYC on Friday. I'm slightly upset I won't be able to go see him.
Well I think that's about it for this blog post. I will start posting pictures when I start exploring!! More tomorrow :)
Shelby*
P.S. Prince Harry arrives tomorrow. I'm pumped. Tomorrow's blog post has the potential to be VERY VERY VERY exciting. Fingers crossed!!
Today was the first day I had to attempt public transportation. By myself. Scariness. Lee (the guy I'm living with) drew me a map and wrote out directions and everything! So there was no way I could mess this up!! And sorry to disappoint everyone, but I didn't mess it up! It was very easy and there were no tears involved!! ACCOMPLISHMENT!!
I had to take 2 different buses each way....so I had 4 opportunities to get completely lost....and I didn't!! Woot woot! And let me tell you, the people who ride the bus have some GREAT outfits! AND when I was on the first bus this morning a really old lady with a big purple coat got on.....then.....when I was getting on my second bus this afternoon the SAME old lady was getting off!! I wonder if she just rode the bus all day!! Which I may try...cause how awesome would that be? But...that also raised another thought....what if, out of ALL the buses in Washington D.C., I rode the SAME bus in the morning and in the afternoon?! Mind blowing, I know.
At work today I did research all day. It was a lot of contacting one person, them telling to me contact another person, who would then tell me to contact yet another person....and so on and so forth. So I didn't really get very far :-/ unfortunately. Other than that nothing too exciting happened at work today.
But....that *%$#@*& German keyboard....it doesn't like me. The 'y' key and the 'z' key are switched so every time I type my name I type Shebz (or any word that has a y in it). And it's not ctrl-alt-delete to log on....it's strg-alt-enf. And there are a bunch of other symbols and letters. And I still don't know German....yet. Oh, and today while I was doing research google decided to join the party and switch to German....so the titles of all the articles and the descriptions were all in German and it didn't switch to English until I clicked on it. Neat.
A few things I forgot to previously blog about: the other day I passed a building for Johns Hopkins University. You know, I smoked pot with Johnny Hopkins. It was Johnny Hopkins and Sloan Kettering, and they were blazin that shit up everyday. Oops...I guess this isn't a family blog anymore. (Oh...and Grandma, or any other adults who are reading my blog and haven't seen the movie "Stepbrothers," I don't actually smoke pot...) OH! And the Neuseum is next to the Canadian Embassy...which is exciting because as all of you know, I'm from Canada. It's like a slice of home here in D.C.
Oh and food is expensive here.
The weather here was really nice today...partly cloudy and in the high 40s/low 50s.
I guess I should talk a little bit about the guy I am staying with other than the fact he has a British accent! His name is Lee and he is good friends with Jo Dorrance (the internship coordinator at Wartburg). He is super nice and really cool (and I'm not just saying that because I know he reads my blog!) He works for WWF, saving the animals one day at a time! Tonight we ordered Italian and we are watching Dear John because we were totally in the mood for an unrealistic love story! Thanks Nicholas Sparks!!
Oh, and apparently the green power ranger is in NYC on Friday. I'm slightly upset I won't be able to go see him.
Well I think that's about it for this blog post. I will start posting pictures when I start exploring!! More tomorrow :)
Shelby*
P.S. Prince Harry arrives tomorrow. I'm pumped. Tomorrow's blog post has the potential to be VERY VERY VERY exciting. Fingers crossed!!
Monday, April 23, 2012
Day 1: Yo No Speako German
Today was my first day at Deutsche Welle!! Now, as you know, DW is a German broadcaster....I do not speak German. They do.
When I got there, Lori (the secretary) set me up at my computer. It's in German. Oh and the keyboard? German as well. So I'm like, I got this, I know Spanish and English, German can't be that different!! It is. My first task was to create a gmail account, so I go to gmail.com andddddd you guessed it! German! So I decided to take a break from attempting to understand German and Lori told me I could catch up on today's headlines. GOOD NEWS!!! CNN.com was in English!!
Luckily, there is another intern at DW. Her name is Lisa and she is from Germany. She has been at DW (is everyone ok with me shortening Deutsche Welle to DW??) for 4 weeks now and her last day is May 18. She is very nice and she helped me find important things...elevator, bathroom, coffee room....you know, important things! Around 11:30am Lisa and I went to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. There was an event titled "Afghanistan: An Update from the Field." Major General John Toolan was the speaker. He recently completed a year-long deployment to Afghanistan where he served as Commander overseeing more than 15,000 US troops in Helmand. The presentation was about Helmand and all the improvements that have been made. It was actually very interesting. Lisa and I took notes so we could report back at DW!
When we got back we typed up our notes and passed them on. I then decided to go back to my first task and conquer the gmail account...in German. Honestly, I just kinda clicked everything I could until the form to create a new account came up! Luckily that was in English (who knows what my username/password would've been if it was in German....) So it was a success and I completed my first task! WOO! No one gave me a cookie though.
Then Max, one of the correspondents, told me he had a few jobs for me. After talking to Lisa I learned that when the correspondents have a story idea they tell the interns. The interns then do all the research on the topic and provide a report. The interns also make all the contacts and set up any interviews/phone calls that need to happen. The correspondents then go out and do the stories. So I'll probably be doing a lot of research/phone calls...which could be interesting. So anyways, Max told me about a few stories he wants to do. He knows I'm a sports person so he told me I could research the NHL and see if there are any players from Germany who we could highlight in a story. There aren't any German players on the Washington team, but there are about 8 total in the NHL so I'm sure I'll be making phone calls to all the different media people for the teams tomorrow! The other story is about the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. I'm interested in this story as well because as most of you know, I'm from Canada.
Then the hardest part of my day....logging off the computer. After looking at my 6 German options for about 3.5 minutes, I finally just asked Lisa how to log off. She helped me. Thank God.
So that was day 1!! It was a lot of everyone speaking German and me....not. By the end of the month I'm sure I'll be fluent!!! Or....I'll be fluent in Spanglan....Spanish, English, and German! Oh, and the guy I'm living with has a British accent...so I'll come back speaking Spanglan...with a British accent!!
The weather here hasn't been fantastic. It's been raining and cold both days now. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and in the 60s...so I'm looking forward to that!
Other observations....no one uses turn signals here....if you want to turn....just do it.
More tomorrow....unless something life changing happens tonight....which is highly unlikely...sooooo more tomorrow :)
Shelby*
P.S. Prince Harry will be here on Wednesday. I plan on meeting him and falling in love and having a royal wedding at 3am. The end :)
When I got there, Lori (the secretary) set me up at my computer. It's in German. Oh and the keyboard? German as well. So I'm like, I got this, I know Spanish and English, German can't be that different!! It is. My first task was to create a gmail account, so I go to gmail.com andddddd you guessed it! German! So I decided to take a break from attempting to understand German and Lori told me I could catch up on today's headlines. GOOD NEWS!!! CNN.com was in English!!
Luckily, there is another intern at DW. Her name is Lisa and she is from Germany. She has been at DW (is everyone ok with me shortening Deutsche Welle to DW??) for 4 weeks now and her last day is May 18. She is very nice and she helped me find important things...elevator, bathroom, coffee room....you know, important things! Around 11:30am Lisa and I went to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. There was an event titled "Afghanistan: An Update from the Field." Major General John Toolan was the speaker. He recently completed a year-long deployment to Afghanistan where he served as Commander overseeing more than 15,000 US troops in Helmand. The presentation was about Helmand and all the improvements that have been made. It was actually very interesting. Lisa and I took notes so we could report back at DW!
When we got back we typed up our notes and passed them on. I then decided to go back to my first task and conquer the gmail account...in German. Honestly, I just kinda clicked everything I could until the form to create a new account came up! Luckily that was in English (who knows what my username/password would've been if it was in German....) So it was a success and I completed my first task! WOO! No one gave me a cookie though.
Then Max, one of the correspondents, told me he had a few jobs for me. After talking to Lisa I learned that when the correspondents have a story idea they tell the interns. The interns then do all the research on the topic and provide a report. The interns also make all the contacts and set up any interviews/phone calls that need to happen. The correspondents then go out and do the stories. So I'll probably be doing a lot of research/phone calls...which could be interesting. So anyways, Max told me about a few stories he wants to do. He knows I'm a sports person so he told me I could research the NHL and see if there are any players from Germany who we could highlight in a story. There aren't any German players on the Washington team, but there are about 8 total in the NHL so I'm sure I'll be making phone calls to all the different media people for the teams tomorrow! The other story is about the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. I'm interested in this story as well because as most of you know, I'm from Canada.
Then the hardest part of my day....logging off the computer. After looking at my 6 German options for about 3.5 minutes, I finally just asked Lisa how to log off. She helped me. Thank God.
So that was day 1!! It was a lot of everyone speaking German and me....not. By the end of the month I'm sure I'll be fluent!!! Or....I'll be fluent in Spanglan....Spanish, English, and German! Oh, and the guy I'm living with has a British accent...so I'll come back speaking Spanglan...with a British accent!!
The weather here hasn't been fantastic. It's been raining and cold both days now. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and in the 60s...so I'm looking forward to that!
Other observations....no one uses turn signals here....if you want to turn....just do it.
More tomorrow....unless something life changing happens tonight....which is highly unlikely...sooooo more tomorrow :)
Shelby*
P.S. Prince Harry will be here on Wednesday. I plan on meeting him and falling in love and having a royal wedding at 3am. The end :)
Sunday, April 22, 2012
10 things NOT to do in an airport
Here is my first blog....EVER! I'm splitting today into 2 blog posts...this one and my next one will be once I arrived in Washington D.C. Soooo there are a few things I learned today, the top 10 things not to do in an airport. Brace yourselves.
10. Do not let your mom say "razor blade" before you are about to go through security.
9. When you get on the plane and the plane starts moving do not yell "WEEEEEEE! WE WE WEEEEEEE" The other passengers don't think it's funny.
8. When you are about to go through security do not ask if they can see EVERYTHING in your backpack...
7. When you get through security do not yell "SUCKERS!" and run away laughing.
6. When checking your luggage in, do not ask "Wait, do these bags go through security too? Hold on...give it back..."
5. When you go to claim your baggage do not ask to ride on the baggage claim.
4. When you are on the plane do not ask the guy next to your what time it is...every five minutes...while looking very nervous.
3. If there is turbulence, do not look at your watch and say, "Ahhh, right on time."
2. Do not walk up to random people in the airport and whisper "do not get on the plane."
1. And finally, when you are walking on the plane, do not start singing "Blow" by Ke$ha....."this place about to blowwwwwww."
Yeahhhh....all that stuff is frowned upon apparently! Who knew?!
Well those were my fun filled adventures from the airports! More later!!
Shelby*
10. Do not let your mom say "razor blade" before you are about to go through security.
9. When you get on the plane and the plane starts moving do not yell "WEEEEEEE! WE WE WEEEEEEE" The other passengers don't think it's funny.
8. When you are about to go through security do not ask if they can see EVERYTHING in your backpack...
7. When you get through security do not yell "SUCKERS!" and run away laughing.
6. When checking your luggage in, do not ask "Wait, do these bags go through security too? Hold on...give it back..."
5. When you go to claim your baggage do not ask to ride on the baggage claim.
4. When you are on the plane do not ask the guy next to your what time it is...every five minutes...while looking very nervous.
3. If there is turbulence, do not look at your watch and say, "Ahhh, right on time."
2. Do not walk up to random people in the airport and whisper "do not get on the plane."
1. And finally, when you are walking on the plane, do not start singing "Blow" by Ke$ha....."this place about to blowwwwwww."
Yeahhhh....all that stuff is frowned upon apparently! Who knew?!
Well those were my fun filled adventures from the airports! More later!!
Shelby*
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