Summer in the Park

My last weekend spent in New York City was amazing.

On Friday night, a bunch of girls from Centro Maria and I went to Central Park to watch a part of New York City’s Summer in the Park series. The night we went, the performers were two different dance companies. We were late and missed most of the first half of the show (thank goodness), which was modern dancing. The second half was hip-hop. The performance ranged from mind-boggling awesome to creepy-weird, so overall it was a great show. There was a lot of break-dancing and cool things like that, and a lot of back flips and hand-springs. The choreographer came out and danced a solo piece himself, but that was my very least favorite part of the show, because the music was full of sporadic startling screams and he looked a lot like what I would imagine the devil to look like while he danced.

But even though his solo piece was too scary for me, his choreography in the other pieces was really neat. The most amazing thing in the entire show was when one guy came out from behind one of the curtains doing back hand-springs across the stage. When he got about three-fourth of the way across the stage, he used his momentum to propel himself into a complete back flip. But it wasn’t just any back flip. While he was flipping, his legs were out and it looked almost as if he was walking around a circle in the air. It was incredible.

After the show was over, we all walked back to Centro Maria. But on our way, we decided that we wanted ice cream. Because who doesn’t love ice cream on a hot summer night?

None of us knew of any really good places, until Julie (a native French speaker from Montreal) told us in her cute little voice of a great place she had been to the other day that was in Hells Kitchen, a small neighborhood really close to Centro Maria that is filled to the brim with delicious restaurants. That sounded great to us, so we followed Julie. The way she had described the ice cream shop made it sound really cute and small and perfectly New York, so when we stopped outside Cold Stone Creamery, I laughed. No one understood why I had laughed, and being one of the only Americans in the group, I didn’t know how to explain why I had laughed. But I guess that for them, Cold Stone is a very authentic United States experience (even if it isn’t authentically New York for me).

My Good-Bye Lunch

In keeping with tradition, the guys at CNAM took us interns out to lunch on Friday as a way of thanking me for helping them out this summer. I got to pick what kind of food we ate because the send-off lunch was in my honor, so I chose Indian food since I had never had it before and Louis told us there was a great hole-in-the-wall place nearby.

It was delicious. Because I’d never tasted Indian food before (and neither had the other two interns), the guys at CNAM ordered all sorts of dishes for us all to share, and we also all went through the buffet line to try out the different chicken, beef, and shrimp (all with rice) dishes they had.

Other than being a bit too spicy for me, I loved it. My favorite dish was a sort of large crepe that was rolled and had a scoop of something kinda fruity-ish in the center. I also really liked my yogurt drink… not only because it tasted good, but the coolness was a relief for my burning mouth.

But the best part about lunch was that while we passed around the food, Louis, Andy and Peter shared with us their stories of traveling to different places. It was so great to hear their stories about trips to Brazil, traveling to Jamaica, and shooting scenes for a documentary in France and Poland. Listening to all the wonderful things they have gotten to do during their lives makes me that much more determined to make that kind of life happen for me. I am going to travel the world, live in a bunch of different countries, and fill pages upon pages or reels upon reels with all the fascinating stories and pictures of my adventures.

My Last Week

The last week of my internship with CNAM was probably my favorite week on the job (and possibly my favorite week in NYC). I got to work the entire time on AVID, creating and perfecting a short 2-minute trailer for CNAM’s video game.

When I first started working with AVID, I really didn’t like it. To me there seemed to be more buttons that necessary and more steps than needed to complete a simple job like delete video clips on the timeline. And for the first few days, I thought AVID was completely missing some really important functions, because I couldn’t find the function in the giant How To book. So I spent a painful couple of days doing a lot of editing step by step before Peter showed me how to do things the easy way (like move entire trips of video clips on the timeline by typing in numbers). But once I started to figure things out, once I could move around the program with relative ease, I decided that perhaps AVID wasn’t so bad after all. I think the frustration and dislike came with not understanding the program (a life lesson?), so once I gained familiarity with the keys, etc, I started to like it. Maybe not more than Final Cut, since I still think Final Cut is more user-friendly. I also know that my short week and a half working with AVID allowed me to only scratch the surface of the program… it is way to beautifully complex for me to have figured it all out.

.   .   .

I am so grateful that Louis gave me the opportunity to work on AVID. And the fact that he gave me an actual project that he was relying on me to complete made me feel very honored.

My project was to make a short trailer or preview of what the game is like for potential investors and people who are interested in the game. So I had to find a way to package all the fun of the game into one short sequence. Talk about pressure. Once I figured out the direction I wanted to go with the trailer (with help from Allen and Chase, the new intern), it was relatively to create. Contrary to most of my creative endeavors, the imagining was the difficult part and the execution the easy part.

On Wednesday, I thought I had a finished version, so I brought in Louis, Andy and Peter to see what I had done. They were very nice, but they were also full of criticism and other ideas. At first it was a bit nerve-wracking to listen to them talk about my work like that, but then I remembered something Allen had told me earlier on in the internship. You have to have a thick skin in this business. If you don’t, you wont survive.

But by Friday, after the fourth or fifth final version I had shown the three guys, they finally decided it was complete, and while I was there, they burned the DVD and sent it off in the mail. Now, that completely surprised me. I had completely expected them to wait until I had left on Monday and then go through and polish up my work to what they wanted it to be. But the fact that they mailed off to someone the trailer that I had created (without messing with it first) made me feel honored and very grateful that they had given me a responsibility like that. I am so grateful that my internship wasn’t just about filing papers and getting coffee (although I did some of both), and that the guys at CNAM allowed me to gain experience working on a real project with AVID. Not only was it all a bunch of fun, but this is going to look great on my resume. 

.wednesday.thursday.

.wednesday.

On Tuesday, as Louis passed my desk, he asked me if I had any editing experience. At first I was going to tell him that I didn't have any experience at all with the editing software they use (AVID), but just in case he was planning on giving me a job that would let me use AVID (which I really wanted to do), I just told him, "Yes, I have editing experience." Sure enough, it paid off, because I got a new job on Wednesday... working with AVID!

On Wednesday morning, Louis sat me down at CNAM's editing station, which includes a double-monitor computer, a large television, a sound board, and a bunch of cords and other important-looking electronic boxes. He opened AVID, told me what he wanted me to do, and then left me sitting there feeling rather helpless.

AVID is the film industry's leading movie editing program, so I was so excited to be able to learn it. And since it is pretty similar functionally to Final Cut (of which I have the student version), I was able to figure out what does what after a few minutes of "Where do I find..." and "What does this button do?" 

And by a few minutes, I mean at least half an hour. AVID is more complex and (in my personal opinion) not as straightforward and user-friendly as Final Cut. So it took me a bit of getting used to. 

I also took part of the day off from work to try to get tickets to see the Broadway musical Wicked. The guys at CNAM were so nice and had absolutely no problem with me taking off most of the day, so I left work at noon to go over to the theater to put my name in the lottery.

Because Wicked is so popular, they are always sold out months in advance. But for the lucky few who win the ticket lottery the day of the show, they pay only $26 for a front-row seat. Granted, front row seats does mean you don't have a great view because you are looking at the actors' shoes for a lot of the show. But considering that the next cheapest ticket available to purchase is $60+, its a great deal. The only problem is that there are only 26 lottery tickets available for each show, and at least 100+ people want them every night. 

Well, I went to the theater at 12:30 pm (two and a half hours before the 3 pm matinee) to try to get tickets. But sadly, when I arrived, the man told me that I had missed the lottery completely because the show started at 2pm, not 3 pm like I had thought. 

Dejected, I sulked back to Centro Maria, made myself a sandwich for lunch, and then headed back to work. I guess they wouldn't have minded if I had taken the whole day off (even if I wasn't going to the show), but I couldn't think of anything else I wanted to do with my day. If I couldn't see Wicked, I wanted to be back at CNAM, learning how to use AVID.

After I got off work, I decided to try one more time to get tickets for Wicked. So I walked to the theater, got in line, put my name in the "hat," and waited with high hopes. 

But my name didn't get drawn.

I guess I have given up on seeing Wicked this time around. Someday, when I have oodles of money, I will come back to New York City and buy tickets to Broadway shows at their regular $180-$200 price and not rely on possibly getting my name drawn.  

However, the evening was not completely lost, because I got to talk on the phone to an old friend for a long time while sitting outside in Centro Maria's little patio. 

.thursday.

I got to work all day again with AVID, which was so fun. The project they put me on was putting together a demo DVD of their history video game (which I am assuming will be shown to potential financial contributors, etc). They gave me a bunch of clips that had been captured from the game, and I was to put them together into a little story. 

The way the game works is, as the character Anna, you walk through an early-1900s mill town and talk to the towns people about the current political news, etc. Throughout each conversation, you get to choose Anna's reaction and response to certain questions, so you can guide the direction of each conversation. For example, the little newspaper boy asks Anna if she wants to hear a joke. You choose yes or no, and then if you pick yes, you can choose if you want Anna to think the joke was funny or lame. 

Because the game has so many choices for conversation, the other intern had to video-capture the game with all the scenarios. So when I was looking through all the clips to put them together to make a story, I got to choose which story I wanted to make. It was very fun. 

I made Anna talk to the guy who sells groceries, the newspaper boy, the policeman, the mill gatekeeper, and the mill owner. She also gets information about different buildings, reads in the newspaper about socialism and unfair worker conditions, and buys vegetables for supper. 

After putting the story together, I then had to go through and insert various audio tracks of dialogue. For some reason, the other intern was unable to capture the sounds of the characters talking along with the footage. He had to capture the sound separate, so I had to go through later and "reunite" the captured sound with the captured footage. 

It was so much fun. I loved getting to work with AVID, figuring out how things are done in the program and things like that. It was confusing and rather frustrating at first though, because I couldn't figure out how to do the things I wanted to do, which made me think that AVID was not as versatile as Final Cut. But the more I messed around, the more I discovered where different features were. I even found a few that Final Cut doesn't have. So while I still like Final Cut better (probably because of familiarity), I am so glad I am getting the opportunity to learn how to use a program that is dominant in my future industry (although that could change soon). 

After work on Thursday, I took the subway up to the Upper East side because I had dinner plans with my boyfriend's aunt and uncle who live in Manhattan. When I got off the subway, I was a bit disoriented and walked up the wrong street before figuring out where I was. After quite a bit of wandering in circles and walking six blocks farther north than necessary, I finally found their apartment. 

Sue Sue, Bryce's aunt, was there with her baby girl Caroline, and after giving me a hug hello, she gave me a quick tour around the (very nice) apartment. They have a really nice view out their window of the surrounding (very nice) neighborhood. Their neighbors have a lot of gardens on their roofs and decks, which makes the picture beautifully speckled with green, and they can see a slight sliver of the river from their window if you crane your neck up against the glass. 

After the tour, we put Caroline in a stroller and walked a few blocks up to a nice sushi restaurant where T.K., Bryce's uncle, was waiting for us. Because the weather was so beautiful, we sat outside on the patio and took our time ordering our food, enjoying the nice weather and each others company. Unfortunately, Caroline had her own ideas about dinner. She didn't want to sit still or eat, and kept wiggling out of her stroller onto the ground. And at one and a half, she is a pretty fast runner. So Sue Sue had to be on her toes for whenever Caroline made a dash for the street. Finally, after trying everything to make the little girl less fussy, we decided to get our food to-go and eat it at home where Caroline could run around safely. 

Once we got back to the apartment and had settled Caroline down for bed, the three of us sat around the table eating delicious sushi and chatting about everything. I had such a great time at dinner, talking about all kinds of stuff. We talked about me because they wanted to get to know me (boring), we talked about where I should go while I am still here in New York City (informational), and we talked about what it was like for the two of them on September 11th (fascinating). It was incredible to listen to stories from someone who had watched the towers crumble with their own eyes. 

They were both living only three or four blocks away from the World Trade Center, and they both worked in that area, so they were right there when it all happened. Whenever my friends and I talk about where we were when we heard the news, the stories are always along the lines of "I was in school... we watched the news on TV all day," etc. Never before had I talked to someone who could describe the panic and pain the city experienced during that day and the following weeks. 

Also during dinner, they persuaded me to take a bike ride around the city before I leave, because it is a really good way to get a good sense of what each different neighborhood is like. And then they offered to let me borrow one of their bikes. So on Sunday I am going to take myself on a little biking tour of NYC. I am really excited.

Finally, after an evening of delicious sushi, yummy ice cream (Tasty Delight soft-serve vanilla bean), and wonderful conversation with fascinating people, it was time to go home. I was actually quite sorry to leave (even though I was exhausted). I have found another reason I wish I lived here in NYC-- I could visit them as often as I wanted. 

To cap off the perfect evening, T.K. insisted on giving me money to take a taxi so I wouldn't have to go home on the subway after dark. So I got to experience my first NYC taxi ride so far this trip. It was nice to see a part of the city I hadn't seen before, and to know that I wouldn't have to do any walking and was getting dropped off right at my front door. After walking everywhere for a whole month, I am beginning to have a new-found appreciation for the convenience and speed of cars.

Saturday at the Met

On Saturday, I paid 75 cents to get in to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The $12 for students that is written up on the sign is, thankfully, only a suggested price. They don't need my money anyway. They have people who donate millions of dollars to that place every year, and every year, thousands upon thousands of poor tourists don't read the fine print and pay the full suggested price. They really don't need my money.

So Alicia and I wandered around the Met for a few hours. We saw all the famous Monet, Degas, and Von Goethe paintings. We looked at statues, examined photographs, and walked around until our feet hurt. Actually, our feet hurt the entire time, but we just walked through the discomfort. 

My favorite exhibit was the exhibit of American landscapes. I personally think that to paint with exquisite detail a six feet tall by eight feet wide landscape painting takes a tremendous amount of talent. Even more than perhaps the more famous artists who simply slapped paint onto a canvas and called it done. I was sad that this particular exhibit was so small (only eight paintings), because I could have spent all day in there, admiring the incredible amount of work that must have gone into painting a canvas so large with such an attention to detail. Beautiful detail. 

One artist, instead of signing his name traditionally on the canvas, had "carved" his name into one of his trees. Another painting had rushing water that looked so real it could have passed for a photograph. And all had breathtaking views of snow-covered mountains and green valleys. The exhibit was just too short. 

I enjoyed the museum quite a bit, but I was definitely ready to leave a few hours late. All the walking had worn me out completely. 

As we left the museum, it began to sprinkle gently. Neither Alicia and I had brought an umbrella, so we were a little worried, but since it was such a light, misty rain, we decided we could probably just continue to walk (instead of wait for the rain to stop). So we walked back through Central Park alongside a road (so we wouldn't get lost wandering). 

Just as we were nearing the subway station (and I mean, standing on the other side of the street), the heavens opened and the rains came pouring down. And by pouring, I mean pouring. The front side of us (the side facing into the rain) was thoroughly soaked by the time we got down into the subway stop. Both Alicia and I were pretty amused, so we didn't mind the fact that we were all wet (although we got some funny looks from people). 

And its a good thing we didn't mind being wet, because otherwise the walk from the subway stop to home would have been miserable. It was raining lightly when we got out of the subway, but three blocks away from home it started to downpour again. So we gave up trying to scurry from under one tree to under the construction awning to under another tree again. It wasn't working and we were already completely soaked through. 

While I love museums and such, running through the rain was a nice release from the stuffy, cooped up feeling of the museum. 

Saturday in Central Park

On Saturday I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with Alicia, the girl who lives in the room next door. We took the subway up the west side of Central Park and got off at 81st Street, because the museum is backed up to the east side of the park and I thought that we could walk through Central Park (which I hadn't done yet) and look around. 

That park is incredible. Its ginormous, for one thing. And since the city planners figured that Central Park was really going to be the only big park for the entire city, they went all out. Everywhere is green, green, green. We walked through the middle-ish part of the park, so we passed by the little "lake" where people (couples mostly) were rowing in little boats. And we passed by part of the mall, which was completely crowded with people playing ultimate and laying out on blankets. Mostly they were laying out on blankets because it was too hot for much activity. What surprised me most about that was how many girls there were in bikinis just laying out to catch the sun. I know that perhaps Central Park is the only place to really lay out on grass (since backyards are non-existent), but I think I would feel incredibly uncomfortable sprawled out in my bathing suit in such a public place. 

We also walked by an open amphitheater, where they have free plays on some evenings. And we passed several fountains, lots of statues (including the one of Balto-- I loved that movie/book when I was younger), and lots of little vendor men who sold hot dogs and popsicles. We bought those chocolate-covered ice cream popsicle things, and tried to eat them before they melted. Which didn't work. So in order to not lose a drop of our delicious sticky mess, we threw all notions of pretty to the wind and managed to get chocolate all over our mouths. It was delicious.

One of my favorite parts of the park was the roller skating. In an section where there was an extra-wide sidewalk, someone had roped off the area and people were skating around to loud disco-70s music. At least, thats what I thought they were doing at first. But as we got closer, I wasn't sure if I was seeing things correctly. They weren't going around in the standard circle... and did I just see a guy shimmy? 

Sure enough, it wasn't just a roller skating party... It was a regular dance-off. Bopping up and down around the DJ, showing off their dance skills on roller skates, were at least ten older men (way past their prime) in flashy clothing that belonged to another era. The elderly gentlemen had attracted a pretty decent-sized little group of spectators, who sat in the shade on a small sloping hill nearby, too hot to show much more enthusiasm that an occasional foot tap, although I saw more than one graying head bob unconsciously to the disco beat. We didn't stay long enough to find a place to sit down, but we took our time strolling by, slurping our chocolate and admiring the skaters' fancy footwork. We watched them do the robot, the moon walk, and what I can only guess is something like the grandfather version of the modern-day electric slide (my favorite). Some men were pretty impressive, kicking their legs up, skating backwards, moving their knees and arms around so quickly I was sure they were going to lose their balance (they didn't). Some men were there to learn from the pros. And other guys, usually off in the corner, were just there to enjoy that good old feeling of roller-skate dancing again.

But the best part about the whole entire thing was the feeling of nostalgia you could see plainly written on the faces of all those men. 

Because while their audience nowadays enjoys their skating for its humorous, see-that-old-man-dance quality and not for its artistic merit, I'm sure those guys were quite the thing thirty years ago. And as they skate, you see them smile and get the feeling that they are really hundreds of hours away, reliving their old moments of glory. 

.friday.monday.tuesday.

One of the requirements for my internship (given to me by OU) is that I keep a daily log of what I do every day on the job. At first I thought it would be super easy, since I planned on blogging every day anyway. But I don't like to write about work, simply because I don't usually do anything more than sit in front of the computer and design web pages. But, for the sake of my OU professors and advisors (and so I wont have to write it all later), here is a rundown of the last three days of work.

.friday.
Friday was a productive day. Actually, every day is a productive day.

I delivered a letter to an office building up on 8th Ave and 59th Street. I hadn't walked north of 54th on 8th Ave before, so it was a fun trip. I like going places in the city I haven't been before (which is a lot of places). The more I see of NYC as I walk around, the more I like it.

On Friday I also finished creating all the web pages, which means that in one week I have made over 100 web pages. Granted, most are templates so all I do is copy, paste, insert words, repeat. Or, to speed up the process, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Page Up, insert text, repeat. I have gotten amazingly proficient using as many shortcut keys as possible. Too bad my laptop is a Mac and not a PC.

.monday.
On Monday I got to run another errand. I enjoy running errands. They make me feel important. This one was particularly fun, because after I went to the designated office and picked up the designated package, I took a little detour on my way back to the office and bought myself a cupcake.

The girl from OU who interned with CNAM last summer told me that while I was in NYC, I just had to check out this place called Burgers and Cupcakes. She said that, while the burgers were good, this place made the most amazing cupcakes in the entire world. She said they were so scrumptious that she would go there every day after work on her way home to buy one.

I figured that such a strong recommendation as this couldn't be overlooked (even if I wasn't much of a cupcake person), so I finally took the time to hunt down the cupcake store. At first I wasn't impressed. The diner was like any other little NYC diner, and the lady at the cash register spent the first five minutes I was there on the phone talking to someone. But when she finally did get off the phone, she was very nice and apologetic, and helped me choose a cupcake out of the many, many choices.

After much deliberation, I settled on a red velvet cupcake. I reluctantly paid more than I had originally planned and had it wrapped up so I could enjoy it at the office. While walking back, I do have to admit that I looked down at that little cupcake with no small amount of scepticism. I wondered, was this small frosting-covered bakery item really worth the two dollars and fifty cents?

Yes. Yes it was.

That little red velvet yumminess was the most incredibly delicious cupcake I have ever tasted. Ever.

Its a really good thing I didn't discover Burgers and Cupcakes until now, because otherwise I would have been in danger of spending all my money on cupcakes and not Broadway shows. As it is, I will have to exercise a large amount of self-control to not stray south towards 9th Ave and 36th Street. I wouldn't be able to resist being in such close proximity to such heavenly goodies.

Lets see... yesterday was also spent finishing the web pages (or so I thought). Unfortunately, when I was mass-producing all those pages, I didn't stop after a couple and have Louis take a look at them. I just made them all, assuming that their format would be okay.

So I had created every single page (and uploaded them all to the server) before finding out that they all needed a different font size and more links on each page. Woops. Because of that seemingly little mistake, I spent all Monday opening each and every file, changing the font size in each font box, and then re-uploading each page to the server. An entire day of mindless work for which there were no shortcut keys.

But at the end of the day, I was feeling pretty good because I thought I was done with them completely.

Nope.

.tuesday. today.
Today I spent my day inserting more links on each and every page. But now I do think I am done for good. Until Louis sees something else that needs to be fixed.

Around 1:30 or so, everyone leaves the office and then brings their lunch back here to eat. It is one of my favorite parts of the day because we get to sit around and chat with the guys about film stuff. Every morning I try to think of different things to ask them about their jobs and the film industry. I enjoy their insights and stories so much that when for some reason we don't eat lunch together, its a bit of a disappointment.

Today we talked about AVID vs. Final Cut (two film editing software programs). And we talked about new and obsolete technology (like how the first film they produced in the early 90s was on a computer that could only handle 2 GB max and no other programs besides the editing software). And how everything in the future will be on the internet. Everything.

A Real New Yorker

I felt like a real New Yorker on my way to work this morning, because I was walking with my sack lunch and cup of coffee. And I bought an apple.

To backtrack... Yesterday morning on my way to work, I discovered the small nook-in-the-wall coffee shop I've been searching for. And it is ONE block from Centro Maria. I pass it every day.

I was in a hurry yesterday, so I didn't stop in, but this morning I did. The lady working was so nice, and as I was paying for my coffee, she offered to put my tupperware (containing my lunch) in a paper bag for me so it was easier to carry. So off I went, carrying my white paper bag and filled-to-the-brim, deliciously bitter cup of coffee.

The only problem with the coffee was that it was too hot at first for me to drink, so it kept overflowing out of the lid and onto my poor hand. But pain for beauty. Or in this case, authenticity. It was worth it, because I felt like a New Yorker.

I also bought an apple. Not significant, you say. I beg to differ. The ability to buy fruit from a vendor at lightning speed is a trait well cherished by those too important to stop their rushing about for anything.

The background story: Yesterday morning I decided I wanted to buy an apple from one of the vendors that sells fruit on a cart by the street. So I stopped, asked for an apple, and then stood there fishing two quarters out of my wallet. As I fumbled around in my purse, a woman came buy, shoved a few quarters at the vendor, grabbed her fruit and rushed off. All in less than thirty seconds. And I was still opening my wallet.

But not this morning. I was prepared. I pulled out two quarters as soon as the stand was in view, and in a relatively quick stop, I smiled at the little man, handed him my quarters and retrieved my apple. I guess I must content myself with not being completely New Yorker in this area, because I just couldn't bring myself to not make eye contact and swoop in like bat out of hell just to be quick about getting a piece of fruit.

Out On The Town

Last Friday night was my first Friday night in New York City, and it was quite a memorable one.

On Thursday I discovered that it was Jessica's 21st birthday, so that evening I ambushed her on the way to her room and sang her the Happy Birthday song. I asked her how her special day had been and she didn't have a very favorable response. I was distressed.

Birthdays for me are a very big deal. A VERY big deal. I can't stand it when someone doesn't have a good birthday, and I go out of my way to try and make their day as wonderful as possible. Because how many days out of the year do you get to be treated like the star of the show? One. How many days out of the year do all your friends, new and old, send you happy messages full of love? One. And how many days out of the year do people do things to celebrate the fact that you are alive? One. So that one day should be a special day (no matter how old you are).

Anyway, birthdays are big.

So when Jessica told me that her day hadn't been that amazing, I just couldn't let that happen. And on her 21st birthday especially, which (whether right or wrong) is one of the most long-awaited of all birthdays for most people.

To solve this problem, I told her that we were going out on Friday night to celebrate her life and that she could invite as many people as she wanted.

On Friday, a group of us girls from Centro Maria met in my room to plan our evening out. As I curled Jessica's hair, we searched online and in our Guide To New York books for good spots, which was proving rather difficult because at least half of us were underage. We were looking for a place that we could all go, when Jessica made it really easy by requesting that we all go out for desert at a really nice restaurant.

I personally liked that idea the best. Who doesn't love fancy deserts at nice places?

So after getting all dolled up, we walked a few blocks to a fancy italian restaurant. We all ordered different things, and then whenever we wanted a taste of someone else's desert, we would pass them our spoon so they could scoop us a bit. The girls were a bunch of fun and I laughed almost the entire time.

After dinner, we walked down Broadway for a bit and then headed back to Centro Maria because our feet were killing us. On our way back, we decided to rent a movie.

When we were about a block and a half away from Blockbuster, I started noticing that we were pretty much the only group of dressed up girls on the block. All the guys had definitely noticed. We were getting the looks and a couple cat calls, and as we walked in the video store I started laughing because we made such a funny picture. A bunch of pretty girls in stilettos are walking down the street, and just as the guys are thinking, "I want to go to that party," the girls take a sharp right. Into a video store. Perfect.

After renting a chic flick, we headed back to Centro Maria. As we neared home, Jessica dropped off from the group ahead to walk with me (my blistered feet were lagging behind), and at a moment when the group ahead was particularly loud, she whispered, "Thanks."

Last Thursday

Last Thursday was a really interesting day at the work. Peter, Louis, and Andy had a meeting about the video game scheduled for all day, and they let me sit in on it as long as I answered the phone when it rang (which was only three times all day). Present at the meeting were four other people not from the office. There was a man from CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting), two ladies from Maryland Public Television, and one eighth grade history teacher who was the mastermind behind the game's conception.

The meeting was very interesting and very informative (for me). I discovered that CNAM is working on one of seven projects that were pitched to CPB. I guess CPB sent out some sort of memo saying they'd pick up to three lucky projects (that teach history to middle schoolers) to receive funding. CNAM's video game made the first cut down to seven, and in November, CPB choses the three projects they will fund.

The man from CPB basically came to the meeting to remind CNAM (or explain, in my case) about the terms and guidelines for the competition (I guess you'd call it that). I'm still not really sure why the ladies from Maryland Public Television were here. Perhaps they represent potential outside sources of funding for the video game.

During the discussions about the game, the teacher had a lot of good ideas about how the video game could work. As a person who works with eighth graders every day, she definitely knows her stuff about ciriculum, etc... from a teacher's point of view. But as I was sitting there, I realized that everyone in the room, excluding myself, hadn't been in middle school for over thirty or maybe even forty years. So all their planning and their ideas are coming from what they think middle school kids will enjoy, although they really have no idea.

Thats not to say the video game is bad. Not at all. I actually got to play it on my first day here, and call me a nerd, but I really enjoyed playing it. I made a bunch of money on the little loom game, and I enjoyed following the girl, Anna, around and seeing the "sights" of the mill town. Its a fun video game.

But I kinda secretly wish they had asked me my opinion sometimes during the meeting. I know I'm just an intern and all, but I was the youngest person in that room by far and I'm really only one year out from high school history and five or so years out from middle school history. So I had a lot of ideas about what they were saying kids would and wouldn't like. Maybe I'm not a completely perfect respresentative for the age group in question, but I think that time of my life is much more fresh on my mind than it would be on theirs.

But no one asked me my opinion and I wasn't brave enough to chime in (I wasn't sure if that was my place or not), so I just wrote down all my ideas on a piece of paper that no one will ever read. But it made me feel better to write it down.

Fun Fact: There is currently between $7-8 billion dollars in funding out there for K-12 curriculum development. Billion dollars. I always knew those school textbooks were gold mines.

Well, When I Was a Youngin'...

I just had a memory flash back to when I first started blogging. I remember getting the job to write on Quarter Spent for the Billings Gazette, and thinking, "Great! Um.... now what?" I had no idea what I was doing. In fact, I knew so little about writing blogs that I went online to research what they were. I remember writing down every important thing there was to know on a little card, like "Don't talk about the weather" and "Add as many pictures as possible." I still have that card somewhere.

The funny thing is that even now, three years and two jobs as a blogger later, I feel like I am still trying to figure out what it will take to create a really good blog.

Thats what I love about this particular avenue of self-expression. Its always evolving. Either that, or I'm the one evolving and blogs just accommodate me.

Centro Maria

We actually have a very nice entrance to Centro Maria.

The nuns do a really great job making the place beautiful.

This small patio is right off the laundry room, and some people use

the lines to hang up their towels (although I suspect its just the nuns).

This is the view from the door.

The view below is from the corner of the patio. Its a really cozy, quiet

little spot, and I think that one of these evenings I am going to bring

a book down and read at the table for a bit.

This is the landing between the second and third floors.

I live on the third floor, and since I don't believe in taking

the elevator in a residence, I always take the stairs.

The tiles are a pretty green and black, and the landings

all have either potted plants or pretty pictures.

I am usually tired when I reach this landing, so I pause to

catch my breath and look out the window. The window is also a

great way to check the weather before I leave the house.

This is the view out the window of my new room that I switched to

right before Mayu left to go back home. I like having my own

room (I can stay up really late and blog), but I sometimes miss

the company of having a roommate. Tomorrow I'll upload some

pictures of my cozy little room.

Web Pages and Macys

I made a killing at work today. I was on a roll. In fact, I was getting so much work done that I almost didn't want to leave. Almost.

This whole 9-5 thing (or in my case, 10-6) has taken some getting used to. At first I hated it, feeling stifled and cramped and boooooorrrreeedd. Sitting in front of the computer for so long was hurting my eyes, and after eating lunch, I would feel so drowsy that I'd have to take a nap before I went back to work. But I didn't fall asleep today. I didn't even need a nap or coffee break. I have decided that its because I finally feel like I am doing something. Now that things are getting accomplished and I am, as my mom would say, emotionally invested in what I am doing, things are moving right along and I am actually enjoying myself. I definitely couldn't do this for a living, but its not so bad for a summer job.

Throughout the day, I kept thinking that I had only made three web pages and that I needed to make at least seven or eight more pages to finish the project. But in reality, I have already made at least thirty web pages (3 main web pages + at least 8 smaller pages linked to them).

It took me all day to make the three main pages and their smaller pages. I did the math, and it took me an average of two hours per page group. That seems too long to me. Of course, thats not really counting the nice long lunch break we had with Andy and Peter. We all had either brought our lunches with us or ordered them in, and the four of us (the two guys and us two interns) sat around the board room table and chatted. Andy told us all about the history of Manhattan, which is really fascinating. It was the first time I had ever thought of New York City as anything other than a tourist town frozen in one loud, flashy place forever. But Andy and Peter (and Louis), who have worked in NYC for over twenty years (10+ in this specific office), have seen firsthand all the changes the place has undergone and has numerous stories about all the different areas and hotspot around town.

After work, I walked home for dinner with the nuns and then headed out again with a friend. We went to Macy's, the world's largest department store, with seven stories of shoes and clothes for both men and women. At first we browsed around some of the clothing sections, but when we found that the clothes on the sale racks didn't get cheaper than $40 (and even then, only the positively ugly shirts were that cheap), we moved to the shoes. Because sadly, I am still in search of the perfect pair of brown flats (despite having looked for them in almost every single shoe store I have passed by while here). I will find them, however. Do not despair. Fate dares not meddle with a determined shopper.

Afternoon Siestas

I fell asleep at work today. I can't help it. After filling my tummy with all sorts of delicious things for lunch, I can't help but feel drowsy and ready for a little siesta.

After my first week of work (and especially after today), I decided that living in a European country would be very nice, because they take beautifully long breaks after lunch and sleep off their food-induced comas. But then it was mentioned to me that while they may get naps after lunch, they also stay at work later into the evenings. Hmmm....

I guess that, while the idea of getting to take a nap every day is very appealing, I would rather plough through that half hour of droopy eyes and get off work early.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get myself coffee after lunch. That should help.

You Know You've Made It...

You know you've made it in the world when your ears pop on the elevator ride up to your office every morning.

Day Number Two

Today was my second day at work. I finally figured out the whole HTML script thing, and completed the first page that Louis wanted me to do. I wanted to keep working and get started on another page, but I couldn’t get the other pages to upload into Word the right way. Talk about frustrating! The whole things would be much easier if I could have just started from scratch and made all the files the same in the beginning. Oh well. More challenges for me makes for a more interesting day, I guess.

While I was waiting for something to load on the computer, I glanced over at the bookshelf next to me and noticed a book on how to make documentaries. So I pulled it down, and all day, while the computer would take a few minutes to think, I would read out of the book. I’ve gotten almost through the second chapter already. It is really interesting so far, and I hope that I’ll get the chance to read a lot of it while I am here. Maybe they will let me take it home to read this weekend.

I asked Louis what time everyone shows up for work in the morning, and basically all three guys show up around 10 am. So it would be pointless for me to come in any earlier. But he told me that even though coming in earlier doesn’t look possible, I can still leave earlier in the day if I want to go exploring.

For some reason, I don’t feel very adventurous right now. I have all of NYC at my fingertips, and I honestly feel too lazy to take advantage of it. I really need to fix that, and soon. One month is hardly enough time to spend here and see everything I want to see. So I need to snap into shape and get working on my list of things to do (which keeps getting bigger and bigger).

After work, I walked home for dinner and then Mayu and I went out exploring. When we left the house it was raining, but we didn’t let that stop us. We walked all the way down Broadway to Times Square and then continued south and worked our way over to the Empire State Building. We were excited to go up and see the view, but we didn’t know until we got up there that it costs $20. In my cheap student traveler’s mind, that is so much money! But we decided to go up anyway, because seeing NYC from the top of the Empire State Building is something that everyone should do at least once.

After looking around the top for a while, Mayu and I rode down the 86 floors (on two different elevators) to the bottom. On the first floor, we bought coffee from Starbucks and then stepped out to walk home. But we were really tired, so we decided to take the subway instead of walk the twenty-something blocks home. That was a good decision.

As we were walking back, Mayu turned to me and told me that this was the first time she had been out at night in NYC since she’d been there, because she’d never had anyone to go explore with her. I don’t know why, but it surprised me a bit, because I thought she was the one doing me a favor by coming out with me.

I loved hanging out with Mayu this evening. She is super nice, and I feel like her English is really improving, because it is getting much easier to talk to her. I can talk a bit faster, and she understands. And I guess I didn’t realize earlier that she does know a number of “big” words, so we can carry on more normal conversations than I expected.

I have never really had to deal with language barriers before, so all this is new to me. And I know this sounds strange, but I guess I can finally understand the mindset (a little) of anyone in history who has ever oppressed or conquered a people because of their different backgrounds, languages, etc. When someone doesn’t know English well, I have to fight my tendency to feel older than them (because of my “superior” knowledge). I have to make a conscious effort sometimes to tell myself that just because they don’t understand what I am saying doesn’t mean they are dumb. Not at all. Mayu is six years older than me, so she is in no way less intelligent than I am. But because I am constantly explaining things to her (since we obviously only speak in English), its easy to feel falsely superior. Staying at Centro Maria has already been such a learning experience for me, and I haven’t even been here for more than two days.

First Day on the Job

Today was my first day of work at my internship. It didn’t start until 10 am, but I woke up at seven so I could get breakfast. The window for breakfast here is very short and very early. I wandered down to breakfast and timidly walked into the little cafeteria/dining area. It’s a bit intimidating to walk into a room full of girls you don’t know, knowing that they all most likely know that you are new. I got my breakfast (scrambled eggs mixed with salsa), and asked to sit next to two nice-looking girls. A great choice on my part.

We talked all about how I was new to the city and about what I wanted to do while I was here. Jessie, from Pennsylvania, has lived in NYC for two years, and Olethia was born in Uruguay but has lived here for a really long time. So they were both really helpful in telling me about all the places I should go and visit. I learned from them that the Colbert Report (a really fun daily talk show that makes fun of the news) has its studio right next door, and that with a student ID, tickets to the Metropolitan Opera House are only $25 (instead of $100+).

I left for work a half hour early, which turned out to be just the right amount of time to walk three long blocks and fifteen short blocks to work. GoogleEarth said the walk was 1.5 miles, but it seemed shorter to me. It was fun walking the streets of NYC with only my purse, feeling a bit like I belonged here and not at all like the tourists around me with fanny packs and cameras.

It was easy to find the street where CNAM’s office building was, but I had to step into Starbucks on the corner to call Louis (pronounced Lou-ee) and ask which building he was in. Then I walked across the street and rode the elevator up 21 floors to the office where I would be working for the next four weeks.

I love the office. It is much more spacious than I thought it would be, considering it is New York City and real estate is ridiculous, and it has an incredible view of the city. The entire north side of the office is all windows and looks out over a large part of NYC. I can see the New York Times building (only a block away) from the window, and from my desk across the room, I can look out the window at the rows and rows of buildings.

After giving me a quick tour and introducing me to the other two men, Peter and Andy, Louis sat me down and we talked about what I wanted to do or was interested in doing while I was here. I also met the two other interns that will be working here this summer with me. Patty, who is in her late twenties and lives in NYC, only works Tuesdays and Thursdays. But Alan, who has one semester left of school at the University of Arizona (in Tucson), works every day like me. I’m glad there is another intern around, since I think it will makes things less monotonous if I can talk to someone else. I guess I was feeling pretty timid today, because I always felt I was interrupting something when I had a question for one of the three guys. Hopefully I will loosen up and feel more comfortable around them soon so I can pick their brains about film and stuff.

CNAM’s big project they are working on right now is a video game that is designed to teach history to middle school children. So the first thing I did was play the video game so I could get an idea of what they are working on.

Then I was placed at a computer and set to work… doing nothing related to the video game. Louis had heard me mention that I knew HTML coding, and although I stressed that my knowledge is basic, he put me to work on CNAM’s website. My job was to put their videos (uploaded to YouTube) onto their webpages. Well, it should have been easy, except that they were using Microsoft Word to edit the HTML script. Which is bad. Microsoft Word basically takes script that should only be a one inch long paragraph and bloats it into a four or five inch long paragraph, unnecessarily. With all the extra script, it makes it really difficult to find my problem or what I am doing wrong, and makes it hard for me to find where to insert the film box in the first place.

So I spent a big frustrating portion of my day trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. I only figured out all the above stuff at the end of the day, so that didn’t do me much good. But at least I have a project for tomorrow. I am simply going to rewrite all the webpages they want in a different program so that it will be easier to work with. That should keep me busy all day, I think.

Also, I got a great idea for a short film while I am here. I am going to film my dancing friends (which are lots… Kathleen from Ohio, Jessie from Pennsylvania, my roommate Mayou from Japan) dancing around New York City. I am going to have them dance against a bunch of different backdrops and dance in a ton of different styles, but all to the same song. So it will be a sort of music video of New York City’s dancers. =) In my mind, it looks incredible.

My roommate, Mayu (pronounced My-you), is from Japan and speaks only a little English. At first it was hard to communicate, but she is really nice, and we were having fun tonight trying to talk. We GoogleEarthed her house in Tokyo and my house in Billings and showed each other where we live. It was crazy to see where she lived. The area of Tokyo where she is from seems like it sprung up overnight without much city planning. The streets run in all directions (not a grid), and the houses are all piled in going different directions. She doesn’t have much of a yard, or any trees, and lives next to a water-treatment plant. But she lives within walking distance of her old high school, and she obviously loves where she lives because she was really excited to show it to me. Then I showed her where I live, and she was amazed by how far I lived out of the city and by how many trees I had around my house. I have always taken them for granted, but now I can see how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful area.

Our Room

Mayu's bed has the stripes...

...and my bed is against the wall.

We tried taking this picture on a two-second timer.

It was too fast... or I wasn't fast enough.

Ta-da!

The Background Story

At this moment, I am sitting at my own desk in the Center for New American Media office on the 21st floor of an office building one block away from Times Square in New York City.

I love saying that. Somehow, writing it down makes this moment feel all the more real to me.

Looking at back at how this whole thing came about, I invariably feel compelled to clasp my hands together and sing praises under my breath while looking skyward. But all jokes aside, I can't help feeling that someone up there was working overtime on my behalf.

Three months ago, I sat down to meet with my in the film department to talk about the classes I wanted to take this coming fall. Sometime during the meeting, while discussing my course options, she asked me if I was planning on attending a film conference in Oklahoma City that was taking place that weekend. Now, this was a Thursday and I already had a scheduled date with my fuzzy comforter on that Saturday morning, but I got the information about the conference and told her I'd get back with her.

After thinking long and hard about the merits of sleep versus advancing my career, and after a productive phone call to my mother (which filled me with shame for having ever considered sleep to be a precious commodity), I decided at attend the film conference.

On Saturday morning, I woke up unneccessarily early and walked up campus to the Film and Video Studies department office where my ride, the head of the FVS department, was going to pick me up. Campus is so peaceful on a weekend morning. I was the only person on the entire South Oval.

But I digress.

The ride into Oklahoma City was very enlightening. Dr. Shary and I talked the entire way about films and American culture and American culture in films.

Once we got to the conference, I registered, put on my name tag, and grabbed some coffee. There was a short introduction and welcome in a little theater-type room, and then everyone split up to go different places according to their preference. A couple rooms featured people reading their papers about film, but I chose to stay in the theater-type room and watch short films. The directors of the each film got up and said a little something about the film. Then we watched it and had a short Q & A following.

After a short break, there was a second session and I again chose to watch short films. Then there was a break for lunch, and after lunch we watched "Rocket Science." It is about a boy with a stutter who joins the high school debate team, and the whole thing is fabulous. And then after the film screening, the director of the film, Jeffrey Blitz (also directed the Oscar nominated documentary, Spellbound), got up and said a few words before opening the floor to questions. That was my second favorite part of the day.

My favorite part of the day was during lunch break. This is how it happened.

I sat down for lunch (a delicious turkey sandwich) with Dr. Shary, the two other OU students who had come, and Dr. Horton (the senior professor in the FVS department). As the others were talking, Dr. Horton asked me what I wanted to do with my film major. I told him that I thought I wanted to make documentaries, but I wasn't sure yet.

Without missing a beat, he said, "Come by my office sometime this week, and I'll set you up with an internship in New York City with a company that makes documentaries."

I'm sure my jaw dropped, and somehow I stuttered out a Thank you, I'd love to.

And it happened just like that. Right there I made an appointment to meet with him on Wednesday (I just happened to have my planner with me), and on Wednesday at 10 am sharp, I walked into his office. He sat me down, explained the internship, gave me an essay to read from the girl who had completed the internship the year before, and told me that CNAM would be contacting me soon.

I got an email from CNAM (Center for New American Media) that very afternoon, and by 2 pm the next day I had an internship in New York City for the summer.

In the future, I will always go to every film conference possible. Period.