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.