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.
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