Race until The End

Since coming back from Spring Break staying in Daytona Beach, Florida it has been hard to get back in the swing of things, but I'm finding myself busy once again in D.C. which is great - helping me to get over the shock of coming back to the city and the cold! I have to say, before I continue, that Spring Break is one of the great American experiences and if you are an international student it is definitely one of those things that you have to do - the memories will last a lifetime!

Anyway, back in D.C everything has been going full steam ahead, especially at Smithsonian Magazine. Everyone always asks me at work how I am getting on and I always answer I love coming into work. This is met with a bemused look as if to say "Are you crazy? or what?!" But it is true, I love coming into work looking forward to finshing off one project and starting on something new. It may be true that "the feeling won't last forever in my working life" as my mother says, but right now I love it! Last week I was working on History Today for the magazine. This is a feature which appears on the Smithsonian Magazine website every day. For each day of the week, (example May 12) you have to come up with an important event that happened on the same day say 20 years ago, or 200 years ago and then write a short piece on it. I was working on a week in May - May 12-18 and I had to find seven events, one for each day that I thought Smithsonian Magazine readers would find interesting. It was so much fun and incredibly interesting investigating and researching births, marriages, deaths, battles, discoveries, natural disasters, expeditions, publications and works of art etc. And the wealth of information I discovered was fascinating. For example, I found out more about Pope John Paul II when I was researching his attempted assassination then I ever had known before. This project reinforced the scope of subjects that Smithsonian covers, which is what really attracts me to the Magazine, since it covered religion, history, art, culture, medecine, travel, literature and science. The breadth that working at the Magazine allows you is also extraordinary, which is why I say I like coming into work every day. I know it sounds geeky, but I love to learn new things, even in Science, which isn't my strong point. Now, this week I am calling up and writing to literary agencies to request different books for consideration for excerpts, which again encompasses an entirely different area of the Magazine.

This week classes were full steam ahead too, with the director, Amos, organizing another jam packed day. On Friday morning Amos took us to the NPR (National Public Radio) offices. Here we were able to sit in on their Friday morning meeting and hear discussions on the different stories they would be including in future programs. It was fascinating to see what different kinds of stories were brought up and also the interaction between the journalists when ideas were put forward. It gave you a real idea of what it is like to work in radio journalism. We were also given a tour of the building, including the "floating" studios which were an amazing design. Later in the day back at school, Amos gave us a history of the radio, which while as Amos said the SIWJ program is not a history course, I still feel it is important to learn how the radio developed and evolved, in order to understand it today. We then rushed into Georgetown (it really is non-stop here and always on the go which I love - it's the journalist in me!) to meet Jeffrey Dvorkin, who is an experienced journalists who has worked for a variety of companies. He gave us a great insight into the profession and I appreciated greatly his candidness, as many journalists are not as honest about the work or the profession they work in.

Social-life wise this weekend was packed too with my best friend at GW turning 21 and his parents booking a hotel suite for a whole group of us for 2 nights. It was pretty much a Spring Break reunion as friends from Maryland came down. We also managed to include a tour for them around D.C. -- as my mother said "Isn't it a bit strange for an English person to be giving a tour of D.C. to Americans?" Well I guess D.C is my second home now! I have to say it was great time to show them the city, as Saturday was so warm and sunny and the cherry tree blossoms were amazing - it looked stunning. However, trust me to forget my camera - so I guess I'll be returning this week, otherwise my mother will not be impressed that I have been in Washington for 3 months and haven't taken photos of one the most famous and beautiful things here!!