5 days down

I made it! It is Friday of my first week in the Big City! The week has been surprisingly calm despite the whirlwind of changes that have come my way.

Packing was a nightmare. What could I fit into a suitcase (only 50 lbs, mind you) and a backpack as a carry on to last me 2 weeks? Mom and Dad will be sending me more stuff to get through the summer in a couple of weeks. Thank goodness for the United States Postal Service- no FedEx for the Satre's! I got on the tiny little plane that would take me straight to New York. It was so early, leaving home at 4am at Mom's request to get to the DSM airport in plenty of time. I hadn't flown since I was 13 years old when the family went to California, so I was actually kind of excited about the flight. I got on the tiny little plane that would take me straight to New York.

I am sooo blessed by a round of events that took place in the last few days before I was scheduled to fly out. The rent I have set up for the summer doesn't start until May 31- two full weeks AFTER I had to start my internship position. Oh crap. Dad has some family that lives in New York, but not in the city, which means a beast of a commute- especially for a newbie to the area like me. Mom's best friend from high school has a daughter who lives in New York City. Her other daughter graduated from high school this past week, same as Thad, so we went down to Ankeny to her graduation party. Sara, the daughter in NYC, was there and I spoke with her about the possibility of staying at her place during my first two weeks. She was more than willing to help me out. The next best thing is her and I ended up being on the same flight from Iowa to New York on Monday. We took a cab to her place (on the edge of the Harlem neighborhood....yeaaaaah), she took me to the grocery store, and helped me get my Metro card to use for riding the subway. I am so lucky. Soooo lucky. Sara and her roommates, Megan and Emilee have been wonderful to me this past week. Thank you very much for your generosity, ladies!

Now for the job. I took the subway from Harlem to SoHo where I work right in the thick of things. The Scholastic Office is on Broadway near the subway stop on Houston (pronounced House-ton, not Heew-ston). It's a beautiful building and the street below is always buzzing with people no matter what time of day it is. There are lots of clothing and designer stores in the area so the people are a mix of people going to work and tourists visiting the area.

Until I get my official Scholastic ID, I have to sign in as a guest to the office and receive a new Clifford sticker with my name on it. I'm racking up quite a collection of these this week! The science crew at Scholastic- Patty, Cody, Karina, Beth, and then Brenda, Paul, Allan, and David have all been very welcoming to me this week! I was taken to my desk...waaaaay back in the corner, removed from all of the sciencers. My company is the routine custodians that come off of the service elevator several times a day.

I've had several assignments this week for both Science World and SuperScience. Researching and writing answers to the questions that are sent in from student readers and then published in future issues is one of my current assignments. The first couple of questions have been: "Why do male lions have a big mane and female lions don't?" and "Why do volcanoes erupt?" (right up my alley, but difficult to simplify and answer in only 80-100 words!) I also have been designing the introduction page in the issue coming out about doing projects for science fairs. It is testing my creativity to be different than what was done in past issues! Among other things, on my plate is a couple of stories about x-rays, chocolate used as fuel, etc.

Because my laptop had to be sent in to be serviced (as well as my camera that is in the care of the Geek Squad right now...pictures will come as soon as I get it back!) right before I left, I have been reading a lot! I finished the first book in the Twilight series today. Lunch in the warm sun of the rooftop of the Scholastic building is a highlight after being in the office!

I jumped off the subway a few stops early on Wednesday evening to walk around Bryant Park and the 42nd street area where the NY Public Library is located. Neat area! I couldn't help but be lured down to the flashing lights of Times Square. I found out that it is Fleet Week here in the city. That explains where there are so many Navy and Marine people walking around in the touristy areas of the city. A gentleman at work said it happens every Memorial Day weekend. He also suggested going down to the water and getting a tour of the real live carriers that are docked. Might have to do that on my day off on Monday...

Last night after work, I was so thankful to be able to see a classmate from high school. The interaction with a familiar friend was something I already missed! Liz and I, along with a couple of her friends from college that are all here to play a concert in Carnegie Hall on Sunday (soon I'll know someone who has played in Carnegie Hall!), walked down to 34th street to check out the Empire State Building. By the time we got to the top, it was dark out, but the view was spectacular. The entire city was lit up. We could pick out the Brooklyn Bridge, the torch of Lady Liberty, Times Square, and even the new Yankee Stadium where the Yankees were playing Baltimore.

After work, I'll be heading to another new place in the city, New York's Penn Station, to catch an Amtrak train to Hudson, north of the city to spend a couple of days with Dad's cousin and her husband. I've heard upstate New York and the Hudson River is beautiful!

Small Town Girl in a Big City World

Welcome to the diary of my summer in NEW YORK CITY. Here is the background story of what I'm up to this summer:

Right after Christmas last December, I began calling places that had potential of being a place for me to intern at for the coming summer. In order to graduate next May (2010) with my Journalism degree, I had to do an internship for credit from Iowa State. I had the goal of finding a position out on the East Coast somewhere...anywhere! After spending last summer in Wyoming doing field work and studying the geology out there, I wanted to try out the urbanized area of the country.

To make my spring semester even busier, I spent the next 4 months searching for places that could offer or create a position for me to do the type of work I was hoping for. Who knew that blindly searching on the Internet and sending numerous application emails could take up so much time! My roommates this past year can attest to the fact that sleeping at night was a treat for me that I actually got on a rare occasion after applications, VEISHEA business, volunteering for the Admissions office, and what was that other thing? Oh yeah...homework!

To get the best experience for both of my degrees in progress, Geology and Journalism, I searched for science communications positions. Scholastic was one of the first places I contacted. The company publishes many educational classroom magazines. Mom and Mr. Smith use the science magazines SuperScience and Science World in their classrooms at Ogden Middle School. After speaking with the executive editor of both magazines in December, it wasn't until March that I submitted my official application materials. Knowing that actually getting the position was a long shot, I pursued other places in cities around the US and also local to Iowa as well.

I had given up on Scholastic and was in the preliminary stages of setting up positions with a couple other places when I received an email requesting a phone interview with executive editor in New York. It being VEISHEA week, for all of you Iowa Staters, I was crazy busy helping to run the show on Iowa State's campus. The interview got crammed in somewhere between a campus BBQ here, a run to the airport to get a performer there, and then after VEISHEA week had passed, I was in the library in the afternoon during the next week when I received an email offering me the intern position in New York City for the summer. I wanted to scream, I was so excited! But being in the library, I contained my excitement and went into the stairwell to immediately call my parents. Mom was teaching a class, but had instructed me to interrupt her if I got any good news. Dad was actually walking around Arlington National Cemetery in DC with Thad's class on the Ogden Senior Trip. Later that week when they got up to NYC, I received a picture message on my phone from Dad of a street sign that read "Broadway"- where I would be working in the city.

The next three weeks were ridiculous: dead week- where the only thing dead about it is the students, finals week, being selected as one of the VEISHEA 2010 General Co-Chairs (along with my lovely partner in crime, Nicki), moving out of my apartment, getting loan money figured out to finance my upcoming summer, finding and paying waaaay to much for housing in the city, going home to help get ready for Thad's graduation party, packing, unpacking, re-packing, attending the graduation ceremony at Drake for Reece who earned his Masters this spring, turning right around and going to Thad's graduation ceremony at OHS the next day and then flying out to New York early the next morning. Whew!

There you have it. My story up until now.
My first week begins in the following post!