long day

It has been a busy week so far, hence the lack of posts! Even though this blog shows up under Thursday, it's technically still Wednesday in Washington. This week I visited a preschool where the Engineers Without Borders of the local college were building a new playhouse. I put together a few sections of the arts and entertainment magazine, since the editor is out of town, and I attended a marine parade and put the video together tonight. I finished the video around 10:30 p.m. and now I'm ready for bed. Tomorrow I'm going to a zumba class for kids!

whaling days

I covered the 38th Annual Whaling Days festival today! I sat and watched the 2-hour parade and the people around me laughed while I wrote down a play-by-play of the entire thing. When the parade finished I wandered to the carnival grounds and had a hotdog and interviewed a few of the thousands of people walking around. I went back to the office and wrote my article pretty quickly and came home to take a nap and have dinner with my summer family. I've been having so much fun with them and as my days left in Washington dwindle, I'm realizing how much I'm going to miss them!

new things

I feel like I've been rambling in my posts! I think it's because I want to be able to remember my time in Washington, not bore readers with all the details. I'll work on being more concise! On Thursday I went letterboxing with a pro! He led me through the forest, following all of his clues until I uncovered the container. I brought my own "signature stamp" and stamped my notebook. I wrote the article and made edits to another. I was also asked to cover a festival on Saturday, so I didn't have to work today. On Thursday night I went to the Ottmar Liebert concert by myself in Seattle. I thought it would be really awkward going alone, but once I got there I didn't care. I had so much fun and I got to sit directly in front of the stage! When I was little I used to hate when my mom played his CDs, but I've grown to really love his music. I spent my day off getting coffee, finding a used bookstore and buying a yoga block!

overdue

It's been a while! I feel bad that I haven't been posting lately. This past weekend was another quiet one with my summer family. On Sunday I hung out at Barnes & Noble and worked on my Ulvis Alberts article. On Monday I didn't have very many assignments to work one. The only thing I had to do was work on an article about volunteering in Kitsap County and looking at the different departments in the county that had volunteers working for them. I planned to pick it up again on Tuesday, but when I got to the office my editor had a different assignment for me to work on. She sent me to scope out a music video shoot that was taking place at Skateland. A director from the area, who is now based in LA, decided to film the video where he spent his childhood skating. Even know I knew nothing about the singer, who is popular in the UK, but from Tennessee, watching the process was very cool. The photographer and I spent most of the afternoon watching the filming and talking to anyone that would answer our questions. When we got back I wrote the article and put the video together while he made the photo gallery. Today I was given 4 more assignments. The first one I worked on was about the Whaling Days festival that will be going on this weekend. The next article will be about letterboxing, which is similar to geocaching but doesn't require a GPS. Instead, you follow cryptic clues to find the container that holds a notepad and a stamp. Each person is supposed to have their own "signature stamp" and notepad and you trade stamps. I was really excited to get this assignment and tomorrow morning I'm meeting a man who is trying to make letterboxing more popular. He's taking the photographer and I on a hunt, so I got us each our own stamps. In between the assignments I also met with my editor/supervisor to evaluate the internship so far. We were both really happy with how things have gone so far and will meet one more time towards the end of the internship to do a final evaluation. I went to yoga and went stamp shopping and now I'm ready to sleep. I won't let the next post take so long.

halfway

I am halfway done with my internship today! It's been 5 weeks and I've got 5 more to go. I can't believe that it's the middle of July, I feel like it was yesterday that I was taking finals and packing up my apartment. However, time is passing and I think the next 5 weeks will fly. This morning I got up and drove to Belfair to meet Ulvis Alberts. I was nervous about meeting him, but after a few minutes I was excited to be talking to someone so eccentric. His house was covered in photos, some he took, but most others took. He had bookshelves with tons and photography books, including the few he published, and stacks of CDs. There were baskets of records and it seemed like every window ledge had some sort of cool knickknack on it. The entire back of the house had big windows that faced a gorgeous lake. He sat in a directors chair and wore all black and a beret as we talked. He told me about coming to America from Latvia in the 50s and about photographing tons and tons of celebrities. It was amazing to see all the photos he'd taken and hear about everything he'd done and his future projects. After the interview I had to take my own photos of him, which I was really nervous about. Luckily, he gave me some pointers and thankfully liked the ones I took. He sent me back with posters and a couple of his prints that were all signed. When I was finally on my way back to the office, I couldn't believe that I'd spent three hours talking with him.

75

75 is the number of years the Kitsap Sun has been around. Today the office was filled with balloons and there were lots of things going on to celebrate the anniversary. There was even a special anniversary section which has given me some ideas for Island Waves. Despite all the fun stuff going on there was still work to do, because of course, newspapers never sleep. I called people multiple times to set up interviews and someone said I was persistent. I took it as a compliment. I did all the research for my articles and got my questions ready and left for the day. I had 2 hours until my interview, so I hung out at the house. My interview was really great and the guy was very nice. Tomorrow morning I'm interviewing Ulvis Alberts! He's a famous photographer who took pictures of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Cher,and tons more. I have to take a picture of him tomorrow and I'm a little intimidated. I'll have to ask him for some pointers.

tribes and newsstands

Today you get a double update! On Tuesday I didn't have to be at the paper until 2 p.m, so I slept late and bought a new book. I was only at the newspaper office for a few minutes before I was on my way to a S'klallam tribal event with the photographer and videographer. They gave me some background information on the way to the reservation, basically explaining that tribes from Washington, Oregon and Canada gather every year to make a canoe journey. They spend weeks in their canoes, stopping at different reservations along the way to rest and eat before they start paddling again. It ends with a 4-day celebration. When we got there I was a little overwhelmed because I still felt like I didn't have a good understanding of the whole thing. Luckily, I found some patient tribal elders who explained everything in detail. We stayed for a few hours and were on our way to write and edit. I finished the article and got to leave around 8 p.m. and then realized that I didn't take any of my own pictures! I'm including the link below. Today I started to work on an assignment about a famous photographer in the area, but was redirected to a last-minute story. Tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the Kitsap Sun, so there are lots of different events going on. One event was getting local artists signed up for a contest. 10 artists were each given a standard newsstand and were told to redesign it. I went back and forth between the office and the gallery the stands are being displayed at all day. I watched people unload them, looked at all the different designs and interviewed some of the artists. Tomorrow night they'll announce the winner. I left for the day and went to yoga and now, I'm ready for bed!

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/jul/13/sklallams-play-host-as-paddlers-take-a-break/

http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2010/jul/14/newspaper-boxes-become-works-of-art/

quiet

Things have been really quiet the last couple days, which would explain why I haven't blogged anything between Friday and now. Saturday I got up and went to yoga and then spent the rest of the day hanging out at the house with my summer family. I watched the boys play their crazy video games, helped clean up and we all had dinner together. It's nice to spend time with all of them, they remind me of my own family and make me feel less homesick. Sunday was really quiet too, I went to Barnes and Noble for a while and read and then came back to the house and read and did laundry. Today I worked on an article about the Boys and Girls Club building a new teen center, so I got to go visit the kids in the program. I finished the article and left for the day. When I came home the dog followed me everywhere! Tomorrow I'm going to visit the S'klallam tribe, which will be really exciting!

a month!

I was happy to get some sun today when I went to a Chris-Craft boat festival. The photographer and I took the foot ferry to Port Orchard and walked around the marina for a couple of hours, talking to different boat owners and touring different boats. Some of the owners were really sweet and had fun stories to tell about their boating adventures. I went back to the office and wrote the article, wrapping up my 4th week at the paper! It's been exactly one month since I left Texas and every time my thoughts wandered they went straight to Marcy and James. I can't believe I haven't seen them in so long. Even though we call and text and send pictures back and forth, it's not the same as actually being with them, obviously. I miss them so much and even typing this makes my eyes water. Thankfully, this first month has flown and has been an amazing experience. I still have more than half of my internship left and I can't wait to see what else I'll be doing this summer. I also can't wait to get back to Texas and hug my brother and sister.

lucky lucky lucky

Today I went to cover the octopus release! I watched the aquarium director jump into the tank, coax Mr. Bob into a bucket and then watched as a volunteer lifted the bucket out of the water. While he was lowering the bucket from the top of the tank to the ground, the octopus climbed out and started crawling on the floor! It was the freakiest, but coolest thing ever! He was huge and it took 3 people to lift him back into the bucket. Amazingly, the director said there was extra room on the boat so the photographer and I put on lifejackets and climbed in. Mr. Bob poked his arms out a few times during the ride, but pretty much stayed put. When we were a few miles into the bay, the director got in the water and volunteers handed him the bucket. It took almost 15 minutes for the octopus to finally come out of the bucket and the director gave him a kiss before he let him go. It was so cool to watch him swim away. When we got back to the office I wrote the article, made all my edits and put the video together while talking to Jack and Christiana about our Alternative Spring Break plans! It was a longer day than normal but when I was walking to the car, my best friend, Emily sent me a picture of the baby her little sister had today! Her name is Avery and after seeing her tiny little face on my phone I had to stop myself from crying. I was sad I couldn't be out in the waiting room with my siblings and my best friends, but I can't wait to come home and meet her.

good feelings

Today was such a good day. When I checked the weather this morning I was pleasantly surprised to see sun and high temperatures! It'll be nice to not have to carry a sweater around for a while, and it's funny to hear people complaining about how hot it is. They obviously haven't been to Texas. At work I called people about a Boys & Girls Club article and interviewed a Fulbright Scholar and wrote the article about her. The best part of my day was when the aquarium director from the Poulsbo Marine Science Center returned my call and said I could watch their octopus being released tomorrow!! I am so excited to watch them take the octopus out of the tank, I can hardly wait for the morning! I got off work with enough time to make it to a yoga class at Samudra and it was really great. The instructor and the other people in the class were really fun, so I'll definitely be going back. When I got home, Heather was making strawberry jelly and I watched her put it into a ton of tupperware containers. I'll be having some on my toast in the morning.

oops

This is the longest I've gone without updating my blog. I won't let it happen again! Since my last post, Tina and I watched the 3rd of July Fireworks, which is a really funny tradition in Poulsbo. They were really pretty and we sat on some rocks right on the edge of the water to get a good view. On 4th of July I had to get up at 5 a.m. and drive back to Poulsbo to interview city workers who were cleaning up from the night before and take pictures. As I was leaving an old man came up and asked me if I was Spanish, if I spoke Spanish and then told me he needed a lady. I got out of there as fast as I could, completely creeped out and drove back to the newspaper office to write my article and captions for all the pictures. I came back and went to sleep for a little while and then Tina and I decided to spend her last day hanging out in Seattle. We road the monorail back and forth, went to Pike Place and the Seattle Aquarium. We were so tired on the ferry ride back, I even fell asleep. We got some dinner and watched as almost every house set off their own fireworks. She finished packing and at 2 a.m. I took her to the airport shuttle. Of course, I cried when she left and was so sad to see her go. Since I worked on Sunday, they said I could have Monday off, which was surprising. I cleaned up, did all my laundry, ran some errands and watched a movie. Today I had one assignment to work on but was having a hard time getting people to call me back. By the end of the day my editor had given me 4 more assignment, so now I have tons to work on! I can't believe that I'm in the 4th week of the internship. Soon it'll be a month since I left Texas!

on a whim

Yesterday I got off work earlier than normal, so Tina and I decided to pack a backpack and drive to Forks. We stopped in Port Angeles and had dinner and found the coolest pier with a ridiculous view! We drove through the Olympic Forest, which also had ridiculous views and finally made it to Forks. We called around to see which hotels had vacancies and booked the cheapest one and had to pull over from laughing so hard when we read the review saying, "the worst place I have ever had the misfortunate of staying at." When we got there we laughed about how cheesy it was and laughed harder when we walked into our 70s time warp. We got up early and got breakfast, passed by Bella Swan's house and went to the most insane Twilight store, ever. They had everything you could possibly think of and it was filled with fans. We left Forks and went to La Push and stuck our toes in the freezing Pacific Ocean. We left La Push and just got back to Bremerton. Now I have to go to Poulsbo and interview city workers and take pictures for a fireworks cleanup article, lovely.

fairies

Today I got my funniest assignment yet. A park host at Manchester State Park dresses up in different costumes and walks around the park, making sure that everyone is alright and having a good time. She has a giant bear costume, a pink fairy costume and a mother nature costume, but today she was dresses as Fawn the Woodland Fairy and told me she woke up early to glue her ears on. It was so fun listening to her and we talked for a long time. After the interview, she took the photographer and I on the route she takes through the park to check on everyone. She carries a pouch with an MP3 player that plays different Disney songs and a few ABBA songs and passed out magic rocks to children in the park. When I was done for the day, Tina picked me up and brought me flowers from the farmers market, ha ha, it was so cute! We got dinner and then walked out on the dock at the park by the house and watched some houses that were shooting fireworks. Now Tina is falling asleep and we're watching the end of Selena.