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/