Surprise Walks!

Today was a surprising adventure when usually I just sit the office all day eating pretzels and reading Jezebel.

I got into work, said hi to Other Intern and New Boss. They were working in the tiny office so I sat outside on the conference table. This was sad because I could hear them talking and laughing so I put on my headphones and blasted Girl Talk (my new obsession. 71 min mash-ups of billions of songs. Not so conducive to my already short attention span. Now I can only listen to 8 songs at a time.) Other Intern came out and told me that we had to go to East Acton to pick up some paintings this girl had made for our Interfaith Art Show (or something arty that's happening in January...I won't be there so I'm not sure what it is.)

So me, Other Intern and New Boss walked to the tube. It was a little awkward walking there since we were, like out of the office with our new boss. Plus I don't have a filter and say nonsense things. I'm also mildy obsessed with him since he has Shawn Hunter hair and looks like he should be in a 90's sitcom. He was asking me about London and I told him I wasn't going back and he shouldn't tell the authorities if they ask.

On the train, I told Other Intern and New Boss about my weekend and how I'm the only one on my program so far who's run into anti-American sentiments. They were laughing and I told them that if they went to New York people would LOVE them and probably give them discounts on stuff because Americans think Brits are adorable. New Boss asked me what Americans think of Brits and I said they're painted as polite and never get excited and drink tea all the time. New Boss said "I feel like the British are the bad guys in a lot of American films" and I said "really?? Which ones?" and he says "American history ones", "you mean like ones about the Revolution?" "Yeah...like 'the British are coming!'.

Unfortunately we had to change trains like 3 times and then wander around East Acton for 20 min trying to find this girl's house. I was wondering why the Project manager and 2 employees had to take the train all the way to the middle of nowhere for this girl when I saw that we had to carry two HUGE canvas paintings and two small ones back to Camden. I was really regretting going into work.

New Boss and Other Intern carried the two big paintings (I offered!) while I carried the small ones. Which I promptly got fingerprints all over the edges. And had some small chunks of paint fall off. Awkward. But they made it back in one piece.

I didn't do much the rest of the day. The internet tends to break and when it does I take pics of myself on my Mac's Photobooth doing crazy faces and seeing if anyone notices me. They don't.

Also, at one point New Boss comes over to me:

Me: 'Sup bro?
New Boss: You know you can't really say that to me...
Me: Sorry, maybe it's a cultural thing.
New Boss: They let you say 'sup bro' to bosses in America?
Me: Yes.

Ah, he loves me.

At tonight's meeting we had a photographer for the Times come. She was really nervous but told us how she had been a head-hunter and then decided to just quit and become a photographer, entered a contest to photograph for the Times and now she goes to Pakistan and Australia on assignments. It was kind of a one-in-a-million story but basically she told us that she never took any courses in photo-journalism and that gives her an edge because she doesn't stick to any rules. She just takes pictures on instincts and that seems to work for her. I had been thinking about majoring in photojournalism but I think I'll stick with journalism and then teach myself to photograph.

When she finished and everyone was leaving I told her that I just bought my first SLR for this trip but had forgotten the camera instructions at home so I've been just playing around with it. She told me that's how she learned too and really that's the best way to learn to take your own style pictures. I said that I had been thinking about going into photojournalism but I also didn't have as much experience as I do with writing. She told me that when she first started, someone at the Times told her that no one knows what they're doing, even people with years and years of experience confront new situations every day so in some ways it doesn't really matter.

(On a side note, I have to write a 15 min script for my class tomorrow. It's in a pretty rough draft stage but I'd love to get some feed-back. If you're interested, comment and I'll send it to you and/or post here. I'm nervous, this class is like vultures)