FIRST IMPRESSIONS ARE A BITCH

Tuesday, March 24 2009

Today I said "Cheers" to London and "Bonjour" to Paris. During the flight, I started to get that language barrier tingling sensation that starts in the stomach and somehow makes its way all the way up to the back of the brain, fogging any knowledge of foreign tongues. I never made an ass out of myself in London but I knew it would happen often in Paris. I think this is the body’s way of preparing you for your inevitable doom, worst-case scenario wise.

Anyways, by the time we got to our hotel and did the check-in thing, which had an excessively brutal tone set forth by the sight of twenty unruly students, it was already pretty late and the editors decided the day would best be used to rest and gather our thoughts. My body was thankful but my mind was full of ideas. After all, I did just arrive in Paris.

A group of us went to the Eiffel Tower to take photos for the Web site and I was surprised I liked it so much. It wasn’t even on my list of things to do. We got there as the sun was dropping so the light was fantastic for photos, although my incompetence of SLR cameras made that a moot point. We checked out some other spots around the Tower area that seemed really awesome in my haze of tiredness and I told myself I would come back to really see them after I got some sleep.

I also made a plan to work with Kim Nguyen, another broadcast student, because I knew I would run into the same problems as I did in London and be forced to do a similar story. She had a pretty solid lead so we’ll check that out tomorrow. After working with Diana Nguyen, I realized that videographer experience is just another good line for my resume.

I’m not sure how I’m feeling at this point. I definitely should have worked harder at setting up interviews before we arrived in Europe. Or maybe I should have bought a suit so people would take me more seriously. Either way, I came into this trip a tad overconfident. I’ll chalk it up to a learning experience and leave it at that. No use sweating the petty.

John Ellis
Print Journalism

PREPARATION IS THE BEST PREPARATION

Wednesday, March 25

Lesson learned today: The best thing in the world is working while having fun, but you need to prepare a lot for it as well as have a tremendous amount of luck.

Before the trip, I spent hours sending tons of e-mails to people I’d never met, researching for story ideas and not sleeping until 5 a.m. for many days.

It all paid off, as I was able to enjoy parts of Paris on the way to my first interview in the city, though the weather was ridiculously cold and windy.

Walking on Quai du Louvre along the Seine River from Musée du Louvre and seeing Conciergerie-Palais de Justice and Notre Dame on the other side of the river were experiences that I couldn’t leave Paris without. After my interview, I also got to experience Paris’ jam-packed metro at Châtelet Les Halles during traffic hours.

I could see what a bunch of busy people the Parisians are. My Parisian friend said that a lot of times people just rush past when someone approaches them. I considered myself lucky because my interviewee was very helpful and I have a friend in Paris who helped me during my interviews. However, this whole experience --- from not sleeping until 5 a.m., making contacts, to enjoying the scenes in Paris --- it's made me realized the importance of preparation.

It’s true that there are lots of unexpected things in journalism, but the more you prepare, the more likely things will work out for you.

Ya-an Chan
Copy Editor
Magazine Journalism
My Blog.

CALLING CARDS AND CALL GIRLS

I think the hardest thing in Paris as any one would assume is the language barrier. For one trying to find a café with internet connection is hard enough. I went to a couple of places that I would consider 'convenience stores.'

The first one I went into they didn’t speak English so they didn’t understand when I was asking for directions and when I was asking them for a calling card.

The third store I went into was run by an Asian family who spoke what sounded like French. Lucky for me, one of them spoke a little English because he had family living in the United States so he was able to help me get a calling card that I could use to call home. It took me awhile to understand him because of the accent but he was a big help.


Later in the day I made it to the Montmartre district of Paris. I went and saw the Moulin Rouge and on the same strip there were tons of sex shops and strip clubs. There were guys standing outside the strip clubs trying to get people to come in all while making gestures at women walking by. I am not sure what they were saying because it was in French, but it sounded like they were, I guess one would say, 'getting fresh' with them.

Liz Mitchell
Public Relations