Week 1 was action packed, but I got into the swing of things by the time Week 2 rolled around. It sure takes a lot to get used to this city, but I think I started to get the hang of it after being on my own for a few days.
Well, at least I got a hang of the subway system…
WEEK 2
After a week of orientation, the interns were finally put to work. On Monday, I got some additional training for Features Design, which involved learning Times style as well as getting (re)acquainted to the design software (mostly Adobe programs). I also learned that I would be working in the Home section for a few weeks before switching around to other sections throughout the summer.
I worked on inside Home pages on Tuesday and Wednesday. I even made the target that appeared on this photo illustration on the section front. A small contribution, but it was worth it.
The section closes on Wednesday nights, so I got to experience deadline crunch time early on.
The copy editing interns arrived earlier in the week. Over lunch, the entire group of 2008 interns (minus a few who were coming later in the summer) spoke with some of the past interns who were recently hired to continue working for the Times.
On Thursday, I flew back to Michigan for a day to see my sister’s high school graduation. Turns out that a scratchy throat I developed the night before was a viral infection, which of course made for a great flight home at 6:00 AM.
I made sure to pick up a copy of the Times at LaGuardia before liftoff. It was so exciting to hold the finished product. Sure, my name wasn’t actually credited to the work I had done, but I was proud to know that I had been a part of the paper’s production.
I ended up going to the graduation with a fever and sore throat, but with enough a ton of Ibuprofen, it was bearable.
I came back to the city Friday afternoon feeling slightly less miserable and decided to relax for the rest of the weekend. But not before coming to the Times for a few hours on Friday to help plan the next week’s Home section.
WEEK 3
My third week in New York City kicked off with an unbearably hot Sunday. In fact, the temperature nearly hit 100 degrees.
On my way to church that afternoon, I got stuck in the Puerto Rican independence parade on 5th Avenue. The street was absolutely packed, so much so that just getting across the street took at least 15 minutes. Add that to a temperature in the high 90s, and it was absolutely awful.
The high temperatures continued to make New Yorkers uncomfortable throughout the week.
In my third week at the Times, I continued to work on inside pages for the Home section. I got to design some of the jump pages for a story about a family who owns a puzzle house. We ended up devoting a whole page to a graphic that tries to explain how to solve the mystery. The multimedia piece attached to the web version of the story breaks down the chart we made into an easier format. And let me tell you, sifting through all those photos — that’s including ones we didn’t even use — was very time consuming. But fun.
Additional sidenotes from Weeks 2 and 3: Aside from work, flying to Michigan and back, packing, unpacking and packing again, I took some time to meet some more of the people on my floor at the NYU dorms. As I mentioned earlier, most of them are interns at other publications, making our hall the “journalism floor.” I also explored the city and went shopping a few times. And for the first time in 2 years, I decided NOT to boycott the NBA finals just because the Pistons weren’t in it (though I was thoroughly depressed for a week after they lost).
Speaking of finals, the Detroit Red Wings (my hometown Hockey team) won the Stanley Cup on June 4th. The last time they won it back in ‘02, I was a freshman in high school who followed the NHL closely. But since I’m a much less avid hockey fan now (I blame it on the lockout), I wasn’t as into the 2008 playoffs. In fact, I had only watched 2 games from the entire playoff season.
Regardless, the Wings winning it all relieved me of the pain of the Pistons losing the Eastern Conference Finals. Coming home on June 5th was pretty great. Even the Detroit Metropolitan airport (which, ironically, is a good 20 miles from Detroit) was filled with fans wearing Wings jerseys. Unfortunately, I missed out on the championship parade that took place just as I was heading back to New York.
This post is tagged Design, internships, Journalism, New York City, New York Times, summer 2008
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