My first week!!!

Helloooooo from Neeeeewww Yoooooorrrrrrrkkk!!

Wow. This week has been CRAZY. I've wanted to blog so much since I've been here, but the city does not allow much free time in my schedule. So, now that its Thursday night and I don't work on Fridays, I will gladly update you all on my New York adventure thus far.

I arrived in New York on Sunday the 10th, but not exactly how I had planned. Claire and I woke at 4:30am on Sunday morning, 30 minutes later than we should have. This put us behind and we missed our flight in Austin by about 3 minutes. Literally, we stood at the gate while banging on the door, only for a lady to show up, walk us down the tunnel, and the captain of the plane said, "Sorry, we're leaving." I was only two feet from the plane that was supposed to take me to NY. I was really upset.

So, instead of Claire flying to New York with me as planned, I had to buy a last minute American Airlines ticket and hopped on this new plane all alone, headed for New York. I had to change planes in Dallas, but I still got to New York in time for my 3:30pm meeting with all the Baylor students in the program. However, what did not make it to New York in time was my luggage. My two large suitcases missed the early flight also, but were put on a 1pm JetBlue flight that landed at JFK at 6pm. I, however, flew in to La Guardia at 2pm. I was not able to be reunited with my luggage until almost 11pm that night. The next morning, I woke up with the worst knots in my neck from stress, sleeping in an uncomfortable plane, and dragging around my large carry on. I'm so glad that day is behind me!

I started my internship at CBS News on Monday. I really like my internship a lot. There are three other interns in the Press Office with me. Samreen is a senior at Baylor and is in my program. It was nice to ride the subway on the first day of work with someone I knew and to also work with another Baylor student. Samreen and I have different hours now, but we still spend most of the day together. Stephanie, better known as "Stevie," is another intern with me. Stevie is a junior at Gordon College in Massachusetts. She's engaged like me, so we have lots to talk about! She's really sweet and I think we're going to have a great semester getting to know each other. Faith is the 4th intern. She is a sophomore at The Kings College here in New York. She doesn't work as many hours as the rest of us, so I don't get to spend as much time with her. But Faith is very driven and even though she's originally from Kansas, she is a city girl at heart. I love her spirit!

At work, I am the "point" in our office. Or at least that's what my boss keeps telling me:) I'm definitely trying to do my best, but there is a lot of adaption that comes with this kind of job. The office, at any point in time, can be under TONS of stress. The offices of the president and vice president of communication, Katie Couric's publicist, and the publicists for The Early Show, 48 Hours, and 60 Minutes surround the main desk area where the interns work. Because of this, we see and hear a lot and have first hand interaction with the organized massed chaos that is "the news." As interns, we are pulling news clips and op-eds, answering important phone calls, pulling video clips, editing listings, etc...among many other tasks. I know that I will be learning so much about this industry over the next few months and it will be eye-opening for sure. I have an official CBS News nametag that I swipe to get into the building and I have my own CBS News email address. I'd share it with you, but I'd have to kill you;) But seriously, it ends with @cbsnews.com. Yup, I feel cool. (Way cooler than I actually am, I'm sure. Ha!)

I think the school part of this semester is going to be pretty cool. I'm taking two classes, Electronic Culture and Contemporary Cinema. We've already gone as a class to see Avatar in 3D. If you know me well, you'll know this wasn't actually my kind of movie, but hey, it was cool for what it was. At least Baylor paid the $16.50 for me to see it and this didn't come out of my own pocket! Hopefully the school load won't overwhelm me, but after the semester I had this past fall, I can get through ANYTHING.

Oh gosh, I can't believe I almost forgot to tell you this part. My roommate's name is Rebecca Lee. She is AWESOME! She's from Texas, but her family is originally from California. She's real chill and I know we're going to get along great! Its nice to come home to a roommate with a great attitude and outlook on life, especially after being under pressure all day. Shout out to my wonderful new roomie!

Ok, well I must get some sleep. Ashley Baronet (a Tri Delta friend from college that is also here in NY with my program) and I are going to go explore the city a little bit tomorrow morning since we're a couple of the very few students that don't work on Fridays. I can't wait to sleep until 9:30am tomorrow!! No worries, I'll be posting some pictures soon. I just can't seem to catch a couple of minutes to wrap my mind around the fact that I'm living in New York, mastering the subway, following my dreams, and living up my last semester in college! Wow, this truly is an incredible feeling.

All my love from the city,
Sara