christmas lights + winter brights

december in columbia

4802 - Moving into the final project

Moving into the final project, I am confident I am going to be able deliver better quality stories if I take on and use the feedback given to me this semester.

The major issue with my images were cropping, Karen and Reuben said during the lecture that they wanted me to get much tighter in my detail and profile shots so I need to concentrate on that.

Another issue I had during my video pieces were remembering Lynda's "visual cha-cha-cha" - much like still photography, I didn't have enough tight shots relating to the narrative for b-roll so during our shooting for the final project I'm going to try and get as many details shots as possible to allow for the visual cha-cha-cha.

With regards to audio the most glaring critique was my use of quotes and narration - my soundbytes were far to long. While I was making it I was under the impression that I had to let the subject tell the story, when in reality with concise narration the reporter can sum up a subjects feelings and let them have their say through strong soundbytes. By doing it this way I can create a far more powerful piece.

I think for me, while I am confident with the technical aspects of video, audio and photo what I need to work on are the actual construction of the stories into succinct and powerful pieces which is done through the linking of narration, powerful soundbytes and relevant images.

Boston bound!

Boston couldn’t have come at a better time, just a week after my second lot of exams and assignments and right before we started final projects I had got to that stage where I was sick of Columbia, sick of Mizzou and ready to get away for a while.

Boston is great, it really is. I remember first hearing about the city from Dan, a restaurant manager who worked in the same hotel as me a couple of years ago – he’d spent a few years working in restaurants over there and was in love with the city, when he found out I was going to New York for Christmas he pleaded that I spend a couple of days in Boston, but the bright lights of New York City captivated me and Boston became a lonely memory. A year later when I first started looking into study abroad I actually thought about applying for Boston University, who had an exchange partnership with AUT at the time, sadly though by the time I was applying for the Fall 2010 semester AUT and Boston University had parted ways.

This brings me to about 2 months ago when I decided I needed to do something with my life other than study (believe me, Mizzou is great, and I’m loving being in the convergence sequence, but I’m an exchange student for crying out loud. I need to travel.). I had originally thought of going south, to Nashville or Memphis or maybe across to Washington D.C so I could reenact my Forrest Gump fantasies – but then that little light bulb flickered and a thought came to me – Boston. I had nearly been there twice already, I might as well just do it.

To make this great idea even better, my good friend Keaney who studied in New Zealand for the 09-10 school year was FROM Boston. So not only was I going to a great city, I was also getting to spend my time with an awesome friend who actually knows her way around. Epic bonus. To top it all off, I found out another one of my friends Nam was flying over from Seattle that same weekend. That was it. My life was complete.

Initially, Boston kind of seemed like some crazy love child of Jersey Shore and The Sopranos – interesting combination I know, but I encountered people from both ends of that spectrum. Sometimes I felt like I was right in the middle of a real-life stereotype. It’s a cool little city though, it’s one of those places that feels really small, but is actually pretty big. The first thing I did with Keaney and Nam when I got off the plane was to go get food at this place called Grumpys, it’s famous for their steak and cheese melts among other things. Grumpys was the epitome of American food, and it reminded me why I’ve gained weight over here, but it was completely worth it. After we got back to Keaneys place we set Nam to work in the kitchen (just like the old days) and she made us her awesome m&m cookies!

Saturday was what I like to call my “tourist-sesh”. I’ve traveled a lot in the past, but I don’t really like being a tourist (I know, this is somewhat of an irony) so I usually devote a day or two of my trip (depending on the stay) to being outwardly geeky and touristy. Saturday was my day. A bunch of us took the train into Boston where we perused Quincy market (good looking food that is super pricey), the shops (money was spent, I don’t like to talk about it) and finally… THE FREEDOM TRAIL.

The Freedom Trail was around three hours long and mainly revolved around Paul Revere and the revolution. Naturally, I didn’t grow up learning about American history so I wasn’t always aware of who they were actually talking about, but they had a section on the Salem witch trials which I loved and the tour guide was a character so I really enjoyed myself.

Geek-fest over, it was time to get down – going out in Boston was heaps of fun, socializing in NZ is a lot different to the US (especially Columbia) and I think Boston was my happy medium between the two extremes – you can dance a bit and do the whole sitting down and socializing thing (extreme plus: bars in Boston close at 2am instead of 1. Hurrah!). I haven’t really gone out a lot while I’ve been studying purely because of my schedule, so it was nice to go out, let loose, have some fun, and come home to awesome after-town food and The Kardashians on demand.

Sunday, my final day in Boston was lazy, which was just what I wanted. Keaney took me to get the best Black and White frappes in the world (they were in fact very good) and we all just kind of mooched about. I think so far, Boston is probably one of my favorite cities – it’s generally pretty friendly, the food is good and architecturally I love it… hopefully the stars will align and I’ll find myself back there again.

But for now I’m looking forward to thanksgiving in Dallas with Drew’s family and Florida in less than a month with my friend Rania… can’t wait!

4802 - Flash journalism

Since McAdam's book on Flash Journalism, technology, particularly web-based technology has continued to develop at a rapid rate. While everything McAdams talks about, for example infographics and web packages are still relevant and useful for an audience. There are other aspects of technology that have emerged and would be useful for the presentation of journalism. I would like to focus on web packages because while they are a great resource for audiences, I think a lot could be done to make improve them and make them more diverse.

Twitter is a website which is allows short, timely news to be delivered straight to your phone or computer - this was first globally seen during the Hudson river plane crash, when that story actually broke over twitter and I think it is a vital component that will be really heavily used in news journalism in the future - so far organizations like CNN have breaking news twitter pages which allow users to stay up-to-date with breaking news wherever they are. I think this could be an interesting new component to web packages and would be especially affective for ongoing stories, organizations could create twitter pages especially for particular stories so users can access particular stories wherever they are.

I also think the use of blogs should be used more. Blogging is a great way to gauge opinions and social feeling over current events, while blogging can provide extremist points of view that may not necessarily represent a majority of people - I think it is important for as many points of view to be communicated, so another aspect of the web package could be external links so readers can either read a little deeper into the story or can gather multiple perspectives of what is happening.

And, lastly the emergence of mobile journalism. With devices like the iPhone becoming more common, it's becoming easier to capture video, photos and audio all in a much higher quality than what we have seen. Mobile journalism is not necessarily new, a lot of the footage from 9/11 was taken by "citizen journalists" of sorts, but I don't think it is being used to the extent it could be. While citizen journalism can in no way replace professional journalists, they can contribute to stories, by doing this we get a "real world" perspective of sorts and it also allows the audience to perhaps become more emotionally involved with a story or event.

homecoming

Homecoming weekend. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much from it, but maybe that's a good thing. Because it blew every expectation I had out of the stratosphere. For those who aren't familiar with the notion of Homecoming - it is basically a weekend where the University welcomes back Alumni to the school (it was actually started by Mizzou 99 years ago) - they have a bunch of events - all of the Greek houses have a big competition (house decorations, skits and floats for the parade) which they get judged on, there's a homecoming parade, the football game, all of downtown is decorated. It's basically a lot of fun - and since this will be my first (and last) homecoming, I wanted to take advantage of that.

First, I visited the house decs in Greek town. Once thing I have been meaning to do all semester is take photos of the Sorority houses in Greek town and the Frats out on Frat row because in general, they're just obscene. The theme this year was board games and groups of sorority's and frats had to come up with a scene and a skit around their board game. Here are a few of my favourites:

Look! My life is complete - standing next to a giant Life wheel haha.

Saturday was a huge day, not only were Mizzou playing #1 ranked Oklahoma, but ESPN had

chosen to Mizzou to host College Gameday, I don't really want to go into the details of what College Gameday is, so for those internationals who are actually interesting - google it :P

We got to campus about 7.30 in the morning and walked to Francis Quad where the Gameday crew were set up - we got a prime spot on the hill under the columns. It was a loooot of fun, people were just crazy excited - the band were playing, people had millions of signs, everyone is in gold and the quad was PACKED - we later found out we had broke Kansas' gameday record (which stood at around 14,500 people), around 18,000 turned up.

The night before - all is calm.

This was a funny sight - straight after I took this photo these guys from Fox got in trouble with ESPN because they didn't have media passes. heh.

After that was tailgating and football! Geoff cooked up some meat, I made cookies and

cupcakes and we headed off to the game.

I really enjoy football, so I was looking forward to what I expected to be a tight match - but this was just ridiculous. The tension in the air was incredible, and when we finally won - it was literally bedlam - strangers were hugging each other and people were going absolutely mental as soon as the final whistle blew all of us just charged at the field - event staff didn't stop us - I think they were expecting it (though I did later hear that around 30 people were arrested). As we just kind of swayed together on the field I looked to my right and saw people carrying the goalposts up the bleachers and out of the stadium!

Later on we headed to Harpo's where we found the goalposts - in tiny pieces. People had been cutting it up so they could take little pieces of history home with them.

It really was a sight to see.

I really honestly don't think I will ever experience anything like that ever again - it was an amazing experience and something I will treasure for a long time :)

rushing the field!

final score: 36-27

4802 - Journalistic video on the web

"Mysterious tree poisoner strikes again"

http://www.3news.co.nz/The-mysterious-tree-poisoner-strikes-again/tabid/1216/articleID/182312/Default.aspx

For the most part, I think this news story is pretty solid, I like how they introduce interviewees (in a visual sense) before the sound bite and I like the use of archival footage to highlight what has been happening in the story so far. The one thing that did bother be a bit was the reporter sound bite during the story - we didn't really have any need to see her as previous images had already established a context and setting.

I think if this story had been made for print, it would have been a lot shorter. When you think about it, this story is basically a follow-up from an incident that happened 2 years ago, I felt the video story dragged a little bit (probably because the b-roll clips were pretty long) so if they were going to turn this into a print story a lot of it would have to be tightened up - quotes shortened a bit and everything made a little bit more succinct.

Also, because it is a video story - and it relies largely on images to tell some of the story, the print version would have to be much less ambiguous so readers know exactly what is going on.

language barrier

Incident at Subway today:

So, I go up to the counter to pay for my order.

Girl: What did you order?

Me: 6 inch Meatball sub

Girl: Sorry, pardon?

Me: 6 inch Meatball

Girl: 6 inch... what?

Me: Meatball

Girl: BIG BALLS?!

Me: MEATBALL!! MEAT!

Girl: Oooooooh meatball... *giggle*

Me: .........................

Oh the joys of having an accent.

Debate

This is my final column for Debate for this semester, I will try very very hard to keep up with this from here on in - but we'll see. Like I have said many times, American work ethic is crazy, no wonder they go shit crazy when they study in New Zealand.

Being my final column for the year, I feel like I should say something meaningful about my time studying abroad, but to be honest – I have nothing. While you all may be wrapping up your school year and hurtling toward that little light at the end of the tunnel we all know as summer, I am only 7 weeks in to my semester and there are so many things I am yet to experience and discover about this country whose culture is as vast as it’s geography. Though, the longer I am here – the more certain aspects of American life become more apparent.

For one, this ain’t no fashion show. People here just don’t care, in fact, if need be 95% of the student population would have the potential to spontaneously work out if they ever felt the need. Honestly though, I’ve seen it all here, from your run of the mill running shorts through to polar fleece penguin pyjama pants – fashion is not considered to be an important part of school here, and you know what? I really enjoy it, it’s a liberating feeling knowing that people aren’t actively judging you based on whether your hair is in a top knot.

At first, this lack of fashion sense perplexed me, but now I understand. It’s not that they don’t care, it’s just that they are literally running around 24/7 and sneakers and running shorts are just more practical than Docs. College here is not just a facet of a person’s life, it’s a lifestyle in itself – these people have weekdays full of class, group meetings, club meetings, intramural sports then they have weekends of football and tailgating (which as you know from my last column is an experience in itself). Students here live and breathe college life, especially where I am in the School of Journalism.

Needless to say, I came in to this adventure with some very solid ideas of what I thought I was getting myself into, of course all of those expectations have been blown to oblivion. America has surprised me, I definitely didn’t expect American’s to be so welcoming and to be frank, I didn’t expect them to be so normal. Yes, you get your crazies – like the homeless guy downtown who plays the Didgeridoo, the old musician in Beverly Hills who tried to follow me back to my apartment, or the children in Dallas on the street corner who told me I was going to hell for my sins – but every place has its crazies, and in all honesty it makes our world a more interesting place to be.

I’m sad I can’t share the rest of my journey with you – my first real Halloween, or learning how to shoot a gun over Thanksgiving, or the first day of snow (ETA approximately 4 weeks – furry hat and boots have been purchased). But I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about just a few of my experiences. Studying abroad has certainly been hard at times, but I don’t regret one moment of it.

So for now, I’ll leave you trying to do what I said I would in my first column. I’m going with the flow, rolling with the punches and taking every day as it comes.

4802 - Video: My thoughts so far

So, I have just submitted my first video piece for 4802, which was an interesting experience. While I have a scattering of experience filming and editing video (I have never been so thankful for the year long Media Production class I did last year at AUT as much as I was last weekend!) I have never filmed a journalistic piece, i've never interviewed someone for video or filmed b-roll for a news piece so it was a new experience for me in many ways.

On the whole, I was suprised at how much I enjoyed filming the women while they practiced as I didn't think I would enjoy it. Two of our readings directed my thoughts as I was shooting, the CNN article and the video techniques from Berkley. A lot of the tips were just common-sense things you don't normally think about and inadvertently do - for example, the Berkley article suggested we make sure our interview subjects don't have poles or anything awkward sticking out of their head, Lucy, the girl I interviewed had exactly that when she stood in front of the camera and I had to move her - if I hadn't read that article I wouldn't have recognised that at all. Related to that was the fact that you're not supposed to talk during shooting b-roll, coming in to this assignment I naively assumed that it wouldn't matter if I talked while I shot b-roll - though I was proved wrong.

I really appreciated the practical tips the CNN article had, one thing I was really worried about was what to film for my b-roll. But the CNN article (along with Lynda's "visual cha cha cha"!) gave me some perspective and I just tried to get as many different wide, mid and close up angles as possible so when I edited I had lots of options and could hopefully create a visually stimulating video. I don't quite know if I got the "cha cha" bit down, but I really tried and it certainly helped once I had to decide on final shots!

football season!

Americans are obscene, and I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean that everywhere I have gone thus far I have been surrounded by folk who aim for the absolute greatest and expect nothing lessfrom those around them. So, when I went to my first college football game of the season I knew I was going to have a whole lot of fun.

Football is a big deal in these parts, it’s not just a game, It’s a way of life. To give you some perspective, Game Day is even more important than God’s day of rest (and that’s saying a lot coming from the Bible Belt of the Midwest). People go all out. Parking lots turn into huge tailgates where from 7am families grill, drink, play football and drink some more.

I didn’t really know what to expect at first from my first football game. We were playing McNeese State, some no-name team from Louisiana who had been paid $500,000 to play our division one team. The general consensus was that Mizzou would slaughter McNeese,

so I was a little worried I was going to be bored. It was around the time I saw the Stealth Bomber (that oddly resembled a UFO) soaring over the stadium during the national anthem that I knew my purchase of season tickets had been a good investment. I definitely wasn’t bored. Hell, you didn’t even need to understand football to be having a good time.

To be honest – a Football game is something you can’t really describe, it’s something you have to experience. But I am going to try. Basically, take every football game you seen in a movie, every stereotype – the blonde Cheerleaders being tossed into the air, the marching band that struts in formation whilst wearing ridiculous hats, the 6ft football players who have the looks but lack a little wit, the baton twirlers and amplify all of that by about a million, I never thought I’d be saying this but ALL OF THE STEREOTYPES ARE TRUE! And it’s wonderful.

Like every school though, we do have a few quirks. For instance, when Mizzou scores a touch down or a field goal, members of the Army’s Reserve Officers Training Corps fire off a cannon (yes, a real cannon, I’m sure you can imagine my reaction the first time that happened, needless to say, It was embarrassing). After firing said cannon they then run to the touch line to perform push-ups in formation in accordance with the number of points Mizzou has on the scoreboard.

Then there are the cheers. They’re all pretty simple, and to be honest when I first learnt them I felt a little bit lame. But when you’re standing in a stadium with 60,000 other (slightly intoxicated) fans singing and dancing to Mizzou-Rah! or swaying in unison as The Missouri Waltz plays, there’s honestly no better feeling.

Before I came here I never thought I’d be the football type. The closest I’d ever got to football was studying Remember the Titans in 5^th Form English and even then I vowed I’d never like “that pansy version of Rugby”. But I guess even the strongest can be persuaded - with the help of a stealth bomber and a couple of pre-game drinks, that is.

wait... you mean american's are actually friendly?

I can’t believe this is about to come out of my mouth – believe you me I was surprised when the thought first popped into my head too… but I can’t believe how gosh darn friendly Americans are! I’m sure it’s one of those things that change throughout the regions – maybe if I went further south I’d meet up with those toothpick-chewin’, gun-slingin’ white-extremist folk we associate with the USA. But in my part of Missouri at least, it’s all about good old-fashioned hospitality and charm.

I’ve done my fair share of travelling, most of it by myself. When I lived in the UK I learnt quickly not to try and converse with strangers on public transport unless I wanted to be raped and/or mugged – here however it seems to be the norm. A couple of weeks ago I flew to Milwaukee to meet up with some friends, not only did the air hostess serenade us as we took off (a Tina Turner classic “Proud Mary”. True story) but I got chatting to the couple next to me, who in their heyday had visited New Zealand. The husband coincidentally was Mizzou alumni – so I left my flight with a list of places to visit and things to do in Columbia while I’m at school.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this attitude towards strangers. For the most part, I think it’s just the way people are raised here. Men open doors, pay for dinner, people say sir and ma’am (I’ve even found that slipping into my own vocabulary) sometimes while I’m out I really do feel like I’ve gone back in time to a place where people are considerate – and judging by some of the fashion I’ve seen, maybe I have.

A lot of it I’m sure may be to do with confidence. American’s have this aura that practically screams “I AM AMERICAN! I AM NOT ASHAMED!”… They know what they like and want, they strive to be the best and they’re not reluctant to be proud of each other and themselves. Most people call is arrogance; I chose to call it self-belief.

Though a lot of these niceties – especially within the service industry have nothing to do with grace, good breeding or pride. They’re just people out to suck every penny they can out of you. American’s are huge on tipping – it’s one of those cultural things I’ve had to become aware of really quickly – it’s incredibly rude not to tip a server, even if they’re obnoxious or bad at their job – there is always that expectation of at least a 15% tip with your meal. However, what results from this unwritten law is overly attentive, smiley, bright-eyed, sometimes annoying, money sucking individuals.

For now though I’m going to ignore the small majority of annoyingly nice people and enjoy the conversations that come about when strangers have the confidence to talk to each other. Not only does it make the lonely parts of my journey so much more enjoyable, I’m learning way more about this country than I ever could from Lonely Planet.

4802 - Final Audio: Looking back

Well, last week I submitted my NPR-style story as the last section of our audio assignment. In hindsight, all I can really conclude is that I had no idea what the heck I was doing!

I think I have a good grasp on the technical knowledge when it comes to editing, I learn fast on computers and i'm comfortable with putting all of this on to web so that aspect of it ran as smoothly as it could have.

There were two things that I really had trouble with - the first was trying to write for the ear, I had a lot of difficulty with telling the audience the basic facts they needed as well as being as succinct as possible in a way that engages an audience that only have audio to rely on. I tried really hard, but after listening to some of the other student examples in class, I realised I hadn't quite got it.

The other thing I had an issue with was weaving my soundbites into the story. During editing I was under the impression that letting the subject's story shine through required me to speak as little as possible so that's what I did, but now I realise there were some things I could have said more fluidly which would have 1) quickened the pace of the story and 2) highlighted the subjects really good soundbites that illustrate their point of view in the best way possible.

I'm by no means happy with my final audio, but I learned a lot during this process and hopefully i'll be able to redeem myself during the final project!

long time no see

I guess it's been a while since i've written something "proper" so to speak, what can I say - moving to the other side of the world and settling in to a new culture is a bit time-consuming

I think something will come soon, i'm itching to write something I actually think is decent, something i've constructed and thought out... if you didn't know while i'm in Missouri i'm a columnist for AUT's student magazine Debate... I can't decide how it's going, i've only really liked my first story - the rest have been a kind of rushed and not up to my standard of what I like to send out. Ah well, it's a good learning experience. And I think my next column will be FANTASTIC. So hurrah.

I suppose the main reason for the lack substance is school - I can't even describe how insane Americans are when it comes to Uni, like, they are legitimately crazy people. Thank god i'm organized, i'm running around like a headless chook as it is, I can't imagine what i'd be like without my day planner hahaha.

Speaking of school - you may have seen several posts labelled with 4802 here popping up more frequently than anything else, that is because there is a blog component to my Convergence class, so don't feel inclined to read it, it's just school work ;)

That's it, just thought i'd say hi. I guess I didn't really realize that there are actually people who read this from time to time... who'd-a thunk it huh?!

x

4802 - Collecting Audio

Collecting audio has been a pretty interesting experience so far - my first Thursday on the field was both exciting and challenging for several reasons.

On a technical note, the weather was insane - really strong winds and random bursts of heavy rain meant I had to be really careful with what I recorded, and even though I used my body as a wind shield there were still several tracks I couldn't use because of the wind. Luckily for me, I found an unlocked equipment shed so I ended up using that to conduct my interviews - kind of strange but it was a good way to break the ice with my interviewee Maggie!

Technical issues aside, the most difficult thing for me was actually conducting the interview. I'm not the most outgoing person and situations like this can make me quite nervous and intimidated. However, for a first go at interviewing I think I did OK. Obviously a lot to work on, but it's a start.

I started recording for my NPR track last Thursday and luckily I didn't run into the same weather issues. I interviewed assistant-coach Mike McKeen, who was clearly very passionate about what he was doing which made it a lot easier to interview him - plus I feel like my experience with Maggie the week before served as a good lead up, I definitely felt more confident in not only interviewing, but in using the equipment. I also got a bunch of great natural sound, and I'm feeling like I can improve on my last effort so i'm looking forward to seeing the rest of my audio piece take shape!

in love with: anthropologie

they have some seriously cute stuff right now. seriously.

anthropologie.com

4802 - Three Photos

I've just got back from rugby practice at Epples field where i've been shooting my first 4802 assignment. I'm following Mizzou's women's Rugby team this season - the girls are feisty, and a little intimidating but the for the most part they were all really friendly and are in essence a great big extended family. Today was pretty much a recruitment day, introducing all the rookies to the rules and nuances of Rugby.

I'm not gonna lie - I was a little cocky coming into this one. I feel like I have an eye for composition, and i'm not new to using a DSLR so I thought it'd be pretty easy to breeze through it.

Boy was I wrong.

What I had also forgotten to take into account was the fact I was no longer shooting static images - sports photography is a completely new ball game and I found it extremely challenging in many ways.

While I was taking photos I tried to keep the reading on sports photography in mind by following the tips on vantage point and horizon... a couple of my favorite shots were taken while I was lying on the ground shooting the players above me - it gave me a clear view of all the action and on a more practical note helped reduce camera shake and blur.

Shooting in the fading light also produced some challenges. Because some of my pictures were taken with a telephoto lens I had to keep the shutter speed high which meant when I couldn't get the aperture down low enough I had to deal with under-exposure. When this happened I upped the ISO which often made a massive difference.

The whole time I was there I just tried to take as many photos as possible - you can only learn so much from a manual and i'm not going to get any better at sports photography by sitting on my behind. Yes, it was challenging, and certainly intimidating coming into a new environment like this, but it was a great experience and I look forward to moving forward with this team.

light and shade

JOURN 4802 - my thoughts on the backpack journalist

With the massive development of Internet as a source for news, backpack journalism is hard to ignore. Whether we like it or not, this is our future.

While it is easy to focus on the pros of a “jack of all trades” journalist (economically speaking), there are obvious flaws. Martha Stone argues that backpack journalism fosters mediocrity and results in poor quality images, audio and video pieces. It’s almost impossible for someone to excel at everything so what may be seen as a way to promote efficiency could end up resulting in below-par journalism.

For backpack journalism to be a positive and exciting development, news organizations need to realize that journalism doesn’t follow some one-size-fits-all rule of reporting. Different situations require different approaches, and sometimes backpack journalism will work, as highlighted by Preston Mendonhall.

In other cases, producer-driven reporting may be a more efficient use of time. Yes, you may have more reporters on a single story, you may need to invest more into it, but you will end up with a story that plays to the strengths of each contributor – one that’s more in-depth and arguably of a higher quality.

what you think you want

People who have curly hair want straight hair. Those who are short wish they could be a little bit taller. Fair people wish they could tan with out looking like a beetroot. It always works like that – you always want something you don’t have.

In the weeks leading up to my departure from New Zealand I was yearning for some sunshine. I remember one day in particular. I was walking from campus down Wellesley St and the rain was absolutely hammering down – the water had soaked through my boots, my feet and socks were drenched and I smelt like a wet dog. During my walk down Wellesley there was only one thought running through my mind that whole time.

Two more weeks. You only have two more weeks.

Now I’m in Columbia, Missouri and it seems I’ve gone from one extreme to another. Sure – there’s no fog, no cold and no dark nights. But that has all been replaced by blistering heat and humidity so high it would ruin any GHD perfected hair do.

Midwestern weather is crazy, unpredictable and extreme. In the 5 days I’ve been here I’ve had winds so strong I’ve nearly been blown over, hail stones the size of 50c pieces, rain so heavy and thick I haven’t been able to see 2ft in front of me, and of course the heat.

Oh, the heat.

I don’t think I can explain how hot it is here – with temperatures at between 35-40 degrees on any given day it certainly has been a shock to the system and I’ve still got at least two months of this.

Then there are the thunderstorms – another thing the Midwest is known for, along with their tornados. While I am yet to feature in any upcoming reality TV shows on extreme weather, I did experience my first Midwestern summer squall.

I was completely oblivious to the approaching bad weather. I had gone out for ice cream with a friend, when we left, there was nothing to suggest we were about to be attacked by Columbia’s bipolar climate – the skies were blue, the sun was out and the air was still. By the time we walked out of the ice cream parlour, the sky was full of ominous black clouds and the winds were so strong I had to fight my way to the car. About two minutes after that the rain came, pummelling us. Two minutes after that came the storm.

By the time I arrived home, I was drenched head to toe and I smelt like wet dog – just like I had been walking down Wellesley. I had quite literally come full circle from where I’d been a few weeks ago. It seems wherever I go, no matter how hard I try; I’m not going to escape what I think I’m leaving behind.

Control

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it” – John Steinbeck

That John Steinbeck is a smart guy, in less than 20 words he has managed to perfectly explain the last month of my life.

Let me digress for a moment; I need to tell you what I should be doing whilst I write this column: I should be sipping on a Margarita looking out on to Venice Beach. I should be buying tacky souvenirs and celeb stalking. I should be turning a lovely golden shade of brown. I should be able to wear a swimsuit without catching pneumonia. I should be (window) shopping on Rodeo Drive. However, I am not.

Why?

Because I thought I could control my journey.

This semester, I am farewelling our clean, green shores and heading off to the United States for a semester abroad at the University of Missouri’s school of Journalism. I like to think that generally, I’m a pretty laidback person. This process has proved otherwise. As it turns out, when I travel I have the most ridiculous tendency to want to control everything down to the finest detail.

Want an example? Frances was so convinced of her own skills of persuasion that she thought she’d be able to change rules enforced by the United States Government. Because I like planning so much, I decided to get my tickets early against the advice of travel agents who suggested I get my visa first. However the temptation of sparkly sales proved to be too much. My normally expensive return tickets to LA were cheap and cheerful so I thought what the heck, not much can stop me, right?

Wrong.

Turns out the American Government have every right to stop me. The Visa I needed had restrictions on when you could enter and leave the country. To be precise, my visa stipulated that I mustn’t enter the USA any more than 30 days before my programme started and the tickets I had booked (during said sales) had me arriving 36 days before my programme started.

However, in my little fantasy world I didn’t think that would be a problem. I mean, I knew I was arriving a little early but it was less than a week… I was sure if I just talked to them, they’d be reasonable, right?

Wrong.

Believe you me, I tried to talk to them. I tried to reason. I battered my eyelashes, flashed a cheeky grin, flipped my hair and did everything I could to epitomise grace, charm and wit.

They weren’t having any of it.

Seven days and $975 in additional fees later, I am sitting in gate 16 at Auckland Airport, ready as I can be for my flight to LA… or as ready as I want to be anyway.

I always knew this experience would be life changing, I was aware that by making this move I would be testing everything I think I know about the world from the 21 short years I have existed on this planet. I guess I just didn’t realise I’d be learning things before I even boarded my plane.

So, for now – I’m letting go. I’m rolling with it, taking things as they come and hoping and praying I can keep my feet on the ground.

LA

Wow, well where do I begin. After around 22 hours of security, flying time and transit I arrived in LA on Friday night where my friend Sarah picked me up. LA is huge – really, words do not describe the scope of this city.

I spent the majority of my time in south LA near the USC campus with my friend Kacey. This area has been known in the past to be kinda dodgy, and it was a complete change from the streets of San Pedro where I had been staying the day before – though it was nothing too crazy.

My first stop was the fashion district in downtown LA. The fashion district is a market of sorts (think Victoria Park Market) with millions of shops and stalls selling just about everything. Like the majority of places like this, the stalls got more repetitive as you walked through and many places sold similar kinds of stuff. Kacey joked that by doing this I could visit Mexico without paying the $140 visa fee, when I got there I realised what she meant. This is honestly, one of the few times I’ve ever been a part of the minority. It wasn’t anything I had necessarily paid much attention to, but I think I did feel slightly intimidated by it all – that along with the heat made for a pretty interesting morning.

In the afternoon we headed to Venice Beach, which is known for its crazies. The main street facing the beach is lined with bars, crafty stalls and people trying to sell their wares (CD demos and the like) – the atmosphere was awesome though and it was absolutely packed. After laying on the beach for a while we went and watched these awesome roller blade dancers dancing to cheesy 70’s music and saved Kacey’s friend Cassie who had a flat tyre.

That evening I experienced 2 of the best things in the world. Mexican and Yogurt Land. The girls wanted me to experience authentic Mexican rather than what they called ‘cali mexican’ so we went to the smallest, dirtiest, dingiest place we could find.

It. Was. So. Good.

Of course, because I am in America, the portion sizes were way to massive for me, I could only manage half my burrito before I felt like I was about to explode, but it was sooo good. I’ll be definitely be eating more Mexican while I’m here.

Then there was Yogurtland later that evening.

OH. MY. GOD.

Yogurtland in a nutshell is basically self-serve frozen yogurt. You choose as many flavours as you want and as much as you want and then they have all these dry toppings like Granola and chocolate chips and fresh fruit – pretty much anything you could imagine. They have all these crazy flavours as well and it’s all sooooo good, plus they sell it by the ounce so it can be pretty cheap.

On Sunday our lives pretty much revolved around traffic – we spent the day driving around and taking in the sights. First we drove through Hollywood past all the stars and the Kodak theatre etc before heading to Mulholland Drive which is pretty much were all the famous people live – unfortunately no stars were spotted this time but the houses were massive and the views of the city were amazing. After that we headed down sunset and went to this cute little farmers market which was full of amazing looking food including all these weird mountain mushrooms and this fruit that’s a hybrid of a plum and an apricot which was green on the outside and purple on the inside… I don’t know whether you can get them in New Zealand but they’re AMAZING.

After that we tried to head to Malibu and sort of did, but because it was a Sunday and because it was their first weekend of decent weather the traffic was INSANE. We were pretty much at a standstill for the couple of hours we were driving down the Pacific Coast Highway. I really loved LA but to be honest I don’t think it would be a place I could ever live. Mainly because of the traffic and lack of public transport, it really is atrocious.

That evening Sarah had a family dinner at home so I stayed with Kacey at her place where we got through a couple of bottles of wine and had a bit of a catch up which was really cool. Kacey doesn’t have power in her apartment at the moment, though luckily she does have a plug just outside her door – so it was pretty funny having to switch all the plugs over so we could get some light from a lamp/watch a movie on the computer/charge something. Of course, I was pretty jetlagged and I fell asleep at like 7pm (the wine may have also had something to do with that though…) but after I woke up Kacey took me for a tour of her old university, USC which is just down the road.

USC is a private university and from the outside doesn’t look much, but when you actually walk through campus it is quite beautiful – apparently USC and UCLA are generally universities that are used in movies when they need a high school/college location so next time I watch a movie I’ll be keeping my eyes peeled!

Monday was my last day in LA – both Kace and Sarah were working but Kacey works in the Beverly Hills area so she dropped me off there to explore Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. This place is obscene in so many ways and I think it really personifies everything you imagine LA to be – flashy cars, designer clothes and mansions. The neighbourhood itself is very beautiful – if a bit pretentious. The houses are incredible though I did have a bit of an issue trying to understand how these people can actually justify living the way they do, so that made me a bit uncomfortable but it is a beautiful area. Rodeo Drive was much of the same, all I could think of the whole time I was walking down there was Pretty Woman haha but it was a really nice area – very scenic and great for people watching.

My last night was spent drinking and eating – the three of us hit a couple of bars downtown including this awesome rooftop bar called the standard which had amazing views of the city and water beds. After that we headed to In N Out burger which is this famous takeout you can only get on the west coast… iiiit was pretty damn good. The burgers were amazing, not too keen on the fries coz they were covered in fake melted cheese but the burgers were really good. It was pretty much a heart attack in a box if I’m being honest but it needed to be done!

That’s all to report from LA, I’ve been in Columbia for 4 days now so I’ll send out another one of these soon – maybe after I get back from Chicago.

Hope everyone is well and remember to check out next weeks issue of debate (I’ll be in every 2^nd issue until the end of semester)

x

in the kitchen

When I have a lazy afternoon (or if i'm lucky, a whole day) there's nothing I love more than mucking around in the kitchen. I am no by no means a food connoisseur, and to be honest i'm not a future master chef either. But I love creating things from scratch, adapting old recipes, and playing with flavours to make something amazing.

One of my favourite things to do is to bake bread. No breadmakers, no powders or pre-made mixers. Just some flour, water, a bit of yeast and some good old sunshine :) Sometimes I make it flashy, by braiding the dough or adding secret spices to make is sizzle, but this time I kept it simple and made a gorgeous onion and herb loaf.

I also had a block of chocolate to use up that I didn't know what to do with - I could have made my almost world-famous chocolate chunk cookies but I felt like something new. So, my boyfriend gave me his chocolate pie recipe which was a bit exciting to try (though he forgot to tell me at what temp to bake for and for how long... I figured it out though :P )

I think I did a good job for first try, tasted pretty damn good too...

Yum :)

I'm gonna miss not having endless resources and a bottomless pantry when I move out of home again.

Food for Thought

Why is it that food such a focal point in life? Stop and think about it for a moment, you may be surprised to realize how instrumental a part food plays in life. It’s your shoulder to cry on, it fosters relationships, enables connections between unlikely comrades, it is crucial in times of celebration and as I recently found out, it is absolutely vital in times of distress. Because when we are distressed, we bake.

Why is it that food such a source of comfort? We all know that food has been present through the ages. Since the beginning of time it has been there to nourish and sustain life. And, like the creatures on this earth it has evolved along with us. From birth, human beings are taught to rely on food - a crying baby will have their troubles soothed through the breast of its Mother. It seems to me the idea of food as a comfort mechanism is instilled within us from a young age. Food takes us away from our worries, and for a few glorious seconds it makes us forget.

I recently found out the power of food to alleviate gloom when a family friend passed. When we found out, mum and I headed to the kitchen to bake for the family – there was something oddly therapeutic about it. Maybe it was the act of making something from scratch – of using our hands to release emotion. Or maybe it was the fact that by creating something we could possibly bring joy to another person, to contribute to the betterment of a situation.

This was particularly seen during WWI and II when worried mothers, daughters and lovers sent care packages containing homemade cookies and cakes to their loved ones abroad. This was their way of helping the war effort – not only did it make them feel like they were contributing to the betterment of a bleak situation, by giving soldiers a little taste of home it boosted morale and reminded them who they were fighting for.

Like the care packages sent to war-torn countries, our baking had the same affect and unsurprisingly we weren’t the only people that had baked. We all sat around the kitchen table where we ate, talked, laughed, and reconnected. The circumstances were the same, but for a brief moment in time we were able to put the sadness to the side and just be happy.

No, our baking didn’t change the world. It didn’t stop imminent disasters, and it didn’t make the reality of the situation any less unpleasant but it served its purpose. It comforted, it bridged lost relationships and most importantly it brought small smiles to the faces of those who needed it most.

home

be mine

romantique

I need more time!

"There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want."

~Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes

Stress is like that pervy uncle you have; he’s the person you feel kind of obliged to talk to at family reunions. You avoid him at all costs but if you are confronted by him you screw a smile on, nod politely and get the job done before getting the hell out of there.

And in the end, screwing the smile and getting on with it has its benefits. Come Christmas you’re reaping the rewards when Uncle Joe sends you a big fat cheque in his Christmas card.

At this point of the year, this is the attitude I’m trying to embrace.

In 3 weeks, I’m moving back home. Ten days after that I am hopping on a big silver bird and heading off to the University of Missouri to study Journalism.

While I am thrilled to be starting an adventure that even I’m surprised I pulled off, with the excitement comes a huge amount of stress.

At the moment I’m juggling my normal life: a life with my friends, time with the boyfriend, school and exams (crap!) and work commitments along with all the things that is brought about by student exchange. Meetings with heads of my department, student loan forms, international advisors to liaise with, consulate interviews to attend. Holiday visas, DS-109 forms, class choices, accommodation, SEVIS fees, RPL, flights, insurance, packing… you get the idea.

In a nutshell, right now I feel like not enough butter spread on too much bread. I’m giving a little to a lot of people when all I really want is to give a lot to the people who really care for me.

I’m hoping, after these next few weeks I’ll start reaping the rewards from what to-date has been 9 months of working and planning. And who knows, maybe at the end of it I’ll get that big fat cheque.

i can't wait till i'm rich again