My internship experience has so far proven to be pretty good. Aside from the fact that I missed the first day because I was sick and suffer from motion sickness on the 2 and half hour train/bus rides here it’s been preeettttyyyyy sssaaawwweeeettttt! (Sorry Des I had to write it like that) haha.

I feel sorry for my dear HB aka Hannah who sits faithfully on the bus next to me while I try to not vomit (damn motion sickness) but thank you dear. Her wonderful parents pick us up everyday from the newspaper and drop me off to Caboolture train station which cuts my travel time (coming back) in half – Hannah do tell your parents that I heart them very much.

On my first day (Tuesday) I had a headache and wanted to vomit – symptoms of motion sickness mixed with nerves. I was a mess but I walked in and everything didn’t explode in my face as I thought it would. Shirley Sinclair the Features editor of the Sunshine Coast Daily, who reminds me of my favourite primary school teacher, gave me a little run down of the office, like who sat where and what not (which I did not take in at all) and then I had to sign papers and all that boring stuff. After that she picked an empty desk for me to work at and started feeding me story leads that I could follow.

And no Des, nothing controversial or any form of hard news has been given to me (THANK GOD) haha KIDDING. But feature stories about mums and babies, weddings, hip hop festivals and I was allowed to follow up my own lead on yes FASHION – FORMAL FASHION WOOHOO!! 😀 That has been my favourite feature to do so far (I know right! what a surprise! har har har).

The atmosphere here at the SCD is so relaxed and everyone is very friendly — so friendly in fact that last Friday at the news meeting (they called it “Sharing the love meeting” LOL) all the Journos (including the editor) would chant “WE LOVE YOU (insert persons name)” as each journo walked in. I thought it was so funny I actually did LOL but yeah I think that is enough to say that the relationship is very family-like.

I’ve noticed a lot of youngins in the office which made me feel more comfortable knowing that I was working with people close to my age, so that has given me a bit of relief. I’ve had some lovely chats to the journos and they are all so helpful especially Shirley who (as HB mentioned) will through my stories line by line to tell me where I’m going wrong and where I’m not. So thank you Shirley! 😀

HB and I have been to court with the court reporter – which was pretty fun and I am yet to hassle a photographer into letting me accompany him to a shoot (all the photographers are male btw).

I must say that I am defs missing the city! Sorry but I’m sooo NOT a beach/nature person. I miss the city so much that when the internship is over I am going straight to the city during the two week holiday *cough* sorry I meant uhm during the two week learn-your-damn-teeline-and-get-your-portfolio-together.

Anyway I am having an alright time at the newspaper and I hope that all you Jscholars are having a lovely time too and I can’t wait to hear your exciting stories! xD YAY!

*To the kiddies of next years Jschool, I would say if you live in Brisbane or near Brisbane and intern at the SCD, DO NOT think that it’s easy wake up uber early in the morning and endure a 2 and a half hour train/bus ride to the Sunshine Coast everyday for two weeks. Why? Because well it’s not! So I say: stay at a motel or tell some family members to move here so you can stay with them (only joking). That way you can sleep in and check out some of the ammmaaaazzziiinnnggg Boutiques here (which I unfortunately haven’t been able to do weh weh weh). Anyway guys Good luck 😀