Work Experience

I am really loving my work experience.

So I spent my first week at the great website handbag.com. Although I was not nervous on my first day, on my way to Oxford Circus (the office is just around the corner)I actually thought how am I going to cope with helping to create a website when my IT skills are not the most advanced.
But everything was fine. It was great, actually. The whole team was extremely welcoming and lovely and gave me loads of work to do straight away. So I've managed to get my work published on lifestyle, the latest tv series etc.etc. It was great to puut all the theory we've learned in the first term to practise and it was even better to realise that all the struggling with getting my head around news writing, law and features really paid off.
During my week at handbag I really felt that I had gained a great insight into the industry (consumer magazines that is) and learned valuable things such as how to build a website.
I actually didn't want to leave and on my last day! Alaina (the lifestyle editor) offered me to come back anytime and even said that if they have a job going in the future, they'd love to have me and gave me a thank you card and little present(were they so happy that I left I ask myself?!) well, I was chuffed and very very happy that my work experience had gone so well (I feel very bad for bragging on about it, please forgive me...!)

So I was extremely motivated for my second placement that started last week Monday at the Sunday Times Style Magazine. I was nervous this time, I have to admit.It was all about security and checking that I was really the intern when I arrived at News International. (I didn't kknow that The Times shares a building with The Sun and News of the World, very intersting!) After finally issuing me with my pass I was greeted by this incredibly stylish and lovely woman Gemma. I met the whole team and everyone was very welcoming. Then Gemma gave me my 'features desk work experience folder' and I read through my daily schedule in horror: 10 am: check post. distribute post. 12 am: check fax machine. distribute faxes. My day was structered with mind-numbing tasks from 10 am til 6 pm. I thought Chris's prediction of big nnewspapers/magazines had come true: I would be distributing post and making coffee the whole day.
but luckily the schedule has been ignored as much as possible so far. I get to do research, organise interviews etc, but I am also gaining journalistic insights.

I think the best thing about the work experience so far has been that I am very much enjoying what I am doing and that the positive feedback I have received so far shows me that I can do it. All of this is great news as I had many doubts before.

I hope all of your work experiences are going well(and as I've read, they've been/still are) great!Looking forward to seeing you all soon. xx

Writing exercise:
As part of the course i have been asked to write a comment piece on Stonehenge….
Please note that the article does not represent my personal opinions!


Who needs Stonehenge?

Stonehenge should win the prize of Britain’s dullest and most boring tourist attraction.

I can’t imagine any Japanese tourist wanting to spend more than 23 hours on a plane flying from Osaka all the way to the small island called Britain just to watch a few stones rotting away.

They’d be standing in the middle of nowhere - also referred to as Wiltshire – having paid a fortune for their family ticket (£ 14.95), staring at a few grey bricks.

If Britain wants their touists to encounter suicidal tendencies while visiting their island, that’s the way forward!

Quite frankly, tourists could get a view of old bricks uselessly taking up space for free by going to one of London’s many housing estates – grey concrete everywhere and if they want a bit of nature, they can just go to the top floor and enjoy the view.

The English Heritage is wasting vast amounts of tax payers’ money every year on a bunch of stones, rocks and other rotting pieces when the money could be spent on modern, high-tech tourist attractions such as an interactive museum on the highly dysfunctional Royal Family, suiting the needs of our Japanese friends, each one of tehm equipped with i-pods, cameras and video recorders, much more.

Stonehenge just isn’t modern enough for today's world, and even though the British are famous for being old – fashioned, someone should pull down those useless stones and do some good by giving the free land to a local Wiltshire farmer.


The only person upset by this would be the Queen who probably made Stonehenge up to get rid of a few tourists standing in front of Buckingham Palace distracting her from having afternoon tea.

12.05 University of Westminster –
In the Library


The grey doors frequently opens – letting in hoards of people, excitedly chatting away, their eyes wandering around the book shelves that dominate the softly lit room.

English, Chinese, African, Indian – scattering around the big turquoise tables displaying signs stating “ Quiet Study Area.”

Multiculturism restricted to a single room. An explosive mixture of cultures not made for keeping quiet.

Two women in loosely fitted, long, black dresses, their hair carefully disguised by dark, silky headscarves are passing a group of dressed up girls, swinging their hips. Long dangly earrings and religiously straightened hair frame their made –up faces. Their choice of soles for the day – knee-high boots – are determining their state of souls.

Tons of pink blusher and shiny lip-gloss sparkle. Their doll –like faces are highlighted by the ceiling’s lighting, their underlying personalities drowned by this artificiality.

A girl’s big brown eyes quickly glance over the numerous bookshelves, then get fixated on a group of boys, sporting tracksuits, baseball caps and big golden chains around their necks. Gangster’s paradise.

“You gettin’ me, he’s a rubbish lecturer, man. Fuckin’ hell,” one of them angrily blurts out in the thickest South-London accent, then noticing his admirer. His head turns as she leaves the room with a mischievous grin on her face, happy that she has been spotted – in contrast to the books.

They still are left unnoticed, carefully ordered according to their subjects and titles.

“Social Issues in British Society”, “ Ethics – a Feminist Reader”, “ Karl Marx “ – titles merely left to catch dust on the shelves, only picked up by the odd one out.

A wrinkled, grey-haired man wearing glasses frantically tries to keep down the noise - then a phone goes off -

"Bro, i'm in the library, innit..."

The old man resigns and goes back to sit in front of his desk, exhaustedly staring into space.

"IT IS HARD NEWS THAT CATCHES THE READERS.
FEATURES HOLD THEM."
Lord Northcliffe

"Man muss Chaos in sich haben, um einen tanzenden Stern zu gebaehren."
Friedrich Nietzsche

"You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star."
Friedrich Nietzsche