HIGHLIGHTS - from study abroad

•GREECE TRIP (everything about it)
•Going to Paris, seeing the Louvre, Musee D’Orsay, and the Pierre Lachez
•London Eye on Alex’s visit
•Tower Bridge on Valentines day
•My first gay bar experience with Liza and Martin…lol
•Tower of London with Mom
•Billy Elliot
•Buying wine, cheese and baguettes in Paris
•Having Ouzo and gyros in Greece
•Whiskey in Scotland
•Riding double-decker buses like it’s my job, getting lost and seeing the city at the same time
•Building the biggest snowman of all time in Hyde Park during the storm
•Watching the inauguration while overseas
•Shopping for London fashion at Primark

...all these make me happy, there are many more but I'll have to give it more thought

Did You Know...

•Fraternities and sororities do not exist in Britain. I had to explain to my co-workers what they were and get the Animal House stereotype out of their heads
•Can’t find lobster anywhere or microwave popcorn
•“Dodgy” is a common word for the American phrase “hit or miss”
•"Quid” is like saying “bucks”
•College means high school
•The word mobile is used instead of cell
•I’ve heard Glenna refer to toilet paper as a “loo roll” on multiple occasions
•British people do not say “what’s up”
•American music was played in every European country I visited

My Submission to Fail blog

Took this on the Greece cruise. LOLZ.
moar funny pictures

Jason Mraz Interview

Hey Everybody!

I hope you have had a chance to scroll through the last couple of posts to see highlights from my Greece vacation! The video series and photos are there and I'm going to write our day-by-day itinerary when I get a chance to breathe. This week is kinda crazy between packing, finishing up my internship on Friday, a presentation and three papers - such a culture shock after relaxing in the Mediterranean for four days. It's getting to be countdown time - 10 more days before I make my epic return to Boston. Feels a bit bittersweet. I plan on writing a post about how I've changed and what I've learned - a perspective sort of thing. Unfortunately I probably won't have time to get to it until I get back, so stay tuned!

I do have news though! It's why I'm posting, actually. Jason Mraz got back to me and answered my interview questions! Please check out the link to the story, I'm proud of it.

www.threesacrowdonline.com

Much love,
A

GREECE PHOTOS

The long-awaited GREECE NARRATED VIDEO SERIES!

I have never been on a cruise before, let alone a cruise through the Greek islands. Having no idea what to expect, I was PUMPED to see how picture-perfect our boat The Aquamarine was. Pool, basketball court, all you can eat buffet, bright blue Aegean waters...I immediately got a sunburn.

This video is from our first island destination - Mykonos! Out of all the places we visited, this one seemed to be the most picture-perfect with white-washed houses, windmills, and panoramic views.

Here's the little beach we found in Mykonos. As the sun was beginning to set, we skipped stones on the water. It felt so good to be at a beach again!

Here we are in RHODES!

The next day we only had a few hours in Patmos. This video and the next are from the nature hike we took to the top on Easter Sunday. Then after doing a time check and realizing we had ten minutes to get down a mountain that took 30mins to hike up we sprinted down to make the second to last boat back to the ship. Close call...

Next destination = Turkey! We pulled into Kusadasi and had a chance to walk around the bazaar. I ended up chatting with this shopkepper who was sending his son to the University of Chicago in the United States. It was really interesting to hear his thoughts about American schools, so I decided to interview him.

Here is pigeon island in Turkey!

On our last night the Louis cruise staff sang to us at dinner. You can see how many plates of food we went through. Two dinners each? Yes.

Here's my concluding video to the Greece series. On the last day in Athens before catching our flight, Jon and I walked up to the Acropolis and through some ruins from Olympia. Here are the ruins.

GREECE

Just got back from the trip of a lifetime.

VIP tickets – Jeff Dunham

Hey Guys!

Last night I went to the Hammersmith Apollo Theater (an amazingly huge theater venue) to see the sold out show of comedian Jeff Dunham.

Free VIP tickets for me and some of the people I work with at 3AC. Perks! I went just to enjoy myself - not even to report although it is always an option.



Because Mark knows Jeff's agent, we got killer seats near the front of the stage where you can actually see the act. "Guitar Guy" opened for him and was hilarious.

For those of you who don't know Jeff Dunham - he is a popular American ventriloquist comedian who appears a lot on Comedy Central. He came to BU last year and I wanted to go, but didn't end up getting tickets. He is known for having one of the most popular YouTube videos of all time for his sketch with Achmed the Dead Terrorist. (I believe it was the 6th most popular youtube vid at one point).



It was really funny because this is the first show he's done abroad and had to adapt the jokes.

"I'll kill you for a Klondike bar...oh shit they don't have those here do they? I'll kill you for...oh what is it...bangers and mash!"

He also made fun of the toilets here – it gets confusing with the two buttons.

Haha, I'm gonna stop trying to repeat the jokes. It's funny because the people I went with (brits from 3AC) hadn't even heard of him. It was great, something I know about. Last time I felt out of the loop 'cause I had no idea who Spandau Ballet or Take That was. I could relate to a lot of Jeff's jokes about an American finding their way in London...

After the show we headed to the VIP lounge to have a drink and wait for Jeff to show up. When he did get there I was planning on asking him for a quick video interview with my camera (I had prepared myself with what to say) but he just popped in for a second. I did take some video though (see bellow).

What a great night!

<3 A

Turning out my pockets

GREECE:

Flight - $376

Cruise - $184.52

Hostel - $14.76

Spending money - 145 euro/$192.76

Total = $767



oy. Is this too much to be spending for a 4 day cruise? Would anyone like to sponsor my study abroad experience?

Abbey Road

Now don't be fooled - that smile on my face is from crossing the street without being hit by a car. It's a really busy street!

Abbey Road Studios - where the Beatles recorded

The Cream of the Crop - PHOTOS

Hey Everybody!

Here's a slideshow of some of the best photos (in my opinion) that I've taken during my time in London. If there are one or two that strike you, let me know and I'll print it out and frame it as a gift. That's what I've decided to do instead of souvenirs.

Enjoy.

New Articles!

For those who haven't seen the stuff I've published for my internship at Three's A Crowd, here are some of my stories you can check out -

Michael Jackson's Comeback Announcement

Rubbish to Runway

OfficePOD

He's Not That Into You Movie Review

Spandau Ballet

Young Victoria Review

Musee d' Orsay Video

Not that spectacular without my narration, I know.

Paris Trip #2

Now I went to Paris a while ago (March 19-22) but never actually posted anything about it in my blog. What I've decided to do it put a couple photos up along with the post I wrote on Alex's facebook wall about the weekend. (It's like a brief synopsis.)

Paris is great, I've gone to the famous cemetery where jim morrison and oscar wilde are buried, jardin tulieries, spent the night at the Louvre where I finally saw the mona lisa, today I got up early and went to the musee de orsay and saw reniors monets klimt and degas. I went on my own and it was amazing. Listened to Dave and got to see the paintings I've loved since art class in fifth grade. I was so happy seeing Millet's works, Whistler's Mother, and Van Gogh's self-portrait. Afterward I met up with liza, walked down Champs Elysee and saw the Arch de Triumph. Then we went to the Jardin de Luxembourgh. My feet are killing me. I bought a print of one of Degas' paintings...I'll post a pic of it...

Day 1 pics:


Day 2 pics:

Notting Hill

Watching Notting Hill tonight cause I explored Portobello Road this afternoon!

:)

My Night in Prison...I mean...Oxford

I had a complaint (ahem..DAD) that my blog has too much text and not enough photos. So, here are some pics from this weekend that I spent in Oxford with Glenna and Robin for the Lit Festival.




The Bodleian Library (one of the many buildings).




The hotel we stayed at used to be a prison for Oxford Castle. Here is one of the cell doors. Every three cells was made into a room.




The grad school

My Reflective Paper

Where is Journalism Going?
A Reflective Paper
By Anna Webster
Internship Tutorial Final Assignment



Being a journalist means being a jack of all trades. The traditional answer of “I like to write” to explain the career no longer works. You have to like to write, edit, take photos, take video, market yourself, make websites, network with PR reps, and stay up into the wee hours of the morning surviving only on coffee.

Don’t find out the hard way that being able to put a few words on a piece of paper is not enough to become a journalist. That’s what I did.

I guess all those A’s in English class in High School seemed to add up to equal a career in journalism in my head. Stumbling through articles and publishing stories for my college newspaper the Daily Free Press in Boston had me thinking that there might be a little more to this.

Climbing the totem pole of journalism is not glamorous. In jeans and flip flops at my first internship in High School I’d scan through a daunting stack of hundreds of pages of dispatch from the police department looking for what would make it into the paper’s weekly log.

“911 call at 19:07, response time, false alarm.”

“Unmarked vehicle on Franklin Ave reported at 22:03.”

…and on and on and on…

Every once in a while I’d find things like “raccoon in chimney reported on Rockaway Ave” or “ducks crossing road on Maple Lane” and have to put it in the write-up for my own amusement. There once was a week that summer where at least 5 people came into the office to alert us that there was a wild turkey roaming Marblehead. You learn very quickly that not much happens in a small town.

Every once in a while I have to pinch myself to remember that I am in London now interning at a new up-and-coming online magazine. And, I’ve upped the wardrobe from sandals and jeans, to boots, blouses and sometimes – black tie.

Last night, I networked at an event called the Plus Awards and in the morning interviewed young business executives about their new officepod project, said to be the new innovation in professional workspace.

Over my career as a journalist, being introduced changed from “Hi meet Anna, she’s a student working here” to “Hi meet Anna, our intern” to “Here’s our journalist for the company, her name is Anna.” How to get from here to there? The answer involves following the trend of journalism.

My family likes to say that it is “disappearing.” I don’t think it’s gone – you just need to know where to look! My communication professors tend to prefer the term “changing” to describe where I hope to base my entire career and future.

I remember the first article I ever published as editor of Spotlight, my weekly page in the Daily Free Press. After staying up until three in the morning laboring over every word, I opened the paper the next morning and found nothing. Turns out it was just put up online instead. Why spend all that time working on it if no one was even going to see it? I guess my editor didn’t think it was worth the space.

That night, the Editor-in-Chief called me over to his desk for…congratulations? Turns out my story had received comments online from people saying it was well-written. Not so bad, I guess how people view the news really is changing. Online is the way to go. But most of the time, people are unaware (like I was) about the resources available in the field of online journalism.

According to an April 2008 survey by the Newspaper Association of America, subjects polled were generally unsure of what is offered by their local newspaper website. While a small majority (59%) are aware that user comments and reviews are offered, less than half of all respondents are aware of any other tested content, with just a quarter aware of podcasts, article saving and social networking, and roughly a third aware of article sharing, RSS feeds and photo/video sharing.

But the trend is still looking like most papers will begin to move online to cut the cost of printing and distribution.

An average daily newspaper reaches 47% of adults who own a personal computer. This means that 75.2 million adults who own a personal computer read a newspaper on an average (Monday – Friday) weekday. Five weekday issues reach 65% of these consumers. An average Sunday newspaper reaches 55% of personal computer owners, and 4 issues of a Sunday newspaper reach 68% of these consumers, according to the NAA’s Business Analysis and Research Department from 2008. The numbers are only expected to increase over time.

Many magazines are opting to go online as well. According to those in the industry, the key to staying afloat is finding an identity.

There is a magazine for almost any interest or any hobby no matter how strange or small. In order to stay alive yours has to be unique and yours has to be GOOD. Newspapers report the news. Magazines do not need to report anything. Magazines can say what they want when they want. The hope is you can find an idea about which people would want to listen.

“Newspapers don’t have that problem,” said my Three’s A Crowd supervisor Melissa Gilmour. “We are in the middle of an identity crisis trying to figure out who we are.”

Working in a newspaper can open your mind up to breaking news, trends, and what issues people are talking about. Working for a magazine has even broadened my horizons to keep an eye out for fashion, celebs, and new exhibits or theater.

I get teased by my friends for keeping a digital voice recorder on me wherever I go. I was the one teasing them when I scored an interview with one of lead singers from my favorite bands, Brad Corrigan from Dispatch, while he was walking around campus last year before his concert.

Keeping one eye out for story ideas is what makes journalism something that will always be essential. No matter what, people are still going to want to know about their favorite interests. They will always want to know where the fire is or who was arrested.

The question is how they find this information out. This is why journalism has not shrunk, but expanded to new mediums.

Twitter…
Email…
Blogs…
Texting…
Video…

All are each new ways people are getting their news and it’s just the beginning. It comes as no surprise that a recent study by Pew Internet & American Life project found that the Internet has become the primary news source on the average day. And the news online is being updated constantly.

Working as a journalist does not happen between the hours of nine and five, but 24/7. As I walk to work in the morning I look to see what is happening around me. When I talk to friends at the pub I try to see what is on people’s minds. A story can be anywhere; the best ones are usually the ones right in front of your face sometimes so obvious that they go unnoticed.

“What’s in the today’s paper is what the editor saw on his way to work,” is what one of my journalism professors used to say everyday in class.

It’s true.

“How do we tweet on our twitter page about how the gig went yesterday?” I overhead my coworker Mark Emms as he talked on the phone in the office.

Discussing tools to use online has become a huge goal for Three’s A Crowd. Their website has a social networking feature where people can become members to comment or friend others. The site also works similar to a blog where people can make a post to the site themselves. The biggest problem Three’s A Crowd has is getting the word out that these features are available.

In a poll by April 2008 NAA study showed 54% of people polled said that they were familiar with blogs and 51% were familiar with photo sharing. The numbers are predicted to grow.

The study found that blogs are most appealing to newspaper website visitors and those with lower incomes, while older people are less likely to find them appealing. Awareness of newspaper blogs was about 50/50.

Three’s A Crowd has hundreds of members and the number grows as the more stories are published and the word gets out.

As trend show that journalism has begun to switch to online, more people will become familiar with the tools they have at their fingertips. Journalism is changing but is still alive and well.

Learning how to write sassy for a magazine has brought me to be introduced as a professional journalist. Uploading video and photos just like at home for my blog is becoming acceptable in the office too. Although I’m no longer sorting through hundreds of pages of dispatch, I still have to sort through hundreds of WebPages looking for something with pop and zazz to publish. While journalism continues to change, the basic idea remains the same –

Keep your eyes and ears open and write what people want to read.