FHM, Esquire, GQ- Marie Claire?!?

This entry has a lot of entries throughout the week, I just haven't been really posting because I've been so busy.

Sunday, 26/07/2009

“It was so tempting. He was just soooo nnniiiice. And we thought—not everybody is a bad person---,” Ben’s narrative on the man who sold us the shittiest chocolate bars in all the world as we sat at The Company’s Garden watching a wedding. They were aerated chocolate and tasted like they may or may not have been tasty back in Easter of 1990.

Lesson learned: don’t fall for good sales pitches from men wearing a cardboard box around his neck full of foreign looking candy bars and promotes that they haven’t expired, they are safe and mostly delicious.

Thursday, 30/07/2009

Just came back from a refreshing run in the rain- slipped on a loading dock, took a turn too quick and met the concrete. Aye, blood always makes things look worse than they are. Just keep running, right? Just adds more character to my beat up body ☺
This week has been hectic and busy, full of lectures and reading. I have found that academic life here is much more involved that at good old SUNY, in good ways and in bad. I’m not used to things yet, obviously, so I’m a bit culture shocked—to say the least. As I’m beginning to forget that it’s July and that I’m already in school, my academic life here is going to be rewarding. The courses are perfect for what I want to do with my B.A. in hopes of continuing for my masters.

As my religion Prof. put it, “When you get your B.A. what do you? You get your Masters. After your Masters, you get your Ph.D. After that you get unemployment.”

Or as my Production Prof. put it, “When you can’t do, you teach.”

Hopeful words of wisdom, that I find to be two bits of actual useful information, blunt honesty is my favorite, even if it stings a little.

Needless to say, I hope my outcome isn’t as gloomy as these jaded professors make it out to be, but I’m still young and somewhat optimistic about media.

On the other end of things, I’ve been trying to get out and do as many things as I can while I’m here. As much as I miss home, I need to see what the city is really about. Over the weekend we went to Canvendish, a great mall full of awesome stores, movies theatres, cafes and bookshops. We also went to the Market, where your more bargain shopping happens. It’s much more of a give and take trading, full of local fabrics and crafts. Oh and such amazing artwork.

The last weekend before lectures started, we tried to relax but do as much as we could before times got tight and stress ensued.

Friday, 31/07/2009

I thought I knew what I wanted to do, in terms of journalism, that’s the beauty of it, you find your niche and you stick to it. Although, like everything in life, you learn to change- you can’t be the same forever (who would want to be?), but I’ve taken a lot of interest in production design and media layouts. Which is so fun! At lecture, we have access to great equipment like Photoshop, Dreamweaver and so many other editing tools that it’s the closest to heaven I’ve been on Earth before. I’m such a nerd, but it’s going to be a great term if it keeps up the way it’s been going.

My dream: work for Rolling Stone, write a book and be an international correspondent for the NYT. HAHAHAA. RIGHT. I found that researching journalism here, the money isn't in writing, it's in production, designing-- basically whatever it takes to sell a paper or website is where you should be concentrating on. Sure, I'd love to be among the likes of Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote, Hemingway, Mailer, etc, but I can always idolize and strive to achieve the accomplishments of the greats.

Popularity of news pieces here are interesting. I picked up some mags from the market and it was a unique blend of journalism that people swear their life by. Cosmo in huge along with Glamour, Elle, Marie Clair, FHM (which news to me, is a guys mag and I bought one not even looking at the chicks mostly naked on the cover and was eager to read it. Oh, ignorance you follow me everywhere... ) GQ is also quite big, along with Men's Health. Not a lot of hardcore journalism mags outside of Time and Newsweek. Just goes to show that America has a great standard for journalism (not ideal) but it really is everywhere.

I found some great South African music on SL's site: check it out! www.slmagazine.co.za. They have streaming playlists that are pretty awesome.

I don't want to get paid tons of money for writing or doing things with my degree. I want to feel the passion and respect that I feel when I read something that changes my view just a little bit, I want to change that for someone as the idols of my life have changed mine. You don't always have to hate your job-- at least, if you follow your heart, even if it's a poorly paid career, not the BEST working conditions, or even a promising future. To me, writing is about what's inside, it's what you already have not about what money can buy. It's that piece of literature or that one quote that makes you see what life is here for.

* * *

Tonight, I’m going out with Marthe, my housemate, to some fancy restaurant that I have to head to the mall and find a decent looking outfit for. My stained jeans and cardigan wouldn’t fly. Bummer. Plus, my knees look like I’m domestically abused so wearing a dress or skirt may just be out of the question. Again, bummer.

Just as North America has gotten massive amounts of rain, so has Africa. When it rains here it doesn’t rain down, it rains horizontally. I weigh roughly 45 kilos (100 lbs) and when that mountain wind mixes with pelting rain, I just about fall over. They don’t lie about needing a raincoat. Umbrellas are a joke because they just can’t take it and seize to last you to your destination. Another thing to add to the shopping list: a raincoat. I walked up to lecture today, which from my flat is about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) and by the time I got to my religion lecture, I looked like I had showered in my clothes. Plus it’s cold! That tingly feeling you get in your toes, when you feel like a million needles are burrowing into your skin and that pain you get when in Upstate NY gets its winter, you want to move to the other side of the world-- because, you... just... can't... take... it...

So I looked like a hot mess this morning. Luckily, I misread my timetable and to my advantage just had that one course today, yess! The walk down on the other hand, not so nice! The rain picked up even more, the streets are really narrow as it is and everything began to flood. Cars in the city don't give a shit about pedestrians and find it comical to find the deepest deposit of rain and splash it all over you at street corners. Thanks! Swimming home is my new hobby and I returned even more wet, which I didn’t think I could get more drenched, and I’m going to work on my writing today in my warm, DRY clothes.

As Ben just stated, “WHO ORDERED THIS MESS?”

As the rain hits the roof and the sounds of little beads permanently places itself as my soundtrack, I’m getting used to being here. I thought I wasn’t able to, but I know that it has taken a positive take on me and that my perspective of life has opened up tenfold.

Pretty boring blog this entry, sorry. It’s been a hectic week in the not so great way. More to come this weekend, I’m sure.
Cheers,
Mel