The city teaches life lessons?

 With every week that I’m in New York, time seems to go by even faster. I cannot believe it’s almost July. It has been really hard to take everything in. I’m experiencing so much and everything happens so quickly, but I guess that’s what I get for living in the “City that never sleeps” and the “City that never stops.” The biggest change for me has been the change of pace. I’ve been saying from the beginning… the South is a lot, lot slower. Time is not a diminishing commodity. However, here in the North, time is of the essence. You do not get a chance to slow down or you’ll be run over by a Taxi or in the business world, “You’re Fired!” 

Now most of you that know me, know that I am not a very patient person and I am one to always be 10 minutes early to everything. So naturally I thought I would fit in well in “the City that never sleeps.” I have done well so far keeping up… but what I have really learned is to just enjoy what I am doing. I feel that I’ve taken many things in life for granted because I’m always searching for the next thing, that next step in life. What the city has taught me so far, is that I am 20 years old! I have my entire life to reach that next step and I need to slow down and enjoy what I am doing now. I hate to say that it took me this long and for a “city” to teach me this, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

This epiphany hit me while I was sitting in Herald Square Park yesterday. I was waiting for some friends to meet me. This was honestly the first time I actually just sat outside and took in my surroundings. I sat there and right in front of me was the Empire State Building. It hit me then that I haven’t even looked around and noticed… I’m in New York City! Since arriving here, I have focused entirely on my internship, and while yes I am mainly here for that, I need to realize… how many people get the opportunity to live in arguably the most famous city in the world for a summer?

Sorry to get all heart-to-heart with you all, but I realized yesterday that this experience isn’t just about my internship preparing me for the future, I am also here to learn many life lessons. Being on my own has made me grow up really fast and realize what is important and what isn’t important. So not only am I taking all I can in about the broadcast field and news, I am learning not to take things for granted and that “the next step” can wait. I am a college student and I need to enjoy this last year I have with my friends and family. I have no idea what the future holds for me… but for now, the future can stay in the future.

XOXO

Kristyn  

It pays to be in the right place at the right time!

Oh my goodness, so where do I begin. The past few days have just been packed full of amazing opportunities, experiences, celebrities, and a lot of “being in the right place at the right time” occurrences. I guess I’ll just go day-by-day and fill you in on everything!

Thursday: 

So Thursday started out like any other day… walk to the train, take the 20-minute ride to 50^th Street, walk 6 blocks to work, you know, the usual. Till I got to work and I see this huge crowd of people outside on the plaza. It’s not unusual for this to happen because Fox & Friends film a lot outside in the mornings on the plaza. They usually have special guests, but typically no one I’ve heard of or interested in. However, today I hear opera music coming from the plaza. So I used my Fox News pass, said I worked there, and wedged my way to the front row to see who it was. Yeah, the job has its perks :). Standing there was Jackie Evancho. She was last summer’s winner of America’s Got Talent!!! I watched every episode with my family, so it was really cool to see her and hear her sing in person. That little girl has some major talent!

 

After I snapped a few pictures, I headed inside. I checked in with my producer and then sat down at my desk and started looking through health news for the day. Thursdays are typically slow, so the day wasn’t going by very fast. After lunch, I got back and barely sat down before the newsroom started going crazy! People were yelling and producers were running around the room. I had no clue what was going on, till one of the producers said “Anthony Weiner is resigning!” This was huge and news of his resignation wasn’t even out yet. That was the coolest feeling; knowing something that millions of others didn’t. Within minutes word was out on the TV. Producers were going crazy trying to get everything ready for the special report at 2:00 that was going to cover Weiner’s press conference, where he’d officially announce his resignation. At about 1:00, my supervisor came and got me and the 2 other interns and took us up to the main control room. We got to sit in the control room with all the producers while they produced the Special Report of the press conference. It was so exciting to see everyone in action and for such a big thing. The report they produced cuts in on all Fox affiliate stations across the country. So those annoying break ins that occur during your favorite show, that’s what I helped work on :).

Friday:

Friday morning, my co-intern Whitney and I, woke up bright and early to get to the plaza. One of my favorite country music stars, Billy Currington, was set to perform for the Fox & Friends All-American Summer Concert series. So I met Whitney at the plaza at about 7:30am. To our surprise, a huge thunderstorm that had rolled in earlier, canceled the concert outside. Of course, just our luck. So we were at work an hour and a half early, with nothing to do. We then grabbed some breakfast and went to the newsroom. While we were in the newsroom, we heard that Billy was going to come outside on the plaza and sign autographs, take pictures, etc. So Whitney and I grabbed our cameras and ran outside as fast as we could. Sure enough he was standing right there. We waited in line for about 2 minutes when finally, there he was, in all his good-looking glory. We were next to get to take our picture with the blue-eyed, curly haired hunk. When, just our luck again, the manager stepped in front of us and said he had to go inside. Seriously?! We were so close, but I was able to snap a picture of him before he walked inside.

 

As Whitney and I walked inside with our heads down, we heard a loud cheer and screams. We turned around and around the corner we see this huge, silver, shiny trophy coming towards us. Once the cars passed by, the entire Boston Bruins hockey team appeared. Fresh off their championship win, carrying the Stanley cup, the team was walking down 6^th Avenue. It was the most random thing. Evidently the NHL studios are across the street from where I work, and they were heading there for an interview. I was able to snag this great picture of the cup!

Saturday:

On Saturday I met up with my co-intern, Whitney, and we did a little sightseeing. We toured the Financial District, Wall Street, Battery Park, the World Trade Center site, Little Italy, and 34^th Street. We accomplished a lot in one day. One of the coolest things we saw was in Battery Park. Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones were filming Men in Black III. 

 

There was a huge set, set up, and tons of extras walking around. I was luckily able to get a few good pictures of them. 

After our like 50^th celeb sighting, which is becoming quiet customary for us, ha, we headed to Little Italy for lunch. It’s such a neat area, with tons of restaurants and it’s all blocked off so no cars can get through. 

 

There I tried real Italian pizza and my first Italian cannoli!! I have definitely found my new favorite treat. Whitney and I finished the day by doing some shopping and scoring some great finds from street vendors.

Sunday:

Today, I met up with Whitney and we headed down to Coney Island. We had no idea what to expect but have heard of the famous boardwalk with Nathan’s hotdogs, so it was a must see. We had also been longing for the sun, since we sit inside all day, 5 days a week. You can take the train down there and it’s about a 45-minute ride. We finally spotted the ocean and the Farris wheel; we were there! Now, I am just going to be honest. Coney Island is a major tourist attraction, but it’s also a favorite of the locals. So add all of those people together and you get a very crowded beach area. The place reminded me of the beaches in California… lots of people, huge boardwalk, vendors everywhere, etc. It was so exciting to see the ocean and finally be out in the sun. I also got to try my first Nathan’s hotdog! I have watched the hotdog eating contest on ESPN every 4^th of July, so I was dying to try the famous dog. But to my surprise, I was very unimpressed. I’ve had better hotdogs from the grocery store. So that was a bummer. My overall experience at Coney Island would be about a 5. It was fun to layout in the sun and hear the rustling sound of the ocean, but the hoards of people and dirtiness of the place was less than impressive. I was also shocked by how many people were walking around selling things. Every second someone was trying to sell me an umbrella, MANGOS!!, bracelets, ice cream, etc. I would never buy anything from these people because who knows where the food comes from. It’s funny, because selling stuff on the streets/beaches in New York is extremely illegal, but it’s amazing how many people do it. From putting on a street show to selling freaking mangos, people will do anything to make a buck. It’s actually really sad.

Well that should be enough for now. I know that was a long entry, but so much to catch you all up on. Oh, P.S. I booked my return flight for the end of the summer and will be arriving in good ole K-town on August 5!!

XOXO

Kristyn  

An Apple A Day Brings Luck My Way!

After a week and a half at Fox, I finally graduated from being an assistant to the Production Assistant and moved up in the world. Well not that far. For the next three weeks, I will get to shadow each of the three main franchise producers: health, business and entertainment. Instead of sitting at a computer all day, typing stuff for the PA’s, I will now be typing up stuff for the actual producer, ha. No, I’ll actually get to take what I learned from the past week and a half and see how news packages are really made.

Today was my first day with the health producer. I will admit, before today I was a little terrified of her. She is very intimidating, well at least I thought so. However, to my surprise she wasn’t bad at all. She was so helpful and really wanted to make sure I learned. When I first got there, she wanted me to get used to cutting and editing video. Fox uses a really straightforward software, so it took me hardly any time to learn it. So I searched through the archives all morning and put together a video for one of her news stories.

After working with the editing software, the health producer had me do some research for an interview tomorrow. She will be interviewing a world-renowned doctor for a health story. She also had me make a list of questions we could ask during the interview, look up statistics, and find background info on the doctor. She even told me I could sit in on the interview tomorrow! So exciting, although I honestly have no idea who this guy is. When it comes to medicine and science, I am clueless, ha.

Towards the end of the day, she said she didn’t really have much left for me do. Producers work early in the morning, so after lunch their days are pretty much over. To pass the time, the producer had me search the Internet to see what our competitors were putting out, as far as health news goes. She said if I came across anything interesting to let her know. So after some searching, I found a story that two of our competitors were doing that we didn’t have. I was so excited to pitch her an idea. I emailed her the link and she said, “Go for it!” GO FOR IT?! What in the world does that mean? I asked her, in the coolest way possible of course, “Excuse me?” She then replied, “You can do it. Go ahead and write a script for the story and find the footage.” Naturally, I started panicking. But then I realized, she probably would never use this, it was just a test; practice. So this brings us to the title of this entry, about apples. The story was about apples and how they are the most contaminated produce with pesticides. Well to make a long story short, I wrote a script and found some footage and sent to her. She said it was great and it was going up!! I almost fell over. An idea I had and a story I wrote went on the server!! I was so freaking excited. I am usually not a huge apple lover, but today they were my best friend!

I know I am probably getting ahead of myself and the rest of the days will not be anywhere as exciting as this, but it really showed me that I can do this. I may have a background in magazine and always thought I’d write for some teenybopper magazine, but I really can do news and broadcast. What I thought was going to be a horrible, boring, never ending day, turned into a day full of surprises and lots of learning!

No longer a tourist, I’m a New Yorker now!

 So I have been wondering when that moment would come, when I finally didn’t feel like a tourist anymore and felt like I actually lived in the city. I never thought it would happen so soon, but that moment came today! I was walking through the Village on my way home from work, when a lady stopped me and asked for help. She was trying to find Bleecker Street. To my surprise, I knew exactly where it was and gave her the correct directions. At that very moment in time, I realized… I am officially a New Yorker!! No longer will I be “that girl” walking around with a map and trying to blend in.

Today has just been a great day all together. Not only did I become a city girl, I also had a big day at work. Today we had our first seminar for the summer and our keynote speaker was Roger Ailes. He is the founder and CEO of Fox News!! It was truly an exciting experience to hear him speak. Mr. Ailes has been in the news/broadcast business for many, many years, so you can only imagine the advice and knowledge he shared with us. Another lucky moment came when some seats opened up in the front row, right in front of the podium. My co-interns and I jumped at the chance, and sat less than a foot away from Mr. Ailes. He was not only very informative, but the man was hilarious. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to have our cameras out or I’d have a picture to share. Even so, just seeing Roger Ailes and hearing him speak was a huge treat!

Tomorrow will be my last day working with the production assistants. Next week I am going to shadow the health producer. I will get to follow them throughout the week as they pitch news story ideas, write and produce packages, and meet with other producers/reporters in that department. Not only will I be working with the health producer, I am also working on my very own news package!! Another one of the interns, Whitney, and I are working on a story to be featured on the Fox News Collegiate Website. We’ve thrown around some ideas and are in the first stage of getting them approved by the editors. Once we get the go ahead, we will then write, shoot, produce and edit a news package. Although I didn’t have much experience with this before arriving at Fox, the team at FNCU is helping/teaching us every step of the way. I have learned more here in a week than I have learned in three years of college. Now that is kind of sad, ha. However, that just proves how beneficial Fox News’ internship program really is. Instead of running errands, making coffee, making copies, etc., Fox really wants their interns to learn and experience things we would never learn in class.

One week down, nine more to go!

So the past few days have definitely been busy. I have been here for a week now and there has yet to be any down time. But hey, I’m not complaining, I have had a blast!

So let’s begin with this past Friday. I finished my first week at Fox and kicked off the weekend with one of my roommates Lauren. We decided to walk around and explore the village… see what it’s like on a Friday night. And boy does this place come alive on the weekends. During the week there aren’t as many people out and about, but on the weekends you can barely walk without getting kicked off the sidewalk. I have made a lot of observations in one week, and one that I have made quickly is that people don’t move out of the way for no one and no one ever stops walking. Even at crosswalks, people are so impatient. No one waits for the crossing sign and even though taxis are flying towards them, people continue to cross the street. I’ve had several close calls with crosswalks so far, but I am learning.

Saturday, my friend Julie arrived from Knoxville! She wasn’t here an hour before we decided what we were doing that night. The Atlanta Braves were in town playing the New York Mets. So naturally, we went to the game. It was quite a journey to get there. It took an hour and a half to get there by walking and train (that’s what New Yorkers call the Subway). We finally made it to Citi Field. It was our lucky day because starting that day, students got a discount. So we got tickets for $10. However, with that low price, come very high seats. We were about 10 rows from the top, ha, but right behind home plate. At this point our luck ran out because the Braves lost 5-0. I am now 0-3 when it comes to Braves games. Not sure if I’ll ever get to go to a game where they win. However, this was more for the experience, rather than the win. Now that we have experienced a Mets game, we have to experience a Yankees game. Julie and I are planning on getting tickets for the Yankees vs. Red Sox game. Huge rivalry, so tickets will be hard to find, but we are definitely going to try!

Sunday was a slow day. We all slept in, and another roommate arrived, Hannah. She is awesome! She loves our southern accents and loves anything southern. It’s been fun sharing the south with her. She is from Connecticut. After she got settled in, Julie and I went to eat at the most amazing Mexican restaurant in the Village, Caliente Cab Company. We then met up with the Ireland girls, and ventured down to Soho. Soho is basically any girls dream. Any and every store you could wish for line the several mile long stretch.  I wish I had an endless supply of money, because I could have bought everything in sight. It was so hard to keep my wallet closed, well partially closed. I got a few things :).

Since the weekend, all I have done is work. Right now it’s really easy and slow. However, next week I get paired with a producer and get to write and produce my own stories! For the remainder of this week we get to attend our first seminar with Roger Ailes. He is the CEO of Fox!!!!!!! I cannot wait! We also get to attend a meeting for Fox News University, which is an online website for interns to produce their own news stories. What an awesome opportunity! We get to take cameras out into the city and interview people, write a story, produce it, and then put it online! So many steps, but it is all worth it.

So I am sure you all are wondering what celebs I have seen so far. The first day in New York I ran into Joakim Noah; he plays for the Chicago Bulls and played for the Florida Gators (eww!). At Fox, I have seen Neil Cavuto, all of the anchors on Fox & Friends, Geraldo Rivera, Jenna Lee, and many more! I have yet to see Shepard Smith, Bill O’Reilly or Glenn Beck. Fingers crossed I’ll see them soon!!! There have also been super famous people in the building… just today Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian were on Fox and Friends. Although I have a pass for the building, I couldn't get anywhere near them :(. But I was still in the same building as them!! 

In my first week at Fox, I have learned just how amazing this opportunity is. Working at a major network is completely different then working at a local TV station. If something happens around the world, FOX will be one of the first to know. I have gotten to see movie trailers before they even hit theaters, news stories before the entire world sees, and heard about things happening in the coming months that many of y’all have no idea about. I know it has only been a week, but I know this is the right place for me! What I have wanted to do after graduation has always been up in the air, but I can definitely see myself in the news/broadcast industry! It’s a fast paced and exciting world, there is never a dull moment. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to do this and although I am giving up a lot to be here, I know this will be worth everything in the end.

Miss you all!!

Kristyn  

First night in the city! Times Square

Me standing outside the Fox News building!!!

Where I will be interning this summer!!!!

The most beautiful place in the city! St. Patricks Cathedral

These signs are everywhere in the city. Anyone else see the irony?

The American Museum of Natural History

Spiderman on Broadway!!!

One of my roommates Julie and I outside of the Mets stadium. We went to see the Braves vs. Mets game.

This dog was so cute, until I read the sign.

Citi Field!! We sat behind home plate, but in the nose bleed section!

New York for Dummies

So where do I begin… I have only been in New York for less than a week and I have already learned and experienced so much! The way of life up here is the complete opposite of what it is in the south. Everything moves at a very fast pace, prices for food are outrageous, you always need to know your cross streets, and the entire place… smells. Amidst the rare scents of baked pastries and semi-fresh flowers, is a constant odor of… garbage. Yes, garbage. It’s everywhere and it seems like every day is trash pick-up day. If you can ignore the black trash bags and focus on everything else around you, New York is a beautiful place. It’s a very different beauty. In the south we have the mountains and gorgeous landscapes. But here, it’s the architecture and the grandeur of the buildings that make New York so unique. It’s a very different way of life in the city but I am absolutely loving the change of pace/scenery from the south.

I arrived on Sunday with my mom and my brother. They both flew up with me to help me get settled in. While they were here we did some sight seeing, ate at some famous restaurants and saw a Broadway play. For sight seeing, we went to the American Museum of Natural History. While I was very excited when we arrived, I left a little unimpressed. If you want to fight crowds of hundreds of 10 year olds, screaming babies, walk through exhibits made of fake artifacts and animals, get lost in the 6 floors of exhibits, and try to navigate a map that doesn’t fit the floor plan, then this museum is for you. While I can at least say I went, I have no dying urge to ever go back. The one thing that I do highly recommend to anyone who visits the city is seeing a Broadway play. My mom, brother and I went to see the new Spiderman on Broadway during its opening weekend. All I have to say is, WOW!!!!! I have seen several plays, even Wicked, but Spiderman is on a whole other level. The cost alone says it all. Take Kim Kardashian’s engagement ring and add about $70 million to that, and you’ll get the final production cost. Actors flew out on wires into the audience, and the costumes/stage décor were out of this world. If you ever visit the city, this is something you CANNOT miss out on. It’s 110% worth every penny.

So moving in was definitely an experience. Who knew that you couldn’t just give a taxi driver an address? Umm, me. You have to give them an address and the cross streets for where you’re going. Yeah well, no one told me that. So after an hour-long taxi ride, we finally made it!! To give you an idea of where I am staying, think of the UT dorms, but about a notch down. Ha. It’s not bad, but having 7 roommates is really tight. So far, all but two are here. One of my roommates is from Knoxville, shout out to Julie!!, one is from New Jersey and the other three are from Ireland. The final two are from New York and New Jersey. I have really enjoyed getting to know them all!

So I am sure you all are wondering how my first day at Fox News went. I mean that is why I flew all the way up here, right? So the night before my first day, I couldn’t sleep a wink. I was so nervous. Even the next morning, I couldn’t eat a thing. However, to my surprise, my first day was so relaxed!! Even though Fox is the #1 News Network in America, yes I will brag about them, the people there are so laid back and super nice. I got a tour of the entire building, touched Glenn Beck’s office door (ahhh!!!), and watched a live news broadcast of America’s Newsroom… all on the first day. So basically what I do is work in the main newsroom with every departments’ producers. This room is probably the most exciting to work in, because these are the big dogs of the network. Throughout the summer I will follow producers in each department and shadow what they do. At the end of the summer I will get the chance to pitch news story ideas and sit in on actual tapings of shows/interviews. But for now, I am doing typical intern work. I basically sit at a desk and encode packages (which are little clips that Fox affiliate stations around the country use) into the computer. It sounds boring but is actually really cool. I absolutely love it so far and cannot wait to see what this summer brings!!!

I know this is a lot and I am sure about half of those who started reading this wont finish it, but I think this summer is going to be a great experience and I want to share what I can with you all. I promise other entries wont be as long, I just wanted to catch you up. If you want to know anything, feel free to ask!! There is so much that’s happening that it’s impossible to write about it all. I hope everyone is having a marvelous summer so far. Please lay out by the pool as much as you can for me, because unfortunately the closest thing to a pool here is the bathtub. Ha.

XOXO

Kristyn