Another Exciting Week

Things have slowed down a bit here at my internship in the past week. Everyone is preparing for a very important board meeting this weekend. That just means that I've picked up a lot of mini projects from many different departments.

For example, I helped Public Affairs with finding quotes and stuff for a new website launch we are doing. Plus, I helped marketing print out 1000 membership recruitment brochures. I actually spent most of the day just standing by the copier machine, making sure everything came out right and shoved everything in the box.

I've spent a lot of time helping with the next consumer contest that will launch this fall. I've been doing a lot of research on what advertising tools we will be using to get exposure for the contest. I also helped evaluate the last contest that we just wrapped up. For example, we are comparing this year's contest with last year and trying to decide what worked and didn't work.

I've also been helping with membership recruitment, especially because we have a trade show coming up. The trade show is going to be a great way to talk to people about the benefits of becoming a member. I actually get to attend the trade show next Tuesday so I am really excited about that!

Highline Park

 Last Thursday was a super fun day. Sarette and Sam came to hang out in NYC so we got to meet up after I got out of work.

The best part about the day was when we went to High Line Park. It was so awesome. It's located in the Meatpacking District which is such a cool area of the city. I can't believe I've never been there before. So it's pretty much this super long walkway that was built over railroad tracks. It's actually really peaceful and there are amazing views of the city.

After we walked the High Line, we went to the Lot and ate delicious food out of The Taco Truck. The Lot is so cool because there's a bunch of different food trucks that come every week and there's places to sit, plus Rainbow City! It's like magic.

 

After that we walked down to the old section of the High Line and then headed back to Grand Central. I had such a fun time and I am glad I am able to enjoy the city since I am working here!

Another Week in the City

Not gonna lie, this commuting thing is very hard! At least this weekend kind of went slower than usual. The best part about my weekend was that I got my wedding dress! I finally feel like I am getting married! Also Brendan and I got to spend the WHOLE day together on Saturday doing wedding stuff. We hardly ever get that much quality time!

Now it's back to the grind. Even though I left at 7:30 this morning, there was so much traffic. I had to run to my train at 8:04. If I missed it, the next one wouldn't come until 8:30 and I wouldn't be in the city until 10:30. The train  I take is the express so it's only 92 minutes or something.

I am glad I got over my motion sickness bout. I can actually read on the train now! This morning I finished reading Love & Respect and it was really good. I also listened to audiobook of the last book in the Hunger Games series.

As I was walking to work I could feel a frown on my face. I miss my apartment, my fiance, my kitty, and my friends already. But I thought about how God has blessed me with an amazing paid internship in the city! It gets hard but I can draw from His strength!

Well, today I will be working on more image database stuff. I also get to do image sourcing for the new website. I also have to go a meeting at 11 about the new intranet we are getting. I have a packed day with lots of projects. I can't wait!

Just a side note: I've been working in the city for 7 weeks now and I still haven't gotten a decent cup of coffee! Does it exist?

Half way point

So I am about halfway done with my internship here in the city. I've definitely been feeling the exhaustion from the commute and not being home all the time. It's pretty hard to plan a wedding since I am gone all the time too! But I've learned so much since I've been here! I am definitely glad I came here to do an internship.

I've been focusing a lot on the image database lately. We are going over to a new image database system so there are a lot of kinks to work out. Plus, I wasn't exactly sure what photos to resize so I ended up doing a ton, only to find out that we only resize and upload member photos to the website! Oops!

Yesterday I tried out the new step-by-step guide for image upload. I also updated the list of editors and contacts we have as we get ready for another major event this summer.

Today I sat in on a wrap up meeting for the trade show everyone went to in Las Vegas. I also found out during my last week here I will be attending a trade show in the city! And tomorrow one of my friends from Quinnipiac invited me to a PR networking event at the Public House on East 41st Street! Should be fun!

Can't Beat the Heat

It is scorching here in the city! It will be in the 90s today and tomorrow. At first I thought I wasn't gonna leave the office for lunch, but I decided I needed a break. I got a little distracted so I ended up walking like 3 blocks out of the way!

LivingSocial was having the very first Instant Deal $1 meal day in NYC. There were like 48 restaurants in Midtown participating, but by the time I went to the website, most of the deals were gone. It's amazing! Just buy the $1 voucher and show it on your iPhone when you go to the restaurant! I will have to be better prepared next time so I can get the deal!

Well my internship is going well. Yesterday, I finished uploading hundreds of pictures of jewelry for an upcoming event. Then I looked in my bin today and I have a bunch more CDs to upload. I also worked on pitching bloggers for the proposal contest. I love that I got to research wedding blogs all day...very practical for me!

Everyone just got back from the trade show in Las Vegas. I helped write thank you emails on behalf of the company. I also learned how to mail merge with an attachment! Seriously, Word 2007 does not give that option so it was a pain in the butt! At least I know how to do it now. I am like a pro.

The rest of my day will be uploading designer's events to the website from the trade show. There are a lot of pictures to be resized and uploaded, but I actually like doing it! Hopefully I can go for a swim with my cousins today!

I feel like I am starting to catch up on life. I have to rewrite my lit review by Monday, so I got a head start on that. I mailed in my expense report for my trip to Nashville. I got the next teaching series for Amplify ready. And Friday I am going with my family to check out a wedding venue!

Little Kitty Back in the City!

Hello everyone!

I am back from Nashville and here in the city. I had the most amazing time in Nashville. I don't know if you heard the good news--Brendan and I are engaged! It was so magical and amazing. My presentation on my research paper went okay. I was mostly on cloud 9 so that was good!

Now I am back in the city. Yesterday was a very busy day. I had to compile a media list for the top 10 finalists. We are going to pitch the story locally to each finalist's area. It took me a very long time and then I realized I forgot some key info so I had to redo them after lunch. I also wrote out the pitches and hopefully they will be ready to go today!

I've learned so much so far this week. I am getting a lot more comfortable with email pitching. I am also a pro at mail merging now! Today I will be picking stock photos for the new website design! How exciting!

Busy Day!

Yesterday was a very busy day at my internship! I got to work 20 minutes earlier because I took an earlier bus. I ended up just walked from Port Authority to my job and it took about 20 minutes. I even stopped at this cafe to get a parfait for breakfast! Yum!

As soon as I got in I had to go to a meeting for 1.5 hours. The presentation was called What Not to Write. It was on how to write in the business environment and pretty much put us all on the same page so there is one consistent voice coming out of the organization.

We also spent a lot of time on editing and proofreading. I learned a lot of tricks for proofing my work and we got VERY technical in grammar. It was all very familiar since I took two writing courses this past semester, but was so cool.

After the meeting I sent out a press release via PR Newswire, which is awesome. That means there is a greater chance that it actually got published. It was for the final push for this engagement contest we are doing. After that I worked on writing 18 handwritten letters to be put into recruitment kits. That literally took me 3 hours because I would get to the end of the letter and make a mistake and have to throw it away!

I also worked on a pitch to Huffington Post on Father's Day gifts. We get this awesome newsletter called HARO (Help a Reporter Out). A twice-daily newsletter is sent out with topics that reporters need news/information/quotes on. I found one that was relevant to my work and I emailed it out! Haven't heard back yet, but how cool would that be if my work was featured in the article all thanks to me!

Right before I left I learned how to judge the engagement contest. I get to be on the of the judges!! I had to read the story and rate it. Then we will narrow it down to the top ten finalists and America will vote. How exciting!

BTW: The press release I sent out was published in many places including in FashionNews and CNBC!

Commuting Problems

I've been staying with my cousins in NJ since Sunday, just so we can hang out before I have to work this week. Yesterday my cousin Nicole took the bus with me into the city so she can show me where to go. Well, this week is disgusting and SO rainy out. The bus was 10 minutes late and there was a lot of traffic because of the rain.

She spent the day shopping in the city and visiting my uncle who works above Grand Central. Then we went for lunch at Food World. It was close by and had a lot of indoor seating, which is something that is not common around here. They had all kinds of food: sandwiches, soup, salad, breakfast, Japanese, etc. I got some delicious Chinese food and ate it with chopsticks!

Later on my cousin met me at work and we took the subway to Port Authority. It seems kind of confusing but she said to just follow the crowd. We then waited for the bus. Luckily, the 5:28 bus stops right by her house so as long as I get there in time, I won't have to get picked up at the transit center.

So it was a little rough yesterday but today was far worse. I took the 8:40 express bus into the city. It was on time and the sun was starting to peek out. Then all of a sudden the bus got off the highway and we were rerouted to Secaucus Junction train station. There was a bad accident near the tunnel (which BTW I didn't realize we will have to go underwater to get to the city!!) The girl next to me told me we would have to get off and take the train to Penn Station! AH!!!!

Once again, I followed the crowd. The employees directed us to the right train. Then I got to Penn Station and my cousin had told me to get a cab. But there was a huuuuuge line for the cab so I decided to walk the 10 blocks. It took me like a half hour and my feet were killing me. I was 30 minutes late to work but I can't stay after today to make up my time or I will miss that sweet bus.

So today when I get out of work, I need to get to Grand Central, take the 7 to Port Authority, and navigate through the maze to get to the 197 bus! Hopefully it goes a lot smoother than it did this morning. I think tomorrow I will take the 8:28 bus instead of the 8:40 so I'm not late!

Second Week

My second week at my internship is going so well! On Tuesday, I barely had any motion sickness was able to enjoy an audiobook of the first book in Rick Riordan's new series, The Heroes of Olympus.

On Tuesday, I went to a meeting about the fashion show everyone attended in California. We brainstormed solutions to the problems that happened this year so 2012's goes smoothly. I also continued to work on this membership list to get some new recruits.

Later on in the day, I learned the database systems and how to manage subscriptions. We get tons of fashion and women magazines so I had to renew the subscriptions and double check that we were getting comped on the free ones.

The best part of my day was when I took my lunch break. I walked to the New York Public Library. It was so beautiful out! Everyone was sitting on the steps and eating lunch. It's my new favorite place to go when I am on break. For some of my lunch break today, today I went back and it is barely 60 degrees and very chilly so it wasn't as busy. I took this picture today and you can see that it wasn't as crowded. It was really cold today so I decided to sit inside. And I unlocked the Bookworm badge on Foursquare when I checked in. I am such a nerd! I love it!

When I got to work today, I got set up at my new desk. My co-worker is back from maternity leave (her son has the same Valentine's birthday as me!) so I couldn't use her desk anymore. Now I am up at the reception desk. I was weary about sitting up front where I am the first person people see when they come in! But the desk is so nice and I can finally stash all my stuff here. Plus, it doesn't face the street so it's a lot quieter and not so cold either!

They assured me that I am not here to take deliveries and answer the phones. The phone constantly rings so I have to just let it go to voice mail. But people just assume I will let them in, which we really can't blame them because they see me through the glass. And the door is locked so I would have to enter in a special code so I don't have to get up and press the button to unlock it.

Actually before, the mail lady angrily stood in front of the door and kept pulling on the locked door. It took me a moment to get my bearings straight and enter the code on the phone and so she yelled at me through the glass. WILL YOU OPEN THE DOOR??!!!

Awkward.

Besides getting a permanent desk, I worked on two press releases to recognize the achievements of two members. I hope they get published. That would be awesome. And for the rest of the day I will work on this membership list!

The Perfect Lunch

To save money during my internship, I plan on bringing a lunch almost everyday. I've been doing this for the entire school year and it's worked out great!

Side note: in undergrad, when I commuted, I rarely brought a lunch! I am trying to think of how I survived but I was 10 pounds skinnier then so I am thinking I lived off yogurt and Special K bars. I should probably go back to that but I love food too much...

My lunch basically consists of the following:

Turkey or chicken sandwich

Light and Fit yogurt

100 calorie packs

An apple












I try to go for things that are filling but also healthy. For some reason now that I am older I have to constantly work out and watch what I eat or else I gain weight fast. With commuting to NYC, I don't know if I can realistically stay committed to my four day a week workout. I want to eat healthy and I know if I don't bring in my own lunch I will eat $1.75 pizza slices everyday and that's not good!

Friday in the City

Today was my second day at my internship. It was so nice to come in an hour later! It made a huge difference!

Today I've learned a ton of stuff here. I had a meeting with someone from membership. She showed me how they use Cision here, as well as the image database page.

After I did some classic intern work (preparing receipts for expense reports and throwing away old photo discs), I met with someone from public affairs to learn about the responsible business and legislation side of the organization. Finally, I had another meeting with communications and learned all about what the organization is doing and how they are integrating messages and all that!

Well, the train ride in was better...I didn't have that much motion sickness. I was able to watch a whole episode of Gossip Girl and not feel bad. After about an hour and half, my motion sickness was really bad. I looked up online that ginger ale helps so I got some at Grand Central and I thought it did help a little bit.

I had a meeting at noon and my motion sickness was still there. I actually started feeling like I was going to pass out. I was so dizzy I could barely move. Finally I was able to get back to my desk and I read that ginger root pills really help. I am so apprehensive about taking medication in general. I know Dramamine or Bonine would just make me drowsy and tired (I've taken them for flights before). So I decided to go the natural way.

I ended up walking down Park Street looking for a Duane Reade. I think it closed because I couldn't find it! So I walked up to the one on 5th Ave, but there wasn't any ginger root. Luckily there was a GNC down a few blocks so I was able to get some for like $6.

I pretty much spent my entire break looking for these pills but it was so gorgeous out. It is so unreal that I actually work in NYC. I probably sound like a n00b but I loved watching this lady try to flag down a cab but every cab was taken! And all types of people walking during lunch time. Some in business suits, some carrying shopping bags, some in gym clothes. It's so cool that I get to be a part of this.

The pills were so creepy looking! I was so afraid of them! It was like powder ginger in a plastic-looking capsule. It made me sick to think of swallowing it! I thought maybe I was supposed to crack it open! It has helped though. By the time I had my third meeting of the day and I don't feel like throwing up anymore, but my head is hurting bad.

By the way, this is my favorite skirt in the world. I wore it today and it's from the Limited. Even though it was "Casual Friday" from what I can see here! It was so laid back today and so many people weren't here at work so maybe that's why.

Now I will finish the rest of my research on the organization and take the 5:02 train home! I have A TON of work to do this weekend. I have a photo shoot on Saturday night, plus I need to get June's teaching for Amplify ready. And I need to edit my project proposal for my professional project by Monday. On top of my final portfolio due on Wednesday (but I will be working at QU/internship so I don't know when I can do it) plus my final project due on Thursday....

First Day

View from the office

Yesterday was the first day of my new internship! I am working for a national trade association in the jewelry industry located in the Midtown section of NYC. I will mostly be doing PR and marketing activities for the consumer arm of the organization.

With graduation just around the corner, I am truly blessed to have secured a paid position. It's a funny story on how I got this job. In March, I made the trip into the city and interviewed for a social media internship. When they called me, they let me know that I did not get the social media internship, but they wanted me to do the PR/marketing internship! Of course I accepted, and up until my first day, I wasn't sure what to expect.

The train from CT was about 1 hour, 45 minutes. I ended up only getting 2 hours of sleep the night before! I wasn't expecting the kind of welcome I got! I met my boss for the first time (I didn't interview with her since I wasn't going in for the job I have now).

I found out that she had just gotten back from a trip AND just got engaged so her life is really hectic. But she was still so welcoming and had everything prepared for me! I even have my own laptop and everything was set up for me already!

I was scared I was not going to be expected or I would just be in the way all day. But it was the opposite! I got to meet all 19 people who work in the office. I read up on what the organization does, looked at the website & social media accounts, and went through an orientation and filled out paperwork.

When lunch time rolled around, I found out I had an hour break. That was too much for me. I ate my lunch at my desk but decided to walk to Starbucks so I can get a break. Being in the city, a Starbucks was just around the block. I even checked out some clothing stores for the fun of it.

I wanted to make a few phone calls but it was too loud outside and too quiet inside my office! I mean, my office is really quiet. I feel like I am yelling every time I talk in the office since it's so quiet. It's hard to get used to. There is no break room either so there is nowhere private to make any phone calls.

After lunch, I got to sit in on a meeting for a trade show in Las Vegas! This is so different than my last internship. I am actually included in meetings and I even gave an idea on QR codes when we were brainstorming. Everyone seemed happy with my input and I actually felt confident to share an idea which was awesome! After the meeting, I did more research and finally left work for the 5:02 train.

Overall, I had a really awesome day. I found out I will be doing a lot of PR/marketing activities, as well as special events. Each week my boss will give me an assignment to do and I have a paper to keep track of all the things I do. She wants me to come in from 10-5 now (instead of at 9) so she can have the first hour to prepare for my assignment. It's great because now I can take the 8:00 train in to the city!

Now the train...I get motion sickness from just about anything. I was trying to read Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (part of the Hunger Games series) on my iPad, but it made me so sick. I felt like I had motion sickness all day. Even going down the elevator! The ride back wasn't as bad and I actually could read, but I really need to figure out something! Any tips would be helpful!