I think it’s about time I let my blogging audience in on something I’ve been mulling over for almost my entire time in England. After I’d been here a week, I went to the American Church in London with a couple of friends, and we met a nice woman who was looking for an au pair (nanny). At the time, it seemed so far from my plans for the coming year that I was just kind of smiled and said, “Sure, we’ll let you know if anyone on our program is interested.” Then Brittney said something like, “There has to be someone who has already graduated, who wants to stay in London, and who likes kids.” When it was nicely broken down for me into those three pieces, I realized that the description fit me perfectly! I still doubted if I would accept the position, but I decided that I would email Rima (the mom).
About halfway through the trip, right before the Paris weekend, I received a packet of information about the position. Rima had given it to Kate (one of the pastors at the church) who had given it to Brittney (one of my friends who also goes to the church), who gave it to me. I read through it, and all the tasks and responsibilities sounded interesting and do-able. Plus there were some nice perks, like having my own room with a TV and, oh yes, free room and board plus £65/wk. Of course, that wouldn’t be enough to pay off my student loans, but the information was detailed enough that I saw I would have between 8:00 a.m. and 3:15 p.m. free on weekdays, plus Saturday afternoons and all day on Sundays. This would allow for me to get a second job (though not a full-time job) to pay off my loans. Once I decided that this job could be feasible, I emailed Rima to tell her that I was interested in this position.
I didn’t hear back from her for a while, so I wondered if they had already found an au pair or if my email was somehow getting relegated to her junk mail folder or something. But then, on the same day, I received two interesting emails. The first was from Rima, apologizing for not getting back to me (she had been on holiday in north Scotland with no internet access) and saying that she would love for me to come over to their house and have a look around. The second was from the editor of Coffee House Press (in Minneapolis, MN), saying that he would like to set up an interview for an autumn internship position (which I had applied for before leaving for England). Here is where the Robert Frost title of this blog post comes into play. I began to see two possible futures: one living in England as an au pair, the other living with my parents in MN with a publishing internship.
I had the phone interview with Coffee House last Tuesday, and I think it went really well. They said they would let me know their decision in two weeks. Exactly a week later (yesterday), I went over to Rima’s house and met her husband and three children. The au pair’s room is small, but so are the children’s rooms (with the exception of the eldest’s). It seems comfortable though, and the house, garden, and neighborhood are beautiful. They emailed me today and said that, of the two people they were considering, I was the favorite. They want me to tell them as soon as possible if I would like the job, though they are willing to wait until I’ve heard a final decision from Coffee House. In the meantime, I’m requesting for references to be sent to them.
So now I am at the fork in the road. Like the speaker in Frost’s poem, I want to be able to look back at the choice and say with satisfaction: “And that has made all the difference.”
P.S. I just found out that I have also been offered the Coffee House internship. So I really do have the choice between these two things, and I REALLY don't know what to do! They're both such good opportunities!
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Treasures of the British Library
I am feeling a bit emotional right now because I just got back from seeing the treasures of the British Library. I'll just list what I saw, and anyone who has a love of history, literature, religion, or music will know exactly what I mean. I saw: a First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, the earliest edition of his sonnets, the Beowulf manuscript (I couldn't tear my eyes away from this the first or the second time I looked at it), Milton's commonplace book (i.e. journal), Virginia Woolf's notebook for Mrs Dalloway, Sylvia Plath's notebook for The BellJar, Tess of the D'Urbervilles in Thomas Hardy's handwriting, Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte's handwriting, Persuasion in Jane Austen's handwriting, Austen's third diary/journal from her youth, compositions by Mozart and Haydn (with the notes written in their own handwriting), Beatles lyrics in the handwriting of Lennon and McCartiney (including Help!, Yesterday, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, etc; one was written on the back of an envelope), the Magna Carta (there were four versions created in 1215, but the one on display is quite likely the one actually sent to King John; there is also a version on display written in 1225 which was much easier to read, not that you can really read anything written before 1700 or so), the Codex Sinaiticus (the oldest copy of the entire New Testament, written in Greek), a Gutenburg Bible, a version of the epistle to the Hebrews written in the 200s (yes, the third century A.D.), the Lindisfarne Gospels (unfortunately only a facsimile is on display currently), and several equally old and stunning versions of the Qu'ran and other sacred texts. It was just absolutely incredible! I literally felt a bit weak-kneed and teary-eyed when I saw some of these things. I mean, I was separated by only a small pane of glass from books held and written in by Milton and Austen and Woolf. I can imagine them dipping their pens in ink and scratching away, thoughts and creative passions swirling within them as they wrote those words.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Dover and Canterbury Pictures and The Lion King
Album: White Cliffs and Pilgrimages
FINALLY I got these up! Hopefully I will have Cotswolds pictures up soon because tomorrow I'm going to Hampton Court Palace, and I'm sure I'll take a ton more pictures.
Quick note: Yesterday I went to the Lion King musical, and I really enjoyed it! A few of the new songs felt a bit like filler, but the costumes, puppets, choreography, and dancing were absolutely amazing! Plus it was very nostalgic for the three of us who went because the Lion King was a part of our childhood. I kept thinking about how the Lion King storyline draws on typical mythic structures, such as the death of a mentor, the 'chosen one' who figuratively dies and comes back to life, and even the more modern 'mythic' story of the reluctant ruler. I just have to assert once again that theatre in general but especially musicals are just about my favorite things ever!
FINALLY I got these up! Hopefully I will have Cotswolds pictures up soon because tomorrow I'm going to Hampton Court Palace, and I'm sure I'll take a ton more pictures.
Quick note: Yesterday I went to the Lion King musical, and I really enjoyed it! A few of the new songs felt a bit like filler, but the costumes, puppets, choreography, and dancing were absolutely amazing! Plus it was very nostalgic for the three of us who went because the Lion King was a part of our childhood. I kept thinking about how the Lion King storyline draws on typical mythic structures, such as the death of a mentor, the 'chosen one' who figuratively dies and comes back to life, and even the more modern 'mythic' story of the reluctant ruler. I just have to assert once again that theatre in general but especially musicals are just about my favorite things ever!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Quintessentially English
Over the past weekend, I saw several icons of England--the white cliffs of Dover, the Canterbury cathedral, and the villages of the Cotswolds. (I'm organising this blog post like a paper with a topic sentence and everything...frightening.) So let me start at the beginning. On Saturday, Kellie, Jessica, and I hopped on a 7:00 a.m. train to Dover and got into the town at about 9:00 a.m. We immediately noticed the peaceful silence, so different from London's constant noise. After eating breakfast, we walked through the pretty town and up to Dover Castle. Up there, all you could hear were seagulls, the water, and the wind.
We took the guided tour through the wartime tunnels, which were used during the Napoleonic Wars and, most notably, during World War II. When the German army was taking over France, they forced a ton of British, French, and Belgium troops to Dunkirk port on France's coast, and they were all evacuated across the Channel and through the tunnels into Dover Castle. This was such an incredible feat that it became known as "the miracle of Dunkirk." Dover Castle also sustained heavy gunfire during WW2 because it became a frontline stronghold. It was known as "Hellfire Corner." But the castle itself wasn't damaged because Hitler planned to use it as his headquarters after invading Britain. We then wandered around the castle itself and went into the keep, which was built by Henry II's men in 1181-1183.
After lunch, Jessica and I went on to Canterbury while Kelly stayed and hiked around on the Dover cliffs. Canterbury is still surrounded by its medieval walls, and it's really interesting to see cars driving along a highway inside! Part of the town still has old buildings that were lived in by monks before Henry VIII expelled Catholicism. One of the houses is even named after St Francis, though I don't think he ever lived there. Sadly, the cathedral itself was closed due to a conference so we didn't get to see the shrine to Thomas Beckett. But because of that, we had time to go into The Canterbury Tales museum, which was fun. It was slightly amusing because it was just a bunch of wax figures with an audio guide, retelling some of the Tales. But it was enjoyable nevertheless. Then we took a boat tour down the Stower River (which comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "angry," though the river has been artificially calmed and is quite still) and saw all the buildings of historic Canterbury.
The next day, I took a day trip to the Cotswolds. It was organised by the same people who do the famous London Walks. The Cotswolds are in the middle of nowhere and are very difficult to visit by public transportation, so it was very helpful to go with a group. We took a train to Kingham and then a coach bus through some of the scenic parts of the Cotswolds. But don't worry--we didn't just stay on the bus! (I really think bus tours are ridiculous, even though it was fun to get to see a variety of places in the Cotswolds...including a lavender farm!) We walked around through the village of Chipping Campden and saw a ton of charming thatched cottages with traditional English gardens, etc. Then we had a lunch break, and I ate at a cafe that our guide said was a traditional English place. It was absolutely amazing! I had English tea, a cranberry/chicken/bacon sandwich (and the bacon over here is actually meat instead of just grease tied together by fat), and a fruit scone with strawberry preserves. It was probably the best meal I've had since I've been here. After that, we walked through the village of Lower Slaughter and then to the village of Upper Slaughter. The name "Slaughter" comes from "slough," which is, of course, a marsh/swamp (think Pilgrim's Progress and the Slough of Despond). We walked through fields and by ponds and rivers. We walked through "kissing gates" which are gates that only allow one person to walk through at a time. Apparently they are called kissing gates because boys used to trap girls in there and not let them out until they got a kiss. (I am kind of surprised that a scene like that wasn't in Tess of the D'Urbervilles.)
Anyways, it was another very good weekend! Now I'm just trying to enjoy/get through the work week and then it'll be another wonderful weekend. :-)
We took the guided tour through the wartime tunnels, which were used during the Napoleonic Wars and, most notably, during World War II. When the German army was taking over France, they forced a ton of British, French, and Belgium troops to Dunkirk port on France's coast, and they were all evacuated across the Channel and through the tunnels into Dover Castle. This was such an incredible feat that it became known as "the miracle of Dunkirk." Dover Castle also sustained heavy gunfire during WW2 because it became a frontline stronghold. It was known as "Hellfire Corner." But the castle itself wasn't damaged because Hitler planned to use it as his headquarters after invading Britain. We then wandered around the castle itself and went into the keep, which was built by Henry II's men in 1181-1183.
After lunch, Jessica and I went on to Canterbury while Kelly stayed and hiked around on the Dover cliffs. Canterbury is still surrounded by its medieval walls, and it's really interesting to see cars driving along a highway inside! Part of the town still has old buildings that were lived in by monks before Henry VIII expelled Catholicism. One of the houses is even named after St Francis, though I don't think he ever lived there. Sadly, the cathedral itself was closed due to a conference so we didn't get to see the shrine to Thomas Beckett. But because of that, we had time to go into The Canterbury Tales museum, which was fun. It was slightly amusing because it was just a bunch of wax figures with an audio guide, retelling some of the Tales. But it was enjoyable nevertheless. Then we took a boat tour down the Stower River (which comes from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "angry," though the river has been artificially calmed and is quite still) and saw all the buildings of historic Canterbury.
The next day, I took a day trip to the Cotswolds. It was organised by the same people who do the famous London Walks. The Cotswolds are in the middle of nowhere and are very difficult to visit by public transportation, so it was very helpful to go with a group. We took a train to Kingham and then a coach bus through some of the scenic parts of the Cotswolds. But don't worry--we didn't just stay on the bus! (I really think bus tours are ridiculous, even though it was fun to get to see a variety of places in the Cotswolds...including a lavender farm!) We walked around through the village of Chipping Campden and saw a ton of charming thatched cottages with traditional English gardens, etc. Then we had a lunch break, and I ate at a cafe that our guide said was a traditional English place. It was absolutely amazing! I had English tea, a cranberry/chicken/bacon sandwich (and the bacon over here is actually meat instead of just grease tied together by fat), and a fruit scone with strawberry preserves. It was probably the best meal I've had since I've been here. After that, we walked through the village of Lower Slaughter and then to the village of Upper Slaughter. The name "Slaughter" comes from "slough," which is, of course, a marsh/swamp (think Pilgrim's Progress and the Slough of Despond). We walked through fields and by ponds and rivers. We walked through "kissing gates" which are gates that only allow one person to walk through at a time. Apparently they are called kissing gates because boys used to trap girls in there and not let them out until they got a kiss. (I am kind of surprised that a scene like that wasn't in Tess of the D'Urbervilles.)
Anyways, it was another very good weekend! Now I'm just trying to enjoy/get through the work week and then it'll be another wonderful weekend. :-)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Taking Initiative
University of Dreams (yes, that's the name of the program I'm on) would be so pleased to know that their bi-weekly survey inspired me to take initiative. As I mentioned in my post, "Some Days I'm Up and Some Days I'm Down," the survey asked us to give examples of when we'd taken initiative, and it got me to realize that I hadn't taken a lot of initiative. So I decided that I should probably ask my immediate boss, Alex, to go to lunch with me so that we could discuss the internship, etc.
Yesterday I told myself that I had to ask him before I went to lunch that day. For some stupid reason, I felt really awkward about asking him so I waited until the last possible minute. (I always meet my coworker Joanna for lunch in the office kitchen at 12:30 and I have to buy a sandwich before then, so I waited until like 12:25 to ask him.) I sounded as awkward as I felt, I'm sure. I said really quickly, "Hey Alex? Uh, do you think we could maybe go out for lunch sometime this week to talk about how my internship's going since it's half over?" He looked up from his computer and took a second to process what I had blurted out seemingly out of the blue (little did he know that I'd been planning it for like twelve hours). "Yeah, sure," he says. "Okay, cool, what day works for you?" "Uh...tomorrow?" "Okay, sounds good, can I take my lunch break now?" He took another second to process this abrupt shift in topic. "Yeah, sure." "Okay, bye." And I picked up my purse and jetted out of there. (I really don't know why that was so awkward for me; I think I just made it a really big thing in my head for no good reason.)
So today we went to eat and fortunately, our conversation went well. I thought to myself (once again, thinking things over too much) that I should probably start the conversation with something non-work-related so that it could seem friendly and casual. But then I was thinking, "Oh man, what in the world should I say?" Fortunately, as we were walking out of the office, I noticed his copy of Ulysses sitting on his desk and remembered that he was trying to read it again. (The last time he tried to read it, he was nineteen, I found out today.) Of course, talking about books is always a good conversation topic for me (I talked with Ellen, the new intern, about Tess of the D'Urbervilles yesterday, which was also good). Anyways, so Alex and I talked about Ulysses for a little bit before seguing into the internship discussion. For one thing, I wanted to know how he thought I was doing because I was a bit irrationally afraid that I wasn't doing very well. But he told me that he thought I was doing really well. He said that the information I've been finding is good, and the introductory material I've been writing is really good. So that was encouraging.
Then I also asked him if there would be any way for me to learn more about what goes on in the company as a whole. I think I may have unintentionally described the stuff I'm currently doing as "laborious," which I didn't mean to do because I didn't want to sound like I was complaining or unhappy with the internship. But he said that he'd talk to Tej (the top dog) about me possibly doing a few more tasks. He also said that usually interns don't get the full perspective because they're only there for such a short time. Some do a little bit of everything (and never get to know fully about each stage) and some do a lot with just one thing (which is more what I'm doing).
We also talked a little bit about what I might want to do within the field of publishing, which I wasn't really expecting to talk about. But he seemed genuinely interested in helping me figure out a bit of what I would like to do. I told him that, at my last internship at CBE, I really liked getting to pull everything together and organise it according to 'my' vision for the project. He said that then maybe I'd like to do something similar to what he does, which is production. I'd actually thought about production before, but I never really knew much of what it entailed. But apparently, at least Alex's production position at Anthem Press, involves a lot of carrying a project through to its finishing stages, etc. I think his position is a little bit of a hybrid between production and editorial because so much of the copyediting and lower levels of editing are done by freelancers (because Anthem is such a small publishing house). So he would do some of the 'higher' stages of editing, maybe. He also asked me what my 'ideal' publishing job would be, and I didn't really know. But I said I thought I might like academic publishing (though not necessarily textbooks) or else high quality fiction (and not just mass market stuff, though that type of publishing house might be difficult to find).
He also mentioned briefly that, in a lot of jobs, you have to kind of work your way through the boring tasks to get to more interesting ones. Of course that's definitely true, but somehow I never really understood that. I guess it kind of made me realize why working folks always say, "Ah, to be able to go back to school! Those were the days!" I always scoffed at people like that and thought, "Either you don't remember how much work school is, or you didn't bother to work as hard as you probably should have when you were in school." But now I realize that maybe they weren't saying that school is EASY; they might have just been saying that school is more interesting and engaging than work. Because it seems like a lot of people's jobs involve mundane, boring tasks. Of course, school is sometimes boring too, but in college especially you get to think about ideas and creatively express your own ideas all the time. Anyways, I'm not pining for school yet, but I definitely want to go to grad school in a year or so. And that's partly what I hoped would come from this year off: that I would know FOR SURE that I'm going to grad school because I want to and not just because I didn't know what else to do with my life.
But anyways, I thought the conversation was really good. I felt like Alex was genuinely interested in what I had to say, and I thought our conversation about how the internship was going was really a 'genuine' (I don't know why that's the only word I can think of right now) exploration of what would be feasible that would helpful to both me and the company. And because of this conversation, I might get to do a few more tasks than researching for the guidebook. I also gained a new (and better) perspective on what I am doing (It's an important internal project for the publishing house that happens to involve a lot of grunt work), and I got a chance to think about what I might want to do within the field of publishing. And I got to know Alex a little bit better and find out (more than I knew before anyways) that he's a pretty great guy.
Yesterday I told myself that I had to ask him before I went to lunch that day. For some stupid reason, I felt really awkward about asking him so I waited until the last possible minute. (I always meet my coworker Joanna for lunch in the office kitchen at 12:30 and I have to buy a sandwich before then, so I waited until like 12:25 to ask him.) I sounded as awkward as I felt, I'm sure. I said really quickly, "Hey Alex? Uh, do you think we could maybe go out for lunch sometime this week to talk about how my internship's going since it's half over?" He looked up from his computer and took a second to process what I had blurted out seemingly out of the blue (little did he know that I'd been planning it for like twelve hours). "Yeah, sure," he says. "Okay, cool, what day works for you?" "Uh...tomorrow?" "Okay, sounds good, can I take my lunch break now?" He took another second to process this abrupt shift in topic. "Yeah, sure." "Okay, bye." And I picked up my purse and jetted out of there. (I really don't know why that was so awkward for me; I think I just made it a really big thing in my head for no good reason.)
So today we went to eat and fortunately, our conversation went well. I thought to myself (once again, thinking things over too much) that I should probably start the conversation with something non-work-related so that it could seem friendly and casual. But then I was thinking, "Oh man, what in the world should I say?" Fortunately, as we were walking out of the office, I noticed his copy of Ulysses sitting on his desk and remembered that he was trying to read it again. (The last time he tried to read it, he was nineteen, I found out today.) Of course, talking about books is always a good conversation topic for me (I talked with Ellen, the new intern, about Tess of the D'Urbervilles yesterday, which was also good). Anyways, so Alex and I talked about Ulysses for a little bit before seguing into the internship discussion. For one thing, I wanted to know how he thought I was doing because I was a bit irrationally afraid that I wasn't doing very well. But he told me that he thought I was doing really well. He said that the information I've been finding is good, and the introductory material I've been writing is really good. So that was encouraging.
Then I also asked him if there would be any way for me to learn more about what goes on in the company as a whole. I think I may have unintentionally described the stuff I'm currently doing as "laborious," which I didn't mean to do because I didn't want to sound like I was complaining or unhappy with the internship. But he said that he'd talk to Tej (the top dog) about me possibly doing a few more tasks. He also said that usually interns don't get the full perspective because they're only there for such a short time. Some do a little bit of everything (and never get to know fully about each stage) and some do a lot with just one thing (which is more what I'm doing).
We also talked a little bit about what I might want to do within the field of publishing, which I wasn't really expecting to talk about. But he seemed genuinely interested in helping me figure out a bit of what I would like to do. I told him that, at my last internship at CBE, I really liked getting to pull everything together and organise it according to 'my' vision for the project. He said that then maybe I'd like to do something similar to what he does, which is production. I'd actually thought about production before, but I never really knew much of what it entailed. But apparently, at least Alex's production position at Anthem Press, involves a lot of carrying a project through to its finishing stages, etc. I think his position is a little bit of a hybrid between production and editorial because so much of the copyediting and lower levels of editing are done by freelancers (because Anthem is such a small publishing house). So he would do some of the 'higher' stages of editing, maybe. He also asked me what my 'ideal' publishing job would be, and I didn't really know. But I said I thought I might like academic publishing (though not necessarily textbooks) or else high quality fiction (and not just mass market stuff, though that type of publishing house might be difficult to find).
He also mentioned briefly that, in a lot of jobs, you have to kind of work your way through the boring tasks to get to more interesting ones. Of course that's definitely true, but somehow I never really understood that. I guess it kind of made me realize why working folks always say, "Ah, to be able to go back to school! Those were the days!" I always scoffed at people like that and thought, "Either you don't remember how much work school is, or you didn't bother to work as hard as you probably should have when you were in school." But now I realize that maybe they weren't saying that school is EASY; they might have just been saying that school is more interesting and engaging than work. Because it seems like a lot of people's jobs involve mundane, boring tasks. Of course, school is sometimes boring too, but in college especially you get to think about ideas and creatively express your own ideas all the time. Anyways, I'm not pining for school yet, but I definitely want to go to grad school in a year or so. And that's partly what I hoped would come from this year off: that I would know FOR SURE that I'm going to grad school because I want to and not just because I didn't know what else to do with my life.
But anyways, I thought the conversation was really good. I felt like Alex was genuinely interested in what I had to say, and I thought our conversation about how the internship was going was really a 'genuine' (I don't know why that's the only word I can think of right now) exploration of what would be feasible that would helpful to both me and the company. And because of this conversation, I might get to do a few more tasks than researching for the guidebook. I also gained a new (and better) perspective on what I am doing (It's an important internal project for the publishing house that happens to involve a lot of grunt work), and I got a chance to think about what I might want to do within the field of publishing. And I got to know Alex a little bit better and find out (more than I knew before anyways) that he's a pretty great guy.
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