While this summer has been, expectedly, less exciting than living in London, it hasn’t been any less busy. I’m living in Columbia and taking the second broadcast journalism class in my sequence until early July, but I got a short trip home to New Orleans before moving up.

I was home for about two weeks, and spent them as an absolute tourist. They were jam packed with JazzFest performances, dinners in the French Quarter and on the lake with the parents and a crash course, catch up session with my friend Rachel the night before I left. It was the first time I was in town for JazzFest in three years, and was an absolute blast to back. Two days filled with too much food, art and jewelry shopping with Mom and amazing music (Bruce Springsteen, Foster the People, Better Than Ezra, The Head and the Heart to name a few) were a perfect way to welcome me back.

 

My life these days is all journalism, all the time. I have class four days a week, lab twice a week and anchor/report twice a week at KOMU. It’s all actually been going fairly well, and I’d much rather be busy than searching for something to do all the time. I’m anchoring my first full shows, which has been an exciting learning experience, and doing stories for both class and Sunday night newscasts. It was a bit overwhelming when stories started overlapping, especially on weekends, but things have calmed down now that I’m “cleared” to work at the station for my class.

 

It’s just bizarre going from a semester of very little traditional schoolwork and constant adventure to basically working seven days a week. Not bad really, but definitely a 180° change. I had Catherine here for two weeks before she left for an internship, and was great to catch up with her one-on-one. From ice cream excursions and movie dates to stumbling upon a concert in Downtown Columbia on a random Wednesday (it was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros), she can always find a way to make a seemingly average evening fun. 

I’ve also personally taken on the task of introducing basically anyone who comes to my house to Pimm’s. Like I now have a mint plant growing on our back porch solely for that purpose. Amateur gardener, and Columbia’s professional Pimm’s expert. Everyone who’s tried it has loved it, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

 

Because I didn’t have a story due in my lab today (perks of being cleared and not being able to schedule shifts because the news director is out of town), I took a personal weekend. I spent Friday night at Columbia Entertainment Company’s Spamalot. I’d never seen any community theatre here, which seems almost criminal for me, so I was excited to see a new company and venue. I was, of course, running later than I expected, and after a couple of wrong turns, I arrived at what looked like a warehouse. It was, thankfully, actually the theatre and not just a rehearsal or storage space. The theatre is set up as a black box, which I love, but only has seating in front of the stage rather than all the way around. It’s a hilariously written show anyway, but there were some really great performances. And it always helps when you tell everyone on stage is just so into it. I road-tripped to the Chesterfield outlet mall for the first time on Saturday. It was gorgeous weather to wander outside in between popping into different stores. Four hours, three calls to my mom for opinions and five shopping bags later, I had successfully visited nearly every store and was ready to head back to CoMo. It was a fun, and much needed, mental health weekend.