Alex Takes A Trip to... Atlanta (Week 1)

Hey, y'all!

This week has been a whirlwind of adventure, learning, socializing, and more broken Apple products (it never ends). Sorry for being so absent! I finally got my baby back (aka, my MacBook) on Wednesday, so I was waiting until the weekend to blog about the week's activities.

Ironically, I'm blogging from the Apple Store waiting on another repair. This time, it's my beautiful phone. Said damage can be seen here:

My other baby, in all her misery

Lesson learned: never cook and talk at the same time.

But, enough about the phone. This week was my first week at HLN, and it was pretty exciting! On day 1, I experimented with traveling by taking the train (aka MARTA) for the first time. It reminded me a lot of when I lived in New York as a kid and having to take the subway literally everywhere. However, when I was a kid, I never experienced a train breaking down in the middle of my commute... on the first day of work.

I was a mess.

I started calling my parents and boyfriend crying, checking the app to see if I would still make it to the CNN Center on time (I did, thank God).

After the mess that was my commute and after finally getting inside and through security (which is INTENSE, by the way), we had our intern orientation. We were all put into one giant conference room and went through the different company policies, human resources information, etc. I met a few people in orientation, seeing as I had to start making friends somewhere (there's over 60 of us this summer). After orientation, our hiring managers picked us up and escorted us to our respective offices.

The HLN offices look like your typical newsroom, only smaller. Everyone has a computer station with three screens, and everyone is working together, kind of like at school. On my left are the video editing and production people, to my right are the rest of the planning and programming crew (such as myself) as well as the online people, and behind and in front of me are the teams for the different programs, such as "Morning Express," "Weekend Express," and "Nancy Grace."

This week, I attended a LOT of meetings and got to sit in on and see the work that goes into planning a program or a specific event (this week included the CMA Festival in Nashville, Tennessee). I learned how to book guests for different programs and how to get them into hair and makeup and into the studio. I played with a lot of puppies this week, met a kid who publicly humiliated his ex-girlfriend, met the Georgia State Senator, and got to witness tons of live broadcasts. I also met a bunch of different anchors and made tons of new friends to do things with, including watching basketball games and going shopping (here's to you, Justin and Elisa).

Though this week has been kind of crazy with the commute and with things breaking down and with me also getting lost virtually everywhere, I'm looking forward to seeing what the next week is going to bring... including working with Kevin Hart this week :D

Until next time! :]

Alex Takes A Trip To... Atlanta

Hello, everyone!

It's been a while since I've last posted anything, but it's summer, so everyone needs a vacation, including yours truly!

Things have been crazy since school ended. I ended up with good grades, a ton of work hours, and a new move!

Currently, I'm writing from Atlanta, Georgia on the eve of my first day of my internship with HLN. For those of you who may not know, I've received an opportunity to intern with HLN as an editorial planning intern. My main duties will be providing feedback and content to the network as they go through this whole revamping process. For those of you who don't know what HLN is, it used to be CNN's sister network, and is home to programs such as "Nancy Grace" and "Morning Express."

Atlanta has been a whirlwind of adventure so far. There's so many things to do and see, it's almost a little overwhelming. I came into the city really late on Friday night, leaving all of Saturday and Sunday to explore and get to know my surroundings. On Saturday, I visited the CNN Center, which will be my new work home come Monday. I also drove around and got to see the Atlanta Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, and Centennial Olympic Park, which was really cool. Sunday, I visited Piedmont Park and then traveled into Buckhead for some last-minute internship essentials. There's so much history and something going on on every little corner at all times. I definitely felt at home.

Afterwards, I did some exploring on the outskirts of town, going to different malls and shopping plazas while trying to gain my bearings (because, let's be real, what girl moves to a new city and doesn't find out where all of the places to shop are?). I dropped my computer off at an Apple Store since it crashed the day before I got here, so here's to hoping that from here on out I'll be able to write to y'all from there instead of from my new roommate's iPad.

Speaking of roommates, my host family is the most amazing group of people I've ever met. They're a Colombian family that are friends of a family friend, and I've never felt more at home. My host mom has a daughter who lives in the room next to mine, is a year older, and is finishing up grad school at Georgia State. Her best friend lives in the room opposite mine and is also close to me in age. This summer, not only will I be learning a lot in the newsroom, but I'll also be finally forced into speaking Spanish on a regular basis, so this should be interesting.

I also met a sorority sister up here, which is pretty exciting. It just goes to show how connected a group of people can be regardless of where you're all from.

That's it for now. Tomorrow is my first day, and I still haven't gotten a hang of how to take the MARTA transit to and from CNN. I'll keep y'all posted on how that goes. Let's hope this city doesn't swallow me whole in one day!



Until next time,
Alex :)


P.S., pictures to come when I get my MacBook back in my hands!