Wellll now...

I am very happy to be here. Yes, with travel I work 11-hour days, but my name is going to be in the newspaper this week. Finally, I am published. It is only a little paragraph, but that's more than most high schoolers can say. I realized that in Columbus, people would be virtually attacking The Sunday Paper with requests to work for them. I am extremely lucky to have this opportunity. Yes, the four hour commute everyday is a bore, but I am actually doing journalism! That is so great. That's all I've wanted to do since I decided I wanted to become a reporter in 7th grade. I never thought I would be seriously doing it in high school. My boss, Editor-in-Chief Kevin Moreau, asked me what I'm interested in. I told him I loved fashion, music, reading, and that I would love to write about those things. He is setting up a meeting with the writer who covers those sections. I AM SO HAPPY I DID THIS. People at SP keep asking me how I found them. I literally put "newspapers near Buford, GA" into google and this was the only place I emailed that responded. And I'm pretty sure that so far it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. If anyone from SP is reading, no pressure. I'll make it my own.

All the computers are Macs at The Sunday Paper, so I'm still getting used to that. It's frustrating but if that's the hardest thing that has come my way so far then I'm happy.

The ride in is no problem, I sleep for half of it and then I'm good to go for the rest of the day. It's really not that complicated at all. Get on the shuttle, get on the MARTA, get on the bus. Somehow it only takes me four dollars to get from my house to SP, but for some reason it takes $8.50 to get home. Have I beaten the system? I hope so. But still, that's 12.50 per day. Now I really wish I had gotten that scholarship. I should have. Oh well, silly Micha didn't turn the paperwork in. I don't know how, but I totally missed it and now I have to spend college money. Great.

Anyways work is great so far and I am looking forward to tomorrow. I don't know if I mentioned this before but I am still work on perfecting the Southern drawl. I'm just fixin' to get me some sweet tea, Miss Scarlett.

g'night---micha

GEORGIA

Yes, folks, I am here.

I got my license on Monday (it is Thursday) and I now have to learn to drive in Atlanta in an old green stick shift station wagon. Weirdly, I am really looking forward to it and becoming a better driver. If I can drive in the god awful traffic of Atlanta, I can probably drive a lot of other places as well. At least that's what my mom says. She and my grandma are here staying with me until Tuesday. Today, my mom and I got up at 6:15 to make it on the 7:30 shuttle bus to Atlanta. That was an hour. Then we took a Marta to some place else (I myself was half asleep, so I remember very little of this,) and then took another bus to my work. It was altogether a 2-hour trip. I'm not really happy with it, but if it's what I have to do, then that's that. Tomorrow we are actually driving (well I'm driving) into Atlanta to see how bad the trip is. That should only be an hour. That's half as long but twice as bad. Which route is better? I don't know. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Anyways the weather is awful (cloudy, chilly, and rainy--all day), so hopefully it will warm up. I'm dead tired but I think the overload of seeing all the family and my trip today and the knowledge (and mystery) of this Walkabout before me has gotten me going. Wish me good luck sleeping.

g'night---micha

D-D-D-DONE!!!

Well, that's it! Today was great. Tristan's mom, Jessica, made me a beautiful cake. It's pretty much me in a cake. Literally. HAHA...funny. Well, today Jacob wasn't there because he is deathly ill, but he asked my to stop by tomorrow to say good-bye. He was a good mentor. He really cared about seeing me become a well-rounded individual. And apparently I have good work ethic. Anyways I'm really going to miss him, and all his...antics. What am I saying, I'll miss everybody. Claudia, Jessica, Gary, Web, Michelle...EVERYBODY. I certainly learned about libraries, and I definitely want to be a librarian someday. Not in Leesburg though. I need big cities. I mean, there's nothing alternative or even anything that's interesting to me. Sorry Lesburg, you took very good care of me.

It seems like these eight weeks have gone very fast and extremely slow at the same time. I don't know what that means, but it blows my mind.

I didn't realize how hard it would be to be away from home for eight weeks. I will have to get used to it though. I think it was mostly hard because I didn't have any people close to my age to hang out with. I had to tell the teenagers at LPL that I was 20 going on 21 to get them to listen to me. And I probably should have told them I was only 17 before I left. Oh well, maybe I'll Facebook them. Maybe not.

I've been packing for a few days now, and I think my bag will be JUST under 50 pounds. I think the count right now is 44. But I don't have that much more stuff to go in it. I stress the word "stuff".

Apparently my mom can't pick me up at the airport, so my grandma is doing it. She's like "Call me when you get off the plane because something might come up." I'm like, "What could come up, Gigi? Do you have a drug deal about to happen?" [Am I allowed to say that?] She says she doesn't. She deathly afraid of flying and she hasn't been to the airport for ten years. I just told her to follow the signs. Duh.

I lost 15 pounds while I was here. That's pretty darn good. I wish it was more, but hey...

I made Jessica, Claudia, and Jacob pictures with cutouts from my magazines. They all had "This person is you because...". I'll take pictures of them.

Yeah, about that. I left my camera at LPL, so now I REALLY have to go back. So, tomorrow, I'll be updating to my Facebook and blog. I really am sad to go; I've had a great time. Atlanta will be very different. Not in a bad way, though. I just don't like driving stick shifts up hills. *Shivers in fear*.

Well, I'll update one more time tomorrow, and hey, maybe on the plane as well. Probably not. The wireless is expensive.

Second to last post

Well, I'm almost done. Thursday was an extremely lazy day. I did next to nothing and we ended up watching Pinky and The Brain for an hour. I'm going to try to be at least a little productive on my last day. We'll see how the day goes. I was extremely sick on Wednesday, and I passed it on with a vengeance to my mentor, Jacob.

Oh, by the way, I'll be taking pictures on Monday and those will go up along with my last reflection. Thanks for reading this, guys. I really should have been deeper. Oh well. I promise to be super reflective on Monday night. ---Love micha

Almost done!

This past week was...irregular, to say the least. I had a normal work day on Monday (10-5), but then on Tuesday I had a sleepless night and ended up working 11-8. That was a super long day. The next day I had to work an extra hour (10-6) because my grandmother's arthritis treatments went longer than she had anticipated. So, I only had to work 10-4 on Thursday.

But this week was good. Jessica and I went out to lunch, and Claudia and I made a huge cupcake for Jacob's birthday. He liked that. Tristan, the little boy who has a big crush on me, asked to live with me in Ohio. I think Tristan's mom might make me a cake, and I'll have to eat it. I'm not going to be rude about it!

Next weekend will be my big reflection, but here are some thoughts:

I definitely fit in at libraries. I like it, and for some reason I don't find it boring at all. A career in libraries is definitely in my future, and I am trying to get a job at Kent State's library. I'm sure they would love to have somebody with so much library experience, and especially someone who has done everything.

I was super lucky with this internship. I am so glad I got (get) along with the people I work with. I have also really enjoyed the patrons. There are a couple weirdos, but other than that, all the people seemed perfectly amicable.

Like I said, the big reflection will be next week, but I have been very happy with this intership.

My last day is Monday, the 15th, and then I have Tuesday off. My plane leaves at 12:00 on Wednesday, March 17th, and I will arrive in Columbus at approximately 2:12 p.m. Yay! See you guys soon!