Class of 2000 |
Jennifer Leask |
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The Graduates
Bonnie Allen
Larry Todd Jim McKenzie Roy Bonisteel Patricia Bell Wendy Tebb Lindsay Crysler Renee Pellerin |
Current LocationEdmonton, Alberta
In response to Kristen and Jill- I can relate to wondering if this gig is for you- sometimes I think it's complete crap- we are always reacting instead of going out and finding stories. At CBC Vancouver it was worse then here: the place is populated with senior reporters who have little or no time for casuals- mostly because they come and go frequently due to a certain lack in the job security department. Anywhooooo.... at my current job- people don't even bring story ideas to the table- so how are we finding important stories? um....We aren't because I think Jill is right- we are navel gazers. We are so informed about what's on the news we forget to look away from the TV to see what's going on in our neighborhood. One solution I have found to this is that almost all my friends here are non-journos. It is way more interesting to find out what real people have to say about things. Kristen, you asked how people can still be passionate? I think I do it (by it, I mean work at something I don't love) because I know where I want to go- either I want to be a foreign field producer or I want to host As It Happens. That's pretty much my long term goal and no matter what job I am doing now, I know it will get me there. I would guess that's the same reason Bonnie is living in Northern Manitoba (not to speak for her.) And I am always learning so many new things, namely when to keep my mouth shut- and that is a skill I need!! I don't know if that was helpful for anyone, but I would be interested to see what others say. I see Michelle on TV all the time and she does great lives!! So she must really like what she's doing. I'll be in Calgary for Christmas so if anyone wants to call me when they get here my number's 780-982-0202. Read the responses to this posting
Here's the skinny: I get frustrated with CBC Vancouver for not taking me seriously enough and/or not giving me enough work. So on a whim, I send my CV to Edmonton.End up on a four, then eight week contract working for CBC TV on the World Championships in Athletics (despite promising everyone I would never do television or sports.) Then I am offered a one-year position here in Edmonton at CBC Television as a Chase Producer/Reporter. I have accepted. I've rented an apartment in Strathcona (that's a pretty hip part of town, at least for Edmonton) and will soon be living by myself, although I do feel an overwhelming desire to get a fish and have already secured an aquarium.) I am going to start volunteering with an adult literacy program (something I have long wanted to do but have been unable to because I am never in any one place for the year they want you to commit.) I also get to hang arounf the lovely Ginette and Michelle. Also practicing my french! For those of you in other parts of Canada: Please feel free to visit, my apartment is pretty big and I do have a spare bed (well, it's a futon but it folds down.) But unlike almost everyone else in our class, I will not be getting married (or even thinking about it for that matter) anytime soon.
Well, all's well at the CBC. I am getting a few shifts, about 3-5 times a week and when you are living in your parent's basement, that's pretty good dough. I have also decided to take some time for me and have not been dating anyone. I know this will shock all of you, but I am enjoying it. I got into that web-site hell.com that we were all playing with in class, but I haven't had enough time to look through it properly. I am hanging with some people from CBC Radio 3 and you guys should really check out their sites:
www.120seconds.com I am taking a Spanish class so I can go back to Spain (or L. America) sometime relatively soon. I totally have itchy feet to travel again, but I think I will hold off until the fall or even January. Working on my career and all that jazz. I am starting to do the AM CHase shift at CBC, that means I have to be there at 5:30 am. Let's all hope the coffee shops are open that early because we all know how cheerful I am in the morning. SPeaking of crime reporting, I was at the police briefing one morning when they were talking about a murder. Then they showed a picture of the getaway car (which is pretty high end and distinct.) And wouldn't you know that car was in the bay beside me when I got my oil changed the week before. Who knew! There. I did it. Take me off the list. PS I haven't seen Jeff's friend around yet, but I am sure I will sometime.
I am working casual for CBC radio still. I have been able to do some pretty cool stories and I always get to go to the police briefing, which in a city like this, is always interesting. Apparently people who have grow operations get home invaded for their pot all the time. First they get home invaded and then they get arrested for possession. There is always the drug problems on the downtown east side to push me through the slow news days, and never forget the NDP government with a shotgun pointed at their feet. I really like working at CBC because most of that stuff we learned in school about not overdoing crime reporting because it's easy and not to eat up press releases. But that's because there is always a lot going on here. I am taking a spanish class and a swimming stroke improvement class. I thought I would give you an update, but at the moment the most exciting thing in my life is my new laptop. Hope you had a nice Christmas. Read the responses to this posting.
I am in Vancouver. I have started casual work at CBC Vancouver. I am writing a bit for Gemini-like organizations (well, the radio part) and I am going to save money by living in my parent's basement and will be moving to a) the UK for two years or b) Australia for one year sometime in the spring. I just got back from Montreal where I hung out with friends and toured McGill's campus. The other things I am filing my time with are: volunteering at the Vancouver Indy Media Centre in which is built on the belief that everyone is a journalist and can be a witness. I'd just like to have an aside and have a little left-wing rant for a second: East Hastings is the saddest place in the world. Some of the most grinding poverty in Canada two blocks from the new Chanel store. (Remember that when you vote for your .38 toting, anti-abortion/women's rights, Dooms-Day) I am also going to start working with another organization called Check Your Head which goes into schools to teach teens to be better consumers and more active participants in our democratic process. So that's what I've been doing. Not to go on with my rant, but I would just like to say something in the light of the upcoming election: 1) Five years is a long time and governments can mess up a lot in less time and 2) if you don't vote, you can't complain. Should we get a little anonymous on-line poll going here Chado? I'm voting for the marijuana party if they have one in my constituency. They're only platform is to legalize pot for everything. Not complicated, hard to lie about and has nothing to do with (yet anyway) greasing the palms of cronies.
I am back in Canada and it is very strange to be home. I cannot get over how big everything looks and how clean. I know when I was in Britain I was always saying how dirty London was, but it is almost as ridiculous how clean it is here. So I went to Paris, which was awesome, then I went to Spain, also awesome, but I couldn't talk to almost everyone because they all speak Spanish(imagine that) but it was really wicked and I loved the beach and the people I stayed with were really great. Had my birthday dinner right in front of Sagarda Famillia (which is this massive church that has been under construction for about 70 years and Gaudi even said it would take 200 to finish it.) Then I went back to London and had another birthday dinner in Brixton and it was really fun. I also had another going away dinner the night before I left because my flat-mate's stove was finally working, installed, and ready to go. Came back to Canada and have been here about a week. So here comes the interesting part: I HAVE FINALLY MADE A PLAN!! I am going to stay in Vancouver or Calgary until after Christmas but before New Year's to save up some more money to go to Australia before January 6.(Unless I go to Taiwan with my friend Jill to do the same.) I originally wanted to go to Australia for the Olympics/ParaOlympics, but some of my plans fell through, so I am hanging out at home until then. I will be in Australia for up to a year and then I will do something else. I am not going to plan what else at this point, I am just going to focus on the one thing for now. So there you have it. Everyone keeps asking me what I am doing, and that's what. I hope you are all well and I'll talk to all of you one way or another soon.
I have had a lovely time so far (despite ruining my stomach lining (bacteria not liquor!) and being quite lonely at the start. Now, I am a bit sad to go, but ready to move on. I am looking forward to coming home, but I still have a few things to squeeze in before I go: namely France, Spain and Tate Modern! Below I have made a list of things that I have noticed here. Many of which I may have mentioned before to some of you, but I really can't keep it straight. I am going to see Ralph Finnes in Richard II at the Gainsborough theatre (used to be Hitchcock's) and I am very excited! I really can't believe I am leaving London a week, time sure flies by. So, I am sure you all miss me terribly and I'll be speaking to most of you soon. Oh, and don't mail me anything after today. My flatmate is great, but I don't think he'll be too keen as a mail forwarder! As they say here 'mind how you go' and I'll see you all soon. Here are some funny things I have found out about it here:
Many of you have said you have enjoyed my little mass e-mails about London life. Well, this one will make you gasp, or laugh, depending on your disposition! My dad came here for the weekend of Canada day. I was quite ill on the Friday and although my dad thought it was a hangover (why would anyone think that about me??) it was actually quite bad. Despite this illness, my dad and I went to the Tower of London (the 'Doomsday Book' is a sham), learned what Cricket is all about (from the TV), went to Canada House, Harvey Nichols, because Harrods was closed, the musical Chicago and watched the gay pride parade take two hours to go by. And we went to the National Portrait Gallery. There was a special exhibit on Elizabeth Taylor, is she ever a fox! However, by Sunday I was feeling so sick, I called the emergency medical number Zik, my flat mate, gave me. I listed my symptoms and they told me they would get a doctor to phone me back. He did, listed the symptoms I had reported and said he had called a prescription in for me. I went to pick it up, it was morphine and stomach liquid. The lessons here: two tiered medicine doesn't work and don't get diagnosed for something over the phone. If you can help it, just don't get sick in the UK at all! The next day, I went to a real doctor who told me that I had a bacterial infection in my stomach and had I taken the Morphine I could have made myself even sicker! So, I stayed home for a week (and I have never been that sick in my life) and watched Wimbledon. I was so ill, I couldn't even go to watch the Euro 2000 Final, even though I watched it all the way up! So, besides being sick I am more than halfway done here. It seems strange, I was in Kings Cross Station (which is very crowded and a more than a bit seedy) and felt like I was going to miss it when I left. There are things about London that you just stop noticing after a while, the pollution, the bad service and the general dirt. But I haven't figured out if that is a bad thing, or a good thing. Don't worry, I still say excuse me and keep litter in my pockets until I see a garbage bin. I hope all of you are well and I'll see you, speak to you or write you soon! PS If you are trying to write me letters, they may come late. The postal workers are on strike in my neighborhood because one of them was fired because he is a soccer hooligan and was caught on a BBC Doc beating the crap out of a Turkish Man, (people have died in the fights between English and Turkish soccer hooligans, that's why I pointed out he was Turkish) and so was fired because of a good behaviour clause or something. His brother is also the head of the Union so that helps. Sometimes they walk out and sometimes they don't. So some days I get mail and some days I don't!
I have moved into my new place (Mildmay Park in Islington) it is really cool and even the name of the street sounds nice. I really like living there and being closer in has made all the difference! My new flatmate is really nice and his friends are really nice and I walk to work and get lots of exercise (although I'm not sure breathing diesel fumes is so good for you lungs!) I have just finished doing the layout for a big project for Panos (the organization that owns Gemini) and that was pretty cool. Last night I watched France vs. Holland at a French pub (guess who I was cheering for, whoever I cheer for always looses!) Last Saturday we were at a pub in Chelsea (very 'posh') while England beat Germany for the first time in 30 years. Needless to say there was a lot of happy people around that night. I am going to Wales in about two weeks to see some family and my dad is coming here next weekend. I went to Brighton last Sunday and got a sunburn and apparently, as I found out after, you are not supposed to swim in the water. People do it, but it's pretty gross, like Vancouver. I had to sit in the luggage space on the way back because the train was so crowded, but that seems hillarious to me. There is a little shop around the corner called the Canadian Muffin Co. Apparently the British are just discovering muffins. Who knew? It's pretty good though, I jsut didn't know muffins were such an integral part of life in canada! That's all for now.
First things first. The Tragically Hip rock so much. I went and saw them last night (June 8) at Shepard's Bush Empire. It's a victorian theater that fits about a thousand people. Listening to people around me, it was like being in Canada again! Did you know that you can drink anywhere here? Like on the tube or walking down the street? I just found that out. I think I am going to like it here more than I originally thought! So, Sloan opened for the Hip and I really wanted to see them before, but there was always some reason I couldn't make it. They were really good. Then the Hip played all thier good songs and only about two from thier new album because it isn't out yet. The guy I went with is English and he said he felt like he was in a foriegn country! I am moving next week to a new flat. Where I am living now is about an hour's commute and really depressing because I have to be on the tube the whole time (looking at the inside of the tunnel) and my aunt has still not returned home as she is ill. So I am moving in with the son of one of the people I work with, who is a professional photographer. He is currently working on a book about guns in America and it is beautiful (shot-gun in one hand, bible in the other etc...) The flat is walking distance (about 20 mins.) from here and quite close to two tube lines. It's also really nice and has a nice leather couch and a vcr where I can kick back. It's nice to be in a buzzy place instead of Enfield. And there's a flat full of Canucks with a tumble dryer who are soon to become my new best friends, nearby. If you want my new address I can give it out. Otherwise I am picking up my mail every two weeks from Dora's. Hope you are all well. I will send the new phone number when I have it. I love Islington (my new neighborhood.) Take care!
I went to hear Timothy Findlay read on Thursday at the Canadian Embassy. There were free drinks and Carol Shields was also there. That's pretty nice, but when I walked in and told one of the PR people where I wanted to go, he said that TIFF was on the steps smoking and I could go talk to him if I wanted. I did talk to him, and he wrote some really nice things in my travel diary, but I am certain I made no sense as I was on the verge of passing out because I was so excited! Apparently Molson is launching thier beer here and is having a screening of that commercial (which everyone here has heard about) and giving out free beer at Canada House sometime next month. On Friday I went to Edinburgh and it was so nice. I would love to live there. It's a bit like Victoria and people in Scotland are much friendlier, they actually give you directions when you ask, and if you can understand the accent, you're in luck! Everybody drinks heaps on the train, two guys got on with a case of beer in York (which is only two hours away from Edinburgh.) Saturday it was a bit cold and so I bought two scarves (2 for £5) and there was only one that could match my ridiculous green coat. I bought it and as I was leaving realized that the name of the tartan is Alberta. Hmmmmm... I got a mysterious e-mail from someone at warner music saying that she needs my address so she can send me tickets to the Hip show on the 8th (and by the way, Sloan is opening for them, see subject line...) And yesterday I was at a party with my aunt Claire, me another Canadian journalist that is about my age and really nice, and was invited by someone to go work at the Edinburgh festival in August. I also met a tonne of Canadians in the hostel (which is in a cathedral that is now used as a hostel) and one of them had smuggled in some Kraft dinner and red licorice. I ate pretty well! Dora, whose house I am staying at, is not feeling very well and so is usually staying at her daughters house. That would bother me because I would be lonely and bored if it wasn't for the fact that now I have a life. The journalist I met yesterday told me that the third week is the hardest. I have been here for almost 4 and I think she's right.
Note: This is Chad. Jenn sent me this posting almost a week ago, but I've just gotten around to putting it up. Getting a new computer is my excuse! Now on to Jenn.... Despite the pollution and my first tube breakdown, I have survived my first 'fortnight' in London. And yes they still really say 'fortnight.'I will never cheer for Arsenal, not only because of the holliganism in Denmark this week, but also because they were Arsenal fans that gave me a really hard time my first full day here. I was buying my transit pass, and just because it was saturday and they were on the way to some semi-final none of them could wait and they were all saying things like 'we don't have all day you know' Also because I have been instructed by my 86 year old aunt that it's Tottenham or Man United (and only Man United because their whole team was killed in a plane crash years ago and she's felt horrible ever since!) So I have learned not to cheer for Chelsea no matter how nice thier jersies are! I have also learned that the tube does screw up, and when it does the whole day is a blinking mess! It took me two hours to get to work instead of 40 minutes. I went to Cambridge and it is so beautiful, it's no wonder people can be inspired to learn. I also went to Covent Garden on the weekend and I accidently bumped into a man and he gave me a really dirty look and put his wallet in his front pocket. I mean, it's easy to see why he would mistake me for a street urchin or pickpocket! It was sort of funny though because if I was a real pickpocket he wouldn't have felt anything... I'm working on a story about some British researchers in the antarctic, it's pretty neat what they do there. I am also editing stories, mostly from Africa right now. I have gotten tickets to go see Ralph Finnes in Richard II and who cares if it's horrible because he is pretty nice to look at. I am also going to see The Tragically Hip on the 8th. It should be pretty good. As you can see, I have already started to fill in my schedule. Interesting differences that come to mind this week are:
Hope you are all doing well and will send me news soon.
My new job is going really well. I am sub-editing (copy-editing) stories from around the world and already I am learning a lot. The people here are very nice and the location is about a 45 minute commute from home, so it's pretty good really. I haven't really seen any touristy stuff yet, there's so much to do, I have to be selective. They are opening the new Tate Modern gallery on Friday, but I'll have to wait a while before I go, it will be very crowded. They just filled it with stuff that was lying around in the basement at the other Tate: Dali, Warhol, Picasso, etc... I can't believe how much cool stuff they have here, and they all seem to act as if it is commonplace. The theatre and music and art. It's really amazing. My only problem is deciding what to do first! I am welcome to sugeestions to anyone who's been here. (Kristen where is that Sushi place?) Although I am sure most of you don't care, the news here is really great. They give you background and maps and explain what's going on much better than we do. And everyone reads the newspapers on the tube. Everyone! That's all for now. I should be sending most of you postcards sooner or later.
I am so lucky. |