Columns

Intern in a strange land: the first day

It's 87 degrees out, and I'm sweating bullets in my black slacks and blazer.

By Nina Kim, Times Staff Writer
Published June 24, 2007

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It's 87 degrees out, and I'm sweating bullets in my black slacks and blazer.

After driving 18 hours non-stop from Chicago to Gulfport (determined older sister), frolicking at the beach and eating a pound of crab legs (long live Florida!), and catching the flu (comatose all weekend), I finally arrived: my first day of work at the St. Petersburg Times.

I meet my supervisor, Bob. We go to his office and chat about payrolls, policies, hurricane safety - you know, the usual.

Wait, what? Hurricane safety?

Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Chicago anymore.

Bob then gives me a tour. I keep mental notes of the essentials: bathroom, supply closet, elevators. I'm directionally challenged, so tours are helpful. Plus, it makes me feel important. I get to meet anyone who's available.

People always apologize, but inevitably, the new person isn't going to remember names.

My housemate, who's also a Times intern, told me on her first day, everyone wore name tags. Brilliant! That would've helped when I was creepily studying ID badges for names. I'm not averting eye contact - I just want to know your name.

I find my desk and have time to "settle in." I can't log into my computer sans log-in information. Intern welcome folder? Nah. I'll get some coffee.

So I get to the third-floor kitchen. No coffee. Ha, funny. I check the other kitchens. No coffee. This is madness! No, this is Florida? At my previous internships, every kitchen had at least three coffee pots. No coffee in a newsroom - that's news to me.

Disheartened, I plop down at my desk again, then Bob calls me into his office. I've got the front page column of the Sunday Working section. Holy smokes. I think I can deal with no coffee.

I get logged into the computer but am still not in the network. "Hey, did you get ... ." "Did you see I sent you ... ." Nope. No network. A bit unnerving, but everyone around me is on it. As an intern, I've never felt so welcome

The second day, I am recovered from my illness. I get computer training, into the network and another assignment. Sweet!

My computer trainer looks at me warily when I say I live in Gulfport. It's an evacuation area, she tells me. Funny, I wasn't alarmed when Bob told me that yesterday. Somewhere between my caffeine deficit and my DayQuil bubblehead, I must have mistaken "area" for "center."

Ah, c'est la vie ... in Florida.

[Last modified June 24, 2007, 09:22:22]