So far … so good

Yeaahhh! I just found out I passed my Spanish exam! I am so happy because it did not go very well. Now I only have to wait for the feedback on my thesis and I will know if I can graduate! But let’s not think about my thesis right now, I am just extremely happy!

Last weekend I went to Concert at Sea, as I told you in my previous blog. My boyfriend joined me which was very nice. It was all the way in Zeeland (a Dutch province pretty far from were I live). Although the weather forecasts were not very good, I was very excited. On Friday, several Dutch artists performed. The main act was Anouk, and she sang songs or 1.5 hour! I loved the show, the sphere and her voice. After that I went back to the hotel I stayed.

The next morning, we went to a little market in a village. The sun was shining and we were looking forward to see the other artist. However, I got a call from a friend who told me that Concert at Sea day 2 was cancelled! At first, I did not believe it. So, we checked the internet and, unfortunately, it was cancelled due to the bad weather. It would have been very nice to do the interviews with the Dutch performers.
This week, I started my first week as a ‘freelancer’ at Margriet.nl. Nothing really changed with that. Of course once I will see my first pay check, I will be very happy: a normal salary instead of an intern payment.
Okay, coming Friday I will have my thesis feed-back, I will tell you all about that in my next blog!

Cross your fingers!

First of all: I am sorry for the long lasting silence! But the last weeks have been very hectic and I simply did not have the time, nor the energy, to write an update in this blog.

Now….some good news: I finished my thesis! Hurray…hooray! I handed it in today and it feels like a huge relief!

This week, I also tried to study for two exams: Spanish and the European Union as a global actor. However, last weekend, I got ill and I was not able to study till Tuesday morning. This was stressing me out since I really have to pass one exam in order to be able to graduate in July. Sadly enough, my Spanish exam did not go as well as I hoped. I mixed up some grammar and I do not have a good feeling about it. The other exam, which I had today, was also pretty difficult. The most frustrating thing right now is waiting for the exam results. I asked both teachers if they could send me the results as soon as possible. Both of the lecturers want to do that but they only might know the result next Wednesday or even later that week. I really wish I could know it right now…so....Cross Your Fingers pleaseee :D!

So, you think I am partying already now that I am (almost) done with school? Uhm…NO….I wish though. I have to finish my placement report 3 coming week and I still have my internship. Tomorrow is my last day at Sanoma Media as an intern. Monday, I will start working there as a freelancer . The plan is to work there 2 weeks in July (the other intern is going to work the other two weeks) and after that they will tell us if we can stay in August as well.

Coming weekend is going to very fun! I am going to Concert at Sea where popular Dutch bands and singers will perform two nights in a row! On Saturday, I will have to interview some of those performers, like Jaqueline Govaert, Ilse de Lange, Blof and De Dijk. For Margriet.nl, I have to write some articles about it. I am really looking forward to this experience. Pretty great, isn’t it? I will write about it soon!!

Busy days

Leonardo DaVinci once said: "Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer." This has proven to be very true in the process of writing a thesis and doing an internship at the same time.

The deadline of the draft thesis is coming up, only two weeks lefts, and I am getting more and more stressed by the minute. I thought I was on schedule and I was happy I already had two official confirmations of people I could interview. However, it has been more than one week already since I send them my interview and they still not send their answers back. They are doing me a huge favour and I don’t want to nag. Together with my supervisor, I wrote a nice and motivating email I am going to send tomorrow. I hope this email will drive them to answer the questions more quickly so I can process the results. I am meeting with a classmate tomorrow to compare our thesis’s and to give each other some tips and advice. I hope it will helps us both.

The other intern at my placement has been ill for the last week. Because of this, it was extremely busy and hectic. I had to do twice as much and I did not have time to work on my thesis at all. Especially today has been a very hectic day. I had to make the newsletter all by myself and I had to put every reference to the website from the magazine online. There were also a lot of advertorials I had to make and they all had a deadline since they had to be approved by the advertisers. Given that the other intern will still be ill tomorrow, I have to work on my thesis day which means even less time to write. Although, I only have to work in the morning, I preferred to stay home and work there. But it is okay, I will just work on Saturday….that’s the spirit right J! But, on Friday night, I will have a little relaxation!

Have a nice weekend! I surely will, together with my lovely thesis, have the best weekend of my life ;)!

Some bad and some good news

Let’s start with some bad news. Then we can, hopefully, finish with nicer things. One week ago, my supervisor told me that she had found a new job. This new job is a very good thing for her and I am happy for her. However, for me it is not really the best thing that could happen. It is not sure yet who is going to replace her but we have some people in mind. I just hope that the person who is replacing her, is going to be just as nice as my supervisor is. I also hope that I can still stay in summer to work (if I like the new web editor of course). My supervisor told me she is still going to arrange it but since nothing is really sure right now, I am not sure if it will all work out the way I hoped. I just have to wait and see!

Via a website, I found my second person who I can interview for my thesis. He is an expert in the field of online marketing and websites. The agency he works for gives awards to the best websites each year in England. As a consequence, he knows a lot about the subject of my thesis and he can help me a lot with some theories, some questions I have and he can give me more insight into the whole topic. I am really glad he is willing to do the interview and I am curious to see his answers. I also send an email to a Dutch expert today and I hope he is willing to answer my questions as well. The only expert I still need to find is an American one. Anyone some ideas?

Currently, it has been really hectic at work. Coming Sunday it will be Mothering Sunday. The websites target group mostly consist of women who are mothers and therefore we have to give a lot of attention to it. The other intern and I arranged a lot of prices which website visitors can win, we made a newsletter with the theme Lots of love for Mothering Sunday and we wrote articles. These ‘specials’ are really nice and gives you the change to really focus on one thing. I also made a royal wedding quiz, because of the royal wedding of William and Kate last Friday, which was put in the newsletter. This quiz generated a lot of click and people wrote positive comments about the quiz. I liked this a lot since it is nice to see the appreciation of your work!

The usual week

Last weekend, I tried to relax. Sometimes I really need that. I am always busy with my internship, my thesis, this blog and my personal and social life. With the lovely weather we had last weekend, it was also very had to concentrate. I decided to relax for a moment. Tomorrow, I will have another so called ‘thesis-day’. I already checked the weather forecast and it looks great: not really sunny and perhaps some rain. The best weather for a productive thesis day! I hope….

I also received the feedback from my supervisor. Obviously, I still need to improve and add a lot of things but the feedback was positive. I could definitely work with it. Tomorrow, it is the 27th of April. Only 1 month left to finish my thesis. This sounds like an undoable task. However, I am going to ask my internship supervisor if I could have some more time in May to finish my thesis. I really hope she can give me the extra time.

Today, I also met my new colleague. My other colleague, who is a freelancer, is on holiday for three weeks. Now, an other freelancer is temporarily taking over his tasks. She is really nice and fun to work with. Her feedback is very positive and I like working with her already (she’s not reading this blog, so no I am not trying to be a bootlicker :)).

Something I also like about my internship, is getting free samples. I get lots of make-up, for example the new lip-gloss line or eye shadow, I receive books and food. This because all those advertisers want you to write articles, about their new products, on the Margriet website. Although I do not write those articles as often as I get the products, I still receive them and it’s just a very nice advantage of my internship placement!

Brand New

Two weeks ago my supervisor told me that the online division of Margriet is going to move to an other department. The online manager made the plan to put all the online divisions together at one department. At first, I was not very happy with this. I do not always like change and I loved the department I was now.
Last Thursday was the day the removal took place. I have to admit, it is not that bad. I still have my own desk with my own laptop and I sit as close to the window as I sat before. My new colleagues are the ones from Viva.nl, Libelle.nl and Vrouwonline. Although I do not really know them yet, they seem nice.

Another new and nice development is that my supervisor asked me if I could stay the summer to work for Margriet.nl. I, immediately, said YES! Since I quit my other job, I do not have work after my internship is done. As you can imagine, this is a great chance. It will look good on my CV (curriculum vitae), I can continue doing what I like which is writing articles and I make some money with it. Obviously, I need to keep doing my very best since I don’t get a contract. But I see it as a new challenge which I am very willing to take.

Working on my thesis is going better as well. Today, I put all the parts I have so far together in one document. This gave me a better overview of what still needs to be done and which parts needs to be improved. I am still waiting for a book I ordered and then I can also continue with my theoretical framework. I send the whole document to my thesis supervisor, I will get the feedback Thursday. I am really curious. Although I know that not everything is good enough yet, I hope she can tell me if I am on the right track.

Tomorrow, I will have a busy day at work, since it is almost Easter, so this is it for today!
Sleep well!

Backstage at Concert

One of the best things about my internship is the combination of doing fun activities and working at the same time. Last Saturday, I was invited to a concert from two successful Dutch singers. Dutch people reading this blog might know them: Nick & Simon (see picture). Although Dutch music is not really my thing, I really liked this experience. We got this ticket because Nick and Simon will be the guest editors of Margriet 25 (number 15 is now in stores). The best thing was, since I was invited, I got a backstage ticket!

The concert was held at Ahoy, a stadium in Rotterdam. It was totally sold out which means that there were 12.000 people! The music director from Margriet, the other intern and I did not have to wait in line: VIP’s have a separate entrance J! There was a canteen with free drinks and a lot of other invited people. Amongst them were friends, family but also other famous Dutchmen like Martijn Krabbe and Sander Lantinga (host at popular Dutch show and radio-dj). Everybody was very nice and welcoming.

Nick and Simon started the show with one of their new songs called Vlinders (Butterflies). The audience goes wild. Especially when Nick starts to flirt with the audience; from grandma to teenage girl, everybody screams. Their catching songs and the nice sphere makes you dance and sing along, even if you don’t want to.

After the break, Nick and Simon dress up as The Beatles. They sing songs as ‘Let it be’ and ‘Hey Jude’, classics! An advantage of being backstage is that we had our own private place were we could stand and sit to watch the performance. Even though it was weekend, it did not feel like work. I only had to make some notes. My supervisor said to me: the most important thing is to enjoy the evening! And that is exactly what I did!

Let’s do it

Imagine the best internship ever: going to an office where you write articles for the website of a big magazine, having great colleagues and a nice working climate. Well, this is my internship! The only thing I had difficulty with was waking up….every day…at 7 AM. Most of you know, we as students are not used to this. As a consequence, I was very tired in the first weeks of my internship. You really have to get used to a different time schedule with different working hours. However, once you get used to it, it is not a really big deal anymore. Everybody starts at 9 AM, so why wouldn’t you J!

Another thing that is stressing me out is the fact that my draft thesis has to be handed in in 5 weeks already! I already quit working at my additional job since I just did not have the time to work on my thesis. Although, I do have two nights where I can work at home on my thesis, I am just stressed that I cannot make the deadline. The weather is getting better and better and today (lovely sunny day where I could be enjoying the sun….on the beach….with a cocktail….ahh stop daydreaming) it is really testing my motivation to stay at home and work.

Since every classmate is doing his/her internship (here or abroad), I do not get to see them often. However, I am working together with a classmate whose thesis is somehow comparable to mine. We send emails to each other with updates about how far we are with writing and doing research. This helps a lot and gives me some calmness.

The first month at my internship went really well. However, the online manager has set some new guidelines which I have to follow in my articles. As a consequence, writing an article takes me, and also the other intern, longer. This  means that we do not write as much articles as we could and did before. And this again…leads to more stress. Fortunately, my supervisor understands this and helps us a lot.

In short: some stress, some happiness but most of all a lot of learning experiences!

Starting up

So, there is a lot to catch up about. In this blog I am going to write my experiences as a third year ICM student who is doing an internship and writing a thesis at the same time. Believe me, it’s a busy life!

Lets start at the beginning: finding an internship. It took me a while to find an internship that I liked. I searched on the internet and I asked family and friends if they knew a placement. Via the Sanoma (big publishing company) website I found a vacancy for Margriet (a Dutch magazine) for online editing. Since I wanted an internship where I could write a lot and because I like magazines and the publishing world, I decided to write an application letter. When I was invited for a job interview, I prepared myself by looking at the Margriet website, making sure I knew what the brand was all about. It was the nicest job interview ever! The women I spoke to were extremely friendly and I loved the sphere in the office. Since they had more applicants, they told me I would get a call within a week. I was very excited and had a really good feeling about the interview. One week later they called me: I got the internship!

I started on the 17^th of January. I was pretty nervous because I did not know what to expect yet. From my first day on I really liked my internship. My colleagues were very nice and another intern taught my everything I needed to know.

I work for the website for Margriet.nl. I write articles about society, health, beauty, leisure, nutrition and physical exercises. Just look at the website if you want to have examples. I do this together with another intern who started two weeks after I did. I work 4 day’s a week at the office in Hoofddorp and one day at home to work on my thesis.

So, now you know the most important things! In my next blog, I will tell you more about my internship and thesis!