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!