I woke up at six this morning and convinced myself that it would be a good idea to set another alarm for five minutes later. I’m not usually the type to press snooze on my alarm ten times straight, but this morning, I felt glued to my bed.
I live in Pleasanton, which is a good forty to fifty minutes away from San Jose by car. But I don’t go by car. I ride the ACE Train, which means that I board the train at 6:48 in the morning and step off of it at 7:47–if there are no delays (which, to be frank, there usually are). With more than an hour before Mosaic starts, I spend half of that time walking from Diridon Station to San Jose State.
Today, Joe was there early, so I was able to set my stuff down in the newsroom and eat breakfast before anyone else. To be honest, I’ve eaten more for breakfast here than I ever have at home. We had another news quiz/scavenger hunt, but I spent the majority of the time reading completely unrelated articles–like the results of the ICE sweep and a very...interesting story about a man being charged for child sodomy during his time in a polygamist cult. (I’m a bit disappointed that nothing from the cult story ended up on the news quiz.)
We met Jim, a freelance photographer who gave as a crash course on different aspects of photography and how to take good photos on smartphones. Most of it flew over my head (all I understand about photography is pointing and clicking), but it was cool to hear about all the different things that go into taking the perfect picture.
We worked on our stories until lunch came around. By now, lots of people have been going out on interviews, and things are going well underway for a lot of them. I’m still trying to set up interviews (two in the morning, three and possibly four as of now) for my own story, and I’m pretty nervous about the approaching deadline. Well, the best results come from being under pressure, right?
For lunch, a group of us went to the Student Union and got Panda Express before heading back to the newsroom to make the most of our time. I got orange chicken and chow mein–the only thing I’ve gotten from Panda for the past few years–and a Jamba Juice as well. (I swear, things are more expensive here. I don’t remember a small Jamba Juice costing $4.90.)
At two in the afternoon, I had my first interview. I had scheduled it last night when I joined a Facebook group for Bay Area anime fans. I was pretty nervous before, but the person I was interviewing was super chill. To be honest, I was the nervous one in that interview. I’m glad he was friendly and willing to talk. We had a twenty minute interview.
We played Hamilton and sang along to the songs. I basically just mumbled along to the rap parts, but it was cool to find some other like-minded people. I’m pretty excited for tomorrow–I’ve got two more interviews lined up, will be visiting Japantown with a friend to ambush customers in an anime shop, and writing my article is going to get underway!