i've just had my first full day of work at the illustrious Voice of America, which is located on the even more illustrious Fleet Street in central london. from the 6th-floor office are decent views of big ben, the houses of parliament and part of westminster abbey. directly to the left of the building is gorgeous st. paul's cathedral. today was truly the first day i felt like i was in london. it felt surreal before, but coming to work and actually working somehow validated my arrival. it felt like a pinch on the ass.

i'm excited to be here and ready to absorb this great city that i'm falling in love with. i'm already sure i can live here. and i think i'm really going to like my internship, the whole working for the US government thing withstanding. my new boss has over 25 years' experience working as a journalist, and he seems as if he's going to be a very good guide who's not a micromanager. i already have my first story assignment, one that both frightens and intruiges me. it's big stuff, not like the boring city council meetings and low-level court crap i was covering last year in j-school. this is a big, complex international story. i'm not sure that i can report it on this blog since my professor said there are confidentiality issues with VOA that my blog might violate. i need to clear it with her first, but i will definitely link to it when it airs.

and tomorrow is the big voice-audition day. i chose a VOA story that i'm going to practice tonight before taping it tomorrow morning. then it heads over to washington, d.c., for review by a committee that will decide whether my voice has what it takes to go on the air. bossman said to expect a rejection -- all tryouts get one their first time out. but i'm going to practice all the same. but the real best part about this job is that i can actually walk to and from work, and it's just 20 minutes away! two of my roommies have to take a ton of trains to get to their jobs, their commute time totaling an hour each way. my work hours are a lax 9-5pm. the setup for the next six weeks is also lovely: two weeks of production, one week of editing and three weeks of reporting. i start the production part of my training tomorrow while the other two interns, als and melissa, begin on the reporting part. what's even better is the three of us get along famously. it all seems too good to be true. i guess the only bad part is that i'm not getting paid for any of this and am actually paying them for allowing me to work here.

in other news, there is no other news.