On the News!!

As many of you know, our class was required to keep a blog going while we were on the trip.  It was a way for us to document the things we were doing and analyze some things that we did not understand.  In one of our early morning classes with Dr. Kaplan, she informed us that someone from the university had heard about the blogs we were keeping and talked to one of the news stations in the area about potentially doing a segment on us.  She asked if we could send her an email giving her permission to share our blogs with anyone who was interested.  After sending a formal email, my roommates and I talked about how amazing of an experience it would be to have our faces on a Greek news channel.  The more we talked, the less realistic it seemed that someone would actually sit and read through fifteen or sixteen individuals blogs and pick mine out of the lot.   I slowly forced myself to accept the fact that I would encourage my peers that were picked because I probably would not be in the group that was. 

            That night I was Skyping with my big, Brittany, and Brianna walked out on to the balcony with a scheming grin across her face.  She asked me if I had checked the facebook group where all of us keep in contact with the rest of the people on the trip including our professors.  I had not done so and let her know.  She then looked even more suspicious and said, “I think you should go check it out”.  I figured it had something to do with the plans for the following day, so I checked it.  To my astonishment, I was one of the six students chosen to be on the news!!  The other three girls were my roommates Corey, Maddie and Brianna, and the two boys on the trip Jimmy and Chase.  The post asked us to wear professional looking clothes and be the next morning around 11 to meet with Dr. Kaplan and discuss the day’s agenda.

            Having four girls getting ready to be on the news all in one room is a hard thing to do, especially when we only had one mirror to share.  Many of us used photo booth as a substitute for a real mirror, and waited our turns for the actual one.  We talked with our professor for approximately an hour about potential questions they could ask us and about key things we should mention. Before we knew it, we were off.  We made our way to the university where we met the news crew in the Starbucks on campus.   After we introduced ourselves, the man in charge told the anchor to pick the first two she wanted to interview and she pointed to Chase and me. 

            They sat us down at a table and positioned our chairs towards the camera.  They placed microphones on our clothes and asked us to act like we were observing a couple of guys at a table they had continently placed in front of us, which was a little awkward.  After they got that shot, one of the anchorwomen handed me a pen and paper and told me to act like I was taking notes.  Again, another awkward task.  I wasn’t quite sure what she wanted me to take notes on, so Chase and I decided to compose “An ode to Greece”.  (If you watch the video, that is why we are laughing and writing things haha.)   Next, it was finally time for the interviews, which I thought were going to be a combined interview but ended up being individual.  I went first.   The women asked me three questions about random things and I spit out anything that came to mind.  The whole thing seemed like a blur and I was just hoping that I didn’t sound stupid and put my country to shame. 

            After everyone in our group had there minute of fame, most people went to class and I headed back to the dorms.  They told us that the segment was predicted to run around 8 that night so all we could do was wait.  We also found out that the segment was aired nationally not just locally, which was pretty amazing!  Here we are, six college students representing our country in a foreign nation on national television! 

            Eight rolled around, and I found myself trying to navigate the Greek news page.  I watched three or four random news segments before I came across the one we were featured in!  It was so neat to watch the final product with the people involved.  I could not wait to put it up on Facebook to show my family and friends, so I copied the link and put it up, only to discover that it did not work in America.  In order to share it with everyone, Brianna and I decided that we should make a bootleg version.  To do this, we played the link on her computer while I filmed it using the camera in my computer.  I’m going to attempt to attach the video on here but if I cannot figure it out, I believe you can still find it on my Facebook page!  Enjoy!