A really fun journalism weekend in LA

Out walking in LA

Paige and Cecily in a tree where they couldn't be, jsut to then tell the guard IN SWEDISH that they didn't understand what he was saying.

Me, Paige and Maria on a shopping spree in Fashion District, along with Andrea who is behind the camera.

Journalist convention in LA all weekend, so incredible fun. It has been a lot of speakers, competitions and city tours. About 700 students from about 60 schools and school newspapers went to Downtown LA these days.

And we really lived as much downtown you can get. 7:e and Figeroa. If you think on how LA looks, with a cluster of skyscrapers in the center, we live right there among them. Close to Staples center and US Bank Tower.

Except the competitions we could do basically whatever we wanted to do. There were so many workshops and speakers to go to and chose between. I went to one with a photographer from LA Times that was very interesting, and one with the editor of Vogue Magazine, who was surprisingly bad.

The first evening there was an Hawaii party. I might have to mention that this was an all non-alcoholic weekend. Therefore it was even more funny to see the karaoke, Macarena, musical chairs and stuff like that. Are they really doing this sober? Or, am I really doing this sober? Cause off course I was there too. Me, Cecily, Paige, Maria and Andrea owned the dance floor until they closed at 1 am. Then we went out to the city to buy soda and candy, singing and dancing in the store and the afterpartied in their room. All  completely sober.

Friday was the time for my competition, feature writing. Me and Andrea was representing SBCC so we cooperated a bit. Before the competition we had no idea what it was to be about. It showed that we were to go to the Grammy museum. We went there and had 3 hours to come up with something to write. Go!

60 people at the same place, writing about the same thing, then it’s not so easy to come up with something unique. I walked around looking for something to write about and interviewed some people. Pretty soon I came up with my subject: generations meet each others musical interests. Grown ups can learn about hiphop and Beyonce and kids can learn about Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and other people “that lived a long, long time ago”. That last part was an actual quote from a kid I interviewed. Very funny.

After the three hours we went to one of the convention rooms at the hotel to write it down. Both me and Andrea were very satisfied with our articles.

In the evening The Channels treated us to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. The best pizza here is, and we could have whatever we wanted. Nom nom nom.

After that there was a go throw of sent in-competitors and awards to them. Me and Paige got bored and went down to the hotels outdoor Jacuzzi instead.  Very nice. We stayed there til they closed and we tried to hide from the guard under the water but we didn’t succeed :P

Saturday most of us were done with our competitions (except Cecily and some others) so it was packed with speakers to chose from. We didn’t want it so me, Paige, Maria and Andrea went out on a tour of the city instead. We had a real good time and walked around in the Financial, Jewelry and Fashion districts and had lunch at a really cozy French restaurant.

In the evening, after some more tours around skyscrapers and Swedish lessons to Paige and Cecily, there was a banquette and award ceremony. I didn’t win. But a couple of others from SBCC did, among them for best sports photo. Maria got an honorable mention for her feature photo. Very nice.

The bus trip home was so much fun and we had singalong all the way back to Santa Barbara.

Today the cheer team had their final gettogether at the coaches house. She had invited me to come along since I’ve been with them during the season, and that was real nice. We ate a lot of good food, watched photos and videos from competitions and had a good time. I gave the girls cd’s with my photos from the competitions.

Now it’s raining and I’m in bed eating banana chips, drinking ice tea and listening to Amy Macdonald’s latest album to write a review of it. In LA there was nice weather all the time, but despite today’s rain it has been a great, fun and cool weekend. I like it so much here!