The unexpected (but excited) Intern!

Being home in Newfoundland for the summer, I had originally decided to wait to do my internship in September, instead of starting in May like most of the other people in my Humber PR class. And while being home with family and friends in St. John's is great, I have to say, I felt a bit....bored. I'm working part time at the bookstore again, but barely getting any hours, so I decided I wanted to do a bit of volunteer work.

To be honest, I wanted to get some PR volunteer experience before I started my internship because I thought that after four months of being out of the world of PR, I was afraid I'd have forgotten how to write a simple press release. (I know, that's unlikely, but I still feared it!)

So at a family gathering, I cornered a cousin of mine who works in the marketing industry here in St. John's, and his wife works in PR. (I know, lucky me, family members who understand my line of work!) I told them about my wanting to volunteer, and they said they'd see if they could help set me up with something. The next day, I got an email from my cousin, saying he'd gotten in contact with a friend of his at an agency here in St. John's, and to forward some writing samples to her.

I've been at this agency for a few weeks now and I'm loving it. The things I've been able to work on are even better than I thought they would be, and I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful mentor! And since I haven't had much luck securing an internship up in Toronto for the fall, my time at the agency here is actually going to be my internship now, which I'm so pleased about! Agency work here in Newfoundland is not as fast-paced as it is up in Toronto, but this is suiting me just fine for now!

I'm still returning to Toronto this fall, but instead of looking for an internship, now I'm looking for a job. If anyone has any recommendations, or knows of any openings for entry-level public relations practitioners, I'm all ears!

Have a happy week!

hot, Hot, HOT! This weather is (what else?) HOT!

On blistering days like today, I find it pretty fun to people-watch in St. John's.

Why?

Because in a place that rarely has the sweltering weather we've been enjoying the past few days, it's always funny to see the reactions of folks trying to cope with being so warm.

While at work today at the bookstore, a gentleman came in and immediately started in on how hot it was outside. "I know, I hate having to be in here all day, I love the heat!" I said. "Nope, no, no, no, I'd rather we have rain and fog right now." he replied, almost bitterly.

Guess we can't all take the heat!

I know Toronto's been "enjoying" a heat wave these past few weeks, I'm just hoping some of it will still be there when I return for September!

Have a (hot) happy week!

-Elizabeth

I'm huntin' me an apartment...wish me luck!

For the past few months, I've been frequenting websites like craigslist, kijiji and viewit.ca in search of an apartment for myself and my friend Heather. (Heather's not been lazy, she's been looking too!) Coming from St. John's, and having lived at home my whole life, (except for a term in England) I never had to deal with renting an apartment. To be completely honest, I really don't know much about it; I barely knew where to begin looking!

So, I did what I always do when I want to know something: I Googled it. (What we did before Google, I just don't know.) I found a number of different websites that would let me search for apartments, including those listed above. I thought this was a great first step, but I soon learned that my search would be more difficult than expected.

For example: it's very convenient that the websites list the nearest intersection that an apartment is located, but for someone new to the city (aka: Me) those intersections mean squat. A lot of the streets I have never heard of, so everything was checked out on Google maps.

Another factor to consider when trying to find a place to live in a city you know so little about is the neighbourhood. I know so little about where a good area to live in Toronto is, so I'm always looking on my trusty Google Maps to see where places like "The Annex" or "Yorkville" are. While in Toronto a few weeks ago, Heather and I, along with our future roommate Brittany, checked out an apartment just east of Yonge and Dundas, but it wasn't for us. Thankfully, the apartment wasn't for us, as apparently the area is not so nice, as I later found out.

Our needs for an apartment are not that unreasonable (I think): It has to be close to the subway line, we'd prefer a building, and we want to live downtown. For me, personally, I've always wanted to live downtown in a big city, and as I'm not sure how long I'll be living in Toronto, I want to really get the experience of living downtown.

As I'm in Newfoundland for the summer, I've been doing my hunting on craigslist and then emailing my finds to Heather so she can potentially visit them in person. We're still looking, so wish us luck, and if you know of any great locations where I should be looking, or you know of an apartment, please, don't hesitate to tell me! I'm welcome to anything at this point!

Have a happy week!

-Elizabeth

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

I know when people decide to begin blogging, they usually have a purpose to do so, and I have a number of friends from my PR world who are regular or semi-regular bloggers, each with their own unique reason for posting their thoughts online. When I signed up for this blog for school last year, I was really gung-ho on starting a blog, writing fantastic posts and having people comment and fawn over my amazing observations or what not, and updating it regularly.

That didn't really happen.

As I soon realized, you really DO need a reason to blog, and I just hadn't found my reason yet. Every blue moon, I might write a post about something that's struck a chord with me. But my first thought doesn't turn to, "I've gotta blog about that. That would make the PERFECT blog post." Usually I don't think about blogging at all, except to think, "Jeez, I wish I could keep a regular blog like my friends Alanna at the A List, or Amanda at Not a Model". I do realize however, while I'm now in the process of applying for internships and forced to take a hard look at the person I'm portraying through my online presence, that if I'm going to advertise that I have a blog, then I better actually keep it active.

I remember reading somewhere that the more active your blog is, the more readers you'll gain. And I can understand this...I check my friends blogs every few days for new posts, because they're faithful with updating. I haven't been faithful, so really, probably NO one reads my blog! (If you do, thanks!) Why would anyone think to keep checking a blog that hasn't been updated in a few weeks or months? I wouldn't.

So I got to thinking...what's my reason to blog? What in my life would be important enough, special enough, engaging enough (at least for me) to take the time to write about? And then it hit me, and admittedly I feel slightly dumb when I realized it....the header on my main page "We're Not In Newfoundland Anymore", talking about my transition from small town Newfoundland to big city Toronto. That's unique to everyone else in my blogosphere.

And so, from now on, I'll be updating my blog with posts about my quest to find an apartment in a city that I really still am new to; my hunt for an internship at a company that I'm hoping I'll love; trying to build a social circle in a place where I have little family and even fewer friends, and; attempting to really make a home for myself in a brand new place, all on my own.

It's a little (or really, a whole lot) daunting....but I think I'm up to the challenge. Happy reading! :)