Parallax: the life of media interns abroad

Well I have completed my internship at the Korea Herald and I’m not glad it’s over. I don’t want to leave just yet and I wish I had more time. This week was a blur as I was able to get a flurry of articles published….

The Korea Herald Office

Somehow my time at the Post, and here in Bangkok, has come to an end. I’ve filed my last story on the continued uncertainty and fear in flood-affected regions in Thailand (to be published this coming Sunday), checked in for my flight home and nearly begun thinking about packing my undersized bag.

Having worked/travelled at such a pace for the past five weeks, visiting so many new places and meeting so many new people, I’m afraid once I return to slow-motion time in Sydney, this whole experience will be stored away into a disconnected, distant past.

So to assure myself stuff has actually happened and I have picked up more than just a pair of elephant pants and an appreciation for Sydney’s sewerage system, I’m going to indulge in a few musings. No hyperlinks, no overly drawn-out tales, just a shortlist of my top three semi-meaningful lessons from being an intern, in Bangkok, at the Bangkok Post.

My Bangkok home

As my final week at AFP hurtled to a close, there was barely time to finish stories, let alone update this blog. So apologies this final post has been a bit delayed - caught between those last few days and a week and a half or so of travelling around Japan.

Unlike earlier in my internship, there was no longer time to rant about PR and press conferences during workdays. The three stories I’d been working on had all reached their final stages, meaning back to back interviews, last minute research and of course, a last dash to write the copy before Friday night close.

It’s Friday the 24th of February. For some people that means absolutely nothing, but for me it signals the end of an era. A very short, nonetheless exciting ‘era’. Today’s my last day at GURU in the looming building of the Bangkok Post.

The Bangkok Post, Ra Ranong Road, Klong Toey.

What a whirlwind last few days it’s been! As of right now, it’s 2am. I’ve just dragged my weary feet over the threshold of my room having returned my first solo assignment with the Lifestyle section, from a coastal town called Baler in the Aurora region, about 5-6 hours drive from Manila.

I made the switch to the Lifestyle beat last Friday. After a brief introduction, the editor asked, “How would you like to go out of town this weekend?”

That’s how I ended up at the bus station just before midnight on Saturday, pestering other passengers with the question, “Are you a journalist?”

Although this is my final week of catching a pink taxi to work, and on the way back, riding a motorbike to the MRT (subway) and walking ‘home’, I plan to make the most of it.

While my articles for Friday were being sub-edited other assignments beckoned, as mentioned before, I submitted seven movie reviews for this Friday’s paper, as well as a food spotlight on Bar@494 and a Wine Me, Dine Me feature on the French restaurant Surface. The photography feature was pushed back another week for something else that came up (timeliness is a key news value after all). It would have been nice to see it in print before I leave; I’m hoping my editor will mail it to me once it’s published the following week.

“I have a story for you, but you probably won’t be able to do it.”

Paul my editor has a real knack for one-line introductions to my next assignment. Previous ones such as “Just how fit are you?,” “How musical are you?” and “Have you ever shot a gun?” all made me immediately fearful of what was to follow, but this latest preface probably tops it.

Anyway, turns out the story was doable, and I did it.

Done. My story (on the right) in today's news section of Sunday