Already starting to become adjusted

OK, this has to be quick, while it's still fresh in my head. (Plus, I am writing this in my office at Focus, using a German keyboard and a different computer, which I REALLY don't happen to fancy as much as my own.)

So yay!!! It is my third day at Focus, and I am beginning to get the swing of things already. At first I was frustrated, because I wasn't used to the enormity of the company, and it felt to me like... well, I don't really know. Like they didn't really have a place for me here. But, I have realized, this opportunity is much more of a learning experience and will not really be like any job I have had before. And that is really all I wanted. So of course, as in the way of my natural tendencies, I was worrying over nothing. I guess it just takes me a bit to see something for what it really is.

Yesterday, most of the people from the Modernes Leben department weren't in the office. Some were working from home, and one went home sick. The highlight of the day was that Peter—the man who is in charge while Stephan is on holiday—showed me around the office and I got to see how the production of the paper works. That was really interesting for me. Of course, it's similar to any newspaper/magazine: the editorial department is assigned so many pages based on the advertising for the week, they write the stories, the photo department gets the pictures, data and graphics and the designers construct the layout. Of course, the editorial department always must tweak their copy in order to fit the design of the pages. This is what I find the hardest to do, and it was always a struggle for me back at NMFP to edit and re-edit my own stories until they fit into Ana's design. It's tough, and I like how my old Public Affairs professor used to describe it: Journalists are always having to "kill their babies." Morbid, yes. That's a journalism professor for you.

But I also liked the way in which they set up their dummy pages—just one sheet with small squares assigned to each individual department and color coded so that each department knows when their content deadline is. I like this much more than our full-page printouts at NMFP; it saves much more paper. The one thing I don't like is that the entire building smells of cigarettes. That's Germany for you.

Today, I finally met Stephan Paetow. He is the "big boss." I liked him very much. He seems very excited to have me here and told me that if I want to know anything, go anywhere or do anything, I just have to ask. He also gave me some things to work on, consisting of coming up with some news briefs for the weekly "Boulevard" section, as well as trying to come up with things in the news on which to comment on (with wit and humour of course) for the Tendenz-O-Meter section. He said if I can do this, in another language, then that will really be something. But it will be a challenge.

Stephan also said he will take me with him next Friday to meet the founder, editor and publisher of Focus Magazin—Helmut Markwort—and this is a huge deal. He is very famous here in Deutschland. That is beyond awesome.

So geht es doch viel besser. Und jetzt bin ich mehr glücklich.

The future looks bright...