Weird week

I was about to turn my week of journalism into a word, but I couldn't even come up with one word that encompasses all that happened.

Monday was surprisingly amazing. Because I did my story on Martin Lindstrom's appearance at Humber, I was able to go to the event. Lindstrom was appearing twice - once in the morning and once in the evening. I was in class for the first presentation, so I asked to go to the second. I didn't realize that the morning meet was for students and instructors and the evening show was for the top people at Humber and Humber's affiliates. I went to the area where Lindstrom would speak to find a bunch of people in suits. Needless to say, the sweaters, skinny jeans and skate shoes my sister and I wore stood out a bit. I got nervous and uncomfortable, but proceeded with the knowledge that it would be one kickass presentation.
We (this also includes my father) tried to fit in, but just couldn't quite get it right. One woman (in charge of continuing education) came up and introduced herself. She was so nice and I thank her for putting up with our awkwardness. I told her I wrote the story in the paper and she asked if I had read any of Lindstrom's books. I looked like a moron when I said I hadn't, but she proceeded to give me her personal copy of a book. Did I say she was nice?
While we talked, culinary students walked around, offering hors d'oeuvres and wine.. No joke.
Soon, we were all guided towards the Humber Room. This is a fancy restaurant run by students.
The tables had little flower arrangements and the multiple-utensil set-up. I always remember Titanic in these situations - Molly Brown's advice to Jack about working your way in towards the plate has helped me get far in life.
We started eating the fancy little salad (cheese, watermelon, various greens and cucumber) after we were told to dig in.
I'm a vegetarian, so the next course consisted of polenta fries, seasonal vegetables (you know a place is fancy when they say "seasonal"), and zucchini stuffed with cous cous.
The dessert made every bit of awkwardness worthwhile. We ate brownies with whipped cream and crab apple filling. There was even one of those lemon smears underneath it all. I had to keep myself from licking the plate.
Can you tell how much I like food? Anyways, Lindstrom did the presentation after we ate. It was fascinating. If you ever have the chance to see this man live, do it! The information and research he did was so interesting and entertaining. My dad, sister and I don't agree on anything, but we agreed on this presentation.
When he finished (he went over the time allotted, but no one seemed to care), we were told there were gift bags for us at the door. Gift bags!
I figured there would be a few clippings of Lindstrom's New York Times pieces when the speaker said they included samples of his publications. Of course not. The gift bags held Buyology and Brandwashed - Lindstrom's incredibly popular, $20-something, one-of-them-hardcover books. You have no idea how ecstatic I was. Books make me far too happy and these were great ones.
Lololol Those people at the 10 a.m. show have no idea what they missed.

Mingling with Humber's finest was a far cry from Wednesday's happenings. My only class on Wednesday starts at 3:30 p.m., so I decided to work on a project. I went to a breakfast for people who don't have  the money to afford food at a local church. I thought I'd see maybe a few people eating their meals, but was surprised to discover there was a basement full of people in need. They looked like everyday people who probably take the bus with me or walk past me on the streets. We've been taught that homeless people all have addictions and clothing with rips and tears. For some reason, I pictured dirty men covered in facial hair. THIS is why I'm doing the assignment. Some of the less fortunate people that come to the breakfast are struggling single mothers, men who've been through bad divorces, people struggling with mental illness, people who've been laid off and people who've come from abuse and broken homes.
Because I was in journalism, equipped with a recorder and a camera in a bag, most of the people didn't want to talk with me. It turned out working for me when one man told me his story of success. He lived on the streets for many, many years, broken by addiction and mental illness. Somehow, he was able to study up on mental illness and overcame it to run for office in the area, write a book and now teach students at various colleges and universities. He still goes back to help others.
The other man encountered financial troubles after a divorce. He went from making $6000 a month to eating free breakfasts out of necessity. He also goes back to help now.
It made me sad to see so many people afraid of what I could do to them. Journalism has such a bad rep, but it's for a good reason. So many would sell their own mother out for a front page story. I'm just not willing to do that... I'll be writing the classifieds for life now, won't I?
My family has decided to volunteer with the organization now and donate clothing to them.

On Thursday, my group for an assignment decided to go film Make-a-Wish's attempt at the Guinness World Record for the largest human star. We found out it was at Don Mills - an outdoor mall - on the first snowfall of the season. I wore my winter jacket, a scarf and gloves and I was still freezing. We started filming and wanted to get it over with. We soon found out that our camera batteries did too.
When it gets cold, batteries die quick deaths. We went from having completely full batteries to having two empty batteries in minutes. We shoved those freezing batteries in between our scarves and necks and we put them in our mittens and pockets to no avail. They regained a bar or two, but those quickly disappeared. We had no choice but to accept defeat. We're finding something indoors instead. Curse you, school cameras.