Bedding in at St Louis.

Well, it's my second weekend in St Louis and I'm beginning to settle down quite well. The going was tough at first, what with having to deal not only with a new job in a new company but also a new town, a new country and new friends. But, as time has gone by, I've begun to get more comfortable in my surroundings. The turning point, I think, was a potluck party (pic below) we had in the office to welcome me to the Post-Dispatch (It also turned out to be a surprise birthday lunch!). The party let me sit down with some of the people I had been introduced to previously and have get to know them better.

The next day, I went to a barbecue at one of our photojournalist's homes. That too was a good icebreaker, especially with the younger batch of reporters whom I'm expecting to meet more on a social level than I will many of the older staff.

And of course, there was a lovely dinner at the home of my mentor, Elisa Crouch last night. I'm not sure what I enjoyed the most - the food (spicy Mexican chilli!), the beautiful home or the enjoyable company.

But, this blog isn't about my skills as a social butterfly. It has to, as Katie said, answer three questions. These are:

1) What I did during those two weeks.

2) What I learned—any difficulties or triumphs I had.

3) How what I did and learned relates to my training plan and goals for the fellowship (or how it taught me something not in my training plan.)

Well, I shall proceed to try to answer these questions now.

Well, the first week was extremely slow. Most of the time, what I did was go out for lunches with various different editors. Though it was interesting (and flattering!) to have such attention lavished on me, it didn't translate to me actually getting to do any work at all for the first few days. I was basically just loitering around in cyberspace, checking emails, chatting, and playing silly games on Facebook.

At one point, it seemed like I had finally found an opening. This was when one of the editors, Kurt Greenbaum, took me out to lunch. The discussion we had led to me writing a blog for the paper which was generally well-received. Doing the blog was also an educational experience as I could see what editing tools they used and how much more control it gave you over the blog than just a normal posting software like the one you'd find on blogspot.com.

So, I thought that things would start flooding in after that and I'd be able to start rolling.

They didn't.

This got me even more frustrated and by the end of the week, I had begun to start feeling useless and depressed. Part of me understood that the editors would naturally be a little wary of giving me stuff, considering how I'm a strange dude from a strange land. Yet, the other part felt like screaming that I was just as capable as any of the people on their payroll and I would prove it if they just gave me a chance!

I wasn't being a complete vegetable though. I had a working lunch with the investigative reporter here, Joe Mahr. I threw some ideas at him and he seemed to think some of them had merit. He also took me to the county courthouse at one point to show me how he digs up court records to help him with his stories. This, I would say, was the single most useful thing I've learned since coming to the Post-Dispatch. It's something that just isn't done in my country and I'd like to go back and find out if it can be used as a journalistic tool. It also dovetails with my hopes of learning more about investigative journalism here.

Yet, it didn't detract from the fact that I still wasn't doing what I'd come here to do - which is to write.

However, my mentor/guardian angel was working feverishly behind the scenes to try to get me something to do. She buzzed about and put the word out to her fellow reporters that I would be glad to do any stories which they wouldn't have time to follow up. This paid off as one of the Jefferson County based reporters, Christine Byers, then tipped me off to a controversy regarding a Hindu temple development in that area.

Glad to finally start doing something, I pounced on it. I worked on it for a couple of days and sent it off to the editor overseeing me, Christopher Ave. I was feeling quite a bit of trepidation at this point, wondering if he would find it acceptable or below-par. Thank God, he didn't. He told me that except for a few minor things, it was pretty okay. It comes out on Wednesday and I'm totally excited to see it in print.

I think he might have also been glad to see that I wasn't totally hopeless and designed to merely be a passenger in the newsroom for the next five months, because he immediately assigned me to cover a massive parade on Sunday. It's called the Annie Malone parade and it's the second largest African-American parade in the country. There're also scenes of violence and murder there every now and then and it looks like it's going to be anything but boring. I'm really looking forward to attending it tomorrow.