let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

The first night of snow makes us all smile!

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!It doesn’t show signs of stopping,
And I’ve bought some corn for popping,
The lights are turned way down low,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

When we finally kiss goodnight,
How I’ll hate going out in the storm!
But if you’ll really hold me tight,
All the way home I’ll be warm.

For the purposes of this blog post, it’s best to start playing the You Tube video of “Let It Snow” whilst reading (provided at the end of this paragraph) – yes, even you overheated South Africans with your silly warm weather and coastal Christmas holidays, just play along and listen to the song!! If you can’t wait (or have neither the time nor the inclination) to read the whole post, there’s also another video at the bottom: me in today’s New York City snow storm / blizzard / downfall, whatever you want to call it – saying hello to everyone!

Gaia and I use our "twin" poses in an attempt to look ravishing at Lucille's Ball

It’s been a while since my last post, and for that I apologize  profusely (Gaby is making me.) Things have finally wound down a little bit with school ending and Lucille’s Ball signalling the start of “holidays” for everyone. I use inverted commas because a large part of the holiday will be spent working ferociously on the Master’s Project – the school recommends that we take 7 – 10 days out of our 30 day holiday off for family / friend / party time and then devote the rest to work. Hmpf.

Lucille’s Ball, the annual J-School winter ball (named after Joseph Pulitzer’s daughter Lucille) was great fun aside from the buckets of rain and the fact that drinks ran out at about 10.30pm…! Still it was really fun to watch the smart and hilarious roasts put together by the students. I am a HUGE fan of Collin and Devin / Franz’s videos, which you absolutely have to watch. Click below for Franz and Devin’s election night spoof:

Election Night Spoof from Franz Strasser on Vimeo.

And click HERE for Collin’s hilarious take on modern journalism and the way it plays out at the J-School. Believe me, it’ll be one of the funniest things you’ve watched today. (If only stupid WordPress would let me embed Blip videos – can anyone help?!)

Dean of Students, Sree Sreenivasan, plays with in a hilarious Lucille's Ball skit on a "New Media Mindset" Lecture that does not end well ...

The ladies look happy celebrating Zee's birthday!

It’s really odd to think that I’ve now finished the Fall semester and am halfway through my Master’s! (How grateful I am that it is only a 10-month program!) It’s been exciting, but exhausting. I am looking forward to the Spring semester which will see us have more focussed, intense workshops where we get to hone in on what we’re interested in and get extensive practice on certain skills, rather than just working generally on reporting and deadline writing. My classes for Spring are International Newsroom, Opinion Writing (I am SO excited for this class!) and Producing a Magazine, and I also have a Basic New Media skills class and the Delacorte Lecture series, which is mandatory for Magazine students (weekly lectures from bigwigs in the Magazine inudstry.) And then of course there’s the Master’s Project, the first draft needs to be finished by January 20, and the final draft will be handed in some time around March. Then there’s graduation in May, and the general panic of trying to find a job / internship thereafter! It should be a mad couple of months, but I love it!

My tutee, Nacia-Pearl (4, Cameroon!) gets into the Christmas spirit at the I-tutorial program's Christmas party

It’s been fun to put school aside a little bit and catch up with everyone before they left for holidays. Went and visited the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on 113th and Amsterdam with Luis (from Colombia) which is beautiful. Bought possibly the cutest, most adorable miniature Christmas tree with Justin, which looks pretty great! Went shopping for Christmas presents with Laura (Canada) on 42nd and 5th Ave – beautiful shops and lots of fun! I was sitting in the Barnes and Noble on 45th and 5th Ave browsing books when it started snowing for the first time this season (properly snowing) and it was wonderful to watch the huge snowflakes floating down past the large-pane windows of the store. Of course it’s wonderful to sit inside whilst doing that. Walking home this morning in the snow was not entirely pleasant, especially when it’s such an angle that everytime you try look up to see if cars are coming you’re blinded by snowflakes!

Justin, Zee and I visited the South African restaurant Braai in Midtown (a few blocks away from the Rockefeller Center.) I was lus for some good old SA food, but the restuarant sells sort of “haute couture” version of South African kos (think Moyo’s on speed) – samoosas skewered together, drizzled with sauce and presented on a fancy bed of lettuce and other vegetables / a tiny roll of miniature wors served over sauce with coconut mashed pap.

Zee at Braai - I love this photo, it says so much about her!

The food was delicious and the wine was excellent, the restaurant is nicely decorated … but of course it just wasn’t the real thing. What I really need is a New York City based Springbok (the South African pub in the UK!)

So for those of you who have kept up with my ever-exciting Facebook status, you’ll know that aside from going to birthday parties, balls and avoiding work on my Masters project, I’ve spent most of the last week focussing on Christmas cards and finding bargain presents for the few of us that are here to exchange Christmas gifts. I ended writing a total of 53 Christmas cards, posting 40 in the end … a mammoth task considering that I tend to fill the whole card with writing! So, for those of you who don’t do it old school like me, but still want to leave me a Christmas shout-out, please do so in the form of a comment at the end of this blog (I also like to do this from time to time to see who’s reading!) – some Christmas love is always welcome!

Christmas eve and possibly day will be spent at I-House drinking gluhwein, eating Justin’s (apparently) famous ziti and sitting by the fire. My cousin Sonja is coming from Switzerland and perhaps I will try convince her to make some cookies with me. We might go look at the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.  It should be grand. I miss home but I will be thinking of everyone and hoping that your Christmas days are special!

So, watch the video below to hear my shout out in the cold – know that I miss and love you all very much, and leave a little Christmas hello to get me through the holiday season! Much love!! Jax