Happy Sweet Valentine's ^__^

Happy Valentine's people...Hope y'all had a beautiful one.

My day started out extremely sweet indeed. My colleagues were sharing with each other their plans for the night when suddenly I heard one of them announcing that there's a box of flowers being delivered for me.

I looked at her aghast.

Who in the world sent me those flowers? I really had no clue at all. (wow I realize this sounds kinda sad..haha =p )

I opened the box bursting with curiosity, and in front of me was a beautiful bouquet of tulips.

Then I realized the flowers were sent by one of my 'shining sister'. haha...So sweet!

When I was working later at home, my cousin came knocking on my door, and gave me a pink rose! My favorite color at that! What a sweetheart...He gave each one of us girls a rose. My other sister gave me a bar of chocolate.

It was hilarious watching the expression of MT as she discovered what we got her for V-day. It's a pink fish vase with bamboo shoots on it. I thought it was pretty cute though! Happy V-Day!

Last day...finally...

Monday was my last day of the week I'm supposed to substitute for my colleague. It has been an amazing week where I learnt a lot about writing and reporting. Although it was tough work scheduling several events in a day, rush to attend all of them, return to the office in between to write, record and edit the news altogether; overall it was an extremely satisfying experience.

I got a chance to work together with my photographer who has 16 years worth of 'running news' experience. Through him, I learnt how to grab the important points, structure the piece together, work fast and precise and deliver with flying colors.

Fortunately nothing too major happened during my short substitution tenure, but I did get to cover several sticky politics event in between. I covered mostly local news and happenings, as we provide local services to mainly locals.

I received quite a number of advantages as well during the week. In all of the press conferences that we attended, refreshments were usually provided. When it's a bigger event like the opening of a bank or a similar event, the host usually throw in some souvenirs. So I've managed to accumulate quite a few unnecessary decorative accessories in my room ^^

Although I won't be reporting on a regular basis, I will still need to cover my colleague during the weekend, and Mondays. I guess it's a good way to preserve the skills I acquired =)

The pressure is on...

My colleague went on vacation for the entire of this week. Somehow a 'newbie'--me was given the responsiblity to substitute her position as a reporter. It's probably the first time I'm reporting on behalf of a cable company, which is being seen around the United States.

Needless to say, I was hit by anxiety pangs and pressure load. Although my major area of studies was in broadcast news, but this is for Chinese news media. I'm still not confident in my oral presentation although i speak it conversationally. Moreover, my company is the highest ranking news outlet in Taiwan...

Everything seems to be going well so far, although it's kind of frustrating sometimes to have such a burden on my shoulder. Besides that, I'm still undergoing training for my regular job tasks with my trainer. Nevertheless I see it as a profound oppotunity to advance my skills and gather more knowledge in television production and operation.

One thing that is rather disappointing though, I will not be going to San Francisco the next weekend. My boss feels that I'm already doing extra work this week so he's hesitant to ask for more. Therefore, he told me to stay home and relax then. Boss's decision is also to my advantage as I do badly need some rest...I'll probably have a chance later on =)