I have been changed for good

The BBC is literally a village. The sign said so when we got off the tube at White City station. And walking up to the BBC, there were flags flying among the multiple buildings including a Starbucks and hairdresser. The whole BBC village is where the old White City track used to be and where the 4-minute mile was first ran.

Inside the BBC, we got official name tags and met Amanda, who is in charge of all the Olympic 2012 coverage (how cool of a job, right?) Plus, she told us journalism is basically writing the first draft of history. I think that is a great way to think about it and it was so cool to hear that form a professional. It's so interesting that the BBC is basically this huge news service that is paid for by all Brits. So they will always have funding. Not many news services can say that.

We also had a tour of the newsroom. Talk about impressive! I thought the newsroom was huge and then we got to the middle and there was a staircase that lead to a whole second floor. I really love the energy of the newsroom, so many people and so many stories.

Before the BBC, we are lunch in the park near Birkbeck College where our class is. I love eating outside in the city and watching all the people walk by.
Now is time for my geeky journalism moment of the day, but between the war museum from yesterday and class today, I have just been so enthralled with the power of the media to frame events. Angle is everything and so is news judgment. I think my greatest fear (journalism wise) is missing something and not telling the true story, on accident. Journalists have to work really hard to know as much as they can about the stories they report.

After the BBC, we headed toward the theater and went to Pizza Express. It was not the greasy IU version, but the classy British version. (Everything in England is truly classier.)

And then was what everyone had been talking about for weeks and singing all weekend - Wicked! It was just as beautiful as the first time I saw it. The songs were amazing. I still love Popular by Gaa - lenda. There were some songs I didn’t remember and now I really want to read the book.