Beating Seasonal Depression

In the U.K., about 20% of residents suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is due to the dwindling daylight hours during the winter and our bodies' natural instinct to hibernate, which is basically code for eat lots of carbs and stay indoors.

This is what I've been waking up to the past few mornings:
Indeed, waking up to these grey skies and rain doesn't exactly put me in the cheeriest of moods, but I'm feeling as excited and privileged to be here as ever.

My meeting with the editor of the Le Monde English Edition didn't really go as I had planned. Everything that newspaper needs to function is outsourced. The print design is outsourced to a company just outside London, their online subscription services and Web design is outsourced to a company in Cambridge, they have a publisher that prints and distributes all of their papers, and their writers all work from home and don't even come in for brainstorming sessions. In fact, there wouldn't even be anywhere for them to come in to because there's no office! The English Edition's "office" consists of the editorial director, at her home, on a single iMac taking care of business.

It was definitely a novel experience for me, seeing this sort of structure in the journalism field. The editor kept describing how efficient this process is, and no one really can afford the "luxury of face-to-face contact" anymore. And, though I do believe her when she says this process is efficient and that they get a finished product out there every month, I couldn't help feel that some vital element was missing from this particular publication.

In the limited experience that I've had, there's nothing more exciting than the collaborative, creative processes that go into putting together a news product. Feeding off each others' ideas, popping your head into the design team's operating room to see what they're adding to enhance your article, and feeling your heart racing as you type up your last graph before making deadline is all part of an experience. Collaboration and support for one another to get a completed paper to press is what gives a publication life. It's what sparks innovation and creativity, and this vitality is not something I'd like to see the industry sacrifice in the name of efficiency.

Needless to say, I pretty much immediately lost interest in working there. Besides, she basically wanted me to sell IP subscription services to different organizations, which sounds like nothing I want to be involved in.

Flash forward a week, and I am now working in collaboration with the UCL Media Relations (PR) office on a body donation project. It's a public awareness, not activist, campaign that will hopefully educate the local community about body donation and shine light on options for those individuals who might be interested. I'll be helping to create a media press kit, do original research, and organize a big public event where a panel will be leading a dialogue on the topic. This, I really feel I can get excited about.

Since the last time I've blogged, Halloween passed, which was fun, but celebrations definitely weren't as big here as they usually are at home. I dressed up as Daisy Buchanan from the Great Gatsby, and my friend Brendan was Jay Gatsby. Here's a picture of my full outfit:
Not exactly as costume-y as it should have been, but it worked for my shoestring budget. To recap, Halloween was the usual drinking, smoking, hysterical laughing hoo-hah but with the volume turned down a couple notches from what I'm used to.

I've been focusing a lot more on my classes the past week or so, and everything about them suddenly seem so much more interesting. Maybe it's the booze leaving my system since toning the partying down, but these ideas that are being thrown at me about ethics, welfare, equality, globalization, the environment, and so on are really coming together to make me consider my potential impact on the world.

The university students in my classes are so much more interested in taking in what they're learning from a global perspective. They care so much more about (or at least are more vocal about) contributing to the improved welfare of countries they have no material connection to, but feel in touch with just by sharing this planet. Another cool thing is what a mixed bag this university really is. Just walking to class, I hear at least three other languages other than English. When I get to class, I have such a unique opportunity to hear the day's topic from a truly global perspective, with input from students from all over the world.

Also, I'm really getting into the swing of cooking for myself. My friend Alison and I made this delicious pasta meal a little while back courtesy of Emeril's recipe on the Food Network Web site.
So despite the S.A.D. going around, I'm feeling good.

It helps that in less than 48 hours, I will be embarking on my first European trip since I've been here. Six of us are headed to Paris (can't wait to see you Alanna!), Brussels, Bruges, and Amsterdam during our school's Reading Week, and I'm super stoked. I'm sure there will be plenty of fun stories to tell upon our return.

'Till then...