Training Days

How are my days going on in Pittsburgh? Ah, that's a difficult question to answer. Personally, I am alone, which has both advantages and disadvantages. Professionally, I’m learning a lot. I joined Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on April 1 and there seems to be no looking back.

After my arrival here, again I was pretty tired of simply seeing new things: buildings, roads, bridges and rivers. Greg took me to departmental store nearby, showed me the downtown and even drove me to an Indian grocery so that I can buy some "weird" spices that can be useful in preparing homely food.

Talking about rivers, in Pittsburgh two rivers—Allegheny and Monongahela-merge to become Ohio River. The Monongahela River passes the South Side on the right and Uptown on the left just before entering Downtown Pittsburgh. Allegheny runs through the New York and Pennsylvania. Umar, if you would like to send me a letter (wrapped in a plastic), just place it on the Allegheny River.

My office is near the confluence of these two rivers.

The first day, Cede trained me on computer system. It wasn't tough. I also attended a budget meeting, got introduced to a lot of PG people. They are pretty friendly. Second day, I got my ID and got email address. I am working at feature section. My co-workers at this section are Mackenzie Carpenter, LA Johnson, Monica Haynes and Christina Rouvalis; very nice people.

I am working on a couple of stories. I’m getting familiar with the stories covered by PG. On April 2, I got a chance to watch how podcast is done when Bob Batz, food writer, talked to Brenda Franklin, the woman behind Big Mama's House of Soul. David Bear, travel writer at PG, edited the audio. I found it quite interesting.

I plan to go out with a reporter and watch how he/she reports. I would probably shadow someone covering presidential primary. My mentor Greg Victor has been a tremendous support during my trials and tribulations here.