how many times have you seen santa this year? cuz i saw him six times in one week. and unless you're a kid who really wants, let's say a metal detector or something (sorry mom and dad, i never did give it a whole lot of use. it was cool though.. i just get bored easily) seeing him once is enough.
the majority of my assignments thus far have been covering various town's christmas celebrations, all of which involve gathering at the community center, all of which involve a visit from santa.. all of which are the same story. and honestly, they could be summed up in a single sentence. and it's my job to find a way to a) make them interesting, b) somehow make them seem different than the others, and c) make it a decent length to take up space. you would not believe how exhausting the process is.
here's your typical "santa comes to town" story:
families bring their kids for the annual town christmas event. there's usually some sort of snacks. the adults drink beer (it's not difficult to see why.. i actually had one person who was in charge of organizing one of these events, go figure the most half-assed of them all, who made getting any kind of quotes or information like pulling teeth from a t-rex who you just called "small arms," tell me, as he tossed away a beer can, that he'd be able to give me much better information after a few more beers. if the event wasn't so lame, i may have waited it out.) and santa visits. that's really about all. take pictures and write a story. go. that's my job. if this paper updated its website, i'd link you to my work, but take my word for it, every one of the articles could be templated, substituting merely the town and date in each one.
but at least it's allowed me to meet a few people. the old ladies seem to love these events and go to the ones in neighboring towns, too. a few know me by name. they're probably my best friends. hah.
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Here in AmSamoa, a freakishly large percentage of people work for the government (something like 33%), and they all get together and have one great big government Christmas choir show, with every department having their own choir. I haven't seen it, but I've heard that it's about as bad as you'd expect it to be. But I expect it to be almost the only thing on government-owned station KVZK until the end of the year, so I'll probably get a chance to see it.
ReplyDeleteIn short, instead of lots of small Christmas festival here, we have one really big one, and our tax dollars go to get everyone a new uniform for it every year.