Trip diaries:
March 15: ArrivingMarch 16: At day at the Poynter Institute
March 17: A full day of Florida’s best
March 18: Unwinding — and planning for London
March 19: Back to reality
Back to reality
By Caitlin Johnston
March 19, 2009
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| Photo by Alex Farris |
| Jess Haney and Sam Mooney relax while visiting the Dali Museum. |
Back home in the Hoosier state, seven of us were met by parents or drove back to our respective home towns, leaving the other seven to enjoy one last shuttle trip together back to scenic Bloomington.
As we look forward to these precious final days of Spring Break, it’s nice to take a moment and reflect on the past four days. A mix of memories come to mind, including Roy Peter Clark’s amazing piano skills, the shady St. Pete area, white sand and blue sea, and Salvador Dali’s twisted yet captivating take on reality.
While Facebook photos capture these experiences, our minds, hopefully, will retain the information imparted to us from journalistic greats such as Clark, Tom French, Keith Woods and others. Let’s hope we can hold on to this precious knowledge longer than the lifespan of the latest Facebook format.
Unwinding — and planning for London
March 18, 2009
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| Photo by Alex Farris |
| The group poses outside the Poynter Institute on the final day of activities and sightseeing. |
We spent about an hour at the museum. After dropping some vacation money at the museum gift store, the group divided. While most headed to the beach, I – along with four others – went to a spring training baseball game between the defending World Series champions Philadelphia Phillies and the Toronto Blue Jays. Our seats were close to the Jays dugout, and Caitlin Johnston even caught a ball during the game.
Our classmates at the beach faced some transportation problems, but in general enjoyed their time at the Pass-a-Grille Beach, window shopping, playing in the water and enjoying the weather. The temperatures reached the mid-80s, and almost everyone showed signs of sunburn later at dinner.
We took a short walk to The Moon Under Water restaurant, a British/Indian restaurant. Unlike our other group dinners, we sat in small groups. Our table of four enjoyed the variety of cuisine, and the British theme made our conversation automatically turn to our upcoming summer trip to London. The last dinner was a nice way to wrap our trip and reflect on everything we’ve absorbed in the past few days.
This trip has been both educational and relaxing. It’s also given us a chance to bond before spending two months abroad together. Overall I think everyone enjoyed our alternative spring break in St. Petersburg.
A full day of Florida’s best
By Samuel Mooney
March 17, 2009
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| Photo by Alex Farris |
| Curtis Krueger of the St. Petersburg Times described making tough decisions during breaking news cycles. |
The day began with a trek to the St. Petersburg Times. We took a quick tour of the main newsroom and talked to writers and designers involved with TBT, a free newspaper distributed to a younger demographic. Then we gathered in the auditorium for a discussion of real-world ethics cases with professor Dave Boeyink and Times staff members Jennifer Orsi, Pat Farnan and Curtis Krueger.
After discussing the future of the newspaper with IU alumni at the Times over lunch, we headed back to the Poynter Institute for a session with Roy Peter Clark. He was informative, funny, interactive, and he can play a mean piano. While dazzling us with his renditions of Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl and the Beach Boys’ Surfin’ USA, he also gave us tips directly from his 50 Writing Tools. It was a valuable lesson, but also extremely entertaining.
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| Photo by Alex Farris |
| Author Roy Peter Clark gave tips from his book, 50 Writing Tools, which many of the students, including Rachel Stark, have used for classes. |
As we walked by all of the St. Patrick’s Day partiers in bars and restaurants on our way back to the hotel this evening, the atmosphere was nothing short of perfect. We had just had the ideal day: fun, music, pizza, a good movie…heck, we even learned a bit, too. What a day.
A day at Poynter
By Sarah Hutchins
March 16, 2009
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| Photo by Alex Farris |
| St. Petersburg Times reporter Tom French, left, joins the School of Journalism in the fall. Here, honors program director Dave Boeyink presents French with an Ernie Pyle Scholar shirt. |
We took a short break for lunch at Tavern on the Bayboro and headed back to Poynter for a short tour and a session with features guru Tom French. When we boarded the Bloomington Shuttle yesterday, Assistant Communications Director Kurtis Beavers armed us with books, articles and background on the people we would be meeting here.
However, I had been waiting to meet French since I learned he was going to be teaching next fall at the IU School of Journalism. I had pretty high expectations for someone repeatedly described as one of the best narrative writers. He exceeded them. After introducing ourselves, French candidly addressed each of our concerns about reporting and gave us some useful tips (peppered with comical anecdotes). I think everyone left excited to take a class with French in the future.
After our time at Poynter, we hit the pool and the beach to soak in some pre-dinner rays. The day culminated with an incredible dinner at a tapas restaurant (where I ate the best scallop I have ever had). Between the pros and Poynter, the fabulous Florida weather and a delicious dinner, I think today was the epitome of a perfect day.
Arriving
By Shabrelle Pollock
March 15, 2009
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| Photo by Alex Farris |
| On the plane to St. Petersburg, Shabrelle Pollock (second row) enjoyed her window seat. |
We arrived in St. Petersburg in the afternoon, trading in the blustery weather of Bloomington for blue skies and Bermuda shorts, two spring break essentials. However, this trip isn’t just about the location. During the next week, my classmates and I will visit the renowned Poynter Institute as well as the legendary St. Petersburg Times, both significant institutions in the world of journalism.
But as it was Sunday, we took time out for sight-seeing, playing on the beach and traipsing through local shops. We had dinner together that night at Captain Al’s on the pier. Across from the bay from the restaurant, seemingly out of sight, national attention was drawn to the launch of the NASA shuttle Discovery. As the countdown neared 1, we realized we were able to see the shuttle lift in the air from the pier, and gathered there, pleased to witness such an amazing (and unplanned) event.
Day one down and there’s still the promise of building sandcastles… and "building" upon our writing skills.
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