Pay No Attention to the Man behind the curtain

I never really think of myself as a journalist. I mean, I did goofy feature stories for the most part. I'm not sure a piece about a guy who decorates toilet seats qualifies as journalism. It sure didn't get me nominated for an Edward R. Murrow award.

However, I also did some pretty serious stories about anorexia, missing children, shaken baby syndrome and the like. I covered hurricanes. I've been in the middle of a riot. Most importantly, I was trained as a journalist. I got a degree in journalism. I've sat through I don't know how many refreshers at various jobs on news standards. I'm a stickler for facts and precision in reporting. I have never, ever let a source read my story prior to airing nor dictate what I say.

All to say, working as a reporter here would be a bit of a culture shock. The government here reads everything before it's printed. A new law says that won't be true any longer, but I'll believe it when I see it. Stories about things like homosexuality are not allowed (which might partially explain the high suicide rate of homosexuals here). Censorship is king here.

Magazines are generally driven by ad dollars. The ad people sell a story and then editorial generates a POSITIVE story on the advertiser, a story the advertiser can often approve or change. That would NEVER happen in the U.S. - not even at a gossip magazine or rag paper. Editorial and advertising sales are totally separate. Yes, there are times when the ad people come to you and say they have an opportunity for a story, but the editorial folks need to make sure it fits and the advertiser doesn't approve the final copy.

The irony is that I think I could get more work here than back home. There aren't that many folks with "real" journalism backgrounds. As a freelancer, editors want freelancers and stories are assigned. In the U.S., most freelancers pitch story after story until they finally get a publication to bite. Here, editors assign based on ad sales and don't really make changes. No, the stories that get all the attention from above are the advertorials written for the advertisers. In the States, there are reporters with a long list of credits who can't get an assignment to save their lives. Here, work is easier to come by as I understand it.

All this was explained to me over breakfast at a nice spot called Wild Honey. One of the editors of ExPat Living swapped stories with me this morning. She wanted to know more about New York journalism and I wanted to learn what I might expect here. 

I admit, I'm excited at the thought of working here. Writing is a great job for a mom and the types of stories here - dictated or not - might be quite interesting. Working on a newspaper would be more frustrating than a magazine because a newspaper APPEARS to be straight, uncensored news. I think feature magazines are more transparent for what they are. Television news would be tough. They don't like Westerners on TV here. I could possibly produce, but as I well know, producing news is a hard life and not the best choice for a mom. I could possibly do documentary work here - or something entirely unrelated to my past experience. I have several money-making ideas already, none of them journalism related. The problem, I know they'll all make money, but none would be something I really like doing.

Stilll, the big take away for me is that I can probably work more easily here than in the States. So that's my life.

Tom is still trying to figure out his working life here and I'm still working on what's best for the kids.

I saw another school today, Integrated International School. It was started two years ago because children with issues had nowhere to go here. Incredible! All the teachers are special ed trained and there are therapists who work as part of the curriculum. In the end, the place is too specialized for Maisie, but it's good to know it exists. I find I want to write a story about all this for parents like me who can't figure out the schools. One woman who had drinks with us last night has a kid with cerebral palsy. Her story of finding services for her son was heart-breaking.

Ironically, the specialist we saw a couple of weeks ago called me today to say she talked to THE MD who works with the schools and with challenged children. I've been trying to reach her and the pediatrician reached out to her for me - without me even asking!

The consensus is that Singapore American School would be best for Maisie, but that she won't be able to get in right away because of the wait list. They think she should go to a local preschool for now, but that we should immediately apply to SAS and perhaps two others. Hopefully, by the time she clears the wait list, she'll test out of all services. That's good news because that was exactly my plan.

The doctor raved and raved about the school I saw yesterday. Even so, I find I'm leaning towards Odyssey. Again, this is all IF we come back. Two of the people we had drinks with last night sent their kids to the other Odyssey campus and they loved it. Of course, where they are now is also a pretty great place. They have been amazing with our kids. I'm just not sure it's the right school for an extended period.

Maisie has had several wonderful days in a row. School is really good for her. She definitely needs a schedule to thrive and so do I. She has a shadow intern there, but has had only a few transitional issues at school. See - all this worry for naught. She will definitely test out of everything sooner than later! Wahoo!

Speaking of school, Hudson didn't get to go today. Since his tummy was upset last night, I kept him home and Cheryl stayed with him while I was out. Naturally, he didn't have another poop all day! So maybe he just guzzled too much juice at the party yesterday. After all, he ran around downing EVERY deserted juice box he saw. In a way, it worked out well. He isn't sick after all and Cheryl did some super helpful stuff around the house like cleaning and laundry. I'm not so lucky. I still don't feel so hot, but I'm eating anyway. It's my last week!