The past two weeks (Aug 16 - Aug 31)

The past two weeks have seen me doing something interesting and relevant to my internship here. I proposed a story idea to Metro editor: the acupuncture and Chinese medicine in Minnesota. I'm glad that she gave me the go-ahead. I interviewed head of an acupuncture academy, its doctors in the clinic affiliated to the academy, some patients and students studying there. I was surprised that there are two such academies in Minnesota, which altegether churn out about 60 graduates every year, and some Americans like to receive acupuncture and Chinese medicine treatment, citing its effectiveness.
I've finished the story, which, if published, would be the longest one, if not the most interesting. I'v not had any feedback from the editor, but to me, it's a good opportunity to learn doing interviews (such as how to protect privacy of those patients and make them willing to share their stories with me), how to organize the materials I've got from the interviews, and how to structure the story, making it interesting.
Before writing, the editor gave me some tips as how to organize the story. They are good, but it turned out that I used my way of starting and telling the story, because I think mine is more relevant based on my interviews.
The process of doing the story helps me in structuring a feature story.
A by-product of the interviews is that I met a Chinese Qi-gong practioner, who introduced his clients to me. We had pleasant talks on Chinese culture, Chinese medicine, and its difference with the western medicine.
On Saturday (Aug 29) I visited the Minnesota State Fair, the major annual local event, where there were a variety of shows, food, exhibitions, markets, parade ... everything. It lasts until the Labor Day.

The past two weeks (Aug 01 - 15)

In early August, I wrote a short story on Minnesota's economy based on an index compiled by a university professor. It's published monthly and this time, it shows the Minnesota economic recovery is faring well, although it's still a long way ahead. It's like in China Daily where I have done numerous such index stories - analyze the index, contact experts for comment, rush to write it and submit it to the editor. This time, the editor reminded me of not using the word "crisis" to depict the US economy. Rather, it should be called recession or slowdown or meltdown or whatsoever. But not a crisis.
I had a chance to visit a friend of my friend Jerry in St Paul in the second week. Jerry's friend (a Chinese and a PhD in economics) runs a Chinese acupuncture and medicine institute, which has six clinics and enrol about 120 students in its four-year program. Most of them are young Americans. I was interested why Americans could be interested in such a mysterious science that has often been criticized of being unscientific.
I talked with the metro editor and decided to do interviews that could possibly lead to a story. I'll start it next week.
And the past two weeks were all about how to handle stories.