Work

I realized that even though we've been here for a little over a month, I've mentioned very little about my job. So consider this my long overdue NGS blog. And just to clarify, I'm not traveling through a foreign country. Everyone assumes because you work at NGS, you are constantly on an expedition. Sorry to disappoint. I spend most of my days in a small cube.

In case there was any doubt, let me say that National Geographic is a pretty incredible place to work. My actual job is in the maps division with the production team. I have two main projects that keep me fairly busy: a geotourism map of Montreal and a map of Southeast Asia for the magazine. Most days I just stay in my cube mapping like a madman while listening to 'Lessons in French' (I attempted Chinese and German but lost interest). We have a masseuse who comes on Fridays, a library with every travel book you can image, yoga on Thursdays, a post office, a photo shop, free books and magazines, gift shop, etc. I've met Robert Ballard, the man credited with finding the shipwrecked Titanic. Another day the interns met Don Belt, a very notable writer for the Geographic. I've seen the office Alexander Graham Bell had when he was president of the Society and also met with the chief designer for the magazine. And today I pretended to be a contestant in the World Geography Bee, which will be held in Mexico City later this summer. Four of us had one hour to complete the assigned task (which is top secret). The task was tested on us in hopes that any errors or kinks would be detected. Instead of finding mistakes however, we discovered we're all idiots and need to go back to school.

So, just another day. Like I said, National Geographic is a pretty incredible place to work.

Map anyone? I've been bringing free ones home and they are taking over the place.