While studying abroad in Copenhagen last year, I always said the hardest thing to get used to was grocery shopping.

Stepping into that grocery store was intimidating, to say the least. It’s hard enough that everything is in a different language, but the types of products, arrangement, pricing, and even social interaction that takes place in the grocery store are so radically different that, despite how much I’ve traveled, foreign grocery stores still make me pause with foreign unease.

It wasn’t just Copenhagen, either. In fact, grocery shopping in Tokyo was much more difficult, for obvious linguistic reasons. But on the other end of the spectrum, even visiting a convenience store in London, or closer to home, even New York City can be a shockingly unfamiliar experience for someone like myself, who’s grown up in rural America and moved to Washington, D.C.–a city that is, well, remarkably unique. Sure, there’s no language barrier, but there’s still that odd feeling of unfamiliarity. I remember the first time I walked into a Duane Reade–it felt exactly like walking into a 7-eleven in Japan, a Netto in Copenhagen, or a Sainsbury’s in London.

Now the only reason I write all this is because this morning I got that very same feeling walking into a Rite-Aid here in Crystal City.

I walked in and was suddenly stunned by that odd feeling of out-of-place-ness. That feeling you get when you go in a place that you expect to feel comfortable, normal, and consistent, but instead are confronted with an environment radically different from your own–like walking into a foreign grocery store.

There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this Rite-Aid that I can pin this feeling on. The products were the same, the prices no different. Even the layout was remarkably similar to most of the CVS’s and Rite-Aids around the District. Perhaps it was my mood, my state of mind at the time, or my imagination still lost in the book I was reading on the metro.

That’s me. The past two days have been a whirlwind, so this we’ll be a quick one. I just wanted to say three things.

First, classes are still going well. My class this morning–Organizational Behavior (basically a management class)–looks like it’ll at least be useful, and the professor seems super-nice.

Second, I started my internship today and it’s fantastic! I’m interning for the PR agency MS&L Worldwide here in D.C. this semester and I’m thrilled about the opportunity. Today was pretty low-key, just getting set-up and the like, but the people are really great and I can already tell I’m going to learn a lot with this experience. It’s totally different from all the other internships I’ve had so far, but I’m excited about the challenge, too.

Finally, I ended up on the front page of AU’s Web site for a while today, in a story about the NYC trip last week. You can see the story–complete with pictures, a quote from right here in my blog and a link back to my Web site–right here.

Well consider me overwhelmed. I feel like I’m saying that a lot lately.

This trip to New York, coordinated by the AU Career Center, Kogod School of Business and School of Communications, has given me a lot to think about: it’s inspired me, surprised me and given me some confidence and hope for my future. But it’s also confused me and left me wondering–more than ever–what I’m going to end up doing with my life. With that, it has scared me. I’ve been told more than once in the past two days that “maybe [I] ought to figure that out soon.”

It’s probably true. I should probably be a little more focused on my interests now. I should be narrowing down the kind of companies, industries and people I want to work for. But no matter how hard I try, I keep finding myself coming back to four subjects of interest (as opposed to, ideally, just one):

1. Media — Including social media, public communications, advertising and even journalism and broadcast production. I have a passion for communicating and writing, I’m just not sure how I want to use that.
2. Technology — I’m a geek through and through. I might not play as many video games as I used to, and I may have never gotten into sci-fi real hardcore, but I follow technology, gadgets and the Internet like nobody’s business and it’s something I’ve always been (and always will be) passionate about.
3. Politics — Politics have been a huge part of my life since I moved to Washington, D.C. The election of Barack Obama inspired me, my experience on Capital Hill working for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid taught me the ropes and the omnipresent political news and issues in D.C. have kept me passionate.
4. The Environment – Although one of my more recent passions, it’s always been an issue I’ve cared deeply about and paid a good bit of attention to. Copenhagen really made the cause a big part of my life, however, and I intend to keep it a part of my life until we achieve our goal of environmental justice.

Who knows, maybe I’ll find something that allows me to merge my passions. We’ll see.

Yesterday was an amazing day. I’ll give you a little bit better recap of the trip later, but first I wanted to post this story about my experience at Good Morning America this morning.

Our first site visit–to ABC’s Times Square studio and a live broadcast of Good Morning America–ended up being a lot more than I had bargained for. After waking up at 4:30am, arriving at Times Square around 5:45am and meeting my classmates (finally) around 6:30am, I had already spent a considerable amount of time on Twitter. No surprise there.

One of my tweets early on in the morning was to @GMA, Good Morning America’s official Twitter account, just explaining that we would be visiting and were excited for the opportunity. Much to my surprise, around 6:30am, they tweeted back! Not only did they extend a warm welcome to @AmericanU, but to me specifically as well! Evidently, one of the @GMA twitterers is an AU alum!

But wait there’s more. Once being welcomed into the studio by our super-friendly and hilarious “audience coordinator”, we made ourselves at home, watched the first part of the show that was being broadcast from a different studio on the second floor of the building, and waited for the hosts to come down for the second half of the show. While waiting, one of the cameramen was evidently browsing Twitter because he found a picture that I had tweeted of the studio shortly after I arrived, and he was in it! He proceeded to inform our audience coordinator about it and she, naturally, called me out of the audience and up in front.

After that, I became the go-to guy for our coordinator. I introduced our group to the rest of the audience and crew that was in the studio we were waiting in. I was the subject of photos by all the members of the audience–not just the AU folks. And I even “got” to take each and every audience members’ picture by the Good Morning America logo on one of the television screens on the wall–my little service to the program. It was hysterical, and a blast.

In return, I received a Good Morning America umbrella (much appreciated, thanks Good Morning America!) and, of course, a memory that will last me a lifetime. And that’s not even to mention our fantastic alum working at Good Morning America who brought us in, showed us the studios and spoke to us about her work and opportunities with the program. I can’t wait to go back next year.

Networking. Theoretically, that’s why I’m in New York City today, tomorrow and Thursday. But I like to think of it as making new friends… who just so happen to be working in fields and for companies that I think are absolutely fascinating.

Each year (now in its 8th), the American University Career Center, School of Communications, and Kogod School of Business host a three-day networking and site visit trip in New York City. The program, specifically geared towards communications and marketing students, consists of one opening event, one evening networking reception, and six site visits to companies in the city, most with AU alumni.

It’s a fantastic event. And I’ve been lucky enough to attend every single year of my college career so far.

It’s also a fantastic learning experience. My freshman year, I was completely overwhelmed. To be honest, I was absolutely terrified. I was (I believe) the only freshman to attend the trip that year, and I’m glad I did, but boy was I chicken. At the orientation I thought I’d be ok. I was obviously the youngest one attending (and probably the only one not really looking for a job or internship–hell, at that point I didn’t even know what I wanted to major in) but I got along OK with the other attendees and I figured I’d be brave enough when the time came.

Not really. I talked a bit at the opening dinner event, but at the networking reception I pretty much stuck to myself in a corner, halfway-accidentally-wandered into a few drunken conversations, and ducked out early. Huge wasted opportunity, as I quickly found out last year.

Last year, I was quite a bit braver. I put myself out there. I still wasn’t looking for a job or internship, really, but I’d come to realize the value in knowing people and making new, professional friends and contacts in my chosen fields of interest. I passed out business cards, I took down names and e-mail addresses, I followed up–I did all the things you’re supposed to do with these sorts of things. And I loved it. I discovered that deep down I kind of have a passion for networking–perhaps that’s why I’ve taken so eagerly to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the like.

This year I’m really ready to step it up. I feel like I’ve truly evolved as a networker in the past two years. Also, I’m really excited about my site visits, as well, which include:

• The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum - at this famous museum we’ll get an hour to wander and explore the exhibits and then witness a presentation and discussion regarding all the internship and job opportunities at the Guggenheim.
• Mediavest - this marketing agency site visit will consist of “a panel of employees from across the agency and in-depth media-related Q&A”. Can’t wait!
• MS&L Worldwide - at this “leading communications firm” (soon to be my new employer for a semester internship–more on that next week) we’ll get a look at the MS&L workplace and information on job and internship opportunities.
• ABC - specifically, we’ll be attending a live broadcast of “Good Morning America” as well as getting a quick tour and information session in ABC’s New York studio. Look for us on TV, we’ll be up bright and early at 6:30 for the visit!
• GroupM - a “leading global media investment management operation”, we’ll see how the firm works and be able to discuss entry-level opportunities with them.
• The New York Times - here at one of the world’s largest media companies, we’ll hear a panel discussion and I’ll be able to indulge my not-so-secret interest in journalism (as evidenced here by my blog and my upcoming bimonthly column to appear in The Eagle, our university newspaper).

Getting here today was a bit of an interesting experience. I left my apartment at 7:00am sharp, expecting to arrive at Union Station around 7:45 (allowing for the usually-inevitable delays with the bus and metro). Much to my surprise, I arrived at around 7:30, way early for my 8:35 train. Especially since the train ended up delayed and we really didn’t depart until closer to 9:00am.

Everything was going smoothly until we hit Baltimore, and tragedy struck. A 14-year-old girl was struck and killed just 11 miles north of Baltimore’s Penn Station by a southbound train headed to D.C. from New York. You can see my updates from the train in this Twitter search.

We ended up sitting at Baltimore for almost three hours before our journey could continue. Naturally, that wasn’t the only delay we’d face for the day. We had an additional 20 minute delay in Trenton, NJ after the train just ahead of us broke down and all passengers were transferred to ours.

But in the end we (my bestie Jacquie and myself) arrived around 3:00pm. I checked into my hotel, Jacquie dropped off her luggage at her friend’s apartment building and we made it to the opening event for the NYC trip just in the nick of time. And it worked out, I used all the spare time to get over 100 pages into my newest book of choice, Bill Byron’s Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language of the United States (my review of that to come in a couple weeks, or whenever I finish).

The opening event tonight was a pleasant surprise. Although no AU alumni or networking contacts attended the event, we had an absolutely incredible opening speaker: Lindsey Pollak, “Gen Y Career and Workplace Expert”, also a spokeswoman and national campus representative for LinkedIn. She gave us five great tips for networking out of her book, Getting from College to Career: 90 Things to Do Before You Join the Real World, and even postponed her own dinner to answer more questions from us while we ate. I even had the chance to chat briefly with her after her talk about social media and we agreed to mutually follow each other on Twitter! Check out her blog and her Twitter account to read more from her–I know I’m following!

Anyway, keep an eye on my Twitter for updates on my site visits tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll have time to give yall a quick update, but I make no guarantees.