Very German, Do You Know Karate and So You Think You Can Dance, eh?

Well it`s been one hell of a week.

It started off in a typical enough way for me - going to cover the kick-off presentations for an international extreme car rally, the Fulda Challenge...that was almost entirely in German. Clearly this is my sort of event lol.

I`ve never regretted my decision to not take Mr. Patterson`s German classes in high school until Monday morning when I was sitting in an auditorium surrounded by German and Austrian competitors all nodding and laughing at whatever the speakers were saying.

Luckily the reporter I was shadowing knows enough German to understand what was going on and there was a handy powerpoint slideshow in English to help me connect the dots.

After the very long and very German introductions we spoke with the only team from the Yukon (and Canada I think) in the challenge. Land Pearson and Sierra Van der Meer are competing in the two week event where they`ll have to drive in crazy conditions to different locations across the territory and then compete in weird sporting events once they get there.

Last night the teams were crossing Miles Canyon by rope...yah imagine pulling yourself across a massive gorge by a couple of strings. Clearly these guys are intense.

Land and Sierra are really nice though and I hope they do well.

Later in the week I went and did another streeter, but this time at the Canada Games Centre.

Now it should be stated that because of the streeters I`ve been assigned I`ve had the pleasure of meeting some of the best cab drivers ever lol.

I`ve had chats about the way Muslims and the Arab world are portrayed in the media, a few conversations on personal stories about how the drivers came to the Yukon, chatted in French with Robert and a little bit of Spanish with a nice driver from Mexico.

It was this last fellow who drove me back to the CBC from the Canada Games Centre.

`Sit back and enjoy the ride please, seniorita,` he said.

`Alright, I will,` I thought.

So Rodrigo (I think that`s what his name was) and I got to chatting about how he`s from Mexico and spends eight months of the year here in Whitehorse working and the other four with his family in Mexico.

`Do you know karate?` he asked me.

`No, why?` I said

`Because when I moved here, I called my mother and said `Mom, everyone here they know karate!` And she said, `How do you know that?` Because, I said `Everyone here they always say Hi! Hey! Yah!`

I laughed and said I understood, but no I definitely didn`t know karate.

The rest of the way back to the CBC we talked about how gorgeous the land is.

`You know the sunrises here? They are so beautiful. When I see them I want to run out and absorb all the energy from nature,` Rodrigo said.

I could understand that - the landscapes are really beautiful as I`ve probably said about a hundred times already (sorry lol).

Once I was back at the station I pieced together the audio from the CGC to get it ready for the afternoon show. I`d also booked one of the interviews for the show that day so I was feeling productive.

It­`s really cool to hear something you wrote or put together go to air.

And then before I knew it, the week was almost over and I`d finished up a story on snowmobiling safety, done the weather a few times and it was Thursday - a day that was pretty cool.

It started out like any other day in the news room. But before we went to the morning story meeting I heard Mardy (sort of my supervisor) say something about trying to book Luther Brown for an interview for the afternoon show.

`Luther Brown? As in the judge from So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Luther Brown?!` I said.

Mardy looked down at the information sheet she was holding and then said `Yah that`s him, you know of him?`

Hells yes I know of him!

`Do you want to try and book him for the show?` Mardy asked me.

Hells yes I want to book him for the show!

So I got on the phone and a little while later I was chatting with Luther Brown`s manager and setting up a time for him to talk with the afternoon host Dave White.

As it turns out, Luther is coming to Whitehorse for a breakdancing hip hop marathon being put on by a local dance school. He`s going to do some workshops with the kids and a Q&A session too.

The interview with Dave went really well and I was happy (ok way more than happy) that I`d helped to arrange it. There was some telephone tag for about 45 minutes or so during which I was on the phone with Luther`s manager trying to sort it out. The only downside was I didn`t get to talk to Luther myself...

Now Friday comes along and Mardy says, `Hey Jess, you know this marathon that`s happening on
Sunday?`

Again, hells yes I know the marathon.

`Well if you want you can go and get comment from the dancers and do try to set up an interview with Luther Brown.`

Hells yes I want to!

So after a little bit of squealing, I sent Mr. Brown`s manager an email to see if it would be possible and got a positive response.

Guess who`s interviewing Luther Brown tomorrow? ME!

Ahhh craziness! I`m really excited and a little bit nervous, but hopefully everything goes well.

After that very exciting news and a bunch of other little tasks for the rest of the day (including trying to find Swan noises on YouTube - don`t ask lol) I got to host my second The North This Week podcast. The first one really only went up yesterday thanks to some technical difficulties, but the new one should be up on Sunday. So if you want you can listen to them both in a couple of days :)

And then it was quitting time! I spent the night watching My Life in Ruins and Disc 3 of 30 Rock Season 3...yah I didn`t see `Disc 3` on the box and thought it was the whole season *sigh*.

Despite that though, my week was really good and ended well too!

Speaking of ending I should probably end this post! I`m going to go get ready to walk around town and try to snap some pictures of Main St. and other notable locations...the Edgewater Hotel...S.S. Klondike...Georgio`s restuarant lol...Nothing to do with departures. at all haha.

Anyway, have a great day everyone and happy weekend! I`ll let you know how the interview goes!

Jess