The City of Blacksburg

From 1 p.m. (Sorry, the internet has been sporadic).

Ed & I walked around Blacksburg earlier today. The city has small shops lining the streets; it is very charming and very clean. As he shot video, I went in and out of stores attempting to get interviews. I found that storeowners were more receptive to the media than students, but not much more so. I had an awkward encounter when I interviewed a nice man at his art gallery, and he thought I was there to interview him about his famous artwork, it took awhile to sort that one out. I was so surprised to hear that he believes the town is over it. I then received the polar opposite perspective from a woman who owns a clothing store. I was enraptured with her story about her experiences on that day. Then, we spent the entire day filming, taking pictures, and writing, writing, writing. Around noon, Jackie called me asking if we could do a short televised interview with WLTX for the folks back in Columbia. I am a print journalist for a reason: nervousness is an understatement.

-Liz Segrist, Assistant News Editor