Next semester I will barely be in school, most of it is a long internship at some place. Which isn't decided yet, and isn't even for me to decide completely, but it will be a paper as that's the focus I picked. Unlike my three week internship last year I wont have to look up one that will accept me. The school decides which paper this time, and that's both good and bad. Good because I'm guaranteed to get a place, the school has deals with many different papers that allow internships. Bad because I will have to compete with everyone else for the internship that I want. Contacting a paper on my own is completely forbidden, it all goes through the school. So it will be quite some competition. I hope to get a place at a science paper, but as far as I can see in the list of all possible papers there is only one such.
We will have to sign up for four papers in total, and I got some others that I'm interested in as well. If all four would be so popular that I didn't get any spot there will be a "second round" of searching for those who didn't get a place. As we'll all split up on different papers I wont be seeing my classmates much next semester. That feels a bit sad of course, but that's how the future will be. And I will get paid, not as much as a real employee, but half of it. It will be quite a bit of money from my perspective as I'll be working for several months and my current income is close to zero, except for a few weeks of work every summer.
Last semester I got a taste of working as a journalist during my three week internship and later three weeks of work during the summer but I think this will feel a bit more "real". I'm really looking forward to it, that's for sure.