If anyone has been wondering what I do for a living these days: A year ago, I took my first steps in television, working in the DC office of German TV station N24.

Those first steps were tiresome – especially when I had to climb up the metal ladder to the rooftop of our studio when I was 8 months pregnant to report the news that Angela Merkel’s cell phone had been tapped by the NSA. But these are sacrifices worth making for the backdrop of the White House!

Thanks to N24’s US correspondent Stephan Strothe and his team in DC as well as to my patient voice coach Ulrike Kapfer, I learnt that:

1. Reading a text for TV is not supposed to sound like you are reading a good-night story.
2. (Almost) every story can be told in 1.30 minutes, believe it or not.
3. The color of your lipstick can be just as important as your views on the war in Syria.
4. You should never miss a story about gun crazy Americans – Germans love that stuff!

Here are some examples of what I did – just click on the images to watch.

1. Live reporting, day and night, with or without glasses.

2. Packages on topics of interest for German viewers, such as…. Americans shooting guns!

3. Commentaries (“stand ups”) for the morning news in Germany – the best way to prevent being live on air (and drinking Coke to stay awake) at 1 am at night.

4. Online articles on topics that could not be told in 1.30 minutes (though that is probably not true) such as the scandal in the Veterans Affairs Department over war veterans not receiving timely medical treatment, which caused its secretary to step down.