11 days and counting

Ladies and Gentlemen (but mostly the ladies, let's be honest) I give you:
The Medill Men - The Graduating Guys of Medill DC 2005

From left to right: Steve "Mr. Dream is My Bitch" Nery, Pete "Google Images" Frost, Scott "Sea Scabes" Domer, Rafa "Viva Espana" Cores, Me, Marcel "Future Hostage" Honore and Ed "the Hulk" Welsch.




And here is the Fisk 306 DC reunion (we all had intro together)
The girls are Jessica, Smashtar and Willow


I don't have much time to write seeing as there are two more days of school left and I still have shit-tons of work to do, but I shall give it a try.

All these pictures were taken last saturday night at our final barbecue at Marcel's place. We all pitched in and got some dry-aged steaks and lots of liquor.

As often happens with these sorts of things, someone decided to make a less-than-wise decision at about 2 in the morning. It was raining, and a big group of us decided to sneak into the community swimming pool for a dip. This involved scaling a 10-foot chain-link fence. Christine (not pictured) fell on her way in. I fell on my way out. I've been wearing a compression bandage on my wrist for three days now.

It was worth it, though.

Alright, I still have stories to file (including Crimes of War, which I can't believe I've put off this long), so I must run. I just wanted to get those photos up. I'll write something more lengthy soon.

15 days left

First, here is the obligatory picture: These are my friends Rebecca and Ed, taken a few weeks ago.

Well, it's Saturday and the newsroom is empty save for one other broadcaster working dilligently on her tape. I just came in to send some emails and make a post.

There are three days of school left, and I leave two weeks from tomorrow. To be honest, I'm pretty much done with school. I'm so wildly excited to get this trip underway it's become next to impossible to concentrate on the relatively mundane day-to-day work here.

Two significant stories should come out by the time this is all over, though. First, the PETA story about the group's use of religious imagery in its advertising should go out on the RNS wire on Monday. It could run in a variety of places - newspapers, websites and such - and when it does I'll post a link to it.

Also, the Crimes of War article needs to be in by Wednesday (ugh, I've put that one off for too long), and it should run soon thereafter.

That will give me ten days to do some travel research and get my personal affairs in order before I leave. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday to get a Typhoid innoculation and malaria pills.

So, people have asked me if I'm nervous about leaving on Sep. 11. Not really. In reality I'm more nervous about the possibility of stepping on a landmine in rural Cambodia (roughly 4 to 6 million still out there) or being abducted by crazed separatists somewhere.

I know my family is going to read that last line and start fretting - Don't worry, I'll be safe. Besides, that's all part of the fun, eh?

Alright, I have to go run some errands. More to come.

Senioritis

(I included this picture of me and some of my cohorts simply because I recognize that this sort of thing is more interesting when accompanied by photographs.)

So, I'm sitting here in the Medill DC newsroom trying to concentrate on my work (A Crimes of War Project article about physician complicity in prisoner interrogations), but in reality my mind is entirely elsewhere...

Here in the final stretch of school the newsroom has deteriorated into a rather childish scene. On Friday we had a jousting tournament consisting of two people armed with the crutches of an injured colleague being pushed toward each other on office chairs.

This morning I switched the cords of two coworkers' telephones so that they would be getting each other's phone calls all day. (I actually didn't have the nerve to go through with that one - something important might happen - so I just switched them back).

I finish graduate school in a week and a half. In 20 days I leave for Bangkok. There's a lot to do between now and then. I've got a bit of last-minute shopping to do (primarily for travel clothes and some good shoes - such an important investment). I've got to get my bills and whatnot in order and then I'm off - 20 days...

You know, after living the life of a journalist for the past year I'm extremely excited about the prospect of being so cut off from the rest of the world. No cell phone, no mailing address, no breaking news or tight deadlines - just this blog, email and the autonomy to dig up stories in an utterly foreign part of the world.

A week and a half left of school. I'll write more soon.

Got my tickets...I'm going

Well, it's official. I bought my tickets yesterday, and here's the breakdown:

Sep. 11 - Fly from Dulles to Bangkok, with a stop-over in Tokyo.

Sep. 20 - Fly from Bankok to Delhi.

Oct. 29 - Fly from Delhi to Bangkok.

Jan. 18 - Fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Tokyo.

Jan. 25 - Fly from Tokyo to Dulles.

I was able to work out a great arrangement with the travel agent that makes these dates very flexible. I can change any of them for $25. Also, don't worry, family - I bought insurance.

So, all this is pretty heavy. More to come, but for right now I have a deadline breathing down my neck. I'm working on what should be a pretty interesting story about PETA's use of religious imagery in its advertising. When it runs I'll post a link to it.

First Post

Alright, gang, here we go...

First, some background: My name is Hugh. I grew up in Dallas, studied English and Philosophy at Lake Forest College (a small liberal arts college north of Chicago), and am just about to finish my graduate degree (journalism) from Northwestern.

But the point of this thing is that I'm getting ready to spend the next several months in South Asia. I'm starting in Delhi, India, and god knows where it'll go from there.

The plan is to try my hand at some freelance reporting while enjoying the autonomy of solo travel. A part of me is looking forward to the relatively stable (or at least stationary) life that will await me when I get back, but until then it's wherever the wind blows me.

My goal for this blog is for my friends and family to keep abreast of my antics. It should also serve as a handy forum for me to vent, muse and ponder the various events that I'm sure await me on this strange adventure.

I'll write more as the departure approaches. This is going to be fun, eh?

Photo Test

This is me. Just testing the photo feature.