A gun, the semester, and photojournalism

Random story from the Central Asia trip:

We had just finished seeing where the Soviets trained for Figure Skating up in the mountains. It was a lot of fun and we were tired. Some of us were spending a bit of time with the guy with the horse, when we became aware of two very drunk guys. One of them was even waving a gun around. So we tried not to draw attention and keep to ourselves. When the bus came to ride back, we hopped on. So did they. One of the guys was so drunk he looked barely able to stand, ready to throw up at any minute. Our team moved a bit more towards the front of the bus, but Chris and I stayed near the back. There were several children, and we wanted to keep a close eye. As people got on and off the bus, we slowly and passively herded the two guys nearer the back of the bus, and were able to get between them and the children.

The experience was pretty crazy, but it was also really cool. The danger probably wasn't as high as we prepared for, but there was something very exciting about just trying to protect the kids and the rest of our team. Like we were doing something we were created to do.

Last night I had a meeting with the photography editors of The Tech, the MIT newspaper. It was pretty cool to see their setup (computers are all Macs, I might add) and meet them. I am going on some sort of a field trip tomorrow morning, but don't really know what it is just yet. After I showed them my quick portfolio, one of the editors replied, "I think you are more than suited to be shooting for us. Would you like to be a photography editor?" She asked me a couple more times before I left, which was encouraging. Either they are hard up for editors, or they liked my work. Or maybe something in between, which is probably most likely. Whatever the case, it was nice. Did I tell any of you I am thinking of pursuing photography as a career when I graduate?

I worked 12 hours today on the Real Life Boston website. None of the changes are up yet, but they will be by the end of the week. Quite a bit of rewrite going on, transitioning from Perl to PHP, which is MUCH faster for this kind of application. It was fun to work so much in a single day. I'll probably put in between 50 and 60 hours this week in order to finish up everything I can before the semester starts next Monday.

Oh right, the semester. I'm trying to decide whether to take a Photojournalism class or Russian. The photojournalism class is always oversubscribed, but since I am now a Tech photographer, I am guaranteed a spot in the class. It also looks like some people from the Central Asia trip might be taking Russian as well, so it would be fun to take a class where I finally know people. Lots to think about.

Things are a good deal better now. There were a couple of really rough days recently (ask me if you want the full story), but through the very kind and encouraging words of many people, things are getting better again. Pray that I would be ready to tackle the semester next Monday when it starts. Still much to take care of before classes start.

Entry posted by byscuits on January 25, 2005 11:49 PM

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