A snow day for Washington

Today, as the city slumbers under an icy blanket of white, I'm creating a blog to chronicle my upcoming trip to Mexico for the vast array of people who want to keep up with me. (That would be you, Mom. Thanks for reading!) I leave Feb. 25, fly into la Ciudad de Mexico and then travel all over the freakin' place, until I run out of money, which will hopefully coincide with my return flight on March 31.

(And now, a word from our sponsor: The trip is made possible by the lovely folks at the International Reporting Project at Johns Hopkins University, and I will be writing stories for the Baltimore Sun, or whoever else I can con into buying stories about Mexico.)

So far, my preparations have consisted of calling random hotel desk clerks and practicing my Spanish. "Hola! Necesito reservacionces, por favor. ... Um, hablas ingles?" I will be reporting on the serious issues of immigration, labor exploitation and drug violence. The fact that Modest Mouse will be playing in Mexico City during my trip had no bearing whatsoever on my choice of destination for this project.

I intend to post here as often as possible, whenever I encounter the sweet nectar that is WiFi, and until my laptop is stolen.

For now, Feliz Dia de los Enamorados! I am off to a Hugh Grant movie.