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Cynthia Yeung

November 2, 2004. My destination: The Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC where US President George W. Bush was scheduled to make an appearance after the   outcome of the United States elections was determined.

I was reporting for The Daily Pennsylvanian, my university newspaper.

Rushing out of  class, I hopped  into a taxi with Ian,  a photographer, to catch  the 6pm train to Washington.

Knowing that the Republican National Committee (RNC), which organised the  event, had denied media credentials to all university newspapers, Ian and I milled around the media registration tent.

We sympathised with fellow university newspaper reporters, bemoaning the  luck of one Yale University journalist whose alumni list included one of Bush's speechwriters.

Nonetheless, our breakthrough came around 10pm, when an RNC spokeswoman  declared that there would be media rotations.

Groups of three to four journalists and photographers were allowed to enter the building under the supervision of Republican campaign volunteers. I was one of the first to get the coveted 15-minute time slot in the atrium. Unfortunately, Ian was barred because his name was not in  RNC's database.  I ended up  handling the camera.

Restricted to one corner of the room, my  15 minutes vanished as I was forbidden to quote volunteers, staff, or even the cocktail-twirling supporters.

As 11pm neared with no  sight of Republicans to interview,  I began what would become a wild goose chase across Washington. With three bags in tow, I struggled in and out of taxis as I travelled to  noted Republican hangouts at the request of my editor.

I eventually  came to rest outside the ESPN Zone Bar, thanks to a tip from a friendly security guard in the Republican headquarters. I stood outside the doors of the security-laden private party so that I could interview people as they left.

Most of the respondents were young drunken males. Taking down as many quotes as possible, I left to check in to my hotel at 2am.

I hooked up my laptop to the telephone modem, flicked on CNN, and started typing as fast as physically possible.

The paper had to be sent to the press by 4am and my editor had given me a 3am deadline.

Feverishly forming barely coherent sentences, I sifted through data I had earlier collected on past elections and on the importance of various 'battleground' states.

I recalled all the stories I had written over the past few months and plucked suitable structures and background information from my memory.

I used all the experience I had to write the best story I could under severe time  constraints.

My editor efficiently made the required clarifications and edits as I  communicated, verbally over the phone, precisely what I wanted to convey with the article.

Needless to say, the story that was published  the following  morning looked fairly different from the one I filed. But I  made it to

my 9am class for my marketing presentation, having left Washington at 5am for the two-hour train ride back home.

Ms Yeung is a student at the University of Pennsylvania



In pursuit of the president