Tomorrow I leave for Haiti, to cover a group of local doctors from Evanston who are traveling to help in the earthquake relief effort. It's my first bit of international journalism, and I couldn't be more excited.

I'll be there for five days, returning late Saturday night. It's still pretty rough conditions there, obviously. I'll be sleeping in a tent in one of the medical base camps. I bought a special bug-proof sleeping bag for the occasion. And the lack of electricity means taking lots of batteries. (No laptop on this trip. I'll be taking notes the old fashioned way -- pen and paper.)

It's rainy season there, and in the mid-90s every day. That means lots of mosquitos, which transmit malaria. Since the trip was so short-notice, I wasn't eligible for the anti-malaria vaccine. Instead, I'm taking pills every day.

But other than that, I'm pretty excited. I'll be powered up on power bars and ready for anything.

And once I return and the stories are published, I'll link to them here.