Past the First Hurdle

Me and a coworker wrote up a proposal, saying we wanted to cover a bunch of stories (of-the-non-self-immolation-variety) in Tibet.

Then we heard from one manager that he really liked our proposed stories and schedule. He even suggested a couple stories that we may want to consider.

That's great. We're stoked.

But the fact is that this is far from an actual confirmation about whether or not we'll make it to Tibet. There's still at least one other proposal for the trip floating around CRI, and another team of radio reporters who are also organizing for the same destination, plus shitloads of visa issues to be dealt with. Plus CRI doesn't generally send two foreigners out without a Chinese national along. Even though my coworker's mandarin is pretty solid. In Tibet even Chinese nationals have trouble with Tibetan or different accents, whatever that means.

At this point, we give ourselves 50-50 odds.

FYI, Natalie is from the UK, and has does some decent work for CRI, such as the vid below, which is pretty damn good. Michael Jackson impersonators in China; and way more gripping than that Mr Lonely movie.