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Spring semester’s just starting here at Columbia, but for some of us intrepid Journalism students who trekked over to Iowa to cover the caucuses, it feels like the semester’s been going for a while.

We did some prep work for the caucuses in class, pre-Christmas. This included doing background research on the caucuses, getting assigned a candidate to follow, and talking to a political scientist and the Polk County, Iowa GOP Chairman.

But nothing we did in class could have prepared me for the excitement, the spectacle that was Jan. 3, caucus day.

I paired up with photo ace and fellow journalism grad student, Ashlee Rezin to cover presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

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The first stop of the day was a 7:55 AM Romney rally. We weren’t the only ones at work so early– press were there from across the country and the world. I’m pretty sure there were more journalists than potential caucus-goers in attendance.

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But after listening to the same 3 patriotic country songs on loop for an hour (I guess that’s what the Romney folks chose to musically express their candidate), the man himself finally showed up with his family, did his stump speech, and rode off into the brisk Iowa morning.

We bid the Romneyites farewell– we had other stops to make, too.

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Our next trip took us to Romney’s very busy Iowa campaign headquarters. We weren’t allowed to talk to the volunteers making last minute phone calls to get out the vote, but it’s kind of weird just walking around staring at people, so some of them may have talked to us.

Since I wanted to have a good conversation with someone, we went looking around Des Moines for caucus-goers.

That’s when Ashlee and I found the most amazing place: Zanzibar’s Adventures in Coffee. We talked to the folks behind the counter, we chatted with a young couple who were undecided between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. I participated in the Zanzibar “bean poll” by ordering a cup of Romney.

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After several excellent interviews, I headed back to the hotel to write a quick “day-of” piece. Then, it was on to an actual caucus event.

In Illinois, we’re used to primary elections, but a caucus is much more participatory. It’s hosted by the party, and voters show up at a meeting place. A representative for each candidate gets to make a short speech to drum up support, and then voters write the name of their candidate on a piece of paper, turn it in, and the votes get counted.

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Finally, it was back to the hotel to burn some midnight oil. I ended up with a two minute audio piece about the caucuses at 3:30 AM. It was a nail biter of a contest for me, since every time Romney or Santorum surged, I had to rewrite and re-record my lead.

But it was totally worth it. By the end of class, I was ready to pack up and head to New Hampshire!

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