Update: Wrote my second story today. Read it here.

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I'm not a war reporter. Six weeks in Baghdad doesn't qualify me.

But I've met a few reporters who have been here since the "beginning" -- 2003. It's surprising how many have stuck it out for more than four years. Four-plus years of traveling halfway around the world every couple of months, four years of enduring scorching weather, four years of living in a massive city essentially under military rule, four years of learning a foreign culture and language, four years of wearing a flak jacket, four years of drinking bottled water, four years of hoping you won't die. Four years of disposing your trash in very small receptacles.

I couldn't do that. That's not me. I'm enjoying my adventures here, but I'm already counting down the days until I get home.

The reporters here have shattered all my pre-existing notions of what war correspondents are like. I imagined gruff, grizzled and self-assured. Instead, they tend to be modest, friendly, and in some cases introverted and shy.

Meeting the press aides at the U.S. Embassy was an even more jarring experience. I expected almost military-like, no-nonsense folks. Instead, they are much more passive and smiley-ish. Many of them are relatively young, as are a good number of the reporters. I think I'm the youngest reporter here other than a Washington Post rotating reporter who is also 23.

The war reporter's lifestyle seems nomadic. Not only are they often going off on embeds with troops to all parts of Iraq, but they also tend to shift from media agency to media agency - without ever leaving Baghdad. One reporter I met recently switched from Cox Newspapers to Newsweek. Another just switched from the Times of London to the New York Times.

Also, because reporters here don't get weekends and holidays -- and because the job can be so draining -- they work in shifts: McClatchy reporters work six weeks and then get two weeks of vacation and then work six weeks again. Newsweek reporters work two months and then get one month off. NBC reporters work six weeks and then get six weeks off. TV.

Reporters who look even slightly Middle Eastern or have darker skin have a huge advantage. Especially if they can speak Arabic. I have neither of those advantages, which means I can't blend in with society and can't get some of the great stories that those who can blend in can chase down. It's very frustrating. For example, I'd like to sit in on some Iraqi court proceedings, but unless I can find a very safe courtroom, that's not going to happen. My pasty-white face would draw too much attention.

When I was in an elevator by myself a couple days ago I stared at a wall mirror intensely, wondering if there was any chance I could pass as Iraqi. No, was the conclusion I came to. Two of the Iraqi reporters here said they thought I could, while another one said, "No way" -- as did my bureau chief. So I'm not risking it.