What to do?

What do you do when its 12:07 AM, you've been lying in bed trying to sleep for 3 hours, no one is on facebook, no one is tweeting, and you cant find anything on Pinterest?

Blog.

Well, it's been 8 weeks since I accepted a job, and almost 8 since I started my job.  It's stressful, it's frustrating, it's high maintenance   It's a job.  Just like any other job out there, my job is all of these things.  Yet, I think I like it.  I'm trying to like the job, because I'm pretty sure I'm not liking Fairfield. But again, I'm trying.

It's a small little town you see.  I've never really lived in a small town.  I mean I lived in Waverly for 4 years, but being on campus with classes and a job there was soo much going on!  The demographic of Fairfield is older (like 75+) young families, or university people.  I feel like there isn't much going on for 20 somethings.  Granted every week im surprised by how many of us there really are.  But we don't do much.  We go to the bars on weekends.  Occasionally we go do something at night.  It baffles me really.  Maybe I just dont get out enough to see that there are things going on it town.  Or maybe there aren't.  Whatever the case may be, it was made clear to me this weekend that my heart isn't in Fairfield Iowa.  In no scenario in my head do I see myself being here for the rest of my life.  But, here I am.  In Fairfield Iowa.  Might as well make the best of it, right?

There's a rhino that gets flowers planted in it.  There's a farmers market in the summer.  There's more percapita restaurants than in San Francisco.  there's a Hyvee.  A Walmart.  Two fancy eating establishments.  A crepe place.  An organic grocery.  My job.  and me.

Maybe there is something in this town.  And maybe, just maybe, it will grow on me :)

So now, its 12:20 am, I am wide awake and have written a short blog entry.  What do I do now?  Check Pinterest again and maybe try to sleep.  Again.

7:15 am will probably come incredibly early.

Changes

It finally happened.  After 7 full months of not having full time employment, I finally accepted a job in Mid-January at a Direct Response TV marketing company in Fairfield, Iowa.  If you would have asked me at any point in the last several years, I never would have thought I would have ended up in small town Iowa.  But, here I am!  I quickly secured an apartment and started my job 3 days after I got the offer.  

My job is very hard to explain, but my title is a Media Account Coordinator.  I do a lot of coordinating of accounts, as cliche as that sounds.  I run reports and assist the Account Managers in keeping information up to date for the Clients.  Direct Response TV is the commercials with an 800# on them or a website that calls for you to take some sort of response.  Makes sense.  

My apartment is a fairly good size, inexpensive, and in a run down house.  But, we've made it mine and I am really enjoying it.  Trying to get the hang of this budgeting thing and the cooking for myself and paying bills and all of that fun stuff.

I have started hanging out with some young professionals in town.  They do networking events, fun events, and just de-stressing type things.  They seem like a good group of people, and I look forward to hanging out with them in the future and beginning to call them my friends.

After being in my apartment for 3 weeks, I attended church for the first time today and again began the process of "church shopping".  i used this term last night and one of the girls we were hanging out with didn't understand.  I had to explain this process of finding somewhere that i'm comfortable again, somewhere that will give me what I am looking for in a church.  A church is sort of like a product, and you have to find just the right brand before you're happy with it.  One of the young professionals attends the Methodist church with his parents and another one was raised Methodist  so we decided we would all go to church together.  It was a mix between old and new.  An older church, mostly older congregation, but an extremely young associate pastor, and slide shows going on through church.  I'm not sure it was what I was looking for.  I found the message hard to connect to and the mix of old and new a little strange.  People greeted Andrew and i (the newcomers) but none actually introduced themselves to us or welcomed us back.  

There are several other churches in town and I have heard of one that sounds like it may be a good fit, but Andrew and a few others have also said if you aren't part of a young family, people look at you differently.  I think its all in how you look at it, and am going to check it out and get my thoughts.  There are about 10 different churches in town (and that's on the low end), so when one doesn't work, I shall try again.  

this week should bring another busy week at work, but were having a party on Thursday for the February birthdays, and then I'm heading up to Wartburg this weekend, so its one foot in front of another and keep looking forward to what i can and learning to grow every day. 

Life after graduation

So, for some reason today, I decided to pull up my blog.  Only to see I haven't written in a very, very long time.  So, here is what has been happening since graduation:

The summer was long.  I applied for a ton of jobs.  I got one of them, but you know how sometimes something just doesn't work and you know from minute one that it wont work?  That was that job. So, I did it for a few days and realized I couldn't.  It was the feeling that God had something else in store.

In August, I started working part time for a photographer.  I do a lot of paper work for them and posing of groups and individuals, but I love it.  It's minimal hours and good pay.  Some weeks I work more than others, sometimes its nights, sometimes early mornings.  (Is 3 am early morning, or late night?)  Whatever it is, I am enjoying it.

In late August, I started roasting coffee.  Coffee roasting is an adventure in itself.  It took me a couple weeks to be confident in roasting.  Every type of bean has a different roasting level and looks and smells differently. Each bean reacts differently.  You have to know approximate times, exact temperatures  what things should look like, smell like, and sound like. At first, I had to have my boss look at every batch.  Now, he only looks at maybe one a day depending on the day and how much I've roasted the beans.  You have to make sure the fan stays strong enough to not burn the beans in the bottom of the pot, but you cant let them blow too high!  You have to kill the heat at the right time or else they will go to dark!  Whew! It's so tiring and exhausting, but I've gotten most of it down.  I do that two days a week.  I also clean coffee beans and grind whole beans.  It's not many hours, and its tiring, but its consistent hours so its always some extra money I can count on.

Also in August, Sondra came to visit for the first time!  She only came for about half a day, but we fit a lot it! We went to the apple orchard, ate at Hamburg Inn, went to the CLASSIEST places in town (Ragstock and Silver Spider) made apple sauce, and discovered the tea store are the mall. It was a good day.

At the end of August/beginning of September, the family went up to Minneapolis/St. Paul for my cousins weekend.  We spent a morning at IKEA, a few hours at MOA, and an evening/night at a wonderful wedding/dinner/reception.

The rest of September was fairly uneventful with nothing major happening.  Iowa homecoming came and we had a ton of people over but a fun alumni party, Iowa football stunk, and I worked.

October brought the arrival of many friends!
First, Nicole and Sondra came.  We were able to go up to Wartburg for a day of fun and shenanigans and cheering Wartburg to a victory of rival Luther, see old friends, and hang out.  Plus, we got to stop at the frying pan!

We went and saw Taken 2, made stromboli, played hed bandz, and played lots of other fun board games.  It was a nice relaxing weekend with friends.

Then at the end of October, my good friend Kayla came down from La Crosse, Wisconsin!  It was, whats turning out to be, our bi-annual visit.
We went to the Newbo market in Cedar Rapids, ate at the Czech bakery, watched football, made a HUGE no sew blanket, carved pumpkins, ate pizza, played wii, and just hung out.  It was a much needed reunion.

And with that, I think that is the highlights of the last 5 months.  The job search continues.  I've had leads and lost leads.  I've had better leads and gotten close, but nothing has stuck.  I'm hoping that changes soon though, and you can be sure I'll post about it when it does.  I'm looking all over the country and would love to do social media marketing or consumer insight marketing research stuff.  But I could also see myself doing marketing for a non-profit, such as I did at my internship.  So, we shall see.  If you know of anything, holler at me :)

Thats all for now!

May Term

I have been meaning to post about May Term since the start of May Term, but I've kept so busy that I really haven't had time.  So, i have 40 minutes.  Ready, Set, Write.

For May Term this year, I am taking a Trends in Business course.  We are looking at the Faith At Work/ Spirituality in the Workplace movement, and Social Entrepreneurship.  This course is a travel course as well.  During week one, we were in the classroom reading articles, books, and listening to speakers.  First, we brought in a Stakeholder from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He spoke about the importance of food storage, gave a background on TCJCLDS, and also talked a little bit about how he integrates both home life, work life, and spirituality.  Everyone in our class is a Christian (that's what we get for going to an ELCA school I guess) so it was interesting to see a different side of religion.  Next, we brought in an em-om from the Islamic tradition.  He spoke about the importance of Zakat (basically a social tax) and triggered the discussion of if the United States could ever have a national social tax to help charities and the poor.
On Saturday morning, May 5, we met at our professors house at 5:45 am and left for an 18 hour drive to Princeton, NJ, at 6:30.  We stopped in the south side of Chicago (Garfield Park) for lunch at Inspiration Kitchens.  Inspiration Kitchens provides cooking and food service training for homeless people and drug addicts to get back on their feet.  We had a delicious lunch and spent some time talking (2 hours) before crawling back into the van.  A couple stops later, we made it to Newton Falls, Ohio, (Zip Code 44444) around 10:30 at night.  It was on the far boarder of Ohio, and the sketchiest hotel I've been in.  Our doors didn;t have chain locks, there was a crack in the door frame so light came in, our phone rang all night and was just static on the other end, there was a strip club next door, 2 types of cereal for breakfast (that's all), and a "resturant" in front that looked pretty sketchy too.. We quickly left in the morning for a 7 hour drive.  On the way to NJ, we took a Southern Route through PA and stopped off in Hershey, PA because no one had ever been there before.  Upon arriving in NJ, we went to Conte's pizza for dinner (where all the college students go), before going to the hotel to rest.
Monday morning, we went to Princetons Center for the study of religion for class for a few hours.  After class, we had lunch in their pay as you go and pay for what you eat cafeteria, took a campus tour, then got some time in town to hang out.  Holly and I got cup cakes from a place that won cup cake wars and walked through some shops.  For dinner, we met at Hoagie Haven (a hoagie is like a sub sandwich.. i dont see the appeal of it, but okay) then headed back to the hotel.  Everyone did some reading for class, and headed to bed.
Tuesday, we had class again.  It went a lot longer than expected, but we had a good discussion on the Tyson Food Shelbyville Plant case, talked to the guy from corporate Tyson who was focused on in the (inaccurate) case study.  Upon finishing a 4 hour class, 6 of us jumped a series of trains to Philly.  It took an excessively long time due to class ruining my train schedule (it was all scheduled out, which apparently means i'm high maintenance and a rock star (a bad thing) who needs everything organized and to happen according to plan.  I was then told to chill out because every one hates a rock star.).  We got to philly 3 hours later to find all the museums closed and rain.  Although i still enjoyed looking around, some people were complaining alot and hated the city.  We walked to the liberty bell after stopping for food (which also made us miss the museums), and then took a lot of pictures.  We stayed about an hour then took an hour train ride home.  Tuesday night, I did some homework, talked to some people online, uploaded pictures, and crashed.

This morning, Wednesday, we got to sleep in!  We had breakfast, and then people are doing homework and just relaxing for a little bit.  In about 45 minutes, we are headed to Trenton, NJ, to visit TerraCycle Inc.  Afterwards, I think some people may head into NYC (a 40 dollar, 100 minute train ride) and some of us will hang out in Princeton, I think.  I am not completely sure though.  We were planning on going into NYC tomorrow, Thursday, on our own then back Friday, but would only have 1 hour there if we wanted to be back for dinner at a professors multi million dollar house.  So, we will see what happens. But regardless, we get Friday in NYC so I suppose I can see as much as I can while there and will just have to make it back sometime!

Well, that catches you all up.

There are 2 facebook albums happening.  One is my pictures.  The other is of Sir Victor Knight.  Sir Victor knight is this stress ball type knight that the school sends with travel groups for may term.  HE is documenting his adventures through an album on my wall :)  enjoy.

Research Conference

Last fall, I took my senior capstone class, Senior Seminar in Business, in which we are asked to write a 5,000 word analytical paper on any topic of our choice. At first, it sounds like a very daunting task and something that would take countless hours, stress, tears, and sleepless nights.  And that is just what it was.  We were told 5,000 words was going to be about 20 pages, and we needed a minimum of 8 sources.  I had been thinking since last year about what I would write my paper on knowing the time was coming when I would be tasked with writing the paper. I decided, after working a few months at my internship this summer, that I would write my paper on something surrounding Fair Trade.  After choosing this, I had many ideas of where I could go with this topic and began to come up with some research questions.  I had MUCH back and forth with my professor and the librarians about appropriate topics that I could find research on and write my paper on.  I finally settled on looking into the relationship between the producers and the consumers of fair trade products, and more specifically, how the producers influence the market for, and consumers of fair trade products.

I began to research and write my paper and spent countless hours researching and writing and stressing.  But, I finished and turned it in right before leaving for thanksgiving break.  I had written a 25 page, 7,300 words paper with over 25 sources.  I almost immediate forgot about the paper and moved on.  Eventually, around finals week, I got my paper back and got a 95% on it.  I was proud of my self, but focused on the next adventures in life. 

Early in January, I received an email from my professor who was asking if I would like to apply for a conference in which I submitted my research paper.  I decided to do it, and started reworking on my paper, that I thought I wouldn’t have to look at again.  I got it fixed up and submitted it to the Sam Houston General Business Conference in Huntsville, Texas.  A few weeks later, I found out that my paper was accepted.  I began making preparations to travel to Texas with two other students and a professor in order to present this research.  I had to make a presentation also format my paper for the conference proceedings; we had to submit requests for money, and make travel arrangements.  Come to find out, we also had to make a poser for RICE day at Wartburg.  Through all the work, I learned a lot about myself and also was getting excited and nervous to present the research. 

On the way to the conference, we found out there would be about 150 people at the conference and were also talking about how things would run and what else we would do.  Upon arriving in Huntsville after 3 flights and an hour and a half car ride, we checked into the hotel, and found some food at a GREAT Mexican restaurant.  We used our noses to lead us to a good pick J. 

Friday, we arrived at the conference to find out there were only 40 people there.  I sat through Ben’s presentation group (4 presentations, about 10 people in the room), the keynote (an economist from Egypt), Kayla’s presentation (4 presentations, 7 people in the room), had a fantastic lunch, then got to present.  I presented to the two other Wartburg students, our professor, the two moderators, and one other lady who presented before me.  It helped calm the nerves to know there were not many people there, but was also frustrating. My presentation went off without a hitch and I fielded the questions well.  After that, Kayla and I went to one more presentation, found Ewest and Ben, saw the Sam Houston 60 ft statue, and then went to a FABULOUS dinner provided by the university.  It was at the historic Peabody Library which is now sort of like our Castle Room.  We had some chicken and fish (which I didn’t eat), potatoes, veggies, salad, and chocolate cake. 

Saturday, we skipped the morning session, slept in, and then headed down to Galveston for a day at the beach.  It was super windy blowing sand everywhere and the waves were huge.  Ben and I split some delicious pizza, and then headed down to the beach.  I laid out for a while until my back was significantly sun burnt.  Then I headed up to a Holiday Inn to use the internet since our hotel didn’t have any. I stayed there until about 530 when we all met up dinner.  Ben and Ewest had wanted to go to a seafood joint where the cheapest plate was 20 bucks, but Kayla and I didn’t like seafood, so we made them go for some BBQ.  It wasn’t the best, but it was cheap and better than seafood.  We then drove back to Huntsville and crashed. 

Sunday was low key.   It consisted of sleeping in, breakfast, loading, driving to Houston, finding a Whataburger to eat at, then getting the car returned and flying home.  Our flight was showing on time which was good because of all the storms in the Midwest.  We boarded on time, and then got off on time.  As we sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes, the pilot said we had been rerouted about 200 miles to avoid the storm.  So, our hour and a half flight because about a 2 hour 20 minute flight. 

The conference was good as was the trip,  but frustrating.  It was on the schools budget, but we paid for food because RICE day took away some undergrad research funds.  Although it would have been more nerve racking, I felt as though it would have been better experience to present at a larger conference.  I know that there was no way to know how many people would be there, but everyone else there were professors or a few doctoral students.  There were no undergrads there, and I would have loved to meet more students and see what others were doing.  There has been another conference they went to a few years ago in Ohio that was larger and I think I would have preferred that, but being on the schools budget, I guess I can’t complain too much.  It was a good experience, but I would have loved to meet people and present to a larger group and get some more feedback and hear other speeches. 

Anyway, I can’t wait to travel this may term with Ewest again and take some more jokes from him.  It is all downhill from here. 

Final Reflections

Signing up for Wartburg West, I really was not sure what I was getting myself into.  I knew that I wanted an off campus experience and I knew I wanted to do an internship in order to learn about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was looking for something different than taking classes on campus.  I always knew coming into Wartburg that I wanted to travel and this seemed like an awesome opportunity.  I knew I could have all of my required classes done before I came, so it seemed like an awesome way to finish out my college career.  I felt as if it would be a learning experience.  All of my friends graduated at the end of my junior year and I was not sure how my senior year would go, but I knew that no matter what, I could look forward to Denver.  I knew that when times got rough, and I wanted to quit, I could just focus on coming to Denver.  I knew that Denver would be something to challenge me in new ways and provide me with opportunities and memories to last a life time.  I used that to fuel me through fall semester.  Through the time in Denver, I have just thought of all the amazing things here and used that to remind me how privileged and lucky I am to be here. Now, preparing to leave, I can look back and always remember Denver.

When I was thinking about coming to Denver and getting ready to depart, I was worried that I would not be good at my internship.  I was worried that I would not be helpful to my internship site and would be more of a hindrance than a help.  Yet, I was looking forward to learning about the organization and having new experiences.  I was looking forward to getting some hands on experiences and learning more about the marketing field and what all comprised it. I was also scared about living at a higher, dryer altitude.  I was worried about the sickness that would come with it.  Yet, I learned quickly to adjust.  It meant drinking a lot more water and learning to rest and not always be going 100%.  This is an adjustment that I will need to make in life though as well.  Taking time to slow down and enjoy life is something I have not really done much.  Yet, being in Denver has taught me to slow down and smell the coffee so to speak; to take time to see the small things and appreciate the little known things.

Living in Iowa my whole life, we become so accustomed to the “simple” Iowa life.  We take note of the small things.  The sunsets.  The sunrises.  The quietness. The stars.  All things that I have yet to really experience in Denver.  When in a city, everyone is in a hurry and busy.  They have an agenda that they have to keep. It was strange getting used to this go-go-go lifestyle.  The coffee and sugar in the morning.  The working lunches. Being a commuter.  Yet, above everything else, it made me appreciate the Iowa life.  The slow pace and the being able to walk anywhere and everywhere. 

Coming out to Denver, I had this pre-conceived notion that the city would not be safe.  As much as my experiences have proven that true, they have proven that false.  Being safe in the city is all about learning to protect oneself and not go looking for trouble.  Obviously, being at one of the Boys & Girls Clubs at Night is a bad idea because of the neighborhoods their located in.  Yet, I was there at night and felt safe because I knew I would not be walking through the neighborhood and knew that I could drive a few blocks and be in a safer part of town

I made a “bucket list” of things to do in Denver upon coming out here.  Looking back on everything, I have accomplished the majority of things on my list.  The list consisted of eating a certain places, visiting places, seeing things, touring things.  And all but about two of them are done.  All my experiences that I have wanted to have, I have pretty much had.  It has been a journey of a life time doing things that I never would have done else wise. 

Coming out to Denver, I really hoped to figure out if I wanted to work in marketing or look into another area of business.  I was hoping that having an internship in Marketing would help me figure out what I really wanted to do with my life.  Do I want to stay in a big city?  Do I want to live in the Midwest?  These have been questions for reflection for me throughout my stay in Denver, yet, I am not sure I have come to any conclusions.  I am not sure any of these questions have been answered.  I am not sure if that is good, or bad.  I am not sure if I am okay with not having these answers.  Yet, I know that with time, answers will come.  With time, I will find something I love to do with my life.  My internship has provided something for me to look forward to day in and day out and to make connections to through my other experiences in Denver.  Denver has taught me that it is okay to not have answers about life.  It is okay to not know exactly what is going on.  What is not okay though, is not asking questions to get there.  I have learned that I need to ask questions to get to where I want to be. 

Living in the Wartburg West apartments is a community life unlike anything I have ever experienced before.  I was really hoping to become closer to all of the students and spend time exploring with them.  Yet, I cannot say that happened.  I become friends with a couple other people, but really, the community life in the apartments this semester was lacking.  There was clearly a divide between people.  The people who just wanted to drink and party, and the people who wanted to explore.  Everyone originally said they wanted to be included, yet those people who were so add emit, were the ones excluding others.  At first, it was annoying, yet learning to do things on my own and go off and do what I wanted to do was what got me out and about.  I learned that I could not wait to be invited places, and I could not always expect people to come with me places.  If I wanted to do something or go somewhere, I just had to go and do it and no wait for others because no one would come.  This hurt as I was hoping for a better community from this semester.  Yet, it prepared me for life after college.  A life when I may not have a roommate and will need to get out on my own and explore or make new friends.  I experienced searching for a church on my own and making that a church home.  I learned that I can really rely on the church I eventually choose to make friends and find a good, stable community.

Denver has provided me an opportunity to start thinking about life after Graduation, and life's return to Iowa.  Starting the long process of applying for jobs, thinking about where I want to move to, what kind of job I want, how life will be, how to keep in touch with people, etc.  Thinking about everything I have to do before I come back to Iowa and when I get back to Iowa.  It is so strange to think that in less than 2 months I will be an alumni of Wartburg College. It seems like just last week I was graduating high school and now the baby of the family is graduating college.  Crazy.  What will life bring?  What is next?  Where is next?  Only God knows.  But slowly and surely, he will reveal his plans to the rest of us.  Until then, it is time to sit back and enjoy the journey.

I have learned so much in this three month experience here outside of my internship.  I have learned to take life one day at a time and slow down, appreciate life.  And that is one big thing that I want to take out of this going forward. I learned that you can not live life in a box.  You have to get out of your comfort zone, experience new things.  Meet new people, learn new things.  You have to use the hard times in life to be able to fully appreciate the good times.  You have to use those job rejection letters to fuel you going forward.  Yet you have to be so happy that you are able to apply for jobs and that I was raised and brought up to keep trying.  I know that God has a plan and we just need to let his plan take shape.  I have so many excuses.  I have so many fears.  I say, “God, I can’t do it.  I’m too weak, I’m too pathetic.  It’s impossible.”  But God looks back at me and says, “But beloved, since when did it become all about you?  It’s about me.  It’s my promise.  I will guide you.  I’ll never leave you.”

And that is what I have learned.  “A person’s biggest challenge isn’t someone else.  It’s the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells, I CANT.”  But you don’t listen.  You just push harder.  And then you hear the voice whisper, “I can.”  And then you discover that person you thought you were is really no match for who you really are.”

I have learned that were here learn that there are no random acts.  That we are all connected.  That you can no more separate one life from another then you can separate a breeze from the wind.

From my internship, I have learned even more.  I have learned about the type of work environment I want.  I have learned the amount of pressure that I need to be put under.  I have learned that I need a busy work schedule, and not so busy life schedule.  This experience has given me so much insight into life that I can use to fuel me forward.  I only have a few weeks of classes left at Wartburg and then I will need to start a new journey as one ends.  Using what I have learned in Denver can fuel me forward into the new experiences of life after college.  Coming out to Denver has really prepared me for life after college.  It has taught me to budget, to live on my own, and to survive and thrive in a big city. 

When talking to others about the experience, I would tell them it is one of the best things that has happened to me.  I would tell students and professors on campus about the amazing experience that it is and how great of an opportunity it is to really be challenged and nurtured for lives of leadership and service as a spirited expression of our faith and learning. Denver really allows students to live their education through experiential learning but also provides them with opportunities and experiences that we would not otherwise get on campus.  Had I not come to Denver, I never would have done an internship for credit which would hold me back even more in my job search.  I would tell everyone that there is so much more to a college experience than just taking classes on campus.  Being able to get out and explore and really experience the world is what college is about, is it not?  The Wartburg West program really allows students to do that in a safe and nurturing environment.

            In the month that I am back on campus, I hope to really talk to my professors in the business department and encourage them to recommend this experience to all students.  I feel it is easy to fit into a schedule with the proper planning and also provides opportunities that the business department cannot give.  They can provide internships, yet there are so many more opportunities in Denver and I truly believe that there is something for everyone.  Everyone can find the perfect fit and find other things to get involved in that will allow for even more growth.  I do not know too many underclassmen, but those few that I do know will not hear anything but good things about the Wartburg West experience and how they all need to sign up.  Wartburg West really allows students of all majors’ great opportunities.  Some students in certain majors believe that they cannot complete an internship because there are not any available.  I believe after my experience here that that is a poor excuse and that there is truly an opportunity for everyone in Denver.

Last Full Week in Denver

Wow.  This marks week 13.  My last full week in Denver.  I did a lot of reflection on Denver last week, so there probably wont be much this week.  Last week was pretty chill.  I wasn’t feeling well Saturday, so I didn’t do much.  On Sunday, I went to church, stopped by Buffalo Doughboy bakery on the way home, and then just hung out in the apartment working on homework for the afternoon.  In the afternoon, all of the interns met up from about 3-9 to work on our debate for religion class. I had never done a debate like this before so that made it hard.  Also, none of the other interns really value my opionon and everything is their way or the highway so it made it hard to really participate when they are all outspoken and no one else can talk.  We made it through that though.  Monday started with class, and then religion where we had our debate.  I didn’t do too well, but I also did not dwell on it.  Monday afternoon I went to the local coffee shop for about 6 hours so I could write my final reflection, do my evaluation, stream TV online, write my religion essay, and other odds and ends.  It was nice to be able to just sit in a coffee shop all day  and get work done again.  I forgot how much I can accomplish there.  On Tuesday, I was back at work and couldn’t have been happier.  I love my internship so much, and am really going to miss that place when I leave.  I worked some more on my project for the Beacons creating summer maps and information sheets with free events and locations of libraries and such.  Very in-depth and time consuming, but I got it done.  Tuesday night, our religion class went to “The Great Debate.”  We all thought it was going to be some boring debate, but it actually ended up being super funny and really entertaining.  The Great debate is a humorous academic debate about the relative merits and meanings  surrounding Latke and Hamantash, two popular items in Jewish Cuisine.  I actually enjoyed it.  A lot.  On Wednesday, I was back at work and continued the Beacons project.  I also helped stuff annual reports for a couple hours.  I scheduled meetings with my supervisors as well for the next day.  Wednesday night, I went to class and presented on my CEP.  I had some really powerful videos, but something happened going from the PC I made it on to the MAC that we were presenting from.  After the three presentations, we spent about an hour filling out exit forms which was super long and boring.  I made cookies for Embree’s birthday on Thursday and then went to bed.  Thursday, I showed up at work and helped decorate for Embree’s birthday.  We filled her office with balloons and left presents and cards.  I worked for a little while on my projects and then met with my supervisors to teach them ALL ABOUT survey monkey.  Lot’s of information and they took lots of notes.  After that, we all met to go over the stuff I had been working on for the Beacons projects.  I had edits to make after that, so I did that and then the day was over.  My last Thursday at work.  It is so incredible how quickly everything has come and gone. 

Last night, I applied for some more jobs and just hung out and watched TV.  I slept in this morning and then went to class at 1030.  We got done, I down town and had a free lunch at Rock Bottom, stopped at the library, bought thank you notes for my supervisors then returned home.  I applied for about 10 more jobs and did some laundry early this afternoon. 

I am now doing some laundry and watching TV.  I am hoping to get laundry done and get it drying so I can pack it up this weekend and begin the long packing and cleaning process.  We shall see how that goes.