Week 8

Hello Friends and Family!

Happy almost end of February.  There is so much going on here in Denver and just getting busier by the day! 

Today is the last day to buy raffle tickets for the first early bird drawing for the Dream House Raffle I am working on for my internship.  I have been busy with the raffle and comparing names, calling people who can’t read their credit card numbers, calling people again, emailing people who leave comments on the survey I am moderating, writing thank you letters to people who buy 4 or more tickets, and still doing some miscellaneous work for the YOY Gala.  I spent some time this week, about 4 hours, hanging out at the Dream House we are raffling off following reporters around and making sure they didn’t go where they weren’t supposed to and answering any questions that they had.  It was a beautiful Wednesday and a good day for filming!  Thursday, I got a text message from my supervisor right as I was leaving for work saying that the power was out and all the servers were still down so I couldn’t go in to work until noon.  When I finally got in, I did some more raffle work as we had sold about 3,000 tickets in two days.  We are up and over 10,000 tickets with our final goal being about 20,000.  We will see how we continue to do! 

Other than working, I have been consumed in writing papers for classes and enjoy the wonderful things that Denver has to offer.  Last weekend a few of us went up to a restaurant in North Glenn called Cinzzettis, which is this exquisite Italian Feast.  Also last weekend, I spent some time at Washington Park playing basketball because it was so nice out.  Sunday night Nicole and I went to Colorado Springs to the Rock and Worship Road Tour, a big Christian Rock Concert with 7 bands for only 10 dollars.  It was an awesome night to praise God and hang out with about 9,000 crazy people.  I have always wanted to go to a big concert like this and could not pass up this opportunity.  Some of my favorite bands were playing and it was a chance to hang out with Nicole and worship God.  Good night all around. 

Monday morning for the religion class, we went to Faith Advocacy Day downtown and then I headed out with Matt and Sarah to the Botanical Gardens for their free day.  There was not much to see as it was Winter, but the inside exhibits were pretty cool and the flowers were super cool! After that, I headed to Urgent Care because I have been sick for a while and found out I had an acute upper respiratory infection and bronchitis.  I was able to get some sleeping meds, antibiotics, and steroids and am finally feeling better. 

This weekend starts Wartburg’s break so it should be a pretty low key weekend.  Not sure what all it will hold yet, but hopefully some exciting times are in store for me this weekend!  

Week 7

Hello Friends! 

In exactly 7 weeks, I will be back in Iowa.  How incredibly strange is that?  I suppose that makes this the week 7 update! 

Last Saturday, Matt, Sarah and I made the half hour trip up to Boulder, Colorado, to visit the Celestial Tea Factory and for a day out of Denver.  It was absolutely amazing.  The Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory gives free tours and has a free tasting room. We spent about three hours there touring the factory floor and sampling tea.  I was on a pretty high tea high!  They had all different kinds and would tell you what to mix in it to make it even better.  After the tea factory, we headed to the pedestrian mall on Pearl Street for food.  We ended up at this pizzeria famous for their cookie pizza.  It’s basically a chocolate chip cookie baked in a deep dish pizza pan topped with ice cream.  Basically the most delectable thing I have had while here.

Sunday was a pretty lazy day.  I spent the day doing some work for my internship again before heading out at about 4:30 for dinner with the Schemmels.  The Schemmels usually take all Wartburg West Students out to eat their first week here but Mr Schemmel had a heart attack our second day here so we didn’t do that.  There were four of us that Mrs. Schemmel had not met yet so she and Jack took us to this awesome restaurant called Racines for dinner.  After that, I went downtown to see the play “I Love you, your perfect, now change.”  It was incredibly funny and gave me a night to myself to laugh and have fun.

Monday morning we had class and visited the Rocky Mountain Family Council and then I chilled part of the afternoon.   About 5 o’clock, an alumni came and picked me up and took me to her house so we could fill gift bags for the Board Of Regents who is visiting Denver this weekend.  I spent the night working on that and getting to know some alumni.  It was a little awkward, but over all a good evening.  Tuesday I was back at work.  BGCMD had our “big announcement” where we announced that we are opening a new club with a grant from the Anschutz Family Foundation!  The site where it will be used to be a strip mall where the community of Park Hill hung out but the mall was burnt down by gang arsonists in 2008 and has stood empty since then.  I spent the rest of the day entering entries for the raffle.  Wednesday I was back at work and the job for the day was working on more stuff for the Auction of the Youth of the Year auction.  I had to take the list I made last Friday and find addresses and phone numbers for all of them.  Quite the event.  Wednesday night Nicole and I went straight downtown because the class was seeing the play, “The Two things you don’t talk about at dinner.”  It was incredibly funny and nice to not have to sit in class for the night.  Afterwards, we jumped the light rail home and stopped at Albertsons so I could get something to help my bad canker sore J . 

Thursday was a big day and I made it a half day.  The Board of Regents visited my site in the morning and then left at 12:30 so I could head down to the capitol.  My religion class here requires us to follow a legislative bill through legislation.  My bill was being heard at 1:30 so I went down to hear that.  My bill was third out of 3 bills so It didn’t start being heard until about 4:30.  The first two were super boring and went super long so they had to rush through my bill.  We left at 5:15 and my bill got sent to a committee to decide if they can fund it or not.. So we shall see what happens with it.  After that, I came home and chilled. 

This morning we had religion class which was actually quite bearable!  We talked about the regents and then about what we want to do with out lives and what we are doing to get ourselves there.  It was really cool and made me think a lot about Youth and Family Ministry class and peer Helpers training.  Strangely.  Afterwards, I came home and got a package ready to mail home (have fun with that mom and dad.. lots of bubble wrap and duct tape J). 

Not sure what this weekend will bring, but I will tell you about it when it happens! 

I have a lot more work to get done this afternoon, so I should probably get going! 

Peace, Love, and Happiness! 

Week 6

How incredible is it that we are almost half way done in Denver?  We have been here just over 6 weeks.  It seems like we just got here.  Yet, I can tell I have been away.  The homesickness really set in this week.  I spent that majority of the week wishing that I could chop off my head due to a head cold.  It started last Thursday night and managed to get worse until Monday night.  I spent 16 hours asleep and 20 hours in bed from Friday until I left for work on Tuesday morning.  Through that, I still got to watch the Super Bowl and visit the Art Museum.  I was too sick though for the zoo.  (Mom, dad, maybe we can go when you come?) 

The Art Museum had a free day so I went with some people.  I forgot my camera, but will hit up another free day with my camera in March hopefully.  It was amazing to see all these different kinds of art and reminded me of touring museums in Paris.  I got really tired after about 5 floors so I headed home via a stop at Walgreens for Dayquil and Nyquil (which are almost gone now J).  On Sunday, I made some brownies and hamburger cheese dip and had about 10 people in our room for the game since we were the only people who got it on TV.  I disinfected the room before they came in hopes to not spread germs. 

Monday, I skipped class because I felt so bad and slept all day.  Tuesday I was back at work though.  And I had forgotten how much I love that place. Tuesday was dedicated to working on the raffle.  I stayed late in order to get all the piled up tickets entered into the computer.  All together, I entered over 100 orders which were about 160 tickets.  It took me pretty much all day.  Wednesday, I was busy writing thank you notes for about 30 people who had bought tickets.  Also, I wrote copy to send and reach out to bloggers to promote the house and made a week one report about the survey.  

Thursday, I worked a little bit on the raffle, narrowed down places to canvas with fliers, sat in on a conference call about building mobile websites with some dumbo from California, compared lists of board members who had bought tickets, and probably did more that I don’t remember!  Thursday night, I realized how tired I had been from this week.  Although I had been going to bed between 8 and 930 every night this week due to still not feeling well, I was still really tired.  I just sort of relaxed all night and tried to prepare for today.

Today, I went to class where we visited InterFaith Alliance.  While there, I was reminded how awkward the group dynamics are among WW participants.  The other girls in my class are all best friends and exclude everyone, but always preach about how they want to be invited.  They feel the world revolves around them and always have to say the last word; their opinions are always stated and you have to agree with them.  It is getting rather annoying, but I only have to be with them during class luckily. 

After class, I went downtown for a slice of pizza for lunch, the worked for almost 4 hours on stuff for my internship.  They do a big Gala event with silent auction and need to solicit businesses to donate stuff.  So, I worked on breaking Denver into 25 neighborhoods and coming up with restaurants and stores who the board can go talk to for donations.   After finishing that, I jumped on the light rail and headed out to walk around University of Denver.  Just because I could.  I found the book store and got a cheap shirt and walked around some.  I didn’t find the college of Business like I wanted to, but I will go back and find it sometime.  J

Tonight, I am just chilling and doing laundry.  I will probably clean some and have some dinner and just take it easy tonight.

Tomorrow, I am headed with a couple of people to Boulder for the day.  We are going to visit the tea factory and do some shopping.  Should be fun.

This week was homesickness week.  I don’t know if it was because I was sick or it was cold and snowy or what, but I just missed home this week.  Missed the people at Wartburg, my parents, my friends, and the campus ministry community.  I realized how much I have and I can’t wait to return after I do everything there is to do in Denver.  Also this week, I started thinking about jobs.  It is sooo scary to think that I need to start applying for jobs soon!  I’m all growed up! When did that happen?!!?

That’s all for now! 

Updated bucket list below

1. Eat at the Tilted Kilt  DONE Dec 31, 2011
2. Eat at the mellow mushroom DONE Jan 1, 2012
3. Tour the capitol DONE Jan 23, 2012
4. Buy something from Tattered Covers Bookstore
5. Visit the Denver Art Museum DONE FEB 4, 2012
6. Go to the Celestial tea museum in Boulder
7. Eat at D Bar Deserts
8. Visit the Denver Mint
9. Take a jog around Washington Park
10. Tour the Performing Arts Center Downtown DONE Jan 10, 2012
11. Visit Rocky Mountain National Park
12. Visit the Falling Rock Tap House
13. See the Molly Brown House Museum
14. Drink at Jacksons
15. Visit the University of Denver DONE FEB 10, 2012
16. Go to Breckenridge Brewery
17. Write a Paper at the Denver Public Library DONE Jan 13, 2012
18. Attend a service at a Mega Church DONE Jan 29, 2012
19. Walk LoDo DONE Jan 8, 2012
20. Walk through Union Station DONE JAN 8, 2012
21. Attend a Murder Mystery dinner show
22. Tour Sports Authority Field
23. Drink coffee at a local coffee shop DONE Jan 15, 2012
24. Walk the entire length of 16^th street
25. Visit Red Rocks Amphitheatre
26. Visit the exhibits at the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library DONE JAN 30
27. Visit the Buffalo Bill Museum
28. Tour Coors Field DONE Jan 20, 2012
29. Go to the Denver Zoo
30. See a Colorado Rapids Game/ Or just tour the field
31. Go to Dazzle restaurant
32. Find the Denver Cupcake Truck Done Jan 13, 2012
33. Strike up a conversation with a Homeless Person
34. Strike up a conversation with the occupy protestors
35. Buy a piece of Broncos Clothing
36. Attend a performance at the Denver Performing Arts Center DONE Jan 10, 2012

Week 5

Dude, I cannot even fathom that I have been in Denver for 5 weeks.  This has been another journey of a lifetime.   This week my life at work was defined by raffle.  Tuesday I spent almost all day processing order forms which basically is just typing them all into the computer when people mail them in.  I also had the joy of launching the survey this week on Wednesday . We were expecting about 100 responses and I am at 680 out of the 1618 i sent out.  that is absolutely incredible and my two supervisors tell me on about an hourly basis how amazing that is and how its all because of me.  Which keeps a smile on my face :)
Wednesday, I was back at processing orders and staring at a computer all day.  About noon my supervisor walked into my office and told me we were going to lunch.  We went to this salad and panini place.  It was incredibly delicious.  We then went for desert at Tony's Market.  I got an Elvis Bar which was peanut butter, chocolate, and banana.  Pretty good. Today, I was processing more, comparing names of people who have bought, writing a ton more thank you notes (anyone that orders four or more tickets gets a hand written thank you note from me..five or more they get a call from my supervisor).  We also had an hour and a half all staff meeting.  My first experience, but definitely glad I went.  Not that I had a choice.  The company announced that we are opening a new club and I get to be at the public announcement which is cool!  We also had an update on the raffle which I had made for my secondary supervisor to present, and heard from some art coordinators.  After the meeting, I started working on a social media guide for February and researching the Colorado Lottery.  A lot of people on the survey I sent have commented about the comparison between us and the lottery, so we want to do some research on that to see how similar they are.  Also today, I emailed people who left questions on the survey.  One man was upset because he thought we would sell his information.  In addition to the marketing experience, I am getting a lot of good Public Relations work to with interacting with ticket holders and writing newsletters and such.  Everyday I fall more in love with my internship and am reminded that choosing business was a good choice.
The one thing I have also come to love about my job are the dogs.  Almost every day, someone brings their dog in.  On particularly long or stressful days, such as this Tuesday and Wednesday, I can take 10 minutes and find Bella, or Penny or the other dog and just pet them and get them hyped up and laugh.  It reminds me of my brownie who is left at home.

The other big news I got today was that I get to present my Senior Seminar Capstone Analytic paper (a 28 page paper relating fair trade producers to fair trade consumers) at a General Business Conference in April!  Only 3 people from Wartburg were selected to apply and I got accepted! I get to go to Texas on the schools budget with a professor who is incredibly awesome, and the two other students. Hello Smile on my face!

It is snowing right now.  We are supposed to get 6-10 inches in 30 hours.  That is a lot for Denver, so we shall see what we actually get and how it impacts the city.