AAHHHH.... Break

Break is finally here.
After revising all my papers, giving all my presentations and taking all my finals I am finally done! While I'm definitely glad to be home and relaxing (I just woke up at 11:30), this break is a little bitter sweet for me, because for all I know it may be my last one. I'm also using the break to look for jobs after I graduate and most of them are taking me to places across the world. While I can't wait to get a job and travel, its a little daunting thinking how far away from home I could be.
So with that thought in the back of my mind I'm enjoying every minute of this break. Aside from shoveling my parents driveway a ton, I've been spending time catching up with old friends, enjoying some cooking and spending time with my family. And yes, sleeping as late as possible.

I'm really looking forward to the end of break, though, when I head to D.C. I'm going to take a 10-day class that culminates with the inauguration! I'm so excited to get back to D.C. and the reason I'm going makes me even more excited.

If I have the time and internet capabilities I'm going to try to blog about it some while I'm there so check back. In the meantime, however, I'm going to go shovel and take a nap.

Crazy...

Life has been pretty crazy lately. Thanksgiving break was great, but when I came back Monday a tempest of activity awaited my return. First of all, this is the last week of classes, with finals starting next week. I've got a couple papers due, a couple end-of-the year tests and one project. So in case school wasn't enough to keep me busy I tacked a bunch of other stuff on.
-The Christmas Vespers Program: This Christmas tradition at Coe is a combination of readings, prayers, singing and all around Christmas joy. I had the honor of reading this year.
-Intermural Racquetball: I love racquetball. I love it so much that when it was announced and IM league was being played this fall I signed up for both singles and doubles. We're in the final couple days right now which means scrambling to finish all my games (I played 4 matches Tuesday afternoon!)
-Kohawk Basketball: The Kohawk men and women opened conference play last night at home. One of my friends and I are "the voice of the Kohawks," bringing the game to the world via the Kohawk Sports Network on the internet.
-Student Senate: Last Saturday we had out Budget and Finance Day. As the treasurer I oversaw the proceedings as we allocated over $140,000 to our clubs and organizations across campus. We had to discuss the budgets before the full Senate on Wednesday night.
-Job Search Workshop: Our Career Services Office held a workshop designed to give graduating seniors tips on how to find jobs. This was a pretty big reality check for me - I graduate in 6 months!
-Sherry Wott- Sherry is a diversity speaker coming to campus speaking on how to have difficult dialogue. Its sponsored by the Residence Life Department and sounds like an interesting talk.
-The Office: Now this probably doesn't sound as important as the others, but it definitely is. Every Thursday night for the whole semester anywhere from 5 to 20 fill my apartment for our weekly ritual of watching Steve Carell create awkward moments and drop unforgettable one-liners.

Oh yeah, and I write this blog which has already taken enough of my time for today... I've got a paper to write!

Electra- fying

Each year Coe's theater department puts on three major productions. Right now they are performing their second show of the year, Electra. The play follows the life of Electra, the main character, as she agonizes over the death of her father, who was a great warrior. Adding a twist to the plot is that Electra's father's murder is her own mother. This pain of losing her father at the hands of her mother drives Electra nearly mad.
I had heard of this play written by Sophocles and was pretty excited to see it put on by my peers. The main character, Electra, was played by my friend Addie. Seeing Addie transform from herself, a happy friendly person to the deranged Electra was amazing. The amount of emotion pouring off the stage from all the actors was unrivaled by any show I have seen at Coe. Adding to the skill of the actors was a first class set that included rain, blood and knives.
For one of my classes my first year at Coe I had to go to a play. I was reluctant to go at first but after seeing the ability of Coe's performers and the professionalism of the production I haven't missed a show yet, and it seems like they just keep getting better.

Fall Break

So every year Coe has a Fall Break midway through the first semester. As this semester is already drawing to a close, our Fall Break was obviously quite a while ago, but my camera has been broken so I have to rely on friends to get me pictures to put on this site. Well, that and the semester coming to an end generally overwhelms me with everything I have procrastinated on all semester!
Anyway, this year for fall break I went with two friends to Chicago for a weekend. My friend Mike is from Skokie, which is a suburb right next to Chicago, so we decided to use his house as a base. We left Cedar Rapids Friday afternoon and after a stop at my house in DeWitt it was off to Skokie!






We got into Skokie and ate a delicious meal of lasagna with Mike's family and watched some baseball before heading out to visit some of Mike's friends. We were pretty tired from the trip and went to bed early, as we had a big day planned.



Saturday morning we woke up and immediately called resturaunts in town to see which would have the Iowa football game on TV. Naturally, Buffalo Wild Wings, one of our favorite places, was where we ended up. After the game (they lost, of course) we got on a train and headed downtown to Chicago. We stopped and picked up my friend from home, Landon, who is now a student at Columbia and living in Chicago (that's Landon on the right). We just got off at a stop with no real plan or destination and wandered the streets for a while until we wound up at Millennium Park (with the giant metallic "bean"). While we were there Mike was enticed by a game of bags at the restaurant in the park, so just like we do every other weekend in Cedar Rapids, we ended up playing bags for a few hours, except it was under the Chicago skyline, which was pretty cool.
After our hours of bag playing we didn't feel like paying to eat at the trendy restaurant where we were playing bags so we stopped by Jimmy John's for a sandwich (while Amy escaped to do some quick Michigan Ave. shopping). We were then back on a train to meet some other friends for a drink in a different part of town. We then jumped from place to place until we realized it was 3:00 a.m. and we should probably be heading back soon! The night ended with another train ride to Mike's house and a very welcoming night of sleep!


We got up the next day and made the trip back to Iowa feeling good about our little adventure from the ordinary!

A real chill Saturday

Today has been what Saturdays are supposed to be like. I woke up to go give tours for the admissions office for our campus visit day (I was late of course because I slept in!) The tours went well, except the weather has started turning cold and there were a few snow flurries. I decided that after doing my tour I didn’t really need to be outside much more.
After a quick lunch I met my friend Amy at the racquet center to play a game of squash followed by some tennis (in our indoor tennis facility). My favorite part of the day, however, was sitting in the sauna after working out. I love sitting in the hot sauna and sweating on a cold day and try to do it quite often in the winter.
Following my time at the racquet center I came back to my room and took a quick nap, my other favorite Saturday past time. Now I’m just sitting in my room, drinking some tea and watching the Iowa game. I think I’ll order pizza and watch football all day! Life is full of simple pleasures and this chilly Saturday is full of them.

An Air of Presidency: My First Encounter With Barack Obama

[I wrote this the other day to try to put some thoughts on paper. I don't know how applicable it is to Coe except that maybe I was on Coe's Washington DC term during the time I write about. p.s. my biases are out now, I'm an Obama supporter]

With the election only days away I’ve been contemplating the idea of President Barack Obama quite a bit. Every time I see him on TV or read something about him, I’m always reminded of the very first encounter with the senator.
I was an intern for Senator Tom Harkin in the spring of 2007. As an intern, one of my responsibilities was sitting in the front lobby to answer phones and greet guests. We got Senator Harkin’s schedule every morning so we knew which visitors to expect and where he would be all day. Much to my surprise, as I was looking through the schedule one morning I saw an appointment with the freshman, Senator Obama.
A preface to this story is that I had just fallen in love with Barack. I watched his 2004 convention speech and was transfixed. On my drive to Washington that winter I had read his book, and had been carrying it with me all around D.C. I was amazed by his oratory and when reading his political philosophy I often caught myself nodding my head in agreement. I had already joined the Facebook group attempting to draft him for president and DC was just starting to stir with the same suggestions.
After waiting all day and most of the afternoon, the appointment time was finally approaching. A few Iowans were sitting in the lobby waiting to meet with some senior staffers, and were just milling around talking about the popcorn we served in our office, as Iowans often do. In mid conversation about DeWitt with one of the guests, the door opened and in walked a stately-looking Senator Obama. He walked with a certain swagger that I can’t quite explain. A swagger seemed to say “I’m confident in myself, but I’m no better than you.” As he walked in he flashed his trademark smile and introduced himself to no one in particular, but seemingly everyone at the same time. “Hello, I’m Barack Obama.” Everyone in the room knew who he was, but he didn’t take this for granted and humbled himself to introductions and pleasantries with the Iowans. He fit right in with talk about popcorn.
About fifteen minutes after the scheduled meeting time the senators finally got to their meeting. Obama was a young rock star in the senate, but was meeting with Harkin to pay his respects to his elders and just get to know his way around the block. The fame hadn’t gone to his head, he knew his place and was seeking to build relationships and learn from the veterans of the Senate. When the meeting ended, again about 30 minutes behind schedule, Senator Obama’s staffers we hustling him out of the office to meet another scheduling commitment. Barack wasn’t concerned, however. He wasn’t caught up in the hustle of day-to-day Washington. He was more concerned in making sure he soaked up the advice of Harkin and took time to greet everyone on the way out (and yes, sign my book). He assured his staff that the schedule wasn’t that big of a deal and they would be alright. I had no idea what the scheduling conflict was, but his assuring tone and confidence made me believe him. Eventually he left the office, flashing the same smile, and walking with the same presidential air.
I’m not voting for Barack because he’s a good speaker or looks presidential. I’m voting for him because I agree with his policies and worldview. It is very reassuring, however, to have experienced first hand a calm and collected candidate – a man that is confident in himself, but seeks the advice of others. A man who flies so high, but does so with both feet on the ground. A man who understands the importance of other’s opinions, but can reassure others around him that he’s made the right decision. A man who gets respect without demanding it. A man who’s confident demeanor is reassuring in a time of uncertainty. And a man who’ll stroll into a room full of Iowans and be able to talk about popcorn.

An interesting week for the social scientist

So while I do have a lot of fun at Coe as you can see from my past posts, I do occasionally engage in some academics. As a political science major and economics minor, I like to consider myself a social scientist (studying how people interact with each other in different aspects). While the last few weeks have been interesting in this field, this week has been the best so far.

Last night I went to a student-led discussion on race. It was moderated, but mostly just students talking about how they felt about race. I learned a lot of interesting things from my fellow students, and we discussed in detail and debated things like Affirmative Action and White Privilege.

Right after the race discussion I hustled over to meet the Political Science Club to watch the debate. We’ve watched all the debates together and last night we ordered food from Aladdin’s, an awesome Middle Eastern restaurant in town. After the debate I sat around and ate pita bread and discussed education policy with my friend who is doing her semester of student teaching.

Right after I post this I’m headed to an economic forum. Two of my economics professors and a guest lecturer (one of our trustees) are going to be discussing the current state of our economy and most importantly, how the $700 Billion bailout is going to work (or not work). I’ve been reading a lot and trying to keep up with this but it will be nice to have a couple economists explain it to me in the way a professor knows how.

Ladies and Gentlemen... The Capitol Steps

If you're a long time blog-reader of mine you've probably picked up on the idea that I'm fairly interested in politics. If not I'll just lay it out there for you: I'm a political science major, president of the Coe Democrats and spent my summer working on campaigns.
My sophomore year this interest led me to an internship in the U.S. Senate in Washington DC through Coe's Washington Term. This is a whole other blog in itself, but the one thing that is relevant is the evening I went to a showing of the Capitol Steps. The Capitol Steps is a group of former Congress staffers who got fed up with the day-to-day business of Washington and quit their jobs to form a satirical group to mock the very establishment they worked for. Needless to say, the fusion of political humor and satirical versions of Sir Mixalot (I like tax cuts and I cannot lie) had me hooked.
After loving this show in DC I knew I had to find a way to share it with everybody at Coe. It took two years and cooperation among four or five different student groups to muster up the support, planning and most importantly, funding. Finally, last Tuesday at 8:00 in our Sinclair Auditorium the Capitol Steps took the stage at Coe College. I got to (or had to) introduce the group and it was probably the most nervous I've been about something in a long time. There were over a thousand people in the house and I had to go out and read some corny jokes and thank all the sponsors. I managed to get through it without fumbling or tripping on the stairs, so I think I'm going to consider my part a success (or at least not a failure!)
And probably the best part was that my parents came and took me out for dinner afterwards... food again!

Homecoming recap

So my final Homecoming has come and gone, and while I'm a little sad thinking that I won't be able to do it again, I had a great time last week. We won the volleyball tournament and the girls won the powderpuff football game... of course the seniors always do!

The end of the week consisted of the football game and the dance. The football game was exciting to watch (I used to play on the football team so I think I have an even greater interest ) but we ended up losing when Loras ran a controversial last play with no time left on the clock. Even though the game ending kind of sucked, I had a good time tailgating with my friends and playing some bags. A couple of my friends who graduated last year came to visit and a few of my friends' parents brought grills and food, which always makes me happy!

And what is a homecoming without a dance? I didn't have a date to the dance this year (I never really have I guess). Every year I've just hung out with my friends before the dance and we all just go together. This year we were being cheap and decided not to go out to eat or do anything big and hung out at a friend's house and ordered some Papa John's. After we devoured the Papa Johns in our ties and dresses, (classy, I know) we decided it'd be fun to live in the past and take some "prom-esque" pictures. This is my friend Danielle and I just before we left for the dance. Everybody at Coe then jumps on a shuttle bus that takes us to the Crowne Plaza hotel, where the dance takes place. I had a great time and at the end of the night my shirt turned from light peach to a dark orange.

(Thanks to Alec Herr of Coe's newspaper, The Cosmos, for the pic of volleyball and Danielle and Lauren for the other two.)

Homecoming

One thing that i think is pretty cool at Coe is our traditional Homecoming week. Sure, it may sound corny and juvenile to get excited about Homecoming when I'm a senior in college, but I don't care, I'm guilty.
Yes, we have a dance and a football game, but my favorite traditions at Coe are neither of these. I absolutely love the men's volleyball and women's powder puff football games. After watching sand volleyball in the Olympics all summer, I was pumped for our first game this fall. I showed up rocking my beach wear (tank top and visor) and some of my friends busted out some old spandex. Our preliminary game was against the freshman class. Needless to say, we may have taken them a little lightly and lost the first game, but got it together and won the next two to move on to the championship (to be played tonight).
While I do love playing volleyball, its not nearly as fun as watching girls play football. My class played last night (against the freshmen, of course). They had been practicing all week and handled them very easily. Even though it is flag football, every year the senior class is notorious for making a few tackles and pulling some hair, which brings me back to the game every year.
Tonight brings the championship games in both volleyball and football, tomorrow is "follies," where different groups will perform various skits and Friday is our bonfire, where we find out who is king.
I'm going to try to take some pictures this week (I hate taking pictures) and post them for you later.

Welcome back!

Welcome back to me! I'm back into the swing of things at Coe, and welcome back to you if you are a blog-reader. My summer wasn't really a classic relaxing summer, so I'm pretty excited to be back at school.

My summer, although not the most fun, kept me really busy. I managed to land an internship with a law firm here in Cedar Rapids (Hallberg, Jacobsen, Johnson and Viner for you locals). I worked every morning doing the bidding of the four criminal defense lawyers. I got to watch court cases, research case law, write letters, observe client interviews and make a lot of coffee. Working at a law firm and seeing the workings of the day-to-day business of the courthouse gave me a lot of insight into the legal field... and perhaps someday maybe a career.

After my mornings at the law firm, I got a couple hour break to eat lunch and work out before it was off to my real job - canvassing for the Iowa Democratic Party. Canvassing basically consists of walking around for four hours every night knocking on potential voter's doors and talking with them about the upcoming election. It wasn't glamorous, and sometimes very humid or rainy, but I believed in the work I was doing, and am glad I got the opportunity.

I had some fun too. I managed to play a little golf, got hired to umpire a few baseball games, rode my bicycle, cheered the Cubs on to victory at Wrigley Field and spent the Fourth of July in Guttenburg, IA on the Mississippi River.

I have decided not to work this semester. I figured I worked enough this summer (and hopefully saved enough money) to just relax and enjoy my senior year. I fully intend to live it up and love every minute of my last year at Coe. I don't think I'll have any problems in this department, and I'll keep you updated.

A bittersweet farewell

So its been a while since the Flunk Day post, and even though its summer, I find myself incredibly busy.

Since Flunk Day we finished our last couple weeks of classes, took our finals, said goodbye to our seniors and transitioned into summer life at Coe. For the first time at Coe I got to go to the commencement ceremony this Spring, which was awesome. Our United States Senator, Tom Harkin (a favorite of mine if you look at old posts), was the speaker and we had a beautiful day for the ceremony. Every year commencement is held outside on the quad in front of the library, and it always ends up being a beautiful day (knock on wood... I graduate next year!) and this was no exception. Sen. Harkin gave the graduates a top ten list to live by, they got their diplomas and we all said goodbye.

I still have a year left, but it was a strange feeling saying goodbye to these people who I've grown so close to in the past three years. I know I've written about the community of Coe before, but this just reminded me one more instance of how close we are with each other. As Robin, my friend who sat next to me in History class and played racquetball with me left for North Carolina, I realized how good of a friend I had gained at Coe. When Katie, my Admissions co-worker and student government mentor left for D.C., I realized how exceptional students at Coe are, and how many world-changing people Coe just graduated.

To beat the dead horse just a little bit more, we are close, and we have worldly aspirations. I can't wait to hear from my friends who are going to law school, who have taken teaching jobs, who are going to pursue graduate degrees in economics, student affairs and biology. And I know that as we spread across the globe, the bond that we had here will always remain.

Flunk Day 2008. FD Lifeguards

Last week we celebrated the end of the year with Flunk Day, my favorite tradition at Coe. One day a year every spring we, the students, cancel class and hang out on the quad all day. I was on the committee that got to help plan all the activities this year, which made it so much more fun. For the whole semester we would meet once or twice a week to work on planing this day, I was so happy the day it finally came. My day started with Katie waking my up at 5:00 AM to get get our outfits. Our theme was lifeguards, as you can see. We then went and ate breakfast and came back and ran through all the dorms at 7:00 to tell campus the great news: "Its Flunk Day!"
We then set up for all the day's activities. I went to baseball practice and came back and everything was in full swing. The grill was smoking, the inflatables we up and running, the band was playing and everyone was having a great time. Later that night we had a foam dance party on the quad with a DJ. You can kind of see it in the picture, but I was so intense in enjoying every minute of Flunk Day that I didn't even think about putting on sunscreen (I'm almost done peeling).
I can't wait for next year, when everyone starts the guessing game of when Flunk Day is going to be and I hear the most uttered words on Coe's campus during the spring, "I hope Flunk Day is tomorrow."

NACAttack

This weekend I got to attend the National Association of Campus Activities (NACA) conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. Coe's programing board, the Student Activities Committee (SAC) goes to this conference every year to find entertainment for the next school year. We had a very productive weekend of work and fun. Every morning we went to an educational sessions desisgned to cater to our interests as people involved in campus programming. One of my educational sessions was on how Family Guy and Southpark teach lessons of diversity (yes, it was as funny as you would think). I also attended a session about how to plan events for the upcoming election. I got some great ideas for speakers and events so when October and November of next year roll around, Coe will be crawling with political activity. I also got to two sessions on leadership, which were very informative as well. As you can see from the pictures, we also had a little bit of fun. Every day on top of the educational sessions, we got to see a bunch of showcases -- where various entertainers would show us their act and try to get us to book them. We had musicians, magicians, jugglers, sword swallowers, comedians, slam poets and lecturers. Every day when the entertainers had finished showing off their acts, we went to CAMP, where they all had booths set up for students to meet them (and hopefully book them). CAMP was also where some companies used to show off such attractions as bull riding and a giant trampoline.
While we did have a ton of fun, we also booked some really cool acts for next year.

I'm probably most excited abou Ari Herstand, a musician who loops his music and plays a one man show with three instruments. Although, we also booked two comedians who made me laugh for fifteen straight minutes. But the mentalist who told me my birthday from my ID card without ever seeing it before freaked me out too. I guess its hard to pick one, but we have some great entertainment lined up for next year and I'm excited.

Coe has one of the largest programming budgets in the area and we use it to its fullest extent. Students chose where most of that money goes, so the entertainment represents what the students want. NACA was fun, SAC is cool, and Coe has sweet entertainment.

Admitted Student Weekend April 4th and 5th

This weekend is an exciting weekend on Coe’s campus. The admissions office is hosting all students who have applied and been admitted for a weekend visit. If you aren’t signed up for this event yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. When people ask me why I chose Coe, I always tell them that when I visited campus and spent the night I felt so welcome and at home, I knew I was in the right place. This is a great opportunity for you do find out if Coe is a place you can call home.

Visit our website to learn more and sign up on the admissions home page: http://www.coe.edu/admission/

Some highlights of the weekend include the traditional campus tours and informational sessions with representatives ranging from student life to professors. The highlight, however, will be the fun activities planned for the weekend. There is a baseball game, a tennis match, a student art exhibition and student music performances. And to top the day off, we have an improv comedy show in Charlie’s, our coffee shop.

Admitted Students weekend is a ton of fun. I have hosted students in the past and really enjoy meeting people who may be at Coe next year. You will get to experience the life of a Coe student for the weekend, staying in a dorm, eating in the cafeteria and attending campus activities. I hope to see you there!

My not-so-relaxed-but-still-awesome Spring Break

So I haven't been posted for a while. Half the reason is because I'm lazy, but a legitimate reason was because I went to New Orleans, LA with a group from school to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. I didn't have a chance to post while I was building so I'll share some pictures now!

We left on Saturday morning and drove all day to Memphis to spend the night. We arrived in New Orleans the next evening and began work on Monday. There were 21 of us, led by the college chaplain and an alum who is now a general contractor. My group of 10 worked at Laura's house, which had been flooded by about six feet of water. The structure of the home remained, but needed completely redone: enter volunteers like us. We worked on siding and flooring at my site, and some of the pictures are below.

Yes, we drove... 16 hours. I spent the whole time in the backseat with two people that I kind of knew before the trip, but not surprisingly know a lot better now!

One day after we got done working we drove to the lower ninth ward, where the hurricane did the most damage. Seeing the devastation really hit home when we were in this area. This picture is of Jenny and Gunnar sitting on what used to be the front porch of somebody's home.
This is me cutting some concrete board that we needed to put down on the floor. I didn't have any experience or knowledge about flooring, but I feel like I'm an expert now. I guess thats why they call it a liberal arts education.
In the morning before getting to work on our last day. We met with Christiana (in the white), our construction manager every morning to get our assignment for the day. In addition to directing our work, Christina was full of insight and inspiration.

On Thursday night it was our turn to cook dinner at camp. Rob bought some crayfish and we ate like true Cajun-lovers!
A trip to New Orleans isn't complete without a trip to Bourbon Street. We got to go out one night and I made the most of it, eating authentic Jambalaya on a balcony, and of course doing a little dancing.This is out of chronological order, but this is us in Memphis at a jazz restaurant. There was a live band playing the entire time we were eating dinner. We then went to a different club where there was a blues band who had been playing on Beale Street for over 40 years!

Ballin'

This picture is my intramural basketball team from my First Year at Coe. I was looking for it today because our season ended last week, and I remembered how much fun I had my freshman year. My team consisted of a couple offensive linemen, four guys that had never played competitive basketball, and me. At the time I was trying to gain weight for the upcoming football season, and weighed in as the point guard at about 230 pounds. We were a pretty rag tag group, but we probably had the more fun than anyone else on the court.

The IM team is just one example of ways I bonded and got to know people my first year. I was on the football team, which is where I met most of my friends. A lot of my friends also came from the first-year only floor that I lived on in Greene Hall, or my First Year Seminar Class.

The intermurals offered by Coe are a great time. I lost to my economics professor in doubles tennis my sophomore year. My freshman year I made it to the quarterfinals in singles racquetball. When I tore my ACL before my sophomore year I was forced to sit out the basketball season, which was almost harder for me than missing my football season. The event I'm looking forward to most this year is water polo! The events change year to year, sometimes there is indoor soccer or wrestling or rock climbing. Whatever the students want, if there are enough interested it happens! Athletics have always been an important part of my life and this has been a great way to continue that passion!

And by the way, we came in second place in the “recreational” division: the B league of IM basketball. I have since moved up onto the A league with a new team, but I’ve never had as much fun as I did with the “Harlem Street Ballers” my first year.

The languages of Coe.

I was reading in the library last night, trying my hardest to concentrate on The Second Treatise of Government by John Locke. Locke is no easy read and it takes every ounce of concentration to stay focused with the task at hand. Needless to say, I was more than slightly annoyed by a couple pairs of students who were working on projects around me, talking away. While I was trying my hardest to focus on Locke’s views regarding the state of nature, there was an incessant buzz of conversation distracting my thoughts.
Then I just gave up and started listening. Two students behind me were studying for an upcoming macroeconomics test. I recognized the familiar terms about supply and demand and was a little interested. The other two pairs of students, however, I could not understand. It wasn’t because they were taking an advanced course, but rather, they were speaking different languages. I recognized two of them were speaking Japanese and the other two were speaking Nepali. As my thoughts drifted from Locke, I started thinking about how cool it was to sit in a room where three different languages were being spoken.
Coincidentally that night when I went to dinner, I came in to see a couple of my friends sitting at a table with a couple Japanese students. I joined them and introduced myself and ate in their company, speaking to them about Coe, myself, English and our culture. It was a great learning experience for me, and definitely not something I would have ever learned sitting in a classroom.
I checked with the admissions office today and discovered that we have 16 countries represented this year at Coe. I have met a number of these students. I am intrigued by all of them, their backgrounds and their different vantage points on my country and culture. There is so much to be learned here, and once again I find myself learning from my fellow students.

Me and my Famous Friends

With some intense politics going on in the country I thought I'd share some cool photos. Enjoy!


This is me looking on in awe at Barack Obama. He came to Coe in the fall and MTV sponsored a national broadcast with Coe students asking him questions. It was awesome. I'll admit I am a little high on Barack and have met him four times now and even spoke to him on the phone once.


Because it was an MTV event, Sway was one of the moderators. The picture is a little blurry, I know, but I have a picture with Sway, how cool is that!


About a month after Obama visited Coe, then presidential hopeful Rudy Guiliani visited. It was at the end of finals when no students were at Coe, so unfortunately not many people came, but that meant I got a front row seat and even got to ask him a question!
This fall was cool for political junkies like myself. In addition to Barack and Rudy, we had John Edwards (twice), Bill Richardson and Chris Hughes on campus. (Chris Hughes is one of the founders of our beloved Facebook and fellow Barack-lover)

This is me with Senator Tom Harkin on the steps of the capitol building. The spring of my sophomore year I did an internship in his office in Washington D.C. Coe's program there is amazing. I lived 2 blocks from the capitol and went to work in the Senate four days a week -- not too shaby.

Quite the Week.

I have had quite a few experiences since coming to Coe three years ago, but last week was probably one that I will remember for quite some time. This post is just basically going to tell you what happened, but I plan on taking some to dissect the different things I’ve taken from last week. I’ll let you know as I start figuring them out myself.

Monday
If you follow Katie Roger’s blog, you know that the student body President elections were last week. If you follow my blog, you know that I was running to fill that position. My running mate and I started campaigning around Thanksgiving, working to put together a platform, relentlessly publicize ourselves and take place in the debate a week before the elections. Monday was the day where we would find out if everything we worked so hard for was going to pay off. We woke up early to put up a few signs and started waiting. When the results came in we learned that in a three way race we got the most votes with 46 percent. However, the constitution requires a majority (50 percent) to be elected. We started making more signs and tried to get some sleep for another big day.

Tuesday
Once again we woke up early to do some publicity. I was so exhausted and stressed I accidentally slept through my first class. Oops, my first of the semester! Again it was back to the waiting game, which is harder than campaigning. At the end of the day, we learned that we lost the election in the runoff. I was very disappointed, but feel like I did gain something; I’ll let you know when I have that sorted out.

While my fellow students were casting their ballots in the runoff election, I was interviewing for a job as an Assistant Resident Director. This is the position that oversees all the RAs in a residence hall. This was an equally stressful time for me, as I got dressed up and tried to prove myself worthy for a job next year. Back to another night of trying to get some sleep.

Wednesday
The Student Senate meets on Wednesday evenings. While it was hard for me to go to the meeting and not be the president, a pleasant surprise was in store. The President appoints an executive board when they are elected, and I was chosen as the treasurer. I’m excited at this opportunity, because though I’m not the president, I can still do some good for the college in this position.

Friday
After the stress of college politics and job interviews, I was very ready to play some baseball. Our season began Friday, and we had practice that night. It was intense. We threw, fielded, hit and did a lot of conditioning, but I loved it! Because of gym time we started late and didn’t get done until about 11:45 P.M. I didn’t have any trouble sleeping!

Saturday
Baseball started this morning at 9:00 A.M. and was one of the hardest conditioning days we’re going to have all season. It was great to see the team come together and get through something tough! I’m really excited for the season to start shaping up! After resting all afternoon I decided I needed to relax and catch up with a friend, so I finished the week eating a sushi dinner with her at Kaji, my favorite restaurant in town.

(The picture of me at the debate was taken by Megan Valerius)

A philopsophy of Coe

While I’m considering what this entry might ultimately say, I can’t stop thinking about my philosophy class. The last hour I’ve been thinking and learning about the nature of skepticism. This is only my first philosophy course and I am by no means an expert, but I like the idea of skeptics. Skeptics are people who don’t take something at face value, and feel like they need to see for themselves to believe. They are critical thinkers and once they do find something to be true, they have great satisfaction in having a sense of knowing the truth and understanding that they found that truth themselves.
So what does all this rambling have to do with you, me or Coe? Well, I feel like a lot of Coe students fit into some part of this categorization. We strive for knowledge and understanding, but we don’t accept something just because we read it in a book, or a friend told us. Rather, we strive to find knowledge on our own, unlocking our minds to open up and explore new things, and use those things not only to understand the world around us, but many times better understand ourselves.
I hope you have a little bit of a skeptic in you as well. If you do you’ll fit right into our community of academic eagerness. Likewise, you might think I’m full of it and just trying to talk you into coming to Coe, which might even be wise of you. If you aren’t sure how you feel, or who you believe, then come find out for yourself. I won’t pretend to be able to tell you how important our community is, or how stimulating our classes are, because that is something you experience first-hand everyday at Coe.

Back Home

I came back home this week and couldn’t be happier. When I say home, of course, I mean Coe. Sometimes my parents get upset with me when I leave their house and say I’m going home to Coe, because this is what I call home now. Every semester I come back I feel more and more comfortable. The relationships I have with my classmates, friends, professors and staff here grow and develop with every day I’m here. The brochures you get no doubt talk about our community, and I’m sure your admissions consoler is going to give you the same story about how close we are, and what kind of community we have. If you are like I was, you are probably skeptical. That skepticism is justified, because it sounds like a good talking point to get you to come to school here. But I hope you believe me when I tell you that it is not just a talking point or a convenient phrase to entice you to come to school here. Because there are students like me who live in that community every day, and truly make Coe their new home.