Goodbye

Well I graduated yesterday. Its hard to believe that four years have really gone by and the place I have called home for so long I now call my alma mater. All nostalgia aside, graduation day was amazing and bittersweet at the same time. It was, however, great for some final pictures.
This is me ringing the victory bell. This is my favorite tradition at Coe. Every year the entire entering class rings the bell on their first day, then the graduating class rings it right before commencement. I thing I rang it lounder that anyone in the college's history.
Anya and I after the ceremony.
This is me getting my award and learning the secret handshake of Phi Beta Kappa.

So anyway, I'm done with college... kind of. I am leaving Thursday for Vietnam to take a May Term class through Coe. I just can't quite let go. Then I'm going to come home and try to figure out my life. I have applied to the Peace Corps and am hoping that works out and is in my near future, but we'll see.

If you want to follow me on my Vietname adventure, I'm going to try to blog as much as possible on http://wanderingkohawk.blogspot.com. I'd love to have you!

My last class as a Kohawk

Yesterday was my last class at Coe College. It was a Philosophy class, not even in my major, and ironically just down the hall from where I took my first ever class at Coe. My friends and I have been reflecting a lot about our four years at Coe and how they have flown by. I'll save you from the sappy nostalgia and just say this: If you are just starting your college career at Coe I am insanely jealous of the next four years of your life.
Anyway, with the end of classes and preparation for finals comes a crazy schedule, but one that is very fun.
On Monday I traveled to Cornell to meet fellow Phi Beta Kappa initiates (an honor society) for dinner. Tuesday night I went out to dinner with my RA staff and just enjoyed hanging out with each other over some good food. Wednesday night the admissions office is taking the senior workers out to Vito's, a great restaurant in Cedar Rapids. Thursday is dinner and induction into Phi Kappa Phi (another honor society) at the Cedar Rapids Country Club, a really classy place. I also have to find time to get to Iowa City sometime this week to get my vaccinations for my May Term class which will be traveling to Vietnam for three weeks!

And amidst all these dinners and obligations I'm supposed to take three finals and prepare myself for graduation! Well first I'm going to head over to the Racquet Center to play some tennis, and then I'll really get serious about studying (I hope!)

A Capstone Week

I feel like last week was a great week to kind of reflect on what kind of a person I have become the last four years at Coe College. I'm writing this with reservation, understanding the risk of sounding conceited, but I want to show what it is I have learned from Coe, not what I am now, more than anything.

Tuesday: After two full days of studying, I took an economics exam and did very well. I'm really getting into this class and enjoy learning about the subject matter. Its becoming a joy to go to class.

Wednesday: Student Research Symposium Day. This is a day where students who have done some kind of research get the day to present their work to their peers. In the morning I visited a poster session where I visited with many of my fellow students and learned about their research. In previous years I have taken this day as an opportunity to sleep in, but this year I finally embraced the idea, and learned so much! I was most amazed by the physical science presentation, something that I rarely take time on my own to study.
That afternoon, after looking at posters and listening to some other talks it was time to present my own work on the Irish Republican Army (yes the same presentation I gave at the conference). This was a lot more daunting, however, as it was a room full of 30 students and faculty who I personally knew. The presentation went well, but never something I would have been able to do 4 years ago.

Thursday:I had a paper due in my Intro to Philosophy class due on Friday so I went in to discuss it with my professor on Thursday. (Sidebar: I'm taking Philosophy basically because I can. I'm embracing the "liberal arts" eduction style and trying to take a variety of courses. Philosophy is always something I've wondered about, so this semester I thought I'd take a course to learn more.) I wrote my paper on the morals of socialism vs. capitalism. Its something that fascinates me because it encompasses politics and economics, and I loved looking at the issue through a new lens of moral philosophy. My professor and I sat in his office for 45 minutes talking about my paper, but about the bigger issues behind the subject. I felt like we were equals, peers, each learning from each other and both fascinated by our studies.

Friday: Common Hour. Because Coe was generous enough to fund me to attend the Washington Center Seminar for the inauguration, they asked that I give a presentation about my experience. So on Friday I was back in the same room that gave my symposium talk and was again at the podium with my power point in front of (mostly) faculty members. I mostly showed pictures and talked about my experience, but the questions sparked some interesting thought-provoking answers. Again, standing in front of a room of professors and confidently speaking about something is a skill that I did not possess four years ago.

Maybe I'm getting a little old and nostalgic for this place and everything I have gained from it. My dad recently asked me if I had gotten everything I hoped for at Coe in my four years. As all the thoughts and experiences rushed through my mind, the only answer I could begin to put into words was: "Yes, and so much more."

A good weekend

I had a pretty good weekend, and as I get back to the grind of studying for tests and writing papers, I thought I'd take a second to reflect on the sweet time that I had this weekend.

I had two tests on Thursday so that night I took a nice long nap and went out with my friends to celebrate the end of the week (yes, my weeks end on Thursday!
Friday morning I woke up early to go to Iowa City to meet my Dad and go to an event with him, and was back in Iowa city by the early afternoon to hang out with my brother, who is a student at the University of Iowa. We hung out on Iowa City's pedestrian mall and ate dinner at an amazing Ethiopian restaurant. I love Coe and Cedar Rapids, but every once in a while it is fun to get away to a true "college town." That night a friend of a friend was performing in downtown Iowa City so my brother and I met up with our uncle, cousins and a bunch of my friends from Coe to hang out and listen to a sweet piano player.

Saturday morning I woke up and drove back to Coe to work in the Coe garden. Our environmental club and dining services work together to maintain a garden that provides food for students. I love the idea of growing our own food and don't mind garden work either, so it was a great time.

That night I got invited to the AOII formal by my friend Kristen. I had never been to a Greek formal before, so this was a new experience. We had a great dinner, there were some awards, prom pictures (below) and lots of dancing!



Sunday came and involved me catching up on a lot of sleep and studying and going to mass with Kali for Palm Sunday. I then went to bed feeling content with a full weekend.

Midwest Political Sciene Undergraduate Research Conference

This past weekend I attended the Midwest Political Science Undergraduate Research Conference at Buena Vista University. Two of my professors and three fellow political science students attended to present our own research and learn from our peers from across the Midwest.

This is me standing at the podium looking extra nerdy after presenting my paper titled "The Irish Republican Army: A Case Study in Terrorism." My paper argues that the IRA was an effective use of terrorism to achieve political goals.

Here are the four of us with Dr. Nesmith (Dr. Lanegran is taking the picture). It was fun to hang out with my fellow students discussing politics all weekend and especially getting to know my professors a little better after speding a long time with them in the car and hanging out between sessions at the conference.

Spring Break continued

This is me at the Santa Monica Pier, rocking my white feet with the beach and mountains behind me... I love California!

Caitlin and Brian on the Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier. Yes a Ferris Wheel on a Pier, it was awesome.

This is me checking out the Hoover Dam. Quite an impressive feat of engineering.

Spring Break!

So my Spring Break was awesome! Myself and two friends hopped in a car and started driving West. We drove to Las Vegas, went to the Hoover Dam then headed even further West to California. A friend of mine that graduated Coe last year is now a graduate student at the University of California Irvine, so we stopped and saw him and visited Laguna, Newport, L.A., Hollywood, Santa Monica and Venice Beach. Then we drove up to San Francisco and made it back home... what a week!
On the left is Brian, my traveling buddy, the middle is Ryan, my friend at UCI and myself on the left. This is us standing on Laguna Beach, yes that's where the T.V. show is filmed.

This is me in Las Vegas. We took a break from visiting all the casinos, shows and buffets to stop in the M&M store where we watched a 3D movie and I bought a pair of green shutter shades!
This is Caitlin enjoying the Pacific with the sun setting on Laguna Beach.
Our first quarter in a slot machine in Las Vegas! We didn't gamble too much, just walked around and saw all the casinos. I did win about $40 playing blackjack though!
The view we enjoyed for over 4000 miles. The trusty Garmin got us everywhere we needed to be. This view is in Arizona. The drive was almost as fun as the destination, as we got to see some beautiful countryside through the rockies, the desert and the Pacific coast.

California, here we come!

Spring break officially started today after our last classes, and it is liberating! I had a test in every one of my classes this week, and I'm so ready for a break!
A friend and I casually discussed the idea of going to California for break earlier in the week and by this evening it has evolved into a full-out trip... We've recruited two other people to go with us and we're leaving at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow! We're driving straight to Las Vegas, going to visit one of our friends in Irvine (L.A.) and then heading up to San Francisco!
I'm packing right now, so I've got to go, but I'll be sure to post some pics when I get back!

Contemporary Issues

Every year Coe hosts its annual Contemporary Issues Forum. This year the speaker was Jared Diamond, an evolutionary biologist, professor of physiology and geology and Pullitzer-prize wining author of the books Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. His talk chronicled the history of failed societies and he tried making a parallel to past societies who have outspent their resources and our world society doing the same today.
After his lecture there was a question/answer time where he requested that only people under the age of 30 ask questions because it was going to be us who has to deal with this problem. I even managed to get a question in about global governance (my mind never stops thinking of things in terms of political science!)
After the lecture and question/answer there was a reception for students and faculty to meet Prof. Diamond. Not too many students took advantage of this opportunity so myself about about 15 other students had much access to him and hung out and discussed the environment, politics, ecology and biology with a world-class scholar over some light snacks. Not a bad night.

More Inaguration...

So as promised, here are just a few more pictures of my trip to Washington for the inauguration. I have a couple hundred pictures, but these are just some of the highlights.On the day of the inauguration I stayed at a friend's house on Capitol Hill, within walking distance of the Capitol where the inauguration takes place. I woke up at 5:00 a.m., dressed in many layers, and started the 2 mile walk to where I would watch the inauguration. The picture above is when I reached my destination to wait in line for my designated area. It was about 6:00 and already thousands of people were around waiting for the event that started at 2:00.
Once I finally got onto the mall around 8:00, there were already thousands of people there. I got a pretty good spot because I had a ticket, which got me closer, but still not that close. If you are familiar with the Capitol, I managed to stand right behind the steps by the small reflection pool in front of the Capitol. I read the next day that they estimated that there were about 1.8 million people standing on the mall that day.
This was my view... I couldn't really see what was going on, but luckily out of the picture on the left is a jumbotron and I was standing right next the giant PA speakers that were set up all over so I had a good idea of what was going on.
This is me after the ceremony was complete. Some people ventured out onto the frozen reflection pool to get a better look, but I wasn't quite so foolish.
After the ceremony was over, the Iowa delegation of Congressmen held a reception for all us Iowans in town. This is with my representative from Iowa's second district, Rep. Dave Loebsack. Rep. Loebsack is the one who got me the ticket to the inauguration, so I thought I should get a picture with him.

After the reception I fought my way onto the Metro (subway) and headed back to my hotel. I got back in my room around 5:00 (exactly 12 hours after I had woken up). I was exhausted, but we had a new president, of course I went out to celebrate!

Do you believe in miracles?

This weekend I did my "job" of commentating a basketball mens and womens double header. I love going to every home game and feeling like I'm really part of the action. Both teams have struggled some this year, so when they both won Saturday I was really excited. The women won big and the men won on a last second shot. My boss thought the clip was cool, or he just wanted to laugh at me, but regardless, he posted it on youtube. I'm the one yelling when Tatman hits the shot and also the one calling him a hero.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOQm0MD0Rx8

Inauguration

Coe sent me to the inauguration a couple weeks ago so I thought I'd take this post to share some pictures!

While in DC I was participating in a seminar that was focused on the inauguration. We had lectures in the morning and random site visits in the afternoon. I had some interesting site visits like the World Resource Institute, League of Women Voters and Coasta Rica Embassy. On the first day, however, we just took a bus tour of the city. This is me with my main man, the other Lincoln in the picture.


This is one of my favorite views from Washington, looking down the mall from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (that is the reflection pool and Washington monument behind me). Also, notice the construction going on behind me. Preparations were being made for the inaugural concert which was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial the Sunday before the inauguration.
As part of some of the lectures we had in the morning, C-SPAN filmed a couple segments in the auditorium we were. This is Brian Lamb, the founder of C-SPAN. The day before this picture was taken I managed to get on live t.v. when I asked the panel a question. Strangely enough my uncle called right after and told me he saw me!
This is the view I had for the inaugural concert on Sunday. We got there around 12:30 for the 2:30 concert and it was already packed. I watched the whole thing from the jumbo-tron in the upper-left hand corner of the picture. A couple big names from the performance included: Tom Hanks, Steve Carrell, Tiger Woods, Jack Black, Bruce Springsteen, Usher, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Garth Brooks, U2, Beyonce and Pete Seeger (to name only a few).
The whole thing was amazing. I've told a couple people that singing the national anthem at the end of the concert with a couple hundred thousand fellow Americans was like nothing I've ever felt before.One of our site visits was the Capitol building. This is a picture from inside looking up into the done in the rotunda of the Capitol.

And yes, I did actually go to the inauguration. I'll post pictures from that next week, but I've got to get to the wrestling meet. The Kohawk wrestlers are ranked #4 in the nation and are taking on the #3 and #19 teams, so it should be some great wrestling!

Break Update

A quick update:
Break has been awesome. I went home and caught up with family and friends and spent a weekend in Chicago with my brother visiting museums and hanging out with some cousins. Recently I came back to Cedar Rapids to focus on finding a job after a graduate (ahh... real world!). I am also tying up some lose ends with my job as treasurer before I hand the responsibilities off to the next person.
The most exciting thing I came back to Cedar Rapids for, however, was to catch my flight to Washington D.C. Friday! Coe has given me an amazing opportunity to participate in a 10-day seminar studying the recent election and upcoming presidency. I have also managed to secure tickets to the inauguration through my Congressmen, so watch for me on T.V.!
And don't worry, there will be plenty of pictures and stories on this page in the future!
Classes start on Jan 14. I'm going to miss a couple, but I'll be back soon enough. Hope everyone had a great holiday season!