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.