Flying away

A whirlwind of flights has resulted in a tired girl crashing into the couch with no intention of ever getting up.

1 number of family members that came to Indiana this weekend
4 number of family members I saw this week
5 number of inches of hair I cut off this weekend
4 number of flights I took this week
3 number of flights I didn't get on
6 number of hours stuck in PHX airport
2 number of drunk guys telling me about their sex life in the airport
15 number of hours it took me to get from CA home to IN home
?? number of hours I am going to sleep tomorrow. yes it is double digits.

Interviews, Contracts and more Interviews

Oh so many meetings, and that's a lot of work for a girl without a job :/

I guess I shouldn't be complaining. We're hoping for a total of 70 strong this semester, which is a 1000% increase. Literally. So now my mom wants to put that on my resume for VP recruitment, talk about looking ridiculous. But I love her.

Anyways. I need everyone out there to make a wish that we will sign the RoKS contract today. The minutes are ticking by and we need to get this done.

Until then I'm chugging Starbucks and doing more interviews.


Zzzzz

Madison, again

Another successful weekend in Madison

On arrival. First stop, the Echo Tap. True to form, I walk in to Adam with his ex-landlord Buck wrapped around him. Apparently Buck had completely screwed them out of their security deposits and now… many vodka lemonades later, the boys have all the ammo they need to get the ball back in their court. This includes him telling us the intimate details of his sex life, not excluding his vasectomy, all while humping the air. He continues to buys us all drinks and yell, “It’s on the security deposit,” eee that might hit a sore spot. I think it’s time to leave.

So far the Echo Tap has maintained its rep thoroughly on every visit.

From here, the Madison water makes my memory a bit foggy but I think we went to Vintage and then Bullfeathers. Apparently a very weird mixture.

The next day Em wakes up at the ridiculous hour of 9:30 and we begin our morning with a big cup of coffee and the farmer’s market. There is a full on Parade going on and a million people on the street. MP took us to some sweet place and eventually lands us in Ragstock. We attempted to look for Bowie costumes for Halloween but instead just buy a bunch of random shit, all of which I can’t afford.

As the red shirts filled the streets, he heard much talk of the night game to come. The tickets were selling at around 80 bucks, which I didn’t even consider until I remembered a forgotten soldier from my last trip. After getting guff from everyone about not canceling my forgotten credit card they allowed me to check just in case.

“Hello, I left my credit card here three weeks ago, do you still have it”
“You take long time” as they hand me my treasure.
Boomshakalakalaka – Iowa game here we come

But before the game we need to grab a couple bloody marys and some Rondo, delicious. We sit outside on the deck facing the beautiful sun and smoke the hobo. But with my lack of sleep, system of alcohol and sweet new hat, I became a little delusional and we so coined the nickname crazy aunt. The RonDo restored my energy before the game but the hat stayed in place.

Trying to get tickets: After asking about a million people we finally find a fragile girl in a fight with her boyfriend. Bingo!
GF: “If he doesn’t show up in 30 seconds I will sell you my ticket” - he shows up
BF : “You know what? go ahead sell your ticket!” - money exchange, $60 instead of $80
BF: “Actually, take mine too. I’m not going either” – throws his ticket at us, $0 instead of $80
BF: “You are being absolutely ridiculous right now” – walks away
Us: “Um… do you need a hug?” - as her eyes get watery

Don’t know how I feel about this situation but we got two tickets for $60 and I’m pretty happy about that. So yes, I go to my first football game ever. And yes my team wasn’t even playing. Amazing time though. S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night!

We miss you mike.

Yeeha!

The rodeo was a grand success. We started out a little sad because the poor little calves were getting chased down and roped up. Soon we warmed up to it and enjoyed the show. We ended up meeting some of the bullrider and hearing stories from real life cowboys. Classic.

The when they tried to camp

So we begin our day bright and early and head towards Yellowstone. We arrive in Jackson Hole, after a large detour, around 8pm. We know we only have an hour or so before the sun goes down, so we rush to find a campsite to pitch our tent. We get advice from our trusty Ranger and head to Shadow Mt. where we can find free camping. We drive down a little path and were even able to drive right through a herd of Bison (this was before we got the pamphlet stating that Bison “gore” humans). We get to the campsites which were in the middle of a beautiful valley, with mountains surrounding us and it begins to rain. The rain doesn’t bother us at first and we figure that is will fade soon. With no one around and such a beautiful view we decide to bust out the bottle of wine and wait out the rain. We wait and wait until we realize it’s a lost cause. So instead we pull our car around to face the starts and with an empty bottle of wine next to us we recline our seats and pull the sleeping bag over us. Life doesn’t get much better than this.

The next morning we wake up around 8 and start our drive through Yellowstone. We have now encountered Moose and Elk along with some of the more beautiful sites that I have ever seen.

Up Next: The Rodeo!

ready, set, go

On the road again. I’m with my girl Em and we are off on a trip across the country, well to Indiana anyways. Our mixed tapes are ready and the journey has began. We have a tent, a sleeping bag and 20 maps. Let’s see where the wind takes me.

First stop is Sun Valley, ID. There is a beautiful cliff that we climbed last night, and at the top you could see the whole town. Beautiful. We are about to go on a hike and hopefully find some sweet swimming holes.

WWMWD?

Good question. And here is the answer.

This past conference was definitely far superior to other conferences, on many different levels. In addition to the constant laughing and quotes (or else.), a revolution was born. A revolution that continued to evolve over a few Razzdangos and towel trip to Wall-mart. A revolution that left us all “pregnant with emotion”.

And this is how the story goes…

Walking into the session “Going Abroad with AIESEC”, a few of us had a tear in our eye knowing that this was once something more. That this was once the Traineeship PowerHour. Now as we looked around there was no Adam Liechtenheld and there was no Mike Williams. All that stood in front of us was Andrew in front of the projector asking us reflection questions. Suddenly the screen goes blank and a familiar voice comes on. It is an audio of Williams reading a Robert Frost poem. I think all of our hearts sank. The poem continues to the end… “Two roads diverged in the wood and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference… difference… difference.”

A video then pops up on the screen and shows the camera entering the famous Echo Tap. There sit Adam and Mike talking about “babies” and eventually going abroad. With a little helpful advice from sketchy older gentleman next to them and friendly bartender across from them, they are ready to venture out to Northbrook, Il to go to an AIESEC conference. Before leaving the bar, the bartender hands them the classic galabayas and they head out the door. The next shot was probably the happiest I’ve felt in a long time. In slow motion they exit the Tap, music playing while they finish up their wardrobe with bandanas and sunglasses. After taping their journey of a lifetime they finally arrive at the Radisson hotel in which music starts blasting and they run through the doors. They continue to do the performance of a life time and most definitely will go down in history.

You guys inspire so many of us and I just want to say, whole heartedly, thank you for all the work you put into motivating others to have those same experiences.

Sometimes I ask myself....

Will I ever grow up?



I love you D.