Welcome to the Mile High City!

.................8/16
Made it to Denver!! I flew in yesterday. I stopped in Park Ridge to see my grandparents quickly, then through Ohare to Kansas City and got picked up by Patrick at Denver International Airport. Couldn't see ANYTHING and was a little worried that these mountains I kept hearing about were nowhere near (turns out I was wrong and they are visible from pretty much anywhere...who knew?). We drove past the Rockies and Broncos stadiums (cool because there was a preseason game going on) and to his place which is right in downtown Denver. We dropped off my stuff and went to a cute little piano bar for food, drinks, and of course to watch Michael Phelps win his 8th gold.

................8/17

Today I woke up and bummed around his place for the morning, then we got ready and went to breakfast/watched some of the cubs game and went for a short driving tour of parts of downtown. He drove me out to Red Rocks (?) which is up in the mountains and is a BEAUTIFUL park and amphitheatre. Jack Johnson played a concert there tonight so we got to see some of the tshirt and food vendors coming in and out and watched them put up the stage for a while. Got back in the car and drove back near where he lives and walked the 16th avenue mall (?...some of these names might be wrong, I'm exhausted and its hard to remember). I LOVED it because it reminded me of the pedestrian mall in Iowa City. Plus there was great people watching, which I always enjoy.

I felt like I was going into freshman year of college when he took me to Regis University, a Jesuit University where I'll be staying the rest of the time. We got a little lost but finally figured it out and I made it to my dorm room. My roommate Katie is really sweet, she's from Kansas City and worked for a Senator this summer so she's already got a couple good connections she's excited about. A girl from next door, Ashley, is really great too. She's from Virginia- up in the Appalachians- and goes to some small college I've never heard of. She's this skinny blond with a really thick southern accent, and I hung with her for dinner and the evening session. We met three guys who go to Iowa too, one recognized me from a class we had together a few semesters ago.

Tonight we had terribly boring intro sessions and listened to all the rules, etc. Tomorrow I'll put some stats up about the program and how many people are here, where they are from, things like that. But tonight I'm just exhausted and ready to pass out so that's not going to happen :)

I do know I have a faculty advisor who is the chair of the Political Science department at Iowa (and he's one of my professors this semester) so I'll be trying to make a good impression on him. I haven't looked very closely at the schedule we have for this trip, but I do know that we have Howard Dean and Michael Dukakis speaking to us later in the week.

Time for some beauty rest...I've got to be ready and at the "regis rangers dome" (sounds cool but is a small, lame building that is shaped like a clove of garlic) by 8am. Thanks for reading!!