College Life & Herman Cain

Life as a college senior keeps me busy. I registered for my last semester of college two weeks back, its hard to believe I'm almost done. In a sense I am not ready to graduate because I don't want to face the real world, but yet I am totally ready to graduate because I am sick of doing homework. I'd rather work 8-5 than to go to some of my classes.

So this past Thursday presidential hopeful came to the Kent GOP. I was surprised to have 350 plus people come to a rally to hear him speak. Cain did have some interesting things to say. He said- and I quote, "Last night at the debate I was asked about Italy. ITALY? I'm sorry they are having problems, but we have having problems here at home. We are not the nation to fix everyone's problems. We need to take care of ourself first." His statement was very interesting seeing that the US tends to take a big brother point of view- stepping in and taking care of everyone's problems. I am very interested in seeing how the rest of Cain's campaign turns out.

In other exciting news, Condoleezza Rice comes to town on Wednesday to attend a Kent GOP function. I am pretty pumped 2 big political names I get to meet in less than a week, I am becoming quite the big deal. In other news that boosts my ego, a recent college ranking report ranks Calvin College as the 90th best school in the nation out of 2000 schools. http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank/score_rank/5#90 . I am pretty pumped that I go to a top 100 school. Click on the link to see rankings of other schools. Anywho, homework calls. So enjoy the only 3 photos I have taken on my camera since september.

My Best Friend Kelly got engaged last month. Congrats Girl

My housemates and I housesat for Bartlett for a weekend. It was nice having a dog around, but not his shedding. I swear its been a month and I still find dog hair everywhere.

Presidential hopeful Herman Cain came to Grand Rapids. He held a rally at the Kent GOP- where I intern so I got to meet him. It was pretty sweet. I could have met the future president of the United States.

*Here is a video Clip of Cain at my Office. In the beginning of the video, behind the Wood TV 8 guy you can see a person vacuuming inside the building.....thats me:) I made TV haha

Cain in Kzoo: 'I've been through hell': woodtv.com

Sending my love from the Mitten- cause the state of Michigan looks like one :) God Bless

Livin' and Learnin' and Lovin' it

There is a saying that goes you live and you learn. Today I learned a lot. I went to a job fair today, and discovered that after nearly 3 and a half years of college and thousands of dollars paid, that i indeed chose the right major. I highly enjoy finance and accounting and have recently looked more into that. However, after the job fair I discovered that the entry level jobs in that field are sales. Due to my love of my friends and family I will not put you all through years of me selling you all insurance or Roth IRA Funds or whatnot. Your Welcome.

In spite of eliminating lots of jobs I do believe I have come closer to find what I want to do. Don't be surprised if I end up in grad school though. You all know how much I love school and homework-complete sarcasm.

However, I do have some exciting news. This coming Nov. I am working an event for the Kent GOP and Condoleezza Rice is our main speaker. So I have the privilege of meeting the former secretary of state. Im super pumped.

Lastly but surely not least important is the fact that in January, my blog will be expanding. How you might ask? I will be doing a monthlong series entitled Life beyond the United States. You guessed it I am leaving the country. For the month of January I will be talking a class entitled, " Business, Engineering, and Religion in the Context of European Culture." I will be flying into Amsterdam-seeing Anne Frank's house, and then heading to Aalsmeer, Delft, Rotterdam, Goes and the Hague, which is home to the dutch government- all in the Netherlands. Then heading to Brugge Belgium, and on the Versailles, and Paris- seeing the Eiffel Tower and heading to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and the Notre Dame Cathedral. From Paris we are heading to Germany- seeing Reims, Luxembourg, Trier, Boppard, the Rhine, Bacharach, Ingelheim, Hockenheim, Speyer, Heidelberg, Erlenbach, Ulm-birthplace of Albert Einstien, Landsberg, Neuschwanstien, Munich, Landseberg, Nurnberg and Dachau- which is a WWII concentration camp. From there we will head to the Czech Republic and visit Prague. Then we will head back to Germany and see Dresden- site of Allies air raids in WWII, Berlin- even seeing checkpoint Charlie- the stop between East and West Berlin, see some more stops in Germany- Wittenburg- Martin Luther's house,Hamburg, Bremen, and then heading back to Amsterdam before flying back to the US.

Soon I'll be here :)

As you can tell exciting things are happening in my life. I wish you all well and God Bless

Senior Year Beginnings

The School year has been in full zoom for a couple of weeks now. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday Mornings I intern at the Kent County GOP. Which is like the where I interned in DC, but on a smaller scale. We focus more on local Grand Rapids Issue and Michigan Issue than National ones. So far it has been a great experience. After I intern I drive straight home grab my books and hop on my bike for the short half-mile bike ride. After class changes day by day some days i head straight home, others I have committee meetings for the Off-Campus Programs committee I am on.The committee deals with programs like the one I was on in DC and Abroad ones as well. Other days I stay to work on homework or bike home quickly and head to work. A couple of weeks ago I took a job as a waitress for a catering company, I really like it and i work anywhere from 1-3 nights a week. I love the events i get to attend by working at them, but I am still there. Maybe one day if I am lucky I will be successful enough to receive my own invite. On my free nights homework usually keeps me fairly busy, but I like it that way.

Its wierd to think that this is my last year at Calvin, I have spent the last three years here and it has become my home. But in eight short months I will be done and opening up a new chapter of my life. One in which I have to pay my own bills, and make decisions that affect my whole life- such as where to work. As many of you know, I am not to afraid to take a chance and try something new- for example attend Calvin College instead of somewhere closer than 900 miles from South Dakota. So i ask for your prayers and guidance of where to take my next step in life. I have been very blessed with a supportive family, my mother will come visit whereever I live. We can find great shopping centers everywhere :) No matter where I go, I will always be grateful for that first big risk I took to attend Calvin and step out on my own two feet.

Kelly, Me and Karyn went apple picking :) Gotta Rock plaid for the homeland :)

 The Big House really is big. On days that there are games Michigan's stadium becomes the 5th most populated area in Michigan.

Ps. I heard this really great quote the other day, I thought i would share it.

"Take pride in how far you have come and have faith in how far you can go. Our own background and circumstances may influence who we are, but we are responsible for who we become."

Sending my Love from Michigan. God Bless

Summer Summer Summer

It's hard for me to believe how fast summer has flown by. This summer remains to be the first one I haven't spent in South Dakota during my 21 years. All my fellow South Dakotans, don't worry I will be home for a short visit during my cousin Autumn's wedding. This summer has been packed with work, sun, friends and more work. I really do enjoy my summer job, I love all the interaction with academics, pastors and international guests we have had for seminars. I have even continued my learning this summer, the international participants have helped me realized how self- consumed americans are. Can you name the current Prime Minister of Canada? I doubt you knew the answer was Stephen Harper. Some of the international participants not only knew the leader of the US, but the prime minister of Britain, the president of the People's Republic of China, the president of Russia and even the president of Ukraine. I personally was disappointed that I knew nothing of the current leaders of important american allies.

Besides my newfound awareness of this I have had a wonderful summer. Michigan went through a string of heatwave days where it broke a 60 year-old record for heat. It felt like South Dakota here. :)

Jet Ski's= Tons of fun

Just a lazy saturday on the lake :)

Cruising the lake....with speed

Here is a pic of mine and Emily's summer project. We turned a door into a photo frame to raise money for a children's art center.

Catherine and I at the Harry Potter 7.2 Midnight Premiere.

I'm so sad that the series is really over now that the books and movies are both finished.

Hope ya'll have having a funtastic :) summer. I'll be sure to post some more summer photos soon. Enjoy your last weeks of summer- I know I will :)

Reminiscing DC

Its hard for me to believe that I left DC over a month ago. It's weird how much I miss living there. I miss the politics in everyday life, the hustle and bustle of the city, the need to be kept up on everything just for small talk in the elevator, the tons of walking we did, the millions of free things to do, and the metro. Today I saw a bus and had a huge urge to ride it. Me, the girl who loves to drive my car, wanted to ride a dirty bus. Wow. Grand Rapids is great and all, but it's not DC, and then again its not South Dakota either. All places have things I love, whether it be the people, the weather, the atmosphere or whatnot. Summer is well undertow here at Calvin with Synod having started late last week. It's weird to see older people walking around and not students. The further we get into summer, the busier my office comes, people for our Seminars @ Calvin program will start showing up soon, and I'm excited. I feel like I am learning a lot about what it takes to put on a successful event- which is great. Tonight I was bored and missing DC, so I just trekked around Calvin's campus, and reminisced about my DC days. Returning to Grand Rapids and living here is a different experience, I feel as if living so far out of my comfort zone has really made me grow up. Which is not a bad thing considering I only have one year left of College, which is a scary thought in itself. Not to mention the factor that I will be out on my own, but Im not as worried about that anymore, Ill be okay. Washington DC taught me that, however it wasn't DC that enabled me to succeed. It was my friends, my family and especially my mother, who gave me the strength and taught me to stand on my own two feet and survive, even when the going gets tough.

Catherine and I at Festival- its an Arts thing in downtown GR

A few cool pictures. The stop sign i walk past everyday

The Grand River flooded the walking path

Me, just chilling by an awesome colored wall. Im a little biased due to my love of teal.

Some photos from the last DC days. The Newseum. It's a museum dedicated fully to news. Here is news papers all from september 12 2001.

Here is steel from the World Trade Centers

And lastly pictures from the night that Osama Bin Ladin was killed, the crowd in front of the White house was going crazy.

Back to Grand Rapids

Hello All,

I made it safely home from Washington DC and back to South Dakota for a short two week visit. I headed back to Grand Rapids MI to see my friends, attend Jake's graduation and start my new job. I am the Student Office assistant for Calvin's Summer Seminars program. Which basically means I get to do all the grunt work and hopefully pick up some knowledge with event planning. You never know, someday in the future I may need to plan a political fundraiser- and if not it looks good on the resume. I am living on Calvin's campus for the summer, for the reason that if the conference attendees need anything I am the go-to girl. It is very weird to have an apartment to myself, I now have become way cleaner-due to that fact that I like to clean when I am bored. And living solo, that happens alot. That is a shocker to my mom, I know haha. The staff seems cool and it looks that my summer will be fun. This past weekend, I went to a friends cottage, where it was cold on Saturday and Sunday, however Monday was fabulous. I am now burnt/tan but the tubbing, kayaking and jet-skiing was so worth it.

Here is a picture with the graduate. Congrats Jake

The last days

Its weird to me that tomorrow I will be hopping on a plane and heading home to South Dakota. Spending the semester here in DC was such a great experience, I am so blessed to have done it. I have learned that I can do anything, and that times will get tough in life, but that God is always there. We need to stand up for Him and not be afraid. Three years ago I was so nervous to go to Calvin College due to the distance from all my friends, but I felt God was sending me there, I went and I have never regretted it. When the time came to decide about DC, i was nervous. I felt drawn to go, but things were holding me back. Nonetheless I followed my heart and I went. This is where God wanted me to be, I know that. I'm sad my time here is done, but there is still a fair chance that I will return someday. Eleanor Roosevelt said, " We gain strength, courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot." This statement is so true, fear wins if we just stand aside and let it. Control your own life. -That is what I learned here in DC.

Here are photos from my last couple of weeks in DC. My class took a boat ride down the Potomac and visited Mount Vernon-which is the home of our nations first president George Washington. Here is his house.

Here is Washington's grave

We went to see the Nationals play the Phillies. Here is Sam and I supporting our baseball teams at the Nationals' game.

My lovely friend Breanna came and visited. Here are her model shots.

 We went and saw all the DC hotspots.

 This is a window in a brick wall which surrounds a fountain on the capital grounds.

 The President lives here

 Hello Elephants

I want to thank you all for the support and the prayers during my time in Washington DC. God bless you all.

Big Lights will Inspire you

Now I can cross visiting New York City off my list. Check :) My roommate Sam, lives in New Jersey about 30 minutes from the city so we stayed at her house for our "Spring Break"- which was really just a Saturday, Sunday and Monday. For a girl from a metropolitan area of 228,261 to visit a city of 8,175,133 was crazy, there is quite a large difference in size and population. Lucky for me I am used to walking a lot in DC, because we walked from one side of Manhattan to the other, we walked the Brooklyn Bridge, took the ferry to Staten Island and relaxed in Central Park. The term concrete Jungle is a fair term to use, but one I had never really grasped until visiting NYC. Washington DC, is a large city, but with DC there is grass, trees and parks- NYC doesn't really have any of that. Despite the differences of NYC to DC and SD, I still loved it. I loved the atmosphere, the ability to walk everywhere, the fashion, and the views. The biggest pet peeve I had of the city is all the people trying to sell things and get your money, as well as the outrageous prices for food. New York has so much to offer from the Shops, to Ground Zero,  the Views, the Parks-the ones it has, the UN building, the Statue of Liberty, and the food.

Time Square :) gotta love the millions of tourists and the bright signs

 Yours truly in Time Square

Me and the Cookie Monster

 Rockefeller Plaza- One of the only free things in NYC

 The large Black tower on the left- thats Trump Tower

 St. Patrick's cathedral

 The Building for the best known Newspaper in the US

 The Empire State Building

9/ll Steel- A memorial Across from Ground Zero

The Freedom Tower being built on Ground Zero. The Silver building to the left of the Freedom Tower is the 7th World Trade Center building. It was opened in 2006. 

 A picture of what Ground Zero will look like when the Memorial water basin is complete

 A view of how tall the Freedom tower currently is in the NYC skyline. When finished it will stand at 1776 ft, symbolic due to the fact that it will be the same height as the original 1 World Trade Center, and to the fact that in 1776 was the year the declaration of Independence was signed.

The Statue of Liberty :)

Ellis Island

The Brooklyn Bridge

 Me with NYC in the Background on the bridge

 Sam and I on the Subway

 Me in front of the United Nations Building. 

For those, like myself who watch Project Runway :) Bam

Wow, I love NYC- Can't Wait to go back someday :)