Where to live when you move to Denver. In other news: It’s week 5 already?!?

“Can you believe it’s week 5 already?”  ”No!  No one is allowed to talk about how it’s already week 5!”  ”Midterms are here already?”  ”Only 5 weeks left in the quarter?”

It’s a super cliche thing to say around Korbel right now, but it’s something almost all of us are saying.  Seriously, you could walk up to a complete stranger and mention week five and end up having at least a ten minute conversation about 1) how you can’t believe the quarter has gone so fast 2) how much you have to do in the next five weeks 3) how the quarters just fly by quicker and quicker.  And guess what?  It’s all true.

This quarter has seriously gone by the fastest for me.  I think it’s because I didn’t really get a huge breather in between Winter and Spring quarters, so it seems like I just hit the ground running again.  My professors haven’t messed around this quarter, either; the first day I was already assigned a ton of reading.  But, classes are going great.  I feel like Stats 3 is way better than Stats for IA, because we’re actually using our own data sets and applying methods (basically, I understand what the SAS software actually does now, and why we might want to use it).  I turned in my first of three papers for Policy Making, and I’ve already knocked out my European Foreign and Defense presentation.  Networking week was great; all our panelists had great advice.  Our students got to network with a lot of diverse alumni.  Oh, and we had lots of yummy food, complete with beer and wine.

Anyway, enough about that.  Back to the main issue at hand:  Where do you live when you move to Denver for grad school?  You’ve come to Discover Korbel, or you’ve visited, or you haven’t been here but you’ve read all our blogs and all the material from admissions, and think, “obviously there’s nowhere else in the world where I would want to go to school.”

I am part of the latter group.  I didn’t come to Discover Korbel, and the first time I actually saw DU was when I showed up at the end of June to look for an apartment.  Which was horrible, and extremely stressful.  BUT it worked out great, because I love my apartment, which is a 5-10 minute walk from Korbel.  My own personal adventure of finding and apartment entailed lots of research online before I headed out to Denver, so I had a couple of appointments already set up.  But, the way I really found my place was a combination of driving around the DU area, and a website called hotpads.com

I know.  Hotpads.com sounds stupid.  But it’s a lot like padmapper.com, except most of the listings are from realtors and the actual apartment landlords instead of random Craigslist people.  Not that Craigslist can’t work out great for you.  I know several people who found roommates or apartments on Craiglist, and it worked out great for them.  But Craigslist sketches me out, so I did not use it.  Anyway, we’d driven by my apartment a couple of times, and the outside looked a little janky, but then we also found the listing on padmapper, with photos of the inside.  I toured several other apartments that we found on this site.  But the one I found was the perfect combination of size, location, and price.  I pay $695 a month for rent and a parking space, and I live by myself in a studio on University and Asbury.  It’s ideal.

It will be way cheaper to live in a house with lots of roommates, and there are tons around DU.  A great way to find roommates/homes is to get connected on the facebook group for your incoming class.  I’m sure you probably have already.  For apartments, listings usually don’t go up until June, July, or August.  Unless you want to live at Asbury Green or Vista, which are owned by the same people and come fully furnished.  They lease way in advance.  I would highly recommend living around DU, the light rail is close, which gives you easy access to downtown, it’s close to the Korbel watering holes, and it’s just more convenient.  You don’t have to factor in hours of commuter time or worry about the bus being late to pick you up.

This felt more like a ramble than actual coherent tips about finding a place to live here (I try to sound more intelligent when writing papers, I promise).  I hope it helped.  Moral of the story:  Craigslist does work, HotPads is a good website you might not have heard of before, the cheapest option is an older house with lots of roomies, and really the best way to get a feel for the area and what your apartment really looks like is to wander around the University area.
Good luck with your apartment searching, kids!  And happy Week 5 to all!

What happened to the rest of Winter Quarter and another library geekout

Ok, so… I have not blogged in two months.  Yikes!  I’m totally shirking my responsibilities here.  Luckily for you guys I have been extremely boring these last two months, so you get all the winter quarter highlights and none of that boring, oh papers, oh readings, oh midterms, oh finals blah blah blah.  I’m just gonna tell you about things that I ate and the excitement of SPRING QUARTER that began yesterday.

So, to start with some winter quarter highlights, one would definitely have to be food.  There is awesome food right around campus.  I had several Illegal Pete’s dates with friends.  I FOOLISHLY waited around until January or February to go.  Which is ridiculous because it’s great and maybe a five minute walk from Korbel.  It saved me lots when I forgot to pack my lunch.  Also, you should eat at Little India and Park Burger.  Little India’s chicken curry is ah-mazing and Park Burger’s burgers are the bomb.  I also gorged myself frequently on buffalo chicken grilled cheese sandwiches that I made myself.  Some days, when I’m feeling whiny about how hard grad school is I make one of those and remember what a badass I am.  It’s the little things, people.

Most of work was spent focusing on the Career Connections trip to New York City.  Have I talked about Career Connections before?  In a nutshell, we send a group of students to NYC with some of our staff to meet employers over Spring Break.  We did the same thing in DC back in December.  Well, as you can imagine it takes a lot of planning, so I put my event-planning powers to work, of course with a ton of help from the grad staff and the professional staff, and I hear the trip went great!  Getting everything ready for that is 100% a team effort.  We’re also gearing up for networking week at the OCPD in April; we’re going to have a week of Alumni Panels culminating in a reception at the end of the week.  CAREER DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES!!!!!

My classes were also really great.  My PD class featured a lot of great speakers who were from the foreign service or worked in other areas of PD, we also got to meet a couple of ambassadors and do skype calls with PD officers in Washington.  I read eight books on the Arab Spring, which was a great class, and in my development class one week we had representatives from an NGO and a mining company based in Denver talk about mining in Latin America and all the problems related to that.  Also, there were no panic rushes to campus or all-nighters during finals week, so that was an extremely positive development.

I spent my entire spring break eating and sleeping.  It was so beautiful.  The airline travel to and from home was a nightmare (you know… blizzards) but the in-between was GREAT!  

Yesterday, classes started again!  This quarter I’m taking American Government and Policy Making, European Foreign and Defense Policy, and Stats 3. I had everything but Stats yesterday.  So far, I’m loving it.  Europe was my focus area in undergrad, so I’m definitely going to be more at home this quarter.  Also, I’ve had my stats professor before, and he’s great.  

Also, the Anderson Academic Commons (the LIBRARY) opened up yesterday.  IT IS BEAUTIFUL.  If you’re headed to DU for Discover Korbel, you should check it out.  It’s just… I can’t describe to you.  Soooooo much study space.  There are several places where if you look to the left, there are the Rockies, and if you look to the right, there’s downtown.  It’s amazing.  There’s a cafe inside, and every desk has an outlet.  These are all new, magical things for me. Also, it’s open TWENTY FOUR HOURS. Say what?!?!  

Korbel Prom is coming up and I’m super excited. I have a feeling it will be way cooler than the one I went to five years ago.

I’m going to try to update more.  I feel bad, shirking my blog duties especially when it’s acceptance letter/grad school decision time!

The Magic of the Lawbrary

So, it’s week three and I already feel like this quarter has hit the ground running.  For Reading the Arab Spring, I’ve already read two books; I’ve submitted a paper proposal for International Development in Cross-Cultural Perspectives, and next week I have an assignment due for Practical Public Diplomacy.  This quarter I feel a lot more active than last quarter.  Not that my reading load is heavier.  Well, it kind of is, but not overwhelmingly so.  But this quarter I’m going to have more substantial papers as well as more assignments sprinkled throughout the quarter (as opposed to last quarter, where my busiest time was at the end) (another side note, I knew what my workload would look like before I signed up for these classes, because Korbel is awesome and has a database of syllabi [some of them a little older] on their portfolio page that you can access while you’re deciding what class/professor you want to sign up for!).  And it’s all good.

Because I have discovered the Law Library.

It is magical.  I’ve tried the temporary library in Driscoll once, and I’m not a super fan.  I’ve also gone to Korbel a couple of times, but the building isn’t open on Sundays, and if you’re there during weekdays it can be pretty loud and distracting.  But the law library is awesome.  You can’t access their wireless, but that’s okay, because they have ethernet cord plug ins as well as outlets at most of the work stations.  It is quiet and new and shiny and wonderful.  I bunkered down there for a couple of days over the long weekend and I got so much done!  It was the perfect environment for focused studying and  knocking out research.  Penrose (actually it’s going to be called something else now, because DU got an endowment?  I think?) is happily opening in time for Spring Quarter, but for now I am happy to know that I have lots of on-campus study options.

Other than totally nerding out about libraries, not too much has been going on.  I had a Downton Abbey watch party with my friend Rachel, went out to a hibachi place for another friend’s birthday, and made eggless chocolate chip cookie dough.  Skiing with my family was great, but I already miss them and those powdery slopes!  Work has been fairly chill; Fall Quarter was insanely busy and this quarter we’re hosting less events.  But I’m about to be thrown headlong into planning the New York City Career Connections trip, which hooks up our students with employers in New York City.  They go to panels and info sessions with alumni as well as employers, and in general they get a feel for the city.  We did this trip to DC at the end of last quarter, which according to the participants was awesome.  It’s a great opportunity to practice networking and get other career-building tips from the good ole OCPD!

What can I do with that? and other winter break musings

So, it’s been six weeks since I took my last final, loaded up the car, and drove back home to Arkansas.  I’ve stayed home the whole time, no travelling back and forth from Denver, so hopefully when I return my apartment is still standing and all of that.  I’ve been doing a lot since I’ve been back – spending some time with friends in my old college town, substitute teaching at my old elementary school to make some money, helping my mom out with Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, and reading lots of books that I know I won’t have time for when the quarter starts up again.  One thing I’ve had a lot of people ask when we talk about what I’ve been up to since graduating college is, “So, what are you gonna do with that fancy degree of yours?”

My dentist, the janitors at the school, my boyfriend, my parents, my friends.  They’re all very curious people.  Luckily, I kind of have an answer.  The great thing about working in and with the career office is that I’ve had my eyes open to all the things that a DU grad can do with their degree.  Nonprofits, federal and state government jobs, and even the private sector are looking for people like us. And especially since our undergraduate work study guys are awesome and constantly posting job and internship opportunities on the KorbelCareers site, you have a constantly updated database of places that are hiring.  So, when someone is all, can’t you just work in an embassy somewhere with that degree, you can be, oh no girlfriend, I can save babies in Africa by sending them clean medical supplies or work with immigrants helping them adjust to living in America or start a nonprofit to do what I’m passionate about or be a research analyst for the CIA or State Department or private company looking to go global.

And while I’m not 100% sure about what life after graduation holds for me, I know I have options.  Next quarter I’m taking International Development in Cross-Cultural Perspectives, Reading the Arab Spring, and Practical Public Diplomacy.  That’s what I love about DU.  I hate the quarter system, I hate the whole A, A-, B+, etc. grading scale (ok, hate is a super strong word, how about find annoying?), but I love that I can take that combination of classes.  In a few days I’m driving back out to Colorado with my family, spend some time in Breckenridge skiing, and then gearing up to start the next quarter at DU.  See you then!

A Tale of Three Papers

“Never in my whole life have I hated myself as much as I do in this moment.”

That’s what I thought at 5 am on Monday morning.  I had had zero sleep all night.  I was ready to turn in my papers.  So, I deserved a two hour nap, wake up at 7, shower, look over papers again, go print.  Life’s great.  I won’t be stupid like this ever again and everything will be ok.

Oh, false.

Shower, look over papers, it’s 8:15.  I deserve a 15 minute nap.

I am an idiot.  This is all entirely my own fault.

So then I wake up at 9, with three papers due at that moment.  Throw on clothes, kind of brush teeth, run to class.  And this run was the most legit run of my life.  I have never been so full of adrenaline.  The whole time I am praying for mercy.  Sweating, I get my stuff printed (probably looking like a crazy person in the comp lab, it’s totally fine).  Calmly walk to one of my professor’s office, hand her the paper 10 minutes late.

“Yes, I heard we had some printer problems this morning so there were a lot of late papers.  Thanks, Liz!”

THANK YOU LAWD.

Sweating less profusely I turn in my other two papers and sit through American Foreign Policy realizing how both lucky and stupid I am, and promising that I will never, ever do this to myself ever again.

So yes, this weekend was horrible, and I am stupid.  I cry-laughed at a video of a girl getting hit in the face by a watermelon (it started as cry-laughing but almost turned into sobbing… I don’t know if it was just week ten or if it really is that amazing – you can see for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cfeTZNcA3g).  But guess what.  After my horrible weekend all I have left to do is study for my stats final, clean up, pack up, and then I’m ready to head home for break!  I’m definitely ready to decompress and maybe, I don’t know, sleep a little bit?

This is a warning to you potential Korbel-ers reading this.  School is really good.  I have learned so much.  My professors are very smart and very encouraging.  But just because you cranked out a 15 page paper in 12 hours in undergrad, or your last IPE paper only took 5 hours, that does not mean you can write three papers in one weekend. Learn from my finals hell.  I definitely have.

Bears

It’s that time in the quarter where all I want to do is crawl up into a cave in the Rockies and hibernate with bears. Or maybe be eaten by one.

On a more positive note, this will all be over in 2.5 weeks.  Also, the Korbel Halloween party was off the chain.

Playing Tourist

These last few weeks have been absolutely crazy.  I had stats midterm two Saturdays ago, an IPE paper due this Monday, and this afternoon was my event baby at the OCPD: The Josef Korbel School Colorado-Based Social Impact Organizations Networking Forum (some name, huh?).  The tests were… you know, school… but the Social Impact forum was actually pretty fun to do.  When I got to Denver in August, my boss gave me the forum as my special project, and since August I’ve been contacting organizations (mostly NGOs, but there are some for-profits that participated this year, so we had to change the name from the NGO Forum), making nametags, booklets, flyers, and table tents, ordering catering, and reserving rooms.  So tonight it all came together, and Korbel students got to meet social impact orgs based in Denver and the surrounding area.  What’s great about the forum is that some of the organizations are based here but have an international focus, so students can intern in Colorado during the year but in the summer can go abroad and do work in the field.  Some are also domestically focused, but the work they do is so great and not too far from Korbel.  So, I networked (I HATE networking, so awkward, but necessary) and the event is over and successful thanks to the help of my wonderful coworkers and I can breathe a huge sigh of relief.  Except not, because I still have to work on my internship applications that are due frighteningly soon and registration for next quarter is coming up next week.

In the middle of all this craziness, I have also been hosting Arkansas friends coming into town.  My now-married friends from college came through on a road trip to Canada, my best friend from home who’s currently in med school in AR came up for the weekend on her fall break, and then my boyfriend came for a week and a half!  Since I was exceptionally lame when I got here in August, I hadn’t explored a lot of the “touristy” things in Denver, so unfortunately I used my first guests as guinea pigs.  Luckily, Denver is super cool and you really don’t think there’s lots to do, but there is.  Here’s what I did:

with Erin & Andrew, in town for the afternoon:

• We met up at Tattered Cover, an awesome bookstore in LoDo http://www.tatteredcover.com/
• Ate lunch at Wynkoop Brewery, Denver’s first craft brewery (orchard peach beer and mac and cheese – oh. my. gosh.) http://wynkoop.com/
• perused 16th street mall and Larimer Square, getting an afternoon refresher at The Market http://themarketatlarimer.com/

with Julia, in town for a weekend:

• Watched the Razorback game at Choppers! http://www.chopperssportsgrill.com/
• Exactly one mile high on the steps of the state capitol
• Back to LoDo for lunch in Larimer Square and some shopping
• Trip into the Rockies to Mt. Evans, Echo Lake, and Idaho Springs
• Denver Art Museum, where you can buy a student membership for $45, you and one guest get in free for a year and other fun benefits http://www.denverartmuseum.org/
• I also had to go to a couple of classes while she was here, so I sent her to the Ritchie Center tower to look at the heiroglyphics and to Observatory Park, which is close to DU and a nice place to go read on a pretty day.  Also an easy walk when you don’t have a car.

with Colton, here for a long time

• Choppers again for another Razorback game
• Lunch after church at The Market, which has delicious food as well as delicious coffee
• back to LoDo to Tattered Cover, and lunch at Cafe Berlin  http://www.cafeberlindenver.com/ (HIGHLY recommended, I studied abroad in Germany and Austria and the food is super authentic.  AND when we first got there some of their equipment wasn’t working, so we left and then came back and they gave us a free strudel to thank us for coming back.  Heck yes I will take your delicious free strudel and love you forever.)
• Denver Zoo
• Into the Rockies to St. Mary’s Glacier
• Lots of other things, already mentioned above

Some more fun things that we didn’t get to do, but tried to:

• Rocky Mtn. Arsenal Wildlife Reserve
• US Mint
• Museum of Nature and Science

Fun Fact: federal places like the mint and arsenal are closed on holidays like Columbus Day.  LAME.  And some places need reservations.  DOUBLE LAME.

So, hopefully I have armed you if family and friends want to visit you in Denver.  I will also warn you: if they do come, prepare yourself.  Make sure you do your readings and coursework ahead of time.  Manage your time so that you devote enough to your visiting friends and to school.  Be careful not to be overwhelmed!  You can do it!

At Wynkoop (photo from Erin’s blog)

Echo Lake on Mt. Evans (photo from Julia’s facebook page)

Colton at St. Mary’s Glacier

Hiking near St. Mary’s Glacier