Calm Before the Storm

I'm moving into the US Olympic Training Center tomorrow!

Ruth and I are moving me in sometime in the morning...hopefully it all goes well!  I will, of course, post pictures of my room and the OTC once I'm settled in.

In the mean time, if anyone has any questions to ask me, you can ask them here.  I'll post the answers in my next blog update!

Also...if you want to keep posted on my internship with more immediate updates than you get here, follow me on Twitter!

OTC and Manitou Incline

Today is my brother Jordan's last day in Colorado Springs...so he got to decide what we were doing today.  His decision?  The Manitou Incline.

Now, ever since I found out I would be spending my summer in Colorado Springs, I knew I wanted to tackle "The Incline" at some point.  However, I figured "at some point" would be after I'd had a few weeks to adjust to the altitude and get into a regular exercise routine...I certainly wasn't expecting to climb it on my second full day here!  But Jordan wanted to go for it, and Steven enthusiastically encouraged it.  Ruth and I were a little less optimistic but we still went for it...even though it meant waking up at 5:45am.

A little background on the Incline for those of you not familiar with it...it consists of the remnants of an old cog railway that closed in 1990.  Following the railway's close, hikers, athletes, and people looking for a unique workout took over, turning it into an unofficial hiking trail.  It is technically illegal to climb because it's private property (so hiking the Incline is trespassing), but you'd never know that by looking at it.  On any given day, there are plenty of people climbing up and down it.  The Barr Trail to Pikes Peak meets it twice, once about halfway up (providing the "bailout trail" for people who don't think they can make it up to the top) and then again at the top (so most people take the Incline up and the Barr Trail down).  The Incline ascends over 2,000ft in a mile and a half...so it's a very challenging workout but gives you a lot of personal satisfaction when you've reached the summit!

The Manitou Incline...and me regretting my decision to climb it

Believe it or not, this is the easy part.

Made it to the top!

Jordan, Ruth, and I made it to the top in just under an hour and a half, which surprised all of us, I think (we were half-expecting to have to use the bailout trail).  I'm already anxious for my next trip to the Incline...climbing stairs up the side of a mountain has to be a good workout for speedskating!

And, as promised...here are a a few pictures from our trip to the US Olympic Training Center yesterday!

Ruth and I imitating the short track speedskater statues behind us

Jordan hurt himself trying to imitate the above karate pose

This is for you, Hillary!

We mainly just goofed around with the statues, obviously...we drove back by the dorm that I'll be living in, but we weren't really sure if we were allowed back there or not.  So, after our exploratory drive and our goofing around, we headed back to Ruth and Steven's apartment!  

We ate dinner at Trinity Brewing Company, which was excellent...I unfortunately didn't take my camera, though.  We had cheesecake made with beer!  And more surprisingly...it was really good!  Jordan and Steven were more interested in the beer that Trinity brews themselves, though.

That's it for now...tomorrow probably won't be too interesting because I'll be recovering from the Incline!

Tourist Day

Today is my first full day in Colorado Springs, and I spent it as a tourist!  Ruth took Jordan and I around Colorado Springs and the surrounding area to see the sights.  I'm sunburnt already because of the sun being more intense here.  It's been a fun day so far, and it isn't over yet because we're going out for dinner in a little bit!

The first stop of the day was Garden of the Gods, a park with a bunch of neat rock formations.  Instead of talking about it, I'm just going to post a couple of pictures cause that does it better (although still not fair) justice!

The Balanced Rock

Jordan doing some "scrambling"

Next stop was Pikes Peak, which was not an easy stop to get to!  Pikes Peak is a "fourteener," meaning that it is over 14,000 ft in elevation (14,110 to be exact).  There's a highway that goes up to the top, so Ruth drove us up that.  The drive is quite an experience in itself...there are switchbacks, steep drop offs without guard rails, parts that aren't paved...it's nineteen miles long, but it takes a bit of time to get up to the summit because of the grade and the 20mph speed limit!  And, again...here are some pictures for you!

This picture was actually taken at Garden of the Gods, but that's Pikes Peak in the background!

View on the drive up

Brother and I at the summit

Ruth and I at the summit

After leaving Pikes Peak, we ate lunch in Manitou Springs.  Manitou Springs is a cute little town in the foothills with lots of fun shops...I didn't get to visit any, but I'm hoping that there'll be a group of USOC interns willing to shop with me!

We ended the day with a quick visit to the US Olympic Training Center so Jordan and Ruth could see where I'll be living and working...but I'll post pictures of that later!  Off to dinner!

Welcome to the Springs

I'm here!

I'm writing this from the guest bedroom of Ruth and Steven's apartment...they're two of my greatest friends and they've been kind enough to share their apartment with me for the next few days!  The balcony looks out onto Pikes Peak!

I'll update more tomorrow when I'm not exhausted (driving from Indianapolis to Colorado Springs in 14 hours will do that to you!)...but it is beautiful here, and I'm so excited for this summer!

Update

This will probably be my last post before I am in Colorado!  My brother and I are driving out to Colorado Springs on Thursday.  We're leaving at like 4am so that we can drive straight through (not my idea...my brother does not like stopping once he gets started on a road trip)...we should end up in Colorado by dinner time!  Since I can't move into the USOC dorms until June 1, I'm staying with Ruth and Steven for a couple of days.  It'll be nice getting to explore the Springs a bit before moving in.

My first day of actual work is June 2.  There are two interns in my department, myself and a guy from New York named Brandon.  He and I have been emailing back and forth this week, so it'll be nice having someone right away who I already kind of feel like I know.  He's got a ton of video production experience and said he'll teach me a bit about it, so I'm excited for that!  I think he and I will work well together, and it seems like our skills will complement each other nicely!

4 days until I leave for Colorado...8 until I move into the US Olympic Training Center!

It's Official

I just got my start date: June 1!

I also got lots more paperwork to fill out...and I'm all excited about getting my start date that I'm sure I'll be up plenty late enough to get it all done.  You know, with all the jobs I've had since I started working at 14, you'd think that I would be a pro at filling out tax paperwork...but no, I still get confused every single time.

Hmm...not much else to report on for now.  I cannot wait to get out to Colorado...leaving in about 10 days!!

Step One is Done

My background check is complete!  And all of my paperwork (so far) is submitted to the USOC!

All I have to do now is wait for them to give me my start date!  I was hoping I'd hear before the weekend (my background check finished up on Thursday), but no such luck.  Oh well.  I think it's the Intern Coordinator who tells us our start date, not our actual departmental bosses.  So, that means I probably have to wait for all of the other interns to clear their background checks, too, then we'll all get an email about our start date.  It should be either June 1 or 7...so check back and I'll let you know as soon as I know!

If we start June 1, I'll probably leave Indianapolis around the 28th of May.  I'm guessing my brother Jordan and I will drive straight through when we drive to Colorado Springs, but since neither of us have ever really road tripped that far west before, I want to make sure we have time.  Plus, we have people to stay with in Colorado (Ruth and Steven!  Can't wait to see you guys!), and I'm sure they'll be up to showing us around the city if we're there a few days early!

The Academic Side of Things

One of the reasons I wanted to get an internship this summer was so I could get academic credit while getting a good life (and potentially career) experience.  Today, I got my paperwork all in order to get academic credit.  I was a little uncertain about how the political science internship coordinator would feel, since "New Media Intern" isn't a title that people associate with political science internships, but he had a very positive reaction when I told him about it and happily signed everything he needed to!

So, the academic side of this internship is going to be pretty straightforward: keep an educational journal and send it to the prof once a week (easy enough since I'll be blogging and keep a journal anyways), write a 10-page ethics paper based on an interview with your supervisor, and write a 25-30 page paper relating the internship experience to the field of political science (may have to stretch a bit on that one, but I'm sure I can handle it).  For all of that, I'll get six credit hours towards my masters degree!  Let's just hope that I do a good enough job on the above-mentioned papers and journals that those six credit hours work out to an A!

I'm also brushing up on some of my academic skills that haven't been utilized so much in grad school: my writing skills.  Yes, we do lots of writing in my masters program, but it's all very dry and academic.  This internship is letting me get back in touch with my fun writing skills...I'm busting out my old newspaper writing talents!  But that means getting back up to speed with AP style (my trusty AP stylebook is sitting next to me as I write this).  I'm also reviewing some stuff about web marketing, just so that I can have a good base of knowledge when they start teaching me web metrics and all of that.

I'm anxiously counting down the days until my background check is cleared and I can get my official start date...nine to go!  I want to leave for Colorado Springs now!  I've been emailing Emily, the current New Media intern...she seems really nice and she's offered me a lot of good advice.  She also told Jordan Malone, one of my favorite speedskaters, about me!  How cool is that??

A Dream Come True

Two days ago, I heard a sentence that I never in a million years expected to hear.

"Well, we'd like to tentatively offer you a position as New Media intern for the US Olympic Committee."

Yes, that's right...pending a background check (hence the "tentatively"), I am going to be an intern with the New Media department of the United States Olympic Committee for the summer of 2010.  A million thoughts were racing through my head both immediately and for the rest of the day after that phone call...heck, I'm still half-expecting them to call me and say that they got their applications mixed up and meant to offer the position to someone else!  After my background check goes through and says that I'm not some scary criminal, I'll find out my start date and start making arrangements to head out to Colorado Springs!  Why Colorado Springs?  Because part of this internship is living at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) there...yes, the same place where Olympic athletes live and train.  I've got a summer of working, dining, and living with Olympians and the people who train and promote them ahead of me...and I cannot wait!

So, how did I end up here?  I've been an avid fan of the Olympics for as long as I can remember...just ask my friends and family who end up ignored every two years when the Olympics are being televised!  After a lifetime of watching the Olympics from afar, the idea crossed my mind during this year's Vancouver games...why should I just sit and watch when I could actually be a part of the Olympic Movement?  So, I scoured TeamUSA.org for information on internships, emailed a couple of people about them, applied, and waited.  After a month and a half of waiting (and finally thinking I just didn't get it), I got a phone call asking me to set up a time for a phone interview!  A week after the first interview, I had a second interview...and was offered the position at the end of that second interview!  And now, I've got one last hurdle to clear (that background check) before the position is officially mine.

Now, as many of you know, I'm a political science Masters student.  Some people were a little taken aback by a poli sci student's desire to work in the world of sports...after all, everyone expects us to head straight to Washington, DC, after we graduate and work on Capitol Hill.  I am not the typical student, though...I'm focusing my graduate education on international relations, and I've always been a large consumer of technology.  I've also been quite active as a writer, both by writing for college newspapers and creative writing in all disciplines in my free time.  Sports have always been a part of my life, although until my recent discovery of speedskating as something I can do myself instead of just watching on TV, it's almost always been as a casual fan.  

So now combine international relations, technology, writing, and sports...and you get a USOC New Media intern!  The Olympic Movement is an international movement, although I'll be working specifically with the US branch of it.  I'll be utilizing technology to spread that message, specifically the Team USA website and social media outlets (Twitter, Facebook, blogs).  I'll also have the chance to create original content for the Team USA website...that means getting out and interviewing athletes who I happen to run into on the OTC campus!  I'll be busy, but those of you who know me well know that I work best and am happiest when I'm busy.  Since I haven't studied much marketing or TCOM, I am going to have to work my butt off to get up to speed on a lot of the technology aspects, but I am definitely ready to learn!

If anyone has any questions that I didn't answer here, you're welcome to ask them here (you don't have to have an account or anything...just ask anonymously if you don't have one) or in a comment on this blog.  I'll do my best to answer them here!  Also, you're welcome to follow me on Twitter if you'd like more immediate updates than those posted here!