2013 in Review: Part 4

Missed the other posts? Check out Part One, Part Two and Part Three.

October

After the excitement of September, October was a little less exciting. I attempted to keep up with running despite the weather getting colder.

But, alas, that was sidelined by a stress fracture in my foot. I ended up spending two months in a boot.

There was a lovely rainbow outside my apartment.

And Julia, Katie and I carved some pumpkins for Halloween!

November

Korey and Ashley moved to the Avenues in Salt Lake City. Their new apartment has some killer views!

The Colts and Texans played, so Julia and I went to Billy Blanco's to cheer for our respective teams. Naturally, the Colts won in a crazy fourth quarter comeback.

Starbucks red cups were released, which always makes me happy.

Another happy seasonal item...Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Stars! I may or may not have stockpiled these.

11:11 11/11. Made a wish!

A long track speedskating World Cup was held in Salt Lake City at Utah Olympic Oval, so I went down to watch for a day. The USA went 1-2 on this particular event.

Opening day! Park City Mountain Resort opened at the end of November and Katie, Julia and I went out for a few runs to celebrate. 

I went home for Thanksgiving, which means lots of puggle time. 

Home also means lots of games! We played Cranium and Hillary and I had matching answers in Mind Meld. It was kind of wonderful! 

December

I kicked off the month with my first-ever NFL games! Despite being under the weather, I joined my dad and brother for tailgating.

Lucas Oil Stadium!

I worked with the Today Show on a shoot at aerials practice.

A bobsled World Cup came to Park City and I went out to take a few photos.

I continued skiing regularly. We had tons of sun dogs in December for some reason, and I couldn't stop taking pictures of them!

The FIS Nordic Combined Continental Cup came out to Soldier Hollow, which was a great chance to watch some of our B-Team athletes (as well as Olympic Champion Billy Demong) and take some photos!

I had to climb some snowbanks for optimal picture taking position.

I went home for Christmas.

Merry Christmas! We added a few people (and dogs) to our annual Christmas cookie photo. 

Christmas Eve service. 

Olympic Trials came to Park City! Todd Lodwick earned a record-breaking sixth Olympic spot. The weather was amazing all weekend and it was super fun to watch everything! 

Finally, I closed out the year with some New Year's Eve skiing with Julia.

Happy New Year! Can't wait to see what 2014 brings!

30 Days of Photos - Day 1

I saw this on a friend's Facebook and thought it might be a good way to keep me motivated to update this blog.

Day One - A picture of yourself with fifteen facts

1. I love hiking and climbing mountains. I've summited two 14ers since I've been in Colorado (including Mt. Belford, where the above photo was taken).

2. I love to cook.  One of the things I am most excited about in my new apartment is the lovely kitchen!

3. Authentic Mexican food and margaritas are basically a guaranteed way to cheer me up if I'm having a bad day.

4. I love traveling!  I have a bucket list of places to go all around the world.

5. I cannot wait to get a dog, but I'm not a fan of large dogs...I'm hoping to keep the family puggle tradition alive.

6. Over the seven months I have been in Colorado, my respect for amateur athletes has grown so much...it isn't really possible to put the amount into words. 

7. I'm more than a little obsessed with Starbucks. 

8. If I'm drinking, it's probably wine (or the aforementioned margaritas).  Cheap wine is fine because I rarely notice the difference.

9. I'm alcohol intolerant, so I don't drink that often and when I do, I need to take allergy medicine about an hour before or else I get sick.

10. I form a strong opinion on most things and I love getting in friendly debates about them.  

11. I'm a tree-hugger, pro-choice, pro-immigration, pro-same sex marriage, strongly opposed to Don't Ask Don't Tell...basically, I'm a liberal and quite proud of it.  I'm educated about it, though, and I know there are flaws in every ideology.

12. I'm pretty much always cold.

13. I like to stay active...some of my hobbies include speedskating, hiking, cycling (in the gym for now since I'm bike-less) and going on walks.

14. I was inspired by the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games to apply for internships with the US Olympic Committee.  I got hired eventually by the digital media department.  Coming out to work for the USOC was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

15. I'm one independent study away from a masters degree in political science.  Although I have no intention of working in politics (I used to want to...I clearly changed my mind), I'll have the degree!

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!