Galway Girl

I haven't done one of these in a while and I thought it was about time to revive it.

This week's "featured friend" is about Kerry Braisted.

Last night in Ireland

My first interaction with Kerry was via Facebook.  She was studying abroad in Dublin for a whole year with the same program I went through.  Our resident director told Kerry that someone else from Colorado State would be coming in the spring (me) and so Kerry sent me a quick message.

Our first in-person meeting was, I believe, in a Vodaphone shop the day I arrived in Dublin.  I don't remember this too well since I was suffering from some intense jet lag and almost fell asleep standing up.

Scotland

We spent a fair amount of time out in Dublin along with the trinity trio and traveling with the API group around Ireland.  Fun times.
 
After getting back to the states and making it through summer, I got back to Colorado and we met up at the always great Fuzzy's.  It was always nice to have someone to reminisce with about Europe.

This past semester, we just barely survived Campus Corps and were able to vent about what crazy things one of the kids had done that week.  We also got to play in a day long soccer tournament.  It was not well organized but ended up being really fun.

Now we stay in touch by trying to do a monthly festive beverage Harry Potter game via Skype.  Technology really is amazing.

Things I've learned about Kerry:

1. She's all about the craic
2. She knows a lot about super heroes
3. We can't sit through Campus Corps orientation without leaving early
4. Rumor has it she's very good at French
5. She's one of the most dependable people I have ever met

And here are some of my favorite memories:

1. Her constant looks of slight disbelief of me being way too excited during a Harry Potter walking tour in Scotland.
2. Dublinia followed by Guinness followed by tea day.
3. My 21st birthday (or at least it's kind of a memory...)
4. Crushing at Fuzzy's trivia.
5. When we went to a cider bar in Fort Collins with two others and played cards games for a few hours which ended up being really fun.

Winning at trivia

Congrats on the upcoming graduation, Kerry!  We'll have to do another Harry Potter game soon.  Miss you!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Family Affair

If you were to ask me 10ish years ago if I would ever consider both of my sisters to be good friends, I would have laughed in your face.   We may not have gotten along for a period of time growing up but now they are two of the greatest sisters anyone could ask for and it's always a good time when the siblings are able to be together.  So for this weeks "featured friend," I'm making it plural and doing it about Megan and Amanda.

2004?

I have zero recollection of meeting Amanda and Megan.  I was told it was about 22 years ago and apparently they were nice to me for a while.  With the amount of home videos my parents shot, I have a hard time separating real memories from what I've watched on film so I don't remember my first actual memory of them.
 
After many years of long car rides with them singing Les Mis and me plugging my ears, airborne thermoses, choreographed dances to Disney songs, a failed horror movie, overly competitive soccer games, and so much more, fast forward to today and Megan is going to school in Austin, TX for her masters/doctorate and Amanda is living in Seattle, WA. working on starting up her own piano lesson business.

We might be really into The Sound of Music

Here are some of my favorite memories (22 years makes picking pretty hard): 
Amanda:

• When we went on our own bar crawl on a weekday afternoon in Seattle
• Continuously falling in Hawaii in full snorkel gear while trying to get back on the beach
• Cousin Sarah's wedding in Idaho

Megan:

• Karaoke duets with mic stands
• The day I finally figured out how she got the $100,000 salary card in Life every single time we played
• Traveling around Europe for a week

Shared:

• Watching home videos
• Stressful family outings (Ape Caves comes to mind)
• Dancing game
• During indoor soccer when we got yelled at by grown adults on the other team who were upset they were losing to people half their age

The Dancing Game.  Pro status has been achieved.

Can't wait till December when we get to reunite.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Friends Till The End

Well, this is officially the last posting from Colorado.  I'm moving back to Portland on Wednesday and so I thought it would be appropriate for this week's "featured friend" to be about none other than my roommate of two-ish years, Heather Sanders.

The story of how I met Heather is a bit odd.  Freshman year she went to school at Chapman University in California but her best friend from high school lived on my floor that year.  Her friend and I were really close and so I heard a lot of stories about Heather but didn't get to put a face to the name until she came and visited for a few days.  Our interaction was very brief and it would have never crossed my mind we would end up living together a few years later.

Sophomore year, Heather transferred to CSU.  Although she had a place of her own, she pretty much lived at me and my roommate's apartment.  She studied abroad second semester that year in Florence, Italy which I was sad about because at that point, we had gotten really close.  After I got back to Colorado from winter break, we had a Skype session while she was in Italy about some things and we made a fairly elaborate plan for when she got back.  We decided we would live together and both study abroad in the spring of the next year and that's exactly what ended up happening.

Senior year we decided to live together again since it worked out quite well the first go.

Still One Of My Favorites

 Here's a few things I've learned about Heather:

• She could play Gin Rummy 24/7 and never lose interest
• She could move into a retirement home next week and fit right in
• She's reliable (this one sounds dumb but many people are not, so this is a great trait to have)
• She's "allergic" to everything
• You could name any popular song/movie/pop-culture event and she will likely have no idea what you're talking about, unless Taylor Swift was involved

And here are some of my favorite memories (too many to choose from):

• Halloween 2013
• Mary's cookie trips
• RamRide nights
• "I just went to Taco Bell..."
• Mean Girls quotes

Halloween 2013

Heather is one of the main reasons I made the final decision to go abroad which completely changed my outlook on things.  It's strange to think what would have happened had she not persuaded me to go through with the whole process, so thanks for that Heather!

We've been through a fair amount together and have consistently been there for each other when needed.  I seriously could not have asked for a better roommate/friend and I wish her the best of luck when she moves to Spain in a few months.  You're one of the few people I don't need to tell this to (and who will actually follow through), but Heather, make sure to stay in touch!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Land Down Under

As of today, I am officially a college graduate!!!!  That post will likely be for next week but until then, this weeks "featured friend" is about Vlad Zecevic.  I tried to pack this with as many inside jokes as possible so if something doesn't make sense, that's probably why.

LA

I told some people in the fall last year that I was "getting an exchange student" for the spring semester and didn't really explain much else.  In short, the program pairs a CSU student with an exchange student and the CSU student is supposed to help get the exchange student settled in the first week they arrive.  Here's my story:

In the fall of 2013, I got an email from CSU's study abroad office saying they were taking applications for a volunteer position as a peer mentor (although I hate that term) for an incoming exchange student.  One of my favorite things about studying abroad was talking to and making friends with people from around the world, and that's not the easiest thing to do when you're in the US, so I decided to apply.  Apparently it was fairly competitive to get accepted so I was happy when I got the email saying I would be participating in the program.  Little did I know, what was to follow would introduce me to one of my new best friends.

I waited about a month until I got the email saying I would be paired with this kid from Australia named Vlad.  I immediately proceeded to Facebook stalk him, as one does in this day and age.  After the initial stalking, I thought we would be civil towards each other but maybe not be the best of friends or have a lot in common.  I would have been happy with a quick check-in every few weeks.

I emailed Vlad probably one of the dumbest introduction emails anyone has ever sent but CSU had a list of topics I had to talk about in my first message so I was just following the rules.  After reading his response, I was fairly sure we would get along.  A few emails later, we figured out we had two classes together.

When the time came for me to pick Vlad up at the CSU transit center, I was "super" excited.  The first day we went to the store and got him moved into his dorm.  The rest of the week was making sure he was awake and that he showed up for various orientation events.  After the week, my commitment to the program was pretty much over but I kind of enjoyed hanging out with him so we continued to do so.

For Spring Break, we got to go to New York and Los Angeles which was incredibly fun!  As of today, we are in Portland (after sprinting through the airport to make our flight) for a bit so he can see arguably the best part of the US...just saying.

Disneyland...accurate.

Here's a few things I've learned about Vlad:

• He inhales food and chugs coffee
• He could easily sleep for a week straight and still be tired
• That being said, he's nocturnal
• His obsession with Lebron James is very real  
• He takes more selfies than anyone I know, male or female.

And here are some of my favorite memories:

• Fuzzy Thursdays (good job pressing the button)
• Spring break week
• Our deep late night chats
• All the Stanley references
• Watching him try and make pasta

Anyways, just wanted to give a shout out to one of my new best friends and let him know that when he has to go back to Australia on Wednesday, he will be greatly missed.  Thanks for being such an amazing friend and letting me travel around the US with you.  I could not have asked for a better exchange student.

There's so much more I could say but the cheesiness level is already too high.  I can't wait to see you in Australia/Europe/back in the US, whichever comes first!     

By the way Vlad, I expect multiple updates every few days to keep me in the loop. 

Ooohhhhhh no Taco Bell.  That's all for now.  Bye.

I'll Be Missing You

I had this idea for my random other category to do a "featured friend" post some weeks because I clearly like alliteration.  I thought I would do the first one about one of oldest friends, Conner Firstman.

If I remember correctly, I met Conner in Kindergarten and we were buddies ever since.  From Cub Scouts in elementary school, unfortunate hairstyles in middle school, and joking our way through Journalism and Senior Inquiry in high school, Conner was one of the most upbeat people I have ever met.  Although we went to college in different states and had quite different experiences, when we were able to meet up on breaks, it only felt like we hadn't seen each other for a few days.

Stole this from his Facebook page but I thought it represented him well.

I'm a strong believer in remembering the good times of a person so here's a list of my top 5 favorite memories of Conner:

• Sleepovers at my house way back when where we tried to watch The 10th Kingdom and had no idea what was going on or why it was so long.  I don't think we figured out either.
• Playing rec soccer where I may have kicked the ball at him (accidentally) in a place guys don't want a soccer ball to be kicked.
• Me teaching Conner how to play the dot game and him beating me on the first round in health class.  I'm still a little upset about that.
• Every day in journalism, especially deadline days.
• Reciting Family Guy lines at inappropriate times.

The Dot Game

New Year 2013/2014. So glad this picture was taken!

I think that's really all that needs to be said.  Short and sweet.

Miss you buddy!

That's all for now.  Bye.