Kyle's Bachelor Weekend

A couple of my friends, Kyle and Nicole, are getting married next month in Austin (which I can't wait for, I've always wanted to go there and Kyle has promised to take me to Salt Lick's BBQ). This past weekend he had his bachelor party in Estes which was a lot of fun. He got his groomsmen these nice growlers, so we all stopped by Oskar Blues on the way up, got some taste tests, had some dinner, and filled our growlers. We rented this great house up there - a bunch of bedrooms, two floors, balcony all the way around, the only bad thing was we couldn't get the electric fire place going. Ended the night with some beer pong and several of us learning to be DJs on Will's Ipad.

The next day we ate way too much pizza and rocky mountain oysters (that's right), then went on a six mile hike in Rocky Mountain National Park. Maybe not the smartest thing, I think we were all a little too full for it, but it was a fun hike and we felt like badasses walking back to the car with the snow falling hard.

We went to the Stanley Hotel which is just as nice as I thought it was going to be (though for some reason the heat was at about 95). If you've never heard of it, it used to be a place where really rich and famous people would vacation. If you've seen The Shining, that's where it was filmed. I thought at the time dinner was delicious, but the food poisoning I got from the scallops changed my mind. I spent most of the night revisiting the meal while the rest of the guys played beer pong upstairs. It's a really good group of guys, which I'm happy about because I'll be spending a lot of time with them over the next month or so.

The hike and being up in the mountains really made me want to get into nature a bit more, so if anyone wants to go camping I am planning on going

this weekend and next, probably do some hiking too.

General Update

Well the quarter is moving quickly. The first two weeks I had a class with General George Casey, former commander of forces in Iraq, former Army Chief of Staff, and now former teacher of Graham Button. The class was one of thebest I've ever taken, focusing on civilian/military interaction during a time of war. We looked at case studies of the relationship between the president and the military during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It was incredible to be able to listen to someone with so much knowledge on the subject, who could interject stories of his experiences with the president, or the prime minister of Iraq. He was candid about his experiences and had a lot of great stories, plus had a clear plan for what he wanted us to know - more than I can say about a lot of teachers. I was lucky enough to see him speak a few times outside of class too. Condoleeza Rice and Madeline Albright, both graduates of my program and former Secretary's of State, also came to speak at Korbel. Unfortunately those first couple of weeks were so busy it was always when I had class, so I wan't able to see them, but I heard some of the things they said and saw some clips of their talks, really interesting.

Our trip to Timor-Leste is progressing quickly, we actually just bought our tickets. We will be leaving on June 3, flying from Denver, CO to Los Angeles, CA to Sydney, Australia to Darwin, Australia where we have a 20 hour layover. We finally get into Dili, Timor-Leste on June 6. My colleague who I'm going with did the math (adjusting for the date line and such), it'll take about 45 hours to get there. We leave again June 25 and get back to Denver June 26.

While we are there, we are planning on going to Dili, one or two district capitals, and a few villages. After several meetings with my professor, the two people who are working on the project from Denver, my other colleague I'm going with, and their conversations with the company we are working with, things are starting to really come together. We are getting a better idea of what we are doing and where we are going, and the info we need beforehand to do it.

Visas are turning into a pain. After a wrong email and a few phone calls, I finally got in touch with a very friendly woman who actually talked to the Timorese ambassador to find out exactly what kind of visa we need and how to get it. The website was wro

ng, telling us that the Timorese consulate here would get them for us, so they are emailing Dili to find out exactly what to do. I'm also filling out paperwork for the Peace Corps, including a revised aspiration statement, DS-11 passport form, and Cameroon Visa, all of which I had questions about.

I don't think anyone is going to read this blog if it gets too long or too far in between, so I think I'll end here and save an update on my classes for a later time. I need to go pack some stuff up for a trip with Joann to South Fork anyways!

South Fork, CO