Lindsay's Blog

Graduation!

Well, I have finally graduated and made it back from Denver on an awesome roadtrip with stops in Durango, Page, and Las Vegas! It's been such a busy year, it feels strange for it to all be over! Gonna take a few days off and then I am going to start studying for the CPA exam and getting my life together... and that's pretty much going to take up the rest of the summer. 

First, graduation went so smoothly and I want to thank DU for being so well organized and providing food after! It was so nice having an indoors graduation on a 100 degree day, and the speeches were great and the whole thing went pretty efficiently!

Also, here are some pictures from my road trip! I also managed to see my best friend from back home graduate on my way back!

Here is a little of Arizona!

And Antelope Canyon!

Colorado Springs to take the family to Garden of the Gods and the Broadmoore!

And here are some from Vegas!

The buffet at our hotel in Vegas was amazing!

It's been awesome blogging for DU and whether you have read this blog to decide on whether you wanted to attend DU, figure out what's happening on campus, or just for fun, I hope I was able to provide some good insight into the life of a DU student. I will be back in Denver next year to finish my masters and start my job in Denver, so feel free to say hi!

Have a great summer everyone!

 

It's Coming to the End......

Goodbye, Denver! All done with finals and the next time you see me post it will be my last and I will have graduation pics to post! I picked up my grad cap and gown, getting in some of my last hurrahs, and preparing for my family to come! The past few weeks have been so crazy with school, as soon as finals were over I found myself with a gigantic to-do list of chores. Scholarships to apply for, laundry to do, a Subaru to pack, a road-trip to plan, and figuring out some good activities my family can do the one and only time we're all going to be together in Denver!

Below is me as I have been every day the past few weeks:

Notice how big the singular "coffee" is as I use it....

I also got to enjoy some of the beautiful Denver weather at one of the many start-of-summer events! It sucks because all the semester system people are already out, but I still think it's worth it for the long winter break.

This food, art, and music festival was right outside Wash Park!

Oysters!!!

 

It really has been a great four years and I want to thank DU and the admissions team for letting me document it! Feel free to browse my hundreds of blog posts before they are all gone! I'll be back after summer so if anyone wants to keep in touch, send me an email at lindsay.rodgers@du.edu! I am already getting really excited to be back home for a little to get to spend some quality time with my family! Below is a picture of me and my sister!

Talk to you guys soon! Only a few more days until graduation!

May Days!

Something I haven't gotten to post about yet are May Days! May Days were really great this year and even though I didn't get to go to the concert because it was my friend's birthday, the on campus events were awesome! There was free food on campus every day during the week and tons of awesome events (and a lot of really cute animals to pet!)

DUGS was out a ton, for those of you who are not familiar, they are our grilling squad! They show up to a bunch of events and serve up awesome hamburgers, hottogs, and other delicious grilled food. Here is a picture of some of the graduation seniors and the cords they got for being in such an awesome club that brings so many smiles on campus and recently won a wine pairing contest!

This year, May Days featured DRAM, which I heard was awesome. This year, it was held downtown at a concert venue. While I was a little dissapointed it wasn't on campus this year, DU provided buses to the event. There was also some really good food truck food over the week (Mexican, BBQ, ice cream and cupcakes...), a full petting zoo, and free shirts! This year's design was really awesome and there was actually enough for the whole school! I got a yellow tank top (pictured below) but there was also awesome neon orange/pink shirts! Check out some more pics below!

DU Alumni Dinner!

DU hosted an Alumni Dinner for all the graduating seniors! It was so much fun and totally free! All you had to do was sign up and there was an open bar, a three course meal, free shirts and cookies, and a few really inspiring speakers! I also got to see a lot of my professors (a ton of DU alum now teach at DU!) 

The event was on the green right outside the library and it was a little bit rainy (extremely common for Denver in the spring/summer) so there were huge tents that shielded the whole lawn. There was a really inspiring story about a memorial that burned down for all the Veteran DU alumni that they later incorporated into the Driscoll tower. Also, it was revealed that Driscoll is getting a bit of a makeover so that is exciting!

The speeches definitely left me a little sentimental (even though I am not leaving DU yet, most of my peers are!) and I definitely felt a huge sense of bonding between everyone else that was there from my graduating class. There has been a ton of events wrapping up the year... I'm so sad I haven't been able to go to a lot of them because I am diving into my hardest set of finals yet (grad school classes are definitely harder than undergrad classes!) Today I missed a picnic and a few other gatherings (last Saturday of the year) but I gotta stay focused for all my finals that I have to pass for grad school! 

Good luck on finals week, Pios! Here;s some pictures from the Alumni dinner:

Theta Chi Formal at Beaver Creek!

This past weekend was something I look forward to all year... going to formal with Theta Chi! I have been for the past three years and every time has been such a blast! I am friends with a lot of the guys in the fraternity and it is always a really good time with friends... which is awesome because we all hang out instead of being segregated as a couple.

We left on Friday at 3pm and got up there a few hours later, not including our rest stop. While the traffic to the mountains is always bad on Friday, ESPECIALLY at like 3-4ish... we managed to make it through fairly quickly (people drive REALLY fast on 70). When we got there, everyone who was there went to dinner together (Theta Chi is only about 30ish people plus 30ish dates) and just enjoyed having the whole Osprey hotel to ourselves! It was definitely worth it renting out the whole place! We just chilled in our super nice rooms (pictured below is my friend and I enjoying my king bed) and then went in the steamroom, sauna, pool, and hottub! We even got really nice robes hahaha.

Saturday was the formal day. We were going to go on a group hike as we've done in previous years... but we were having too much fun just hanging out around the village. Beaver Creek Village was pretty much empty so we had the whole place to ourselves. We enjoyed the shops, restaurants, and beautiful weather. Then we all got ready and into our formal attire and the seniors enjoyed a champagne toast (below) and gave a little speech since there's only a few more weeks of school left :(

After that, we enjoyed an Italian dinner at the hotel that was provided by Theta Chi and had Theta Chi awards! They were super entertaining and you could really feel the brotherly love. Then we also had a little dance at the hotel with loud music and super dorky moves. After that it was back out to the steamroom, sauna, and hottub! 

The next morning (Sunday) we packed up, had breakfast, and went back to Denver at around noon where a pile of homework was calling my name. Thanks so much, Theta Chi, for an awesome weekend! It was definitely a nice little vacation before classes start ramping up again and we start thinking about final exams and projects!

Cooler Painting: Round 3

Check out this amazing post I wrote last year about cooler painting! It will give you some background on why the heck I am doing this.

So I pretty much consider myself a pro at this now ;) This week I painted a cooler for Theta Chi's formal (my third and last year going!) I have to say, painting a cooler gets much easier each time. There is definitely a learning curve between the sanding, sealing, and giving each layer enough time to dry. This time, it only took me like 10 hours instead of 20 hahahaha. I am so proud of this one though! And it was all freehand! From the expertly crafted Theta Chi flag to the majestic eagle and homage to where we both studied abroad... it definitely rivals my beautiful Aspen masterpiece from last year (pics are on the link above!)

I highly recommend going to a fraternity formal if you know any fraternity men that need a date! They are so much fun and it's pretty much like a little vacation! You get to get all dressed up, take tons of pictures, and feel like you're a high school kid all over again. They usually go Friday night through Sunday morning and are in some epic location in the mountains. We are going to Beaver Creek and they are renting out the entire hotel! It is definitely going to be a blast, I just hope the weather is good. Colorado in the spring time is super unpredictable... it has been switching off from a beautiful and sunny 70s to a miserable 80 degree thunderstorm. The mountains are even worse because it will actually be 80 and snow in the same day. Look out for my blog post recap to find out what happens! 

Senior Year Registration...

While there are tons of people that help you out in college (your parents, your counselor, etc.) this posts serves a warning to people that you really have to be looking out for yourself. I am doing my dual-degree and just learned that I need another marketing class to get my minor.............. which I did not know until I got my formal graduation evaluation (I officially graduate in fall quarter even though I am walking in Spring and a quarter and a half before you graduate you get an official email telling you what you still need).

I didn't think that it would be an issue until I actually looked at the marketing classes offered in the fall. Many of the ones I was interested in were not offered or conflicted with the rest of my classes. You really need to plan ahead. I am down to two classes that I am hoping to get into. If I can't get in then I don't get my minor (which is awkward since I already put it in my graduation announcement ahaha!) 

As someone who hasn't paid much attention to planning their classes, I figured that something like this would happen. I have dropped a few classes in the past and took a quarter off to do my internship. It is also pretty difficult to get a minor with an accounting major. The moral of the story is: be flexible! Sometimes things might not happen the way you want. Without proper preparation, you should just expect that something is going to wrong. Learn to adapt. Whether or not I get my marketing minor, I am going to be fine. I already have a job in public accounting after I graduate so how can I complain?!  So just keep your 4-year plan in mind... ALWAYS. And regularly check your minor and major requirements! Most minors are 20 credits, but marketing is one of those ones that is 24 and even more if you aren't in the business school! 

Good luck with registration, Pios! Here is my graduation announcement!

 

DHOP With Tri Delta!

Life has been crazy busy with midterms and all, but I didn't want to skip over a post about DHOP because it's definitely an event that everyone should know about! All the girls in Tri Delta stay up from 11-2ish making pancakes and bacon. Everyone who gets a ticket gets bacon, juice, and unlimited pancakes (plain and chocolate chip) with whipped cream! The event is held in the Tri Delta house, which is super nice but also gets a little packed. Only Tri Delta could get so many people to come out after 11pm on a super snowy day (don't even get me started on how confused I was by this freak snowstorm...)

This was my first year going and it was definitely worth it! So much fun to help out St. Jude and get some late night food! Everyone also got to keep their cup which was a pretty cool memento. It's awesome that all the Tri Delta girls sacrifice a weekend night, but that's definitely what helps make the event so special! They serve up pancakes all night to hundreds of people with a smile on their face, which totally baffles me hahaha. 

I love spring quarter because there are so many greek life events going on! My friends just competed in Anchor Cup (a soccer tournament for Delta Gamma) and Chi Omega's Bake-A-Wish just happened! Stay tuned for some more awesome greek life events coming up!

Click here to check out their Facebook page including a really awesome recap video of DHOP 2017!

Cinco De Mayo!

This past Cinco de Mayo was the best yet! The weather was gorgeous and it landed on a Friday... can't get any better than that. Since in the past I haven't really been able to celebrate Cinco de Mayo for one reason or the other, this year I decided to go all out! 

12pm: Tacos and horchata with Pi Lambda Chi! Pi Lambda Chi is a multi-cultural sorority that focuses on Latina culture. They were all out in the sun serving up the most delicious homemade pork tacos with homemade salsa and horchata! For those of you who don't know, horchata is a milk, cinnamon, and rice drink that is super sweet, filling, and delicious! They were serving two tacos and a cup of horchata for $5, what an awesome deal!

1pm: Since I was already on Driscoll green eating some delicious tacos with my housemate, we decided to also check out the GlobeMed field day that was happening right next to Pi Lambda Chi's event. They were out there giving information about their awesome club where they travel the world helping people, and hosting a raffle giveaway! The proceeds all went to charities they work with. If you love traveling and see yourself in the peace corps one day, I highly recommend checking them out! I hear it's a life-changing experience. They were also offering free pizza and snow cones! Woop woop!

2pm: 2 hours later and we still couldn't get off Driscoll green. There was Spanish music blasting, the sun was shining, and people were playing volleyball. I suck at volleyball, so I just watched, but it was an amazing afternoon to just chill outside for a little in the awesome DU lawn chairs that are everywhere!

4pm: This is when the fiesta at the Pio was starting to begin (and when my massive sunburn was starting to show up)! I live a block away and could hear the music blasting (they even had a DJ) and could hear all the people having a blast dancing on the roof. I got some chicken nachos, chips and salsa, and a margarita! Talk about an amazing Cinco de Mayo!

Culturefest!

I attended Culturefest last week and took some (really bad) photos! I was already in Driscoll and heard the sounds of TONS of people coming from the Driscoll Ballroom. I have heard of Culturefest before, but this year's seemed to be much bigger! You can kind of see the amount of different cultures represented below:

Each culture represented had a little booth with some people dressed in local or traditional outfits, maybe some information about the culture or any clubs they are represented in on campus, and all had food they were either handing out or to purchase and raise money for some cause/their club. Some of the different cultures included Thai, South African, even Hillel (Jewish organization on campus) was there. Multicultural greek life was also there.

 

So many people!

Some random people I met at one of the tables while they were eating lamb kebobs! Plates were usually around $5 and there were tons of options included rice dishes, hummus, latkes, and other stuff!

One of the information flyers I picked up on Brazilian politics!

More people.

There was also presentations and some different performances! It was such an awesome event I had know idea it was so well organized with a schedule and everything!

I got some sticky rice and mango. YUM!

This is definitely an event that I am going to try to attend next year! Thanks DU for putting on such a successful, fun, and educational event! The performances were awesome and the food was delicious.