Boulder visit and of course karoake

I went to Boulder and visited the school a week ago Friday. I left Unalakleet on Wednesday and arrived in Boulder Thursday cross-eyed from sleep deprivation. I took a nap and then went to dinner with a little over half of the other prospectives and one of our graduate student liasons or whatever you want to call her. She was very nice and it was slight awkward at first but as dinner progressed, we started asking questions and talking. The two from Tennessee were severly annoying and everyone else was nice, kinda bland, but nice. I asked a few questions but one girl really took the reins and went to town asking questions. So I rode those shirt tails and she basically covered every question that I'd thought of. After dinner I was still fair tired so I read for a bit and honestly went to bed at 9:30. Pathetic considering the time change would have put me at 7:30. Rockstar. Let me tell you.

Friday dawned at about 7:00 and I took a shower and ate breakfast. Little did I know that starting my day with food with lead to an entire day of eating! Seriously they must have thought that food was the way to get us to go to school there. The other graduate school liason met us in the lobby and we walked on over to the university. Short lovely walk. :) We had a meet and greet thing with more breakfast in the Math building. I could barely eat but I totally managed to stuff coffee down in my tummy no problem at all. David Grant spoke for a while and then a professor and a grad student both gave short talks. They finished just in time for us prospectives to be rushed to Analysis and then Algebra class with almost no time to pee! After the classes, which were slightly awkward because we just jumped in with no real notice (one professor was quite nervous, it was quite cute), we met up with some other graduate students and went to lunch on the hill. I went with one of the graduate liasons and another prospective to a sushi place. Now this prospective was the most amazing question asker ever! She even had a list that she read over a few times. Every question that could possibly be thought of was asked by her along with several variations that expanded the graduate liasons answers. Amazing. And great. I didn't have to think at all and his brain was being picked clean. Nifty. After lunch we had some down time. I sat with two graduate students and talked with them and read a tad bit just to get my mind off of crap for a second or two. After downtime and some more coffee there were three more talks and then dinner with grad students and professors. It seriously felt like we just had eaten lunch! But I managed to eat a little and socialize. I was definitely getting a good vibe from everyone and from the campus and Boulder. Kinda nutty. Didn't think I'd like it as much as I did. After the dinner we had two options, happy hour with the grad students or bowling with grad students. I chose happy hour with the grad students. I was one of two to do that. :) Hehehe... It was a pleasant evening and I even ran into someone that I knew from Durango. Colorado is small. Almost as small as Alaska.

Amanda dancing

Speaking of Alaska here are some pictures of my Anchorage time. I went and saw Amanda dance at the Biker Show thingy. We also got coffee and went to dinner and hung out and it was awesome. :)

Me and Jason

This is Jason and I becoming intoxicated at a karaoke bar. We started out this evening at Koot's and proceeded to let Lucy out, seek out a karaoke bar, and get quite intoxicated. Pretty sure we were both still tossed the next am.

Such a rockstar

This is me singing karaoke at the karaoke bar. The classic Journey move. I think I do this everytime that I sing "Don't Stop Believing." Bitchin', I'm so bitchin.

I love karoake

And this would be Jason singing at the karaoke bar. We're awesome, aren't we? He also played a lot of air guitar. It was AWESOME. Shenanigans.

So this grad school thing.

The offer was pretty amazing. At least I think so. I'd get a Teaching Assisstantship that would pay just over 15,000 for the school year, they would waive the tuition for 9 credits (full-time), and I would get a 2500 fellowship. I'm going to look at the school in two weeks. Just bought my ticket. It's startling to think that I'll end up back in Colorado after all of my planning towards what I thought was my inevitable move to Montana. Part of my heart is forever stuck in Montana with Hanna, Luke, Mama Rodli... I bought car insurance in Montana. My car is already there. I've looked at apartments and kittens online since April (even thought I wouldn't have been moving there earlier than January.)

But I can picture myself in Boulder as well. It's 4-5 hours closer to Missoula. I wouldn't have to drive through Utah anymore but I guess instead would have to drive through Wyoming. It's close to Durango, so I could still visit. I know a few people in the Boulder/Denver area. Megan and her family, Nicole, Chris, Madison, Jenny (she'll be moving to Seattle shortly though.) Two of my professors went to graduate school there so I'm assuming the school was good and that they liked it there. Denver is a larger airport to fly in and out of and a lot less expensive than Durango or Missoula, both are small airports. I've looked at some classifieds for Boulder and I could afford to have a two bedroom all to myself. I love living by myself. I wish I knew where I was going to be 5 months from now. That way I could be planning on what I need and want. I just want to be there, buying a new bed, putting up my book shelves, taping up pictures on my walls, cooking, cleaning, reading in my bed at 5 in the morning, dancing while I do my dishes, piling magazines up in a corner, stupid stuff. I think I've had too much coffee this morning and am just too restless.