Greetings from Denver

Well, we made it to Denver in one piece AND we didn't get lost once. Some might say that's a miracle, especially because neither one of us has the best sense of direction. After checking into our dorm (which is pretty sweet, even though we had to bunk the beds... long story), we decided to check out the fitness center, which makes sense, because who would think of sleeping after 18 straight hours of driving? Apparently not us. It was fun though because the pool in the fitness center is amazing.

After our refreshing swim, we came back to the dorm with the intention of passing out. This did not go quite as planned though because we started meeting other people as they arrived at the dorm. And then someone invited us to go downtown for dinner and to the bar. Not being ones to turn down social events, we decided that socializing was more important than sleep. We went to a place in the 16th street mall called the Rock Bottom Brewery with a couple of the girls instead of the whole group though because we kind of got separated. It was deeeelicious.

I got a glorious 12 hour night of sleep, which was much needed after forgoing sleep for some 35+ hours. I'm not sure how long Lisa slept because she was already awake when I got up, but I'm sure it was close.

Today we had orientation and got to meet the leaders of the Institute as well as many of our classmates. It sounds like it will be fun. Intense, but fun.

After official orientation a bunch of us decided that pizza would be wonderful for dinner. We walked around and found this sweet little pizza place called Fuhgetaboutit. We sat outside until it started raining. Which reminds me, Denver has very odd weather. It is hot all day and then storms. Everyday. Well, at least for the whole two days we've been here. But that is also the forecast for the next seven days or so. So we'll see I guess. After dinner a few of us decided to take the Light Rail to downtown for coffee. Here's a picture of the beautiful sunset against the mountains from our vantage point of the Light Rail station (which is conveniently located right across the street form our dorm!):



We found this little coffee shop called Common Grounds, which made me think of good ol' Lansing and the Common Ground festival. The coffee was good, but it closed soon after we got there, so we decided to walk around the city for awhile. We found this cool mast-type thing, which we have yet to figure out what exactly it is:



We also found a river and walked by some really sweet apartments. All in all, it's been a pretty eventful day.

Now I have to sign off and get some sleep because tomorrow is a very busy day. Au revoir!

But I'll leave you with a slightly amusing picture of Miss Lisa trying to devour the leftover white chocolate party mix stuff from the 4th of July that melted while in the car and re-refrigerated once we got here: