Finals All Around

Dear Readers,

This week has been a very busy one for me. With preparing some stuff for graduates school and finishing up some of my final projects before finals I stayed pretty busy. It was also my last week of the semester that my radio show is on. So if you did not get a chance to check it out make sure you tune in next semester! Besides getting a lot of naps in during the day I stayed up pretty late every night. I am not the best person when it comes to doing homework during the day. I find that I am a lot more productive in the evening thus why I would rather do stuff at night.

I spent a lot of my time working on a big research paper which I am now happy to say is complete and I am very happy with the way it turned out. I have to finish up my poetry portfolio tonight and then study for my second final on Thursday. I have my first final today so I am still getting geared up for that. It shouldn't be to bad it is for my Jazz history class.

Overall my weekend was pretty fun. I got a lot of stuff done and also ate a lot of food. From trips to Wendy's to China inn and finally Taco Bell. Those were all places I went on Saturday night, not even to mention my food on Sunday and Friday night.

The other big highlight of my week was getting to go out to Lone Star steak house with a few Coe people. It seems to have become a regular thing for us and I was pretty excited to be in the company of these gentleman.

All in all I am looking forward to wrapping up this week and just relaxing for awhile. This has been a pretty good semester and I can't wait to see what next semester brings!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

Holiday Cheer

Dear Readers,

I would like to start off by saying I had a great Thanks giving break. The food was great and the plane ride was short which is always a bonus. Hopefully your breaks were well also. Other than that I came back to go to be welcomed by a nice chunk of homework which has taken me a while to accomplish. Now that all my homework is done I have been spending a lot of time with KCOE RADIO and making sure we keep moving in a positive direction which has been nice.

Before I forget I got a new car over break. My parents bought me a Camaro so I am exicted to drive that around over winter break. Speaking of winter break campus is already in the holiday spirit. I see new decorations everday I have even recieved a batch of Christmas cookies already. I will have a picture of those for you.

Well I cannot wait to give you all updates on finals which are right around the corner so be on the lookout for that. Other than that I hope you beautiful people enjoy the cookie picture and are excited for the holidays as I am.

Thanksgiving Break is Here

Dear readers,

I really must say that I am excited to be on break! I had an astronomy test yesterday that i think went well so I am happy about that. Other then that i have just been trying to relax this past week as much as possible.

Now that break is here I need to make sure I go see all my friends from back home. I got a lot of stuff I plan to get done in good old Michigan but we will find out next week if I get it all done.

I hope everyone has a great break and be prepared to hear all about my break and some of the sweet stuff i did on Sunday!

Thank-you for listening,
Charles E. Cotton III

What a Week

Dear Readers,

This week has been pretty fun filled. I spent a lot of time in the KCOE RADIO studio installing some new equipment, I also spent a little bit of time studying. Before I forget I would like to let you all know I spent a bus load of time playing the new call of duty game for xbox. I stayed up until 7am on the day it came out, guess that is one of the benefits to college and freedom.

However staying up so late was probably the stupidest thing I have done in awhile because it left me extremely sleepy for the duration of the day. Regardless the game is sweet and was well worth it. Other than that I spent sometime working on a research paper and preparing for a exam on Friday. Both of those thing went pretty well and my research paper is due this Wednesday.

Looking at my Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings I hosted my show on KCOE RADIO www.kcoe48.com from 10pm until 11pm. This Thursday we brought in a special guest D.C. who is a local musician who just released his album last week.


Once I finally made it to Friday all I could think about was the big event that KCOE Radio was hosting in Armstrong and Douglas Hall lobby. We held a big mixtape release party from some local Coe College musicians and it was a great turn out. There were tons of people, free CDs, free food and live performances. Overall it was a great time. I also spent that Friday evening on duty with one of my Resident Assistants and we decided it was a good night to cook an entire pack of bacon.


Saturday was not anything to special. I was feeling a little sick due to weather changes so I just stayed to myself a little bit and played some video games.

Sunday was a very busy day. From the moment I woke up I had to go to fraternity meetings that would take place from 10 am until 6pm. We had to take care of elections stuff and it was overall a very enjoyable experience.

Below are 2 photos from the week the first being the fortune cookie I got from Hyvee that came true and the other being a buddy's messy couch

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

Wild and Wonderful Adventures

Dear Readers,

I have had a pretty great week. I have been getting a lot of stuff done for my classes, which is always a good thing. I also started selecting my classes for next semester which I am pretty excited for. Other than that my week was not to special. I gave a lot of tours this week which is always a good way to meet/ get to know about new people. I really enjoy that aspect of working in the admission department.

This week seemed to fly by and I do not know if it was because I was busy or if it had anything to do with the fact I planned on road tripping this weekend, either way the week moved to fast for me to even keep up with. I headed out to Des Moines this weekend with a few buddies to visit a buddy. It was only about a hour and forty five minute drive so not bad at all. It was kind of like a going away party/ weekend for a good friend of ours who is heading back to Nepal after winter break.

I must say we had a good time this weekend late night pizza runs, random adventures on the town and we also played the game of Life which was a lot more fun then I expected. Other than that we were all counting down until the release of the video game modern warfare 3 which came out last night, I spent a lot of hours playing it and enjoyed every second of it.

As far as the rest of my week goes, I have a test Friday to prepare for in my Jazz History class, and I also have to get a few things done for my seminar course. Other than that I am not to busy with school stuff so I plan on a possible movie night with a group of friends sometime this week.

Hope you all got to check out the Coe College online radio show, if not feel free to by just going to www.kcoe48.com


First Photo is a picture of Juan being dumb in a chapter meeting. I just had to draw on his face.
The second photo is the game Life!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

What a Kohawk Week!

Dear Readers,

I would like to let all of you know that I had a great week. I happened to stay very busy this week but I had a good time doing so. On Monday I met up with my golf teammates and coach to chat about spring break plans which is always a good time. I also had my second to last soccer practice of the season, which is kind of sad but it turned out to be a very productive practice. Later Monday night I helped set up for spring letter awards banquet, this is an opportunity to give some credit to the athletes for the hard work they put in during their competitive season. To end my Monday evening I wrapped up with a few Residence Life meetings and tons of studying for an Astronomy test Tuesday.

Tuesday was a whole new ball game. I ran a booth at lunch for KCOE RADIO of course went to my classes ( I also went to class Monday if you were wondering). Then I broadcasted live on kcoe radio at 4pm. Followed by my final soccer practice of the season and also a astronomy exam which I was not a big fan of.

Wednesday was even better, all that soccer practice paid off with a tie against Luther College who was undefeated in conference before running into the kohawks.

Thursday was packed with class meetings and some room reorganizing not to busy of a day. I also went to a Stride Piano concert that evening at City High School in Iowa City. I had a great time and the atmosphere there was top notch.

Friday I was off to the races. I woke up at around 5:30am to prepare for a long morning drive to Western Illinois for a Student Affairs undergraduate conference. I got to meet a lot of people and also narrow down my graduate school search a little father.

Saturday was nothing but lots of work related task that I felt would be nice to get out of the way. I got a lot of things done for Residence Life and I also thought it would be nice to write 4 academic reviews to put me ahead on some of my classes. Along with all that stuff I thought it would be great to spend 7+ hours designing hosting a website for Kcoe Radio which is Coe College's radio channel which is now live nation wide via internet feel free to check out the page I designed kcoe48.com I ate a lot of pizza that night and along with the president and secretary of kcoe I believe we may have went through close to two cases of lemonade.

All and all a great week and weekend Sunday was more of a relaxing and reflecting day plus a little more website editing. I hope all of you are able to go check out the website at kcoe48.com it turned out pretty nice with some more updates coming this week.

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

Life of A Kohawk

Dear Readers,

Soccer season is coming to a end. I myself am not a big fan of this minus the fact it will be getting cold outside very soon. We have our last soccer game this Wednesday away against Luther College. Other than that I have a few other things I am looking forward to this week. I plan to attend a conference this Friday in Illinois and I also have a test tomorrow in Modern Astronomy that I still need to study a lot more for but I am looking forward to getting it over with.

I just found out my class got canceled today so that is some extra free time for me to relax today so I am not complaining. I also got around to narrowing down my grad school list to 6 possibles. I was pretty excited to finally get that search started and narrowed down a bit. This past Thursday I had the opportunity to meet with our assistant dean of students at Coe just to chat about a social justice conference I was able to attend this summer and we just spent sometime reflecting on that stuff, it is kind of nice to know we have tons of people around here that are willing to just process all sorts of things with you and just chat about whatever you want.

On Thursday of last week I had another radio show to host which was a good time fore sure. For all of you readers interested in learning and hearing more about Coe from Coe students I definitely want to recommend you check out the KCOE radio once we go live on the internet November 1st! I will make sure to give you more dates on that since me and a co-host of mine were selected to host the launching show.

I had a very productive weekend as well. I gave a tour Saturday morning after losing my voice Friday night at practice, some how it magically came back just in time for my tour. After that I had to get ready for our soccer game vs. Wartburg College which we won. Sunday was a great time as well, I got to go to a brunch at Elm Crest Country Club for Diversity Leadership Scholarship recipients and we had a good time getting to mingle and learn a little more about each other.
Sunday evening concluded with a little bit of homework and some movie watching.

Oh but some other random stuff that happened,I bought 6 cases of lemonade(it was on sale), over fall break I did a huge load of laundry and someone was kind enough to put it in the dryer and fold it for me(That just made my day). I also got all you can eat chinese from hyvee which is right down the street from Coe and it was pretty tasty.

Well once again thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

Fall Break is Here!

Dear Readers,

This past week has been a good one. I took a test and did not do as well as I would have liked but did not do that bad I got an 88% also I had initiation week for my fraternity which was a great time.
I was able to do a lot of reflecting this week and follow up conversations with people from the conference I attended last week. So my goal for this week is to narrow down my graduate school search. I also submitted some poetry to Coe Review which is our big publication service. Not typical of me but I figured I would give it a shot ( my teacher forced me). I am looking forward to see if any of my work was selected.
Although I do not have class today or tomorrow I stuck around Coe this fall break because of our soccer game yesterday which we won. That was a good one since we played our long term rivals Cornell College. Other than that I have been enjoying the weather change sort of, I like that Halloween is almost here it is my second favorite holiday. I still need to figure out a costume for this year’s festivities.
Other than that I have spent this fall break hanging out with teammates and my brothers, watching tons of movies and ordering lots of food. Along with that I got to talk with my grandma yesterday and they are getting excited for thanksgiving already. It is weird how fast it seems this school year is moving. I am looking forward to attending another conference next week and hopefully I can come back with some insight and pictures to share with you all. Speaking of pictures I plan to take some on the trip to our soccer game tomorrow so get excited!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

A Few Days Away

Dear Readers,

This past week was full of fun activities for me. From receiving a new plant for my room, a free trip to a big conference, and finally some enjoyable soccer. What more do I really need? This was a perfect week if I do say so myself. All of my classes were pretty fun this week and that is of course not always the case. Along with that I also had a soccer game this Wednesday and ttyhat is always something I look forward to. To add to all the excitement earlier this week we have had great weather as well.
This past Thursday and Friday were a blast as well. I was fortunate enough to attended a big conference related to my career field. I hope to someday become a dean at a college and I got to mix and mingle with tons of proffesoinals in the field. To make that even better my trip was paid for by Coe! This is nice for a person on a college student budget.

To add even more sugar to my punch, we had another soccer game yesterday and it was a road game. Althouuhgh we didn't get the result we were looking for this weekend we did learn a lot from it.

All and all a great week and weekend. I look forward to sharing more with you all next week. Who knows what I will get into.

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

All the places you can go.

Dear Readers,

Since we last spoke a few exciting things have occurred. I had the chance to finally go to healthy happenings which is a smoothie place in Cedar Rapids. I have been waiting to go there all summer but just finally made it and I must say it is pretty good. Other then that we had a big away soccer game Wednesday however we did not finish as well as we would have liked to but that is alright. I have night class on Wednesday so since I happened to miss that I got to go to brewed awakenings which is a coffee shop across the street from campus where I had lunch and discussed the class materials with my professor. That was very helpful to say the least, I picked up on so much more of the reading information that way and I must say it is pretty sweet that a professor was willing to go grab lunch with his students.

Other then that I also got to go to Iowa City Thursday night and I have plenty of pictures from the evening. My jazz history class went out to the Englert Theater to watch the Miles Davis Experience which was pretty cool because our professor bought us all dinner and paid for everyone's ticket. Other then that we grabbed one cold stone ice cream before the concert and walked around for a bit which was a god time.

This Friday we had a big nacho bar party in Armstrong hall lobby which turned out to have a lot of people in attendance. I can surely say I had my fair share of nachos that night. The rest of my weekend has been pretty relaxing hopefully yours was as well.

Other then that I hope you all enjoy the photos look forward to some more next week from a big conference I will be attending and thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

A Week Full of Fun

Dear Readers,

I just want to start off by letting you know I'm pretty sure that I did well on my test Tuesday and also sure I got an A on my Test Friday. Along with that good new i have much more. This week I was fortunate enough to get invited to get free ice cream from the local dairy queen. That was pretty sweet, I got a 21oz oreo blizzard. Right after my trip to get some ice cream I then went with a group of friends to Mc donald where i was introduced to a beautiful sandwich. I do have two pictures of the sandwich. Me and a few friends placed a Mc chicken sandwich inside a double cheese burger and layer both the top and bottom with fries. This was for sure one of the top ten sandwiches of my life.

On another note we had a soccer game Wednesday which we tied 2-2 and we also had a game Saturday which we lost 1-0. The highlight of my weekend was today though. I got to hang out with some friends all day at our big Coe and Cornell College picnic where I was able to go canoeing for several hours. Once we got back from the canoe trip I had to get some homework done quickly and head to my Fraternity meeting where we decided what guys were going to get bids to join our chapter. After the meeting I just relaxed for awhile until midnight where I got to go around and hand out bids to some lucky gentleman. All and all a very good week and I can not wait to see what this week has in store for me!



Soccer game vs Mt Mercy University

Mc Donalds sandwhich

Picture at canoe trip

Homecoming Week!

Dear Readers,

Homecoming week was pretty fun. It seemed like everyone had tons of Kohawk pride. I am proud to say that I was selected to emcee the homecoming pep rally this year which is kind of a big deal. The homecoming pep rally is the Friday before the big football game and I was one of the people responsible for getting everyone excited for the game and the dance. Also the pep rally is the event where the homecoming king and queen are announced.

Right after the pep rally I had to get all dressed up for a big Lambda Chi Alpha alumni event. It was pretty sweet to hear some of the funny stories the alumni had to share. However I had to call it an early night because I had a long day in front of me. The following Saturday I wish I was able to say that I got to run in the homecoming 5k, or that I was able to attend the parade, football game or dance, but I had to hit the road with my teammates to go get a few more victories for the Coe College men's soccer team. We had two away games this weekend in St. Louis, and if I must say so myself the weather was not ideal.

It was fun to handout with the guys this weekend, it was a nice long bus ride with a ton of food which is always a good thing. While away from the homecoming festivities we stayed in contact with friends back at Coe so we could find out the results of the football game and how the dance was.

As far as I know homecoming weekend was another great success. People had a great time and made memories that will stick with them forever.

On that note I was able to snap a few quick pictures from the bus of the road trip but nothing to exciting because it was raining out.





View outside the hotel room.

Game field day two.

Game field day two.

I have a few things coming up this week, a big soccer game Wednesday, a Test Tuesday and another one on Friday. These are my first two test of the semester so I am very excited to see how they go. Looking forward to telling you I got a pair of A+ scores but only time will tell.

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

Always Something New to Do

Dear Readers,

Just wanted to let you know this week has been a good one. We won our soccer game today which was pretty sweet. I got to do a few neat things this week. I went to el super burrito with some friends this weekend and probably ate a little to much but it was well worth it, the food there is great! I also watched a pretty cool documentary this weekend called pressure cooker. It was homework for my class that I have tonight actually.

Speaking of things I did for class, this weekend I went to an orchestra concert at Brucemore. For those of you that don't know hat Brucemore is it is a large mansion that is now an historical site in Cedar Rapids. I have a picture from the concert, I was surprised to see how many people were in attendance for the concert. overall I had a pretty good weekend and also a pretty relaxed week. I didn't receive to much heavy duty homework as I like to call it.

Well be on the look out to hear how this next week goes. It should be a fun one seeing how it is homecoming week! I am looking forward to all the things we have going on on campus and I hope you are excited to hear about them next week!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

A New Year!

Dear Readers,

This was the first official week back to school! Although I worked at Coe during the summer, it is just not the same being here with only a few kohawks being around. I am very excited to see what is to come this school year. I have already purchased my books for this semester and I am looking forward to my classes which are very different from some of the classes I have taken so far. I guess that's why its called a liberal arts education. I will be taken modern astronomy, film festival, seminar in black literature, poetry workshop,and also jazz history.

Seeing how this is my junior year it is getting close to that time I start narrowing down my graduate school search. My goal is to have 5-7 schools that I want to apply to. I am looking forward to the application process but it still feels so distant to me.

Other than that I had a wonderful summer. I turned 20 this June! I also was able to hangout with a lot of my good friends who graduated last year. But regardless how much fun this summer was this school year will be even better. I could not wait for everyone to get back.

This fall I am playing soccer for Coe again. It is pretty sweet and I wish I had of played my first year here. Look forward to seeing some pictures from me and my time on and off campus very soon!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

You Have to Love A BuSY Week! Happy Easter! Oh yeah about Flunk Day

Dear Readers,
It has been a pretty long few days! Oh hope you all had a good Easter! I have been playing a lot of golf but still waiting for the weather to shape up a bit. Other than that I have had to knock out a lot of homework. I guess the good thing about that is it is probably the last bit of homework for the year. Its bitter sweet that finals are coming up, it sucks to know that a lot of your good friends will be leaving but you also get to go see some of your friends from back home. Other than that finals are never really fun either I suppose. Also a lot of my good friends are going to graduate from Coe this year which is pretty exciting.
I got a lot of golf pictures for you that I talked about and I also have a picture of my Uncle Rick wearing a kohawk t-shirt I thought it was pretty sweet that my aunt sent me the picture so that will be up here as well.

I also went to the mid-night movie this Friday. Or Student Activities Committee pays for every Coe Student to attend a free movie every other Friday and this week’s movie was Your Highness. The movie was pretty funny but not as funny as the picture of me trying to swing the Thor hammer lol.

I almost forgot to tell you guys Flunk Day was a blast. Kind of cold out this year but still a good time. I was on duty for Flunk Day so I didn’t get to spend as much time on the quad as everyone else so I have no pictures. I am pretty sure however I was the first blogger to let you guys know that it was Flunk Day though so I feel I do deserve some credit.
Well I hope you all like the pictures and have a nice day!
Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

IT IS FLUNK DAY! - You heard it first from your's truly Charles E. Cotton III

funny photo

picture from outside of the "U" which is the cafeteria it was a picture before Pres Ball. Check out more info about Pres Ball on Ankit Rana's page.

Life Is good during Flunk Day Season

Dear Readers,


Hope everything is going well in your lives. However my life has been going very well. I just got back from the Chicago area not too long ago which was awesome. I was able to attend a college fair and represent Coe College which was something that most people never have a chance to do which was neat. On the way back from Chicago we brought back 12 minority students to compete for or DLS (Diversity Leadership Scholarship) here at Coe which I myself am a recipient of. Sorry but I do not have any pictures from the trip.

Next big news is Flunk Day will be here sometime soon! I will make sure to post some pictures when this event takes place. It will be a good time for sure! Something that was a lot of fun this week though was symposium day. Which is a day when classes are cancelled so that students can attend presentation presented by fellow students on a variety of different topics, I was fortunate enough to attend one which was pretty sweet. I have on photo of the event and it was after the conclusion of the event so not to exciting.

Well as far as flunk day goes I should at least tell you that I camped out in the quad on campus a few nights ago after finishing all my homework a few friends and I decided that it would be a good idea to camp out in the space where most of the Flunk Day activity would take place. Even though it was not Flunk Day the following morning I feel it is still safe to say that the camp out was a success. I am pretty sure that this was the first time anyone has ever done that before so hopefully we can create a new tradition who knows haha.

Other than that I went to golf practice today and a buddy of mine decided it would be sweet to get some photos of the beautiful golf course that we are fortunate enough to play at. I am pretty sure that we play on one of the top 2 golf Courses in Iowa. Elm Crest Golf Club is a private course and home to PGA professional Zack Johnson! Well I myself am no Zack Johnson but I do know how to play a little bit I suppose and I will have some pictures up very soon to prove it so be sure to check back soon!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

NACA Photos

Become and Elf booth

sleeping on a long drive

good old St. Paul MN

NACA NACA NACA

Dear Readers,
The weather here in good ole Cedar Rapids is starting to shape up nicely! This temperature increase is a nice change of pace for sure, people are starting to come outside more and a few people have even been picnicking already! I think it might still be a little too soon for that but that is just my opinion.
Besides this weather change a lot of excitement has been going around on campus because Flunk Day is on the prowl! For all of you unfortunate viewers who have never heard of Flunk Day I guess I will be a good guy and enlighten you haha. Flunk Day is an unannounced day where all classes are canceled and a lot of fun events and amusements are provided for students to just enjoy a day on campus with nice weather and friends and not have to think about class. Flunk Day is a nice thing to have and I feel every school should have it simply because it is a great stress reliever for students who are already starting to worry about finals and summer plans.
As far as summer plans and finals go for me I am not too concerned. I am pretty sure finals will not be too tough I hope :/ guess I will just have to find out. As far as for my summer plans I will be working on campus again! I am pretty excited about having the opportunity to work on campus again this year. However this year will be a little different, I will be working in the Admissions office giving tours and such which will be something new for me! So if any of you all plan on making a visit to Coe College this summer you might just be able to have me as your tour guide which would be pretty sweet if I may say so myself.
So besides all of those things I had a good time this past Thursday through Sunday at the NACA conference that I went on. I learned a lot about what goes on with our Student Activities Committee as well as what our Student Activities Coordinator does. It was a pretty good time I was able to travel to St. Paul MN. As far as travel goes I get to head to Chicago this Thursday and help out at a college fair for Coe. This should be a great experience and I am really looking forward to it!

I will leave you all with a few things. I will post a few pictures from the NACA conference soon as well as some pictures from the college fair in Chicago hopefully! Other than that class selection is coming up and I will let you all know a thing or two about that!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

formal picture

Picture from AOII Formal!

A Very Fun Weekend!

Dear Readers,

This weekend was pretty sweet. I was invited to formal and I had tons of fun! I was invited to AOII formal which is a sorority here on campus. Formal was at the Clarion Hotel not to far away from Coe. It was nice we got a hotel room and really just had a great time. Other than that I have just been busy with summer plans! I did receive another job offer here on campus for the summer which is pretty cool. I got offered a position in the admissions office. All I am waiting on is to hear back on the internship for NASPA (I have my fingers crossed). Either way it will be a great opportunity for me. I really enjoy the people who work in admissions and I am pretty sure they will make the job a lot of fun as well as provide me with a decent amount of work.

Well other than that I want to put some more pictures up soon! I know how much people love pictures! And also I almost forgot but I will be in a video1 I got interviewed for a video for admissions which hopefully you all will have the chance to see sometime soon!

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

Cant forget the Momos!

Hey guys just wanted to share this awesome picture with you all of me mixing these delicious treats! If you want to see the finished products check it out on Ankit Rana's blog

From ATL to STL and back to Coe!

Dear Readers,

Spring break was a pretty good time! As I have told you all before I really was looking forward to going on spring break and I was also looking forward to being able to try something different. Thankfully I had the opportunity to do just that this spring break. I have done my fare share of community service since I have been at Coe. Seeing how all First Year Students must complete 20 hours of community service; but I also spent my time last summer here at Coe serving as an AmeriCorps Summer Vista Associate which allowed me to continue my volunteerism efforts. However this spring break was by far different from any other service activities I have participated in.

Over break I was able to visit new places meet new faces and all that good stuff while gaining an experience I do not believe I could have gotten from any other spring break opportunity. ASB (Alternative Spring Break) trip opened a door for me literally, while in Atlanta Georgia the group of 13 students as well as our three faculty advisors served the local community of Atlanta through an organization called DOOR (Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection) doornetwork.org this organization set us up in a local church right outside of downtown Atlanta called St. Marks.But first let me back track a little bit. On the 14 hour drive down to Atlanta though we stopped in Nashville Tennessee for a night which was pretty sweet. We were able to eat dinner at the Nashville Palace and stayed in a hotel.

The next morning we continued on the rest of our journey until we arrived in Atlanta where like I stated earlier we were lodged at St Marks Methodist Church through the DOOR organization. What DOOR does is provide a chance for groups like ours to connect with local nonprofit organization in the community and allows us to provide volunteer service. Some of the places we were able to volunteer were at a few transitional homes for homeless or abused mothers, also at an elderly home, and my group also spent time in a soup kitchen and working at an Urban Farm. One of the cool things about door was the reflection opportunity. At the end of each day following dinner we sat down with the two leaders of DOOR Atlanta; David and Megan. Both of these people make sure that we understood the importance of our service and also gave us the time to express the things we learned, liked, disliked or would like to incorporate into our local COEmunnity here in Cedar Rapids.



Besides all of the pretty neat service experiences we also got some time for exploring and tours and other cool stuff like that. One of the first tours we went on was of the CNN Headquarters. The only sad thing about this was they did not allow us to take pictures on the tour so I only have photos from outside and the massive lobby area.

One of our goals was to go to one of Atlanta's top BBQ spots. Big Daddy D'z. I got an awesome plate of food it was pretty tasty almost as good as back home.

One of our next stops was a little Ice cream place downtown. It was nice as well but I think I may still like cold stones better!

Our second tour was to the Martin Luther King JR center in Atlanta. This was probably my favorite thing over break. Being able to see his home and tomb was something I will remember forever.

Another neat place we stopped to eat while in Atlanta was called The Varsity it is only in two locations in the world, one being Atlanta and the other being Athens, Greece I thought that was pretty sweet.

One of our last tours of the trip was a place called the Underground. It was like an underground mall pretty much but it had a lot of history. Our tour guide gave us a nice long tour and speech on the history of Atlanta and how it came to be.

P.s. A good food place in the underground was Johnny Rockets!

After all of those good times in Atlanta we headed out to St. Louis for the St. Patrick’s Day parade. It was a pretty fun time with tons of people!

Overall the trip was fun but I am glad to be back at Coe! The weather here has shaped up nice and I just recently started golf season as well as kicking the soccer ball around outside! (which is pretty enjoyable)





Well I do not want to take up to much of your time but I will talk to you guys again Tuesday for sure!