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!

Just thought I would send you guys a quick picture of the score from the last Woman's Basketball game at home. I really posted it because Ankit thought I wouldn't have the picture. Other than that I have a few pictures and stories from my spring break trip I would like to share with you all sometime this week. Maybe even later today If I have the time!

Spring Break Is Here!

Hey Readers,

This is just a quick post from me. I just wanted to let you all know that I am on my way to Atlanta in the morning! Classes are all done and break is here. I am going on alternative Spring Break with a few of the organizations here at Coe College. It is nice to be able to do things like this through Coe for sure. Well other than that I am heading to the Women's basketball game tonight at 7pm it should be pretty crazy. Next week I will have a lot of pictures hopefully of the game from tonight but no promises on that. However I will have pictures from the trip for sure. Also I got one of my Mid-Term exams back and I got a 97% I was pretty excited about that.


Thsnks for your time,

Charles E. Cotton III

Good Week For Sure!

Dear Readers,

This has been a very exciting week. Besides having two more mid terms (Pretty sure I did well on them) we have had some exciting basketball games. For us guys we were eliminated in the conference tournament, however out women’s team did not seem to face the same fate. Our lady Kohawks won the Conference tournament and are headed to the NCAA Tournament! It was packed in Eby Field House for the championship game yesterday and I could not believe how many students and alumni came out for the special event. It’s nice to see these girls succeed and hopefully they take home another trophy in a few weeks! For me my basketball journey has come to an end for the year and it’s now time to prepare for golf season!

(Picture of Coe Students Storming the Court after the Women's team defeated Simpson)

On another note, I was able to attend the staff bonding event for the Armstrong/Douglas Residence Life Staff. We went out to eat at Perkins which was a fun time but was not as much fun as our trip to Planet X. Planet X is a Laser tag sort of place and although we were unable to play laser tag we did get to play mini golf! That was something I really enjoyed and was different then the everyday activities I participate in at Coe.

(Picture of a Staff Member draining that deadly 4 foot downhill putt haha)

There are a lot of cool things like this that students do at Coe. Typically I like to go to different places to eat. Last weekend I was able to go out with a few of my buddies to Cold Stone and Genghis Grill! I have never been to that place before but I hear that it is similar to Hu Hot if you have ever been there. I personally like to compare it to Mongolian Barbeque (one of my favorites) if you have been lucky enough to visit that establishment.

(Picture of my two good buddies having a good time at Genghis Grill)

(picutre of my food, sorry I took a bite out of it but it looked to good I could not wait until after the photo)

(Last but not least a picture of myself taking that Bite of food before showing you just how good it looked up close lol)

This has been a great week and I am glad I was able to share it with you all!

Oh and I almost forgot, Movie of the week: No Reservations

Fact of the week:The U.S. enjoys an average of 48 pints of ice cream per person, per year, more than any other country. (Maybe we should make ice cream the fifth food group!)

Quote of the week: "Never Give Up" -Unknown


Thank you for your time,

Charles E. Cotton III

WHAT WILL TODAY BRING

Dear Readers,
This has been a bitter sweet week. I began this week very excited being able to hangout with friends and I am pretty sure I did well on my midterm in my History of Modern China class. Along with that the weather is really starting to warm up which is great. However I got a little sick yesterday and that was kind of crappy. Another good thing was that I was able to quickly get in touch with the nurse at Coe this morning who gave me a lot of things that I could do to take care of my sore throat. I was pretty relieved after that and feel ten times better after that but I am still not 100 percent yet hopefully by tomorrow morning.

This week has also been going by pretty quick and I felt pretty productive. I had two papers due early this week and finished both in time and was proud of them both. My classes have still been holding my attention which is a good thing.
I have also received a phone interview for an internship I am really excited about for next Monday. I will start preparing myself for this interview as the week goes on and look forward to telling you things went well.
Well I have been chatting with my family a lot this week which is nice. I enjoy giving them updates on what is going on in my life as well as seeing how things are back home in Michigan, especially since I don’t get to go home that often. It’s not that bad that I don’t get to go home that often since I really do feel at home hear at Coe with such a good group of friends.

Well I will leave you all with three things;
a movie: The Last Emperor,
a fact: The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean, but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear. Any cup-shaped object placed over the ear produces the same effect.
A quote: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. “
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thank you for your time,
Charles E. Cotton III

Already Thinking About Summer

Dear Readers,
Do you guys have summer plans? Because I do! I really have been thinking about my summer options over this past week. Although it is February it’s about that time for me to figure out what I my going to do for this summer. Last summer I decided to stick around Coe which was pretty sweet. I really enjoyed being able to see the things that occur during the summer. I thought that the campus would be extremely empty but I was surprised to see all of the activities that went on.

During this past summer I was lucky enough to live in the New Apartments as a first year student. I was pretty excited about that, and I was also excited that I was able to live with a few of my good buddies, However this summer I have had the opportunity to apply for a few internships else where I really would like to be at Coe again. I guess I am starting to get all summer like because it is suppose to warm up outside pretty soon! The sun has already been shining nice and bright and it keeps me in a pleasant mood. I am however a fan of the month of February even though it’s cold outside it’s a good month. Its black history month! Coe does a lot for cultural events from putting on plays in Dows theatre and offering fun history facts. Intramural soccer is also right around the corner! That is pretty exciting for me because I play soccer here at Coe and it will be nice to finally get to play again. Along with some good old golf as well!

Other than those things this week has been very relaxed. Besides having a basketball game yesterday I had a presentation Tuesday in my History of Modern China class that I think I did pretty well on. Next week should be very buy though I have two papers that are due as well as a mid-term exam in my History of Modern China class. I have another basketball game this Sunday as well maybe I will snap a photo or two on the bus ride there that way you guys can see what being a college basketball player is all about.

Random Fact of the week: If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.

Random quote of the week: “A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” –Charles Darwin

Movie of the week: Piranha 3-D
Look forward to some photos next week hopefully!

Thank you for your time,
Charles Cotton III

Snow is Great

Dear Readers,

Snow can make an average week a great week. This week was looking like it was going to be a busy one for me. I had a few papers on my agenda to get done by the Thursday and Friday of this week and that alone was going to be just enough to put a damper on my fun time. However I was given a gift that can only come in the winter months at a place like Iowa. It began to snow and snow a lot! It made me feel like a little kid again to know that it was a strong chance that class would be canceled for the next day which it was!

The good thing about this snow day was not all the students on campus running around making snow angels or anything like that but the good thing was how understanding the Professors here at Coe are about this sort of thing. Both of my papers were pushed back which somehow gave me more motivation to complete them both this week anyway which is beside the point. It was nice to know that I could just take it easy this week if I wanted to and enjoy the winter wonderland outside.

Along with the snow also came another basketball game against our rivals Cornell College. I will not spend too much time talking about this game but we won and we won by a large margin which was nice. It was also nice to see so many people out at our game even though the weather was so bad; I guess that just goes to show that we have some hardcore fans here at Coe.

Well if I must say I am sad about one thing this week though and that is the fact that I will not be able to attend the midnight movie this weekend. Here at Coe our student activities committee pays for any student who wants to go to the midnight movie that they are sponsoring at the local movie theater. This Friday’s movie is No Strings Attached, I have no clue what the movie is about but it is nice to have the opportunity to attend one for free with a lot of other Coe Students.

I would just like to let you all know that I have another basketball game this Saturday and it is a road game which should be fun. I have not had a road game in awhile. Other than that I will keep it simple I have a quote and fact for you but this week’s fact is Coe related! If you did not know Coe College was founded in 1851 by Daniel Coe and Coe College claims the shortest name of any American institution of higher education. This week’s quote is special to me since it is Black History month! “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
Harriet Tubman

Hope you all enjoyed this weeks blog and I look forward to writing again next week!

Thank you for your time,
Charles Cotton III