Homecoming Weekend
Hi,
Well, here I am, back from Colorado. The Urban Planning trip to Denver was a blast. I had a great time with all my colleagues and saw a lot of awesome places. I never made a visit to Denver this summer while I was living in the mountains, so I was happy to learn that Denver was our destination for this year's field study. The majority of our trip involved visiting redevelopment projects in the outer ring of the city core. One of these, Stapleton, is the largest redevelopment project in the country. It was an old airport that they have converted into a "mixed-use" development with over 30,000 units for rent or purchase.
Getting to Denver may not have been as enjoyable as the actual time spent there. Actually, it wasn't. I generally enjoy flying, and avoiding the highways. So, when I discovered that we would get out to Denver (a little over 1000 miles) by bus and train, I had mixed emotions. I have traveled by bus before, (including a nightmarish sixth grade journey to Boston that took 22 hours) but never by train. I had always heard good things about traveling the country by train, so I wasn't too worried. I should have been. We boarded the train in Galesburg, Illinois, around 4:30 pm and it would take us 17 long hours to get to Denver from there. Everything was alright until it came time to try and sleep. It felt more like we were traveling in a wagon than on a train. I think I would have sleep better if I took a pillow and blanket onto the tilt-a-whirl. The train car shook so much, and was so noisy, that I only managed to sleep for about an hour. Eventually, all 43 smelly, grumpy, and tired students arrived in Denver, just in time to start our first tour.
Note: We are putting together a video of clips and pictures from the trip that I will put on here as soon as it is done.
This weekend is homecoming weekend. So all this week, the school has been electing the best looking, building large bonfires, and putting up decorations. Hopefully our football team can get the win. I might not be there because we are having dinner for my Dad's birthday. Surely I could catch the game on TV...
Homecoming also means that it is time once again to start choosing your classes for the next semester. I am really excited about the upcoming semester because it will be my first one that I don't have a studio. Studio is a 12 hour per-week class that all students in the CAP program are in. So for the past three and a half years I have been in a studio Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1 - 5 p.m. I guess I just don't know what I will do with 12 extra hours of time.
Here are some pictures from the trip that my professor Dr. Keuhl took:
On the bus..
Boarding the train...
Touring Stapleton
Meeting with a developer at Belmar
And me finally sleeping on the train...
Bye.