So Apparently I Have a Michigan Accent

First off, sorry for the gap between updates, it has been a couple of crazy weeks out here.

While crazy, they have definitely been interesting. Internship wise, I am doing a lot and learning a lot. One minute I'm retyping a contract out, the next I'm calling a local farmer to see if he or she would be interested in participating in our farmer's market and the next minute I'm researching which kind of mobile credit card reader my company should look in to.... It is kind of cool

Living wise, I am still not all that used to living alone in a town where I really don't know too many people. So I often feel pretty homesick and in all honesty, kind of dread the weekends.

But last Saturday was an exception. My co-intern, Lynne, and my boss, Rebecca, and I went out for the day to go shopping for office supplies. We met up at a local coffee shop (just a small local shop with a rustic interior, it was super cute) and proceeded to start our excursion.

We started at a store called "Restore" a thrift shop that also donates to Homes for Humanity. While we were looking around for office chairs and shelving, I found it. 

A piece of furniture for my house. All in it's blue suede glory.

That's right friends, I have a couch. It is a three-seater reclining couch, and I found it for $20. (With that being said, I won't actually sit on it until it has a date with some fabric cleaner)

After shopping at a few more thrift shops (and finding gems like this: (we didn't actually buy this))




We decided that it was time for lunch. We met up with my boss (pictured)'s roommate and friend at this little place called Riverside Market. It looked like a full-service cafe, mixed with a 7/11. And it had a full playground outside and a huge selection of beers on draft (which sucks when you're less than 2 weeks away from turning 21...)




Anyways, when we were getting ready to go, I asked if she wanted a box. She stared at me for a minute. Then she asked "what?"

"Do you want a box? I need one, so I'll go inside and grab one for you too" and she continued to stare. So I eventually started making box motions with my hands.

What she heard me say was "bax". And it wasn't just her, everyone at the table thought I said "bax". Either way I went inside to get her her "bax" and while I was in there, the guy behind the counter said "So where are you from, I'm trying to pick out where your accent is from?" I told him I was from Michigan and got a big "Oooh, that's where" back.

About an hour later, another cashier asked me the same question, and then spent the rest of the time telling me everything he knew about Michigan...

So in the end, I've learned that we have an accent over in the Midwest, but it is fun to have a conversation starter!

So What Exactly Am I Doing?

The simple answer to the title question here is interning.

Currently I am interning with the company C3 Events as an event management intern. C3 puts on concerts and festivals throughout the summer. In total we put on 35 days of events.

We put on the Bend Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter festivals, a concert series called Peak Summer Nights (the biggest headliner this summer being Ziggy Marley), 

Photo via creativecommons.wikimedia.org

the NorthWest Crossing Hullabaloo (the headliner is Blind Pilot), a Saturday Farmers Market, Munch and Music (a small park concert series), and Munch and Movies (same thing, but with movies). I will get to see a majority of these events all the way through, which is super cool!

But all of these events start June 26th, so for now I am doing a lot of event prep. So far my jobs have included filling out noise permits for the festival, contacting performers for the Farmers Market, contacting farmers for the market and updating insurance.

Blind Pilot from creativecommons.org

What I truly find entertaining about being an intern (and I say this with input from my time at LAFCU) is the way that "real work" is integrated with the "intern work". The biggest stereotype about being an intern is that all you do is grunt work.


The Giraffe House "Intern" (an example of the stereotype)

I'm glad to say that it has never been that bad for me, but I will laugh at all of the goodie bags I filled and cleaning our store room out for 14 hours for the past two days.

What's most important is, I like doing the grunt work, because that work shows your dedication and makes your life easier down the road. And getting the opportunity to do the real stuff, well that's priceless.

I've been here a week and am already learning a ton, and I can't wait to see what's still in store!

Life Lessons

Today is May 7th, my second full day here and surprisingly I have already learned a lot of lessons here.

1) People here are REALLY nice. I wore my Giraffe House shirt to the grocery store one night, and a woman talked to me for about 5 minutes about this giraffe documentary she watched and it taught her about how much she loved them.

My Jack Burk example shirt

 2) It is totally possible to get completely and totally lost, even when you have a GPS. Says the girl who accidentally turned what she thought would be a 4 mile walk into an 8 mile walk her first day.

3) It is also possible to make it look like a murder happened on the side of the road when you drop a jar of spaghetti sauce. Cleaning your shoes from that isn't too much fun either...

4) There are a lot of different kinds of light bulbs....

5) I have watched too many crime shows... living alone as a girl makes me terrified for my life... 

6) My body still has yet to accept the time zone difference here. Dark Circles commence.

With all of this though, what's most important to note is that I'm really enjoying myself out here. It's beautiful, clean, and the work I'm doing is really cool.

How in the World Did I Get Here?

Today is May 6th, and it's officially my second full day living across the country from everything I've ever known and everything that I love. It's really weird.

I know this is just the start of my summer adventure, but let me tell you, it has been an adventure getting here...

So let's start at the beginning.

THE BEGINNING:

Last January when I was frantically looking for internships for the spring, I stumbled upon C3 Events, an event management company in Bend, Oregon. 

I was applying for internships like a mad woman, and I applied. With a poof of a magic wand and probably a few too many smart-alec comments on their application essay, I found I had received one of their 8 positions! Woohooo! After plenty of discussion, I would begin my internship on May 6th.

But now:

1) I had to get there
2) I had to find somewhere to live

and getting there was the easy part....

FINDING A PLACE

After being receiving the offer I was also invited to work at the company's first event, "The Bend Spring Festival". I am so thankful that I went. I spent 3 days working the event, and definitely got a taste of what I was getting myself into. But probably the most important thing I did while I was out there was making a few friends. 

Because I now had a couple of friends out in Bend, everything was a little bit easier. Because I now had a friend and roommate, her mom and my boss were able to find the two of us a cute and super convenient apartment close to work, and helped us move in. I really cannot thank her enough, because everywhere that Taylor (my friend) and I had tried had denied us.

 GETTING TO BEND

Finally, after 3 tough weeks of classes, I got on a plane in Grand Rapids. I flew from Grand Rapids to Chicago, and while on that plane I sat by a woman who was so excited that I was going to Bend. Apparently her ex-boyfriend was a firefighter there, and she just knew I would love it out there, and told me that she would be thinking about me and praying for me.

My next flight took me from Chicago to Portland, and the flight was fine, nothing really out of the ordinary, but when I arrived at the Portland airport, I had to head to my next gate, which was in the basement of the airport, meaning I would be getting into the plane on the ground!

But to make it even better, when I first arrived, we were told that our plane was late and our flight would be delayed for about an hour. That was fine with me, I just went up and had a cup of coffee and relaxed for a bit. But 15 minutes before our flight was supposed to take off, we hadn't boarded. Turns out that our plane had broken down at it's last location, and we would need to be delayed for another hour. I sent a message to my cousin, who really didn't seem to concerned and I continued to relax some more.

But then when it reached about 15 minutes before the next flight was supposed to leave, the front desk girls told us that because the plane was still not fixed they had called in a reserve crew and were trying to get us on one of the spare planes. The people around me were starting to get angry. One woman had already expressed how angry she was, but now another man was convinced that "there was something they're not telling us, they will pay for a hotel for me" and he started yelling at the front desk girls. Usually I am that person to, dealing with a ton of anxiety about the flight, but for once, I just felt that it was normal, and I looked over and found another woman laughing about the situation, so I sat by her.

This was my little tiny plane!!

Finally, after a 3 hour delay we made it to Redmond, where my cousin was able to pick me up and take me to my apartment. I promptly fell asleep.