CTI In the Mile High City

I left for for Denver the morning of October 12 and while I was excited to begin this new journey I was sad to say goodbye to family and friends, and anxious about what the next 10 months would hold for me. I arrived in Denver and got settled on campus. The southwest region headquarters is located at Colorado Height University. First of all the campus is beautiful! I feel so fortunate to be in such a stunning place. From the backside of campus you have a gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains. And the sky seems so big in Colorado. Gosh, it is just breathtaking here!

Anyway I checked in and got a schedule for the coming month on campus and got my room assignment. I trudged to the 2 floor with my bags and found my room door opened and was greeted by my new roommate, Mona! We chatted and exchanged pleasantries and I started to unpack and settle in. The room was decent, a desk for both of us as well as a closet, a set of drawers, and a sink and mirror. The beds are odd though-- they are on wheels like a trundle and slide under the shelving, but the thing is, unlike a trundle bed they don’t stop rolling, so you could actually roll the bed out into the middle of the room, which is strange and pretty funny.

The first month of this 10-month adventure will be spent in Denver training and preparing for the next 9 months of service. They call this CTI and our days are scheduled for us and they are typically spent in meetings and getting to know our temporary teams. There are about 300 people on the Denver campus and we are organized into I am in the Earth Unit and there are 7 teams in that unit, each led by a team leader. My first temporary team leader was Jenn, a great fun, bubbly girl and my team had a mix of people-- a variety of ages and from different places in the country. Of course those first few days were a little strange, trying to find your bearings and not knowing one. Luckily my roommate Mona and I got along really well. She is from New Hampshire and also just graduated from college. Meals are provided for us on campus and a cafeteria that reminded me a lot of elementary school. But Mona and I made a point to try to sit with new people at each meal in an effort to get to know the other corps members. It was way easier to put myself out there when I had a buddy to do it with me. All the while we would get new temporary teams and new team leaders (TLs) so we are meeting new people and participating and various team building/ice breaker games.

Before I knew it I found myself a fun group of friends to go out and explore Denver and the nightlife. On our first venture we tried to figure out the public transit system to get us to the light rail and then make it to 16^th Street we found this great bar in the LoDo District they had a deck on the second floor with a fire place! It was great and it was so nice to get off campus and feel like a real person. There is a lot of structure here, which I understand, but is strange to adjust to coming from living on my own and doing what I like with my time. 

Any way, so far so good: overall it has been a really positive experience and I am so glad I am here. It feels like we have been here forever, but it has only been two weeks! I can't believe it. More to come soon!