First Day

Yesterday was a long day. As I mentioned in my last blog, I did not get here until very early Sat. morning or very late Fri night. The first meeting of the faculty leaders and staff started at 9am and lasted until 4:10. We met in the lobby of the hotel and walked over to Augsburg College which is not that far - it is right across the street from the University of Minnesota. The College is small and old but looks like a good place to be. I certainly can not complain about the facilities. My fellow faculty members are a diverse lot of folks, two of which I had worked with before. Several of them are in communication and debate and are from the smaller schools (not Yale or Harvard). However, we do have one from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point. It was a long but interesting day and we went over all our responsibilities and the schedule. Some of the first timers are a little nervous and are afraid they won't be able to do everything. Guess what, they won't be able to. The key to survival of this program is to be flexible, flexible, flexible. Speakers change at the last moment, there is too much going on in terms of the work we have to do to ensure that this is truly an academic program and in terms of the events we want to go to. But somehow it all works out.

We went back to the hotel and then re-gathered at 6pm to take the light rail down town. Of course the stop we got on was one before the Metrodome and it was a mess as the Vikings were playing the Steelers last night. Once we got past that we were in good shape. We went to the oldest resturant in Minenapolis -- Gluek's. What a great name. The atmosphere was friendly and wonderful. Stained glass and wood. Food was even better -- I had the sausage party which was two different types of sausages (I had Brats and Ukrainian) and saurkraut with hot german potato salad. And of course to go along with it a Gluek's Red on tap!!! Fun evening getting to know my fellow faculty leaders and the staff. And Gene was Gene and full of fun. He did report that everyone on Denver got into the Media party!! That is usually one of the best parties and hard to get into. So there is hope we all with get into the one here next Sat. night.

Weather is absolutely wonderful.