Indianapolis: CASE ASAP "Race Towards Excellence" Network Conference

There is nothing like hanging out and sharing a common bond with 600 college students from all over the nation. Last week I went to Indianapolis with 5 other girls from ESU Ambassadors and our amazing adviser to attend the 39th annual CASE ASAP Network Convention. We traveled 9 hours in a van and on the first day I requested White Castle for lunch! We don't have White Castle anymore in Kansas City let alone Emporia. Almost everyone hadn't had it before. So it was exciting getting to have that and be a part of others first experience having it!

We needed to be there in time for Heather, a fellow ESU Ambassador, to get to a meeting. She is the district representative for our district in the CASE ASAP organization. It is a pretty big deal and we are proud that she is from ESU! So when we were on the way, we noticed the time on our phones changed. Oh yeah, there is a time difference in Indianapolis! That was an adjustment we had to make! Once we got there, Heather had to go to dinner and work with the exec board with other district representatives so the girls and I went and got dinner at a mexican restaurant that didn't have Dr. Pepper or Pibb Extra. It was a sad moment! We walked around town and got shakes at Steak N' Shake too!

Ashley and I had a room to ourselves so we got to have our own beds! I have gone on a lot of trips through high school and college and I have always had to share a bed. So this was a neat first for me to have my own fluffy bed of bliss! It was quite comfy and by the window :) It was also nice to have it for just Ashley and I. We got to relax and also have a lot of bonding time!

Since we had to go a couple days early because of Heather and our adviser's meetings, we had our second day there all to ourselves with nothing planned! We slept in and went to the mall for awhile. For dinner, Ashley, Amanda, and Kirsten and I went to the Colts Bar and Grille which is all things Colts that is dedicated to their fans. I had a flat bread pizza that was delish! I definitely recommend if you ever want to visit Indy!

That night we went swimming at the hotel pool. The view was amazing. There was a wall of windows and part of the roof was made of windows as well. You could see the city lights and tall buildings as you relaxed and swam. It began to thunderstorm. Something that has became foreign to us due to the drought we have been in this summer. Amanda and I lounged and looked up through the roof windows and watched the lightning and rain fall down.

Our view through the window at the pool.

That night we went to the lobby and lounged and got on our computers in these super duper comfy seats! We also got desert from a restaurant at the hotel and ate them in the lobby. It was nice to unwind with the ladies and be girly!

The CASE ASAP conference started that Thursday! I was so anxious for it to finally start and felt like a kid waiting for the first day of school! We went to registration to get our things and set up our table decorations. They messed up my name tag and had my name as Machel which was a big joke to the other girls, but luckily we got it fixed :)

We went to roll call which is when all the students are gathered together in the ballroom and they introduce all the schools attending the conference. This is a time for schools to do a chant, cheer, or whatever they want to let everyone know they are there. This is a rush because everyone is so excited and they have a lot of school spirit. There are over 600 students representing over 100 schools. There are big name schools there such as KU, Mizzou, Florida, Tennessee, UCLA, Ohio, Texas, etc. It is cool to hear their chants and see what they do to show their school spirit. During that time they had a couple people from each district come up for a contest. Heather wanted me to be one of the people that went up for our district. For the contest I had to do my best rendition of "Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines!" I know, imagine me yelling this with my tiny voice. I think I did  a good job and I was thankful to have a microphone to assist me!

That night we went to a baseball game. We didn't stay very long because it was kind of boring. Hey, we are girls and we wanted to get ice cream! So we left early :)

Us at the baseball game.

We searched for an ice cream shop and found one that is in this beautiful area. It was in this round about with shops and this in the middle.

It had brick roads and the trees were filled with twinkling lights. Our adviser, Nikki, treated us to ice cream and it was delish. We decided to sit on the steps in front of the monument and had one amazing view of the city. This was what I saw...

One of my favorite pictures of all time. It was taken from my phone and I didn't edit or use filters. 

It was a special moment for me. Something that I will always remember. I felt this calmness and peace. I felt surrounded by love and a bond. Us girls just sat, ate our ice cream and observed. We saw some lightning in the sky and soon it started to sprinkle. We got up to head back to the hotel and it started to rain on us. It was a great feeling just walking at night in the rain with friends in downtown Indianapolis. I felt very in the moment.

Getting back to the hotel in the rain.

Ashley and I needed to practice our presentation so we ran through it a couple times at a random spot in the hotel and we presented for our fellow ambassadors and they helped us out! Friday was the big day and we had our presentation at 3:00pm. We presented to a room full of people about how to give effective campus tours. We got quite a few chuckles, went our full time, had questions asked, and people that came even had discussion among themselves helping each other out. It was such a great feeling and a lot of excitement and right after was market place in which schools exchange/barter things such as t-shirts, stickers, pens, and more. I was able to get a couple hard to get t-shirts from UCLA and Florida! :)

My loot from market place!

The food we were served at the hotel during conference was amazing. We had an etiquette lunch and we were taught by a really funny lady how to conduct ourselves at fancy dinners and what not.  This was our lunch during that.

Friday night we went to dinner and enjoyed it with a fellow school from our district, Drake University. We indulged at Hard Rock Cafe! Ashley and I really wanted to go there because we went last year while at conference in Nashville!

Saturday was a fun filled and busy day! We had more sessions to go to and we got a lot of ideas. At lunch the spirit award was announced and our district, District 6 won! It was awesome to be a part of and we got a cool ribbon to add to our name tag. That night was the banquet, so we got dressed up and had a fancy dinner. 

Afterwards was a dance party! I "Tonto jumped on it" and "jumped around" in my heels! It was cool dancing with other college kids from around the states.

With the beautiful ESU ladies :)

My Ambassador partner in crime, Ashley!

We decided to go out on the town in our dresses. We went back to the pretty round about and took pictures. It's such a romantic setting. Definitely felt like a Sex and the City moment strolling around all dressed up with some great girls! 

We went back to see if there were anybody at the dance party still and it was more packed than when we left! We went on the dance floor and danced with people that we had met while at conference. It was so much fun letting loose!

Me channeling Kate Middleton.

We were pretty sad leaving on Sunday morning. I was bummed to leave such a beautiful city and all the cool people I had met while I was there. Some live 100's and 1000's of miles away and you may never see them again, but hopefully we can stay in touch. I had a great time meeting new people and making memories with them. It was really neat to talk to some of them and hear about their programs and how different it can be. It makes me want to travel even more and experience more too. I also got to spend a lot of time with fellow ambassadors and learn about them too. I feel like we got closer and strengthened our bonds. Let me tell you, I know what Kirsten wants and does not want in a man! She was cracking me up and we started a new thing where we say "Chronicles of Kirsten continues" when she says something funny and outrageous! I love experiences like this because I get to learn and open my eyes more to the world and I definitely did through hanging with my fellow ambassadors, exploring a new city, meeting new people, feeling like I was living in a chick flick movie, going to conference sessions, and eating a lot of delicious food of course. :)

I was already starting to feel like Christmas was over and I was wandering how many more days were left until next year's conference. I definitely can say I had the time of my life. There wasn't a bad part to the trip. Everything seemed perfect. 

Now I can't wait to go to the 40th annual CASE ASAP conference in 2013. I will be looking forward to meeting you, New Orleans. :)

Sparkle & Shine,

Rachel