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Thursday, June 23, 2011

Jet-setting and Apartment Dwelling

Again, I have proven to be a flaky blogger. An entire month has passed and so many things have happened. Exactly one month ago, I was killing time in Westport with Professor Ure while we waited for our second chance to catch a plane over to Sweden after missing our first one due to a series of unfortunate events. Within the last month, I have traveled a combined 50,000 miles between Providence, Boston, Stockholm, San Diego, and Oklahoma. I can't even tell you the hours I spent on an airplane. But the stories I have to tell is worth every minute spent in airport security, waiting for transportation, and time spent crammed on an international flight. After my travels, I started my internship with WaterFire, started settling into my new East Side apartment and my friend Madison came to visit! I apologize for the long post...

Just to give you the highlights of each trip:

Stockholm, Sweden (May 22nd-May 30th)
When Professor Ure and I finally got to Sweden a day after the rest of the group, we jumped right in and got to work. Despite our big plans to get all of the work done in the 11 weeks of class before the trip, we of course put it all off until we left the country. It was our second year to partner with Bergh's School of Communication in Stockholm (one of the best communications schools in the world) and they were phenomenal. They were able to get us an awesome opportunity to create a marketing communications campaign for Electrolux, pitch it to them at their world headquarters and showcase our project at the Bergh's Annual Exhibition. The Bergh's Exhibition is a showcase of their students' final projects for other companies around Sweden and the opening night draws in a crowd of VIPs in the communications world around Sweden and Johnson & Wales played a part in it. After much dispute, our booth turned out wonderfully and we made it through our pitch to Electrolux. I have to say that I am truly disappointed in us for blowing that awesome opportunity. I do admit that I got caught up and completely spent on JCPenney and the Ad Team project, I just did not put in the effort the Electrolux campaign deserved.

Luckily, our schedule allowed for the ad team presenters to enjoy the city for the weekend after completing our project. I must say, Stockholm is a beautiful city with fantastic food, great people, great transportation, and beautiful scenery. I do hope to visit Sweden again.
One minute it was sunny
The next, it was raining



San Diego, California (June 2nd-June 4th)
After taking a short breather after getting back from Sweden at Professor Ure's house, Addy, Christie, Ure, and I were off to the airport once again to go the American Advertising Federation's (AAF) Conference called ADmerica and the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC). This time we met up with the other key ad team members and Prof. Monahan (Tom). We flew transcontinental on JetBlue airlines...which I love, watching tv really makes the trip fly by. We checked into our hotel and decided to explore San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter before starting the conference the next day. In the midst of all of the excitement of making it to the nationals, we had to try really hard to not forget what we were there to do, to win.

Our first few run throughs were a bit rough and people were getting nervous for the presenters, but after some quiet time away from the rest of the group, we pulled it together. The day of our presentation, we slept in, ironed our outfits, ordered in room service, visualized success, and catch a little bit of the national spelling bee before heading downstairs to compete. It was just what we needed!
Mmm room service breakfast

Visualizing success
Ryan's motivational speech
3rd Place!

We delivered a flawless presentation and once again became a crowd favorite (Addy especially). Once we were done presenting, the rest was up to the judges. The next day, they announced the winners at the luncheon. After much anticipation, they announced 4th place as Butler University, then us as the 3rd place winners! Ithaca College won 2nd and Miami University got 1st place (well deserved). The professors and a few students flew out that night and the rest of us had Saturday to enjoy San Diego and fly out later that night. Saturday was very fun, we slept in, ate lunch, and rented a boat! Made great memories and bonded with our fellow ad team members more than ever.
We're on a boat!

Tahlequah, Oklahoma (June 6th-June 12th)
After one strange day spent in my apartment on the couch, I got on another plane and headed home for a visit. The point of the trip was to unwind from the craziness and spend some time with my family and friends because I wouldn't get another chance to go home for quite some time. And I went home to see my oldest friend, Ben, get married. My time at home was exactly what I wanted it to be. I got to see all of my friends at home, spend time with my mom, and got to relax. I didn't have anything to do but hang out all day for 6 days. It was fantastic. I got to reconnect with one of my best friends, Katelyn. We used to be neighbors when we were kids and we started drifting senior year of high school and then I left for college. Glad to have spent time with her reminiscing, we walked the neighborhood, went to the river, and she came over and watched tv with me then stayed for dinner just like old times. I also got to spend time with Janessa before she left for Falls Creek and got to see Emily and her son Declan. Unlike most of my trips home,

I barely saw my guy friends except for at the wedding. When I got to the wedding with my mom, I realized all of my friends there were in the wedding party...a bit awkward, but we made it through. It was a very nice wedding in front of the historical Murrell Home. Right before the ceremony began, heavy clouds and wind moved in and looked like it was going to storm. Luckily it never did rain, it was actually a blessing because it cooled the weather and made the outdoor wedding not so hot. After that, I boarded on my last plane for a while and headed back to my real life, not in Oklahoma.
Ben & Ceyeli Corbett
June 11, 2011
Providence, Rhode Island (June 12th-Present)
The rest of my time has been spent settling into my apartment. I spent a lot of my free time browsing Target, Home Goods, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and IKEA looking for just the right things for my new home. It's such a womanly instinct to want to create a home. I loved every minute of shopping for things. Madison flew in for a few days to come visit and help me settle a bit. So glad she got to come. It's cool that we both don't live in Oklahoma anymore, but I can say with full confidence that we will be friends for a very long time. Also I have a summer roommate, Nicole Bomba. She's great! She's subletting for a few months and although we had never met before, we have mutual friends and get a long great.





I also started my internship at WaterFire. As the development intern, I get to see a completely different perspective of putting on an event. My department is all about finding the funding for each WaterFire and building good relationships with sponsors and donors. On my first day, I sat down with a list of phone numbers of restaurants and hotels in Providence and asked for them to offer deals to our best donors. This is going to be really good for me to learn to not be afraid to ask for something. That's always been my one fear, asking a question that I do not know the answer to, and getting an answer that I do not want to hear. Still no paying job...but it's gonna be a great summer!


That's all for now...until next time...

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