Last night I had a dream that I decided to bail out on this tourism conference, so I drove the three and a half hours home. This morning I woke up and realized that I hadn't gone home, but was still in Pierre. "Crap." I thought to myself. Even as I type this 12 hours later, I'm still thinking "Crap."
To backpedal a bit, I am attending the South Dakota Govenerors Conference on Tourism. It's a two and a half day thing and I went with several other BHSU students as the school is paying for us to go. I don't know what else to say about the event. This was all I really knew when I signed up.
Yesterday we left Spearfish at noon and arrived in Pierre at 4ish. The drive was a little boring and very bumpy (my fault for sitting in the back of the van). After checking in to the conference and getting our nifty badges and itinterary, we checked into the hotel. After that, we went to some rodeo building for the first of three night "parties". SInce it was at this rodeo museum type place, the theme was cowboy. I assumed everyone would wear flannel so I wore a white button down shirt and jeans. After arriving, three things became certain.
1) Everyone was wearing flannel (one point for Calla),
2) There was a bar (another point for Calla), and
3) Center stage was a mechanical bull for people to ride. Drunk idiot type people.
As I made my way to the bar, I predicted that what was on the menu for tonight was whiskeys and beer. Surprise surprise, they had pendleton, crown, bud, coors, and more to make me forget that I was at a freaking rodeo museum. Maybe this wouldn't be a bad night. Look at me making the best of things! Then I was hit with sorrow. It was a cash bar. And I operate on plastic (minus a point for Calla).
The next hour (it felt like an hour, but I think it was really 15 minutes) went by with us watching people get kicked off the mechanical bull. People would cheer and dim the lights and music whenever someone got on, and then cheer even louder when people got knocked off. It was like a solid 3 on the 1 to 10 scale of fun. It's at this point I should note that my professor, the one who organized for us all to go on this trip, absolutely positively hates SDSU. Perhaps we're rival schools. I don't know. But there is no BHSU+SDSU love in my majors department. He made it clear when he said that one of us from BHSU had to ride the mechanical bull because it would show up SDSU and make us look good. No one volunteered.
Then a couple of us bored girls got to talking and did the whole "I dare you to ride the bull", "I'll ride the bull if you ride the bull". Long story short, I rode the fucking bull. And I lasted about 15 seconds. To put that into perspective, another girl lasted 1 spin and another girl lasted 9 seconds. Should I be proud of myself? Should I be ashamed? I don't know. What I do know is that mechanical bull riding is way harder than it looks.
After a while we left and had a quick meal at Perkins since none of us has eaten since leaving campus. The school pays for our meals. After eating we went back to the hotel and I took a shower then went to bed around midnight.
Then I had the dream about coming home and was pretty stoked to be over this trip when I woke up back in my hotel bed. "Crap."
I had to wake up at 7 to get ready. I was suppose to wear BHSU attire, but instead I flaked and wore a leather jacket and jeans. We arrived at the convention at 8 and I had to be put to work. I'm an intern at the conference, which sounds like a big girl job but really it means handing out papers and setting up rooms for the speakers. There we met the SDSU students. They were dressed in suits, skirts, heels, all that jazz. Real business. And I was wearing a leather jacket and jeans.
My itinerary told me where I needed to be, what I had to do and who to talk to. Us interns set up tables and got things ready for the keynote speakers. The first speaker was about giving customers a good experience. It was about an hour long. Whenever he mentioned Disney I perked up, but for the most part all I learned was "Don't be rude to the customer."
Then I did some more work, running around, when a guy stopped me and asked if I was from one of the colleges.
"Yep, BHSU." I told him.
He made more small talk, mentioned where he worked, offered me a job. Blah blah. Then he asked, "You rode the mechanical bull last night?"
"Sure did." I said.
"Great! Did you win?"
Did I win? There was nothing to win. You either fell off or you didn't ride. "Yes, I won the whole competition." I lied to him.
"Congratulations!" Guy said. I thanked him and went back to work.
Then I went to one of the three speakers. My options were Marketing on a Miniscule Budget, Understanding Today's Female Traveler, and a Travel Writers Panel. Since I don't want to be understood, I went to the marketing one and the writers panel.
The writers panel wasn't what I expected. It was more about how to be a tourist in a small town. And the marketing one was neat.
Then it was lunchtime! I had to help set up the room which meant I was able to pick a table that was close to the food station which meant I was one of the first people of like 400 to get food. This is what I ate-
It's chilli and a salad.
After eating we had to listen to the secretary of tourism talk about South Dakota tourism. There's not much to say. The food was good but the portions small and it got a bit boring after a while.
After that ended, there was another speaker. I sat with my school group and two people fell asleep. The speaker talked about economics and it was very interesting.
Then we went back to the hotel and took an hour break. At 7, we went back to the conference for the second of three parties. Last night was cowboy themed. Tonight was biker.
I joined a gang. BHSU Chapters of Hell. The Yellow Jackets Gang.
At the conference I went straight to the bar and had a jameson and ginger ale
Hello darkness my old friend.
There was a band, prizes being given away, fruit and cheese snacks, and more bars.
I've come to talk with you again
We stayed until 9 and I had three drinks. Jameson, jameson, and Jack daniels. By the end I was a little drunk and stole someone's table decoration. It was a solid 5 on the scale of 1 to 10 scale of fun. We went back to the hotel as everyone was bored and tired. My roommate went to McDonalds, but I went to bed as I have to be at the conference at seven thirty tomorrow. "Crap." I thought.
To backpedal a bit, I am attending the South Dakota Govenerors Conference on Tourism. It's a two and a half day thing and I went with several other BHSU students as the school is paying for us to go. I don't know what else to say about the event. This was all I really knew when I signed up.
Yesterday we left Spearfish at noon and arrived in Pierre at 4ish. The drive was a little boring and very bumpy (my fault for sitting in the back of the van). After checking in to the conference and getting our nifty badges and itinterary, we checked into the hotel. After that, we went to some rodeo building for the first of three night "parties". SInce it was at this rodeo museum type place, the theme was cowboy. I assumed everyone would wear flannel so I wore a white button down shirt and jeans. After arriving, three things became certain.
1) Everyone was wearing flannel (one point for Calla),
2) There was a bar (another point for Calla), and
3) Center stage was a mechanical bull for people to ride. Drunk idiot type people.
As I made my way to the bar, I predicted that what was on the menu for tonight was whiskeys and beer. Surprise surprise, they had pendleton, crown, bud, coors, and more to make me forget that I was at a freaking rodeo museum. Maybe this wouldn't be a bad night. Look at me making the best of things! Then I was hit with sorrow. It was a cash bar. And I operate on plastic (minus a point for Calla).
The next hour (it felt like an hour, but I think it was really 15 minutes) went by with us watching people get kicked off the mechanical bull. People would cheer and dim the lights and music whenever someone got on, and then cheer even louder when people got knocked off. It was like a solid 3 on the 1 to 10 scale of fun. It's at this point I should note that my professor, the one who organized for us all to go on this trip, absolutely positively hates SDSU. Perhaps we're rival schools. I don't know. But there is no BHSU+SDSU love in my majors department. He made it clear when he said that one of us from BHSU had to ride the mechanical bull because it would show up SDSU and make us look good. No one volunteered.
Then a couple of us bored girls got to talking and did the whole "I dare you to ride the bull", "I'll ride the bull if you ride the bull". Long story short, I rode the fucking bull. And I lasted about 15 seconds. To put that into perspective, another girl lasted 1 spin and another girl lasted 9 seconds. Should I be proud of myself? Should I be ashamed? I don't know. What I do know is that mechanical bull riding is way harder than it looks.
After a while we left and had a quick meal at Perkins since none of us has eaten since leaving campus. The school pays for our meals. After eating we went back to the hotel and I took a shower then went to bed around midnight.
Then I had the dream about coming home and was pretty stoked to be over this trip when I woke up back in my hotel bed. "Crap."
I had to wake up at 7 to get ready. I was suppose to wear BHSU attire, but instead I flaked and wore a leather jacket and jeans. We arrived at the convention at 8 and I had to be put to work. I'm an intern at the conference, which sounds like a big girl job but really it means handing out papers and setting up rooms for the speakers. There we met the SDSU students. They were dressed in suits, skirts, heels, all that jazz. Real business. And I was wearing a leather jacket and jeans.
My itinerary told me where I needed to be, what I had to do and who to talk to. Us interns set up tables and got things ready for the keynote speakers. The first speaker was about giving customers a good experience. It was about an hour long. Whenever he mentioned Disney I perked up, but for the most part all I learned was "Don't be rude to the customer."
Then I did some more work, running around, when a guy stopped me and asked if I was from one of the colleges.
"Yep, BHSU." I told him.
He made more small talk, mentioned where he worked, offered me a job. Blah blah. Then he asked, "You rode the mechanical bull last night?"
"Sure did." I said.
"Great! Did you win?"
Did I win? There was nothing to win. You either fell off or you didn't ride. "Yes, I won the whole competition." I lied to him.
"Congratulations!" Guy said. I thanked him and went back to work.
Then I went to one of the three speakers. My options were Marketing on a Miniscule Budget, Understanding Today's Female Traveler, and a Travel Writers Panel. Since I don't want to be understood, I went to the marketing one and the writers panel.
The writers panel wasn't what I expected. It was more about how to be a tourist in a small town. And the marketing one was neat.
Then it was lunchtime! I had to help set up the room which meant I was able to pick a table that was close to the food station which meant I was one of the first people of like 400 to get food. This is what I ate-
After eating we had to listen to the secretary of tourism talk about South Dakota tourism. There's not much to say. The food was good but the portions small and it got a bit boring after a while.
After that ended, there was another speaker. I sat with my school group and two people fell asleep. The speaker talked about economics and it was very interesting.
Then we went back to the hotel and took an hour break. At 7, we went back to the conference for the second of three parties. Last night was cowboy themed. Tonight was biker.
At the conference I went straight to the bar and had a jameson and ginger ale
There was a band, prizes being given away, fruit and cheese snacks, and more bars.
We stayed until 9 and I had three drinks. Jameson, jameson, and Jack daniels. By the end I was a little drunk and stole someone's table decoration. It was a solid 5 on the scale of 1 to 10 scale of fun. We went back to the hotel as everyone was bored and tired. My roommate went to McDonalds, but I went to bed as I have to be at the conference at seven thirty tomorrow. "Crap." I thought.
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