Coffee- The best coffee in town, actually the best coffee I've ever had in my life is Kaladi Brothers.  They are on Evans, just a few blocks west of campus.  If you want a good coffee shop to hang out at night go to Stellas on Pearl St.  St.Mark's at 2019 17th Ave. is also a good hang out spot.

Food- For the best vegetarian or vegan food, especially for brunch, go to Watercourse at 206 E. 13th Ave.  If you need a Kosher geocary/deli/resteraunt go to East Side Kosher Deli at 499 S. Elm.  If you like Thai, Swing Thai is good, fast, and cheep.  They have two locations at 391 S. Pennsylvania and at 845 Colorado Blvd.  Las Margaritas is the place to go for good margaritas and Mexican food.  They also have two locations at 1037 E. 17th Ave. and 1066 S. Gaylord.  There are also lots of places to go for Indian food and sushi, but everyone likes different places, so just try a few and find the one that you like.

Movies- There are three art house movie theaters in town, so there is plenty of opportunity to see good films: Chez Artiste 4150 Amherst Ave., the Mayan at 110 Broadway, and the Esquire Theater at 590 Downing St.

Book Stores- If you live in Denver YOU MUST go to the Tattered Cover at some point.  You have not really seen a book store until you've seen the Tattered Cover.  This place is an institution here in Denver, everyone knows about it.  There are two locations: 2955 E. 1st Ave and 1628 16th St.  If youre looking for a great little Feminist book store go to the Book Garden at 2625 E. 12th Ave.

The DU web page has good maps of campus. To view the main map page go to http://www.du.edu/maps/city.html.  The University is in the process of moving all of its facilities to one campus.  To view the map of the University Park Campus go to http://www.du.edu/maps/upark.html.  This map is sub divided into five sections.  To get a better view of each region of the campus, click on its respective section of the map.  I have included the map of the Central Section of the University Park Campus because it's the heart of the campus.

23 Spruce Hall  24 Columbine Hall  25 Driscoll Center South
26 Penrose Library  27 Buchtel Memorial Tower  28 Margery Reed Hall
29 Daniels College of Business  30 Not on this map  31 Mary Mac Bldg
32 Frontier Hall  33 Pioneer Hall  34 Skyline Hall  35 Evans Chapel 

36 Nelson Hall  37 Hilltop Hall  38 Aspen Hall
39 Ben M. Cherrington Hall  40 Mary Reed Bldg  41 University Hall
42 Johnson-McFarlane Hall  43 Cherrington Parking Structure
44 Iliff School of Theology Campus

Engagement Stories

1) A late night Shabbat- This Shabbat dinner started out no differently than most.  I had a group of about 25 students show up, hang out, and eat dinner.  As usual, I was the last person there, and was just about finished with all of my clean up, when a group of five more students showed up.  It was 8:45, dinner had started at 6:00 and most people had been gone for at least 20 minutes.  I told the five that I was sorry, but most of the food was gone and that I would reheat whatever was left.  They said that they were not really hungry; they had already eaten, and just wanted to come and hang out.  So the five of them and I hung out for an hour and a half, talking, laughing, and playing Trivial Pursuit.  Three of the students had never met me before that night, but after that evening, whenever they saw me on campus, they were always happy to see me.

2) Playing Matchmaker- So, I have these two students, a freshman girl who is cute and sweet, and a junior guy who is smart and passionate about Jewish issues.  He told me he was tired of dating non-Jewish girls and asked if I knew any.  So, I told him about my cute freshman girl, and emailed her on his behalf.  A few days later all three of us were at a Lag B'Omer BBQ and I introduced them face to face.  Later they both thanked me for introducing the two of them to each other.

3) The Grill Master- At the Yom HaAtzmaut BBQ there was a large turnout, and in order to keep everyone fed and happy I took over on hot dog duty.  My ability to turn out large amounts of perfectly grilled hot dogs earned me the nick name of "The Grill Master".  Some of my students are still calling me that.

4) Grad Student Bar Night- This was a fun night.  Three of my grad students and I went to a local pub to play pool and have a few drinks.  The three of us had an amazing time, in spite of the fact that we were all horrible pool players.  All of the other people in the bar were highly amused by our collective lack of pool skills, and we all decided that we would not have another grad event that involved shooting pool in public.

5) Heights Schmights!-   Aside from Rock Climbing with the Rabbi being a fun program it was also a great engagement tool.  Three engagement students who I had been trying desperately to show up to stuff finally came.  One of the freshman girls had a big fear of heights.  I asked her why she had wanted to come rock climbing if she had this phobia, and she said it seamed like the safest way to try to get over that fear.  When she was on the wall climbing all of the other students were giving her encouragement and words of support!  And when she made it to the top everyone started to cheer!  It was a very important moment in her life, and I was honored that I had facilitated it.

6) Two is the start of a community- I had two engagement students who were both women and grad students.  After spending lots of time one on one with each of them I decided that they would really hit it off and needed to meet.  I introduced them to each other at a Shabbat dinner, they sat together and talked all through dinner, hung out at one woman's apartment afterwards, and have been good friends ever since.

7) Women Rabbis?- The first coffee that I had with a senior student she and I got into a long discussion about whether it was OK for women to be rabbis or not.  We did not see eye to eye on the issue, but that did not stop us from having a great time and getting to know each other a little.  We've gone for coffee almost every week since then, and she now comes to other Hillel events which was something she never did in her first three years on campus.  She is graduating soon and had invited me to her party.  I'm going to miss her a lot, and am now planning on inviting her to my graduation from rabbinical school at some point in the distant future.  She has already told me that she would love to be there for it.