Let It Snow!

Wednesday, October 28th

Yikes! We woke up this morning to a snowy Denver! We knew we were supposed to get some snow, but it continued throughout most of the day.

We were supposed to take our unit "baseline PT tests" today (run 1.5 miles, 1 min. of push ups, 1 min. of sit ups); however, given the snow, it had to be postponed.

Instead of these fitness tests, we met as a unit and watched the movie "Crash" and then had a discussion about discrimination following it. For those of you who haven't seen "Crash," I would recommend it. It's pretty graphic and disturbing at times, but it brings up some interesting issues surrounding diversity and racial prejudices.

At lunch we were informed that the campus was closing for the afternoon due to snow and that tomorrow we had a SNOW DAY! There are many people from parts of the U.S. who had never seen this much snow nor experienced a snow day, so they were pretty excited.

Here's a picture from campus of all of the snow!

We ended up getting a little over a foot of snow today. Megan and I spent the day being lazy in our room, doing laundry, and watching movies on NetFlicks.

Thursday, October 29th

SNOW DAY! The cafeteria adjusted it's schedule for meals so we could sleep in, so we didn't wake up until nearly 11am. After lunch, I took the bus into Englewood (a small suburb of Denver) with a couple other girls to visit Hobby Lobby and Walmart to complete my Halloween costume. It was still pretty snowy, but using public transportation wasn't too bad.

I returned to campus just in time to attend the Diversity Club meeting. We watched a documentary called "The Boys of Baraka." It was extremely interesting. It is about a group of 10-14 year old boys who live in the worst area of Baltimore, and they are given the opportunity to attend a boarding school in Baraka, Africa for two years. I would highly recommend checking out this documentary (especially my friends who are in education.) It really brings to light the issues that many kids going to school in urban America face. It found myself amazed by the amount of drugs and violence these boys were faced with at such a young age.

After the documentary, I went to dinner. After dinner, I came back to the room and dyed my hair. (For those of you who know me well, you know I can't keep my hair one color for very long!) Actually, my highlights were starting to grow out, and I didn't want to deal with them after I leave for SPIKE in a couple weeks. So, as you can see in the pictures to follow, I am back to a solid brunette!

Friday, October 30th

Today we were supposed to drive to Colorado Springs and go through the Air Force obstacle course for the day (which we will hopefully get to reschedule), but due to all the snow, we went to a local rock climbing center instead. It was awesome! I had only been rock climbing one time (when I was a camp counselor in high school), so I was pretty nervous. However, I made it to the top of the big wall twice! I was so proud of myself. It's a lot harder that it looks, and my forearms and hands were already sore!

Megan and I didn't even realize that we had both volunteered to go first and climb up the same wall next to each other! (This happens frequently...we are starting to think we have ESP or something! Haha!) Here we are about to start our climb!

Here we are posing before beginning to climb. We were both nervous, but it was fun to climb next to each other!

And here we are, as you can see, almost to the top of the wall. I am not sure how high it was exactly, but it was high enough to where I didn't want to look down once I started going up!


We were at the rock climbing center until about 1pm, and then we returned to campus for a session called "Healthy Lifestyles" with our campus counselor. This session was very informative, and we talked about various things such as healthy eating, getting enough sleep, limiting caffeine, and issues that may arise when living, working, and playing in groups.

You will be happy to hear that since I've been in Denver, I have not had any pop (which, by the way, I get made fun of every time I say "pop" because it turns out Michigan and parts of Ohio are like the only people who don't call it "soda." I have even caught myself calling it "soda" already....I am being converted!) I also have been limiting myself to one cup of coffee in the morning, and am making it a goal to also eliminate energy drinks for the entire year! Hopefully I can stick to this and just drink water and occasionally milk!

After dinner, I attended the campus Halloween Party. This was open to all members of the university. It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. Our team leaders decorated the cafeteria with tons of streamers and there was a strobe light, fog machine, dance floor with a DJ, cookies, and a root beer keg. My whole floor of girls got dressed up and went over together. Megan and I had fun dancing and stayed until it ended at 10pm.

Here's a picture of us outside from last night. I was Cruella Deville, and Megan dressed as a flame (along with about 8 other girls from the fire unit.)

After the Halloween party ended, most people went out; however, Megan and I are starting to realize that we need to budget our very minimal living allowance, so we headed back to the dorm to shower and watch a movie. It's nice to take some time to relax when all we seem to do is "go, go, go!"

Saturday, October 31st

Today I am getting ready to go volunteer at the Denver Children's Museum from 4-9pm. I am excited! I love Halloween and seeing all of the little kids dressed up! I am wearing my Cruella costume again, so expect more pictures to come soon!

Happy Halloween! I wish everyone a safe and fun weekend :)