Working For The Weekend

I was having a conversation a few days ago with a friend about things we wanted to be when we were growing up.  A little later I said I had no idea what to write about this week for my blog.  Put two and two together and here we go:

In first grade I wanted to be a police officer like almost every six year old out there.  That went away after I started to realize what cops actually have to do.  Throughout the rest of elementary school, I thought it would be fun to be a teacher.  

In middle school, for some reason I really wanted to be a bartender.  I once again don't think I really knew what a bartender was but they did a lot of cool tricks on TV and it looked like you got to have fun every night.  The teacher thing popped back into my head a few times until seventh grade where I realized that most seventh graders are, to put it nicely, handfuls.

Around high school was when I started to really get into climbing.  After a trip outside to Smith Rock near Bend, OR, I thought I wanted to be an outdoor climbing guide.  I would be getting paid to go climbing everyday which would be pretty amazing.  That was until I actually kind of did this as a job and realized that the only people you get to climb with have no idea what they're doing which makes it not as fun.  I also thought it would be great to buy a van and just travel around the US going to different climbing spots.  This obviously wouldn't provide much income but it is still something I would like to do at some point.

The thought of owning my own climbing gym didn't really come into play until freshman year of college.  The idea had been floating around a little bit but it wasn't until sophomore year where I had to finally choose a major that I realized it could happen.  It costs a ton of money to open a climbing gym but as of now, that's my ultimate career goal.

Didn't have pictures related to this week so...here's some flowers in Austria.

And some more in Switzerland.

The creative juices were lacking this week and I have a bunch of work that needs to get done for next week.  Sorry about that.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Come Together

Last week on Saturday, I once again got to go up to Horsetooth.  Although I did climb a little, I was in guide mode most of the time to help out the three other people I went with who hadn't been before.  The weather was perfectly warm and overcast!

This isn't from Saturday but here's the reservoir.

On Sunday I went on the New Belgium tour again with roommate Heather and her parents.  That's always a good time.

 

 I stayed up Monday night to watch the lunar eclipse do its thing.  It was big...and red.

This weekend I played in a one day, 5v5, soccer tournament.  It was not organized very well and we ended up having to play three games in a row but it was a lot of fun!

In other news, social media exploded this week around Fort Collins over the announcement that the Westboro Baptist Church is going to be protesting CSU's graduation day in May.  In case you're unfamiliar with this lovely group, I'll let you look it up on your own seeing as I in no way want to help spread their "message" of complete ignorance and stupidity (but don't go on their websites since those generate ad money for them).  My graduation time is at 8 AM and they're scheduled to be here around 5 so unfortunately I don't get to be protested against.  Why are they protesting a college graduation? Great question!  Apparently they don't like that a lot of my college educated peers are accepting of a wide range of people and so aggressively telling us we're going to hell will change that. 

One of my favorite things about CSU is the sense of community.  The second people found out about this, almost everyone was posting positive messages and coming up with ways to support peoples' hard work in finishing school.  My favorite comment I saw on Facebook was "It's my personal belief that if the WBC is protesting you, you're doing something right."  Within hours of the announcement, a counter protest had been organized and over 1300 people have already said they're coming to support the graduates.  Students are also organizing donations for charities that the WBC protests so them coming is actually kind of a good thing.  There's a lot more I would love to say about the WBC but restraint is a virtue.

Lastly, seriously though you should go on that website I helped make for class.  Part of our grade is on how many people go on the site so...click away

That's all for now.  Bye.

I'll Be Missing You

I had this idea for my random other category to do a "featured friend" post some weeks because I clearly like alliteration.  I thought I would do the first one about one of oldest friends, Conner Firstman.

If I remember correctly, I met Conner in Kindergarten and we were buddies ever since.  From Cub Scouts in elementary school, unfortunate hairstyles in middle school, and joking our way through Journalism and Senior Inquiry in high school, Conner was one of the most upbeat people I have ever met.  Although we went to college in different states and had quite different experiences, when we were able to meet up on breaks, it only felt like we hadn't seen each other for a few days.

Stole this from his Facebook page but I thought it represented him well.

I'm a strong believer in remembering the good times of a person so here's a list of my top 5 favorite memories of Conner:

• Sleepovers at my house way back when where we tried to watch The 10th Kingdom and had no idea what was going on or why it was so long.  I don't think we figured out either.
• Playing rec soccer where I may have kicked the ball at him (accidentally) in a place guys don't want a soccer ball to be kicked.
• Me teaching Conner how to play the dot game and him beating me on the first round in health class.  I'm still a little upset about that.
• Every day in journalism, especially deadline days.
• Reciting Family Guy lines at inappropriate times.

The Dot Game

New Year 2013/2014. So glad this picture was taken!

I think that's really all that needs to be said.  Short and sweet.

Miss you buddy!

That's all for now.  Bye.

The Climb

Happy April!  As much as I would like this whole blog to be about traveling, unfortunately school creates a bit of a barrier.  Until I can do more travel posts, each week I'm going to write about anything noteworthy, a topic of interest, or random other.  

This week you get a topic of interest.  Unless we haven't had any interaction in the past 8ish years, you probably know that I kind of like rock climbing.  The first time I climbed was at a birthday party.  I don't remember the party very well but I do remember I had a blast!  Some time later my family joined an athletic club that had a climbing wall and I was hooked.  I got "recruited" to join the club's newly formed climbing team and competed with them for 3 years.  But how does a climbing competition work?  I get asked this a lot and in honor of the SCS Nationals competition today, here it is:

Let's break it down.  There are two main types of climbing competitions, bouldering and sport climbing.  Bouldering is climbing without ropes, staying fairly low to the ground whereas sport climbing is using ropes and going up much higher.  Generally, bouldering tends to be more strength and power based (not me) whereas sport climbing is more about endurance and balance (more me).

For USA Climbing competitions, climbers compete in a number of local competitions followed by regionals, divisionals, and nationals.  Most of these local competitions are three hours long.  Climbers walk around the climbing gym, pick a route to do, and try to get from the floor to the top without falling.  If a climber can do that, you earn the points for the route.  The harder the route, the more points it's worth.  If you're unfamiliar with routes but you've been to a climbing gym, all those colorful tape marks on the wall show you the route path.  A climber can only use the rocks that have the route's tape color.  Use anything else and it's considered "cheating" and counts as if they fell.  At the end of the 3 hours, a climber's top 5 completed routes make up their score for the competition.  The local competitions are typically pretty laid back.

For regionals, divisionals, and nationals, the competitions are a bit more intense.  Climbers are assigned a certain set of routes they must try.  Instead of having to get to the top without falling, for every rock (aka hold) a climber grabs, they get points.  The higher they get, the more points they earn.  These routes are designed to be incredibly hard and it's not uncommon for only one or two people to actually reach the top. In general, when climbers get to the gym, they are taken into an area called isolation (or "iso" if you want to use the lingo).  In iso, climbers cannot see anything else in the gym.  One at a time per age/gender group, a climber goes out to the main climbing area and sits in a chair facing the audience with their back to the climbing wall (this way the climber can't get any tips about how to climb the route from watching someone else).  This can be pretty stressful since you can hear the audience reacting to how the climber before you is doing but you're not allowed to watch.  When the timer begins, the climber turns around and attempts the route.  For sport climbing, the climber gets one go per route.  Bouldering tends to allow as many attempts as wanted within the time limit.

That's the basic outline of how climbing competitions work.  For sport climbing, there are speed competitions as well.  These are pretty self-explanatory.  Whoever makes it up the wall the fastest is the winner. 

I caught a ride up to Horsetooth last week and got do some bouldering at the reservoir.  I have been seriously slacking on my training and am definitely out of climbing shape but it's fun to mess around on the easier climbs and relax.  It's a bit hard to take pictures of yourself climbing so I've thrown in some of my favorites from the past.

Horsetooth Reservoir, Colorado 2012

Horsetooth Reservoir, Colorado 2012

Divisionals at ClubSport, Oregon 2010

Smith Rock, Oregon 2012

Three side notes:
1) Vlad put up his video of us talking about our spring break trip.  It's pretty entertaining if I do say so myself so go ahead and give it a watch.
2) I helped create the "travel" part of a website for my digital marketing class.  We'll be updating it with new things each week so you should take a gander.
3) If anyone has anything they want me to write about, let me know and I'll more than likely do it.  Suggestions are welcome!

That's all for now.  Bye.

California Dreamin

Part two of spring break found Vlad and I on the other side of the country: Los Angeles, California!

After a 6+ hour flight from New York on Thursday, we got to LA around 10AM pacific time and were exhausted!  The plane ride felt short because we were in and out of consciousness the whole time.  When we arrived, we made the last minute decision to rent a car instead of relying on public transportation.  For the things we wanted to do, we figured spending the money on a car would be worth the time and hassle the car would save (which it did).  The most annoying part was even though I have a clean driving record, because I'm not 25+, rental companies jack up the car prices.

Once we picked up the car, we were leaving the area and noticed an In-N-Out around the corner.  Obviously a lunch break was in order. 

Not the Last Time we Made a Stop Here

From there, we made our way to Hollywood Boulevard in, you probably guessed it, Hollywood, and checked into our hostel.  Yes, the US does have hostels.  I was worried a bit because I had looked up the hostel in the JFK airport and on one website it said you had to have an international passport with you to be able to stay there.  Luckily when we checked in, we found out you just needed to have an out of state license.  Crisis averted.  We stayed in a 6 bed room but were the only ones there (until later that night) and decided to take a much needed nap.  Afterwards, we walked down Hollywood Blvd taking in the sights.

Let's have a little chat about hostels.  I'm not claiming to be an expert on hostel life but I have stayed in a fair few within the last year.  If there is a TV in the room, do not turn it up all the way and fall asleep with the remote hidden.  Do not wake up everyone else in the room because your sheet fell off the bed.  Do not complain about anything related to the room...you're in a hostel!  Talking to yourself is also something that should be done when there are not other people around.

While on a tangent, let's also talk about drivers in the LA area.  The majority of them either drive insanely fast or way too slow, there is no in-between.  No matter the speed, they were all just terrible drivers!  On the plus side, I only got honked at once which was in the parking lot returning the car.  Also, traffic was terrible.

Anyways on Friday, I got to finally have a proper childhood.  

We...
went...
to.... 
Disneyland!  

My only mental images of Disneyland are from this old VHS tape I watched all the time as a kid.  Although the park has changed a lot, it was fun to see some of the places I remember watching on the tape.  Since there was no line, we started off on Splash Mountain followed by the Haunted Mansion.  Some rides later, we rode California Screamin' at California Adventures which was our favorite of the day.  Being Friday of spring break, the park was quite crowded and the lines long but we made it work.

Dreams Do Come True...for $137

#NoFilter

We only had time for one day in the Magic Kingdom which meant we went all out.  Come hour 6, our legs were burning.  Add on all the walking we had done in New York and you have two very tired people.  We powered through and made it to the fireworks show over the castle (which is much smaller in real life) and then finally got to use our 10:30 PM fast passes for Space Mountain.  All in all, an exhausting but great day (with, of course, a stop at In-N-Out on the way back to Hollywood).

On Saturday, Vlad and I decided we deserved a sleep in.  When we were well rested and awake, we headed out to torture our legs again by hiking up the backside of the Hollywood sign.  The hike had a fair incline but wasn't too bad.  The top rewarded us with a complete, although hazy, view of the LA skyline and the backside of the Hollywood sign letters.

Behind the Letters

For lunch we went to a food cart the internet told me had good, authentic, Mexican food.  The internet never lies.  It was delicious!

That night, Vlad and I went to the Staples Center to watch the Clippers play the Pistons.  The Clippers won.  I hadn't been to an NBA game in a long time so that was fun!  Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis were there as well and we got to see them on the "kiss cam."

Basketball

On Sunday, the two of us got up and checked out of the hostel.  From there we headed down Hollywood Blvd again for a bit and then made our way to swanky Beverly Hills.  We both felt out of place and underdressed.  It was like being on 5th Ave in New York but even more uptight.  Sometimes I'm glad I'm not rich.

Vlad needed to film some for the Los Angeles portion of his YouTube video so we made our way back to Hollywood Blvd.  When shooting was done, we drove out west to the Santa Monica Pier.  It was dark by the time we got there which made the lights from the rides stand out more.  After hearing a restaurant owner yell at a patron for not paying, we got seafood at a place on the pier and then headed to LAX for our last airport overnighter. 

So Hollywood.  It was an interesting place to visit but I think a day is all I could take. Hollywood Blvd was the epitome of a tourist destination.  Every five steps you got aggressively asked if you wanted to go on a tour bus, massive crowds of people stood in the middle of the sidewalk unaware of their surroundings, and souvenir shops are as far as the eye can see.  Although we were only in Santa Monica briefly, it had more of the laid back California vibe I like.

Walk of Fame

TCL Chinese Theater

And that was unfortunately the end of spring break 2014.  I had such a great time hanging out with Vlad and seeing sites I may not have had the motivation to see otherwise.  I had forgotten how much I love being in the traveling state of mind and it's depressing to go back to school.  I always get some post travel depression when I get back from traveling.  It's been 5 days since getting back and I'm just now adjusting to normal mode.  On the plus side, only 2ish more months until graduation which hopefully means more traveling!   

Watch Vlad's video of us recapping spring break here.

That's all for now. Bye. 

Empire State Of Mind

Surprise!  Apparently I'm blogging again!

In case you weren't aware, I wrote a blog about my study abroad experience in Europe last year.  I kind of miss blogging.  I've started up some new blogs a few times over the last few months but haven't been happy with the content and never published them.  I decided I'm just going to go for it and see what happens.  I thought I'd start the first post out with a bang.

So I'm in New York.

It's CSU's spring break this week and I'm spending the first part of it in The Big Apple.  It was kind of a spur of the moment decision to buy a plane ticket to New York but it's a place I hadn't been and the opportunity presented itself.  I flew from Denver to New York with a layover in Chicago on Monday and met up with my good friend Vlad who was fulfilling his lifelong dream of seeing Lebron James play with the Heat in Miami a few days prior (more about him later).

Following a series of unfortunate events with Vlad's flight from Miami to New York, we were finally able to meet up and take a bus/subway to our hotel.  Our original lodging had fallen through only a few days before we were supposed to get here which stressed me out like none other but we managed to find a place to stay.  We were literally around the corner from Times Square which let us be the ultimate New York tourists.  After checking in, we walked around the overwhelmingly bright and crowded Times Square

Consumerism at its Best

On Tuesday morning, we caught a train headed down to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan.  From there, we walked up to Wall Street and Ground Zero.  The 9/11 memorial consisted of two amazingly crafted fountains dug deep into the ground where the towers used to stand.  Forming the barrier up top were etched names of those who were killed in the attacks.  Although I remember the event happening quite well, I didn't realize how big of a deal it was at the time.  I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have been in the city that day but could not wrap my head around it.

NYSE on Wall Street

Ground Zero Memorial

We then headed back to Battery Park to catch a ferry to Liberty and Ellis Island to see the Statue of Liberty.  Lady Liberty was impressive in person!  Our ferry tickets also let us go up on the pedestal but the line to get in was taking too long and we decided it wasn't worth waiting.  Ellis Island wasn't terribly exciting but it was neat to see the rooms where immigrants registered when they got off their ship.

Welcome to America

After getting back to Manhattan, our legs needed a break.  We had planned to head back to the hotel to catch a quick rest but were partially zoned out on the subway and missed our stop.  When we realized this and got off at the next stop, we discovered we were at the edge of Central Park.  Knowing that Trump Tower was close by, we walked to 5th Ave and saw all the stores that I could never afford.  After more wandering, we found Rockefeller Plaza and saw the ice rink, NBC studios, and Radio City Musical Hall.

Ice Rink

Radio City Music Hall

At this point, we headed over to the Eugene O'Neill theater to try our luck at the Book of Mormon ticket lottery.  Unfortunately (but not surprisingly), we weren't chosen.  At this point, we really needed a break so we grabbed some food and headed to the hotel for a nap.  Feeling recuperated, we set out to Times Square again to do some overpriced shopping.  Vlad had never been to Applebees before so we stopped into the one right off of Times Square which we realized was a mistake a minute after looking at the menu.  Prices were about $5-$10 more expensive than the normal mediocre Applebees food so we left.

After the failed lottery ticket attempt the day before, the two of us decided to go for rush tickets Wednesday morning to ensure we would see a show.  My sister, Megan, told me about rush tickets.  I had no idea what they were prior, but basically you line up at the theater hours before the box office opens hoping that you're one of the first 20ish people to get a greatly reduced ticket.  The seats are not ideal (think front row or partially obstructed view) but paying $30 instead of $300 is worth it.  We decided on Avenue Q.  The show's website was not very informative about the rush tickets and we showed up way earlier than we needed to but got the cheap tickets!

We then walked back to the hotel where Vlad took a power nap and we checked out of the hotel.  Our next stop was Central Park.  We walked around the park a bit and saw the ice skating rink as well as some scenic shots frequently used in movies.  It was freezing but the park was a nice break from the rushed city atmosphere. 

Central Park

At this point, we headed back into the city and met up with my uncle Mike.  He took us to a food cart where we got curry wurst which was delicious!  We walked around for a short bit and parted ways but it was great to briefly see him!

Up next was the Brooklyn Bridge.  Vlad and I caught two trains to the Brooklyn side of the bridge and walked across to Manhattan.  The architecture was amazing and you could see the green lady in the distance to the left and the Manhattan Bridge to the right.

Brooklyn Bridge

When we got back to Midtown, we got off at Grand Central Station and walked to the Empire State Building followed by some more shopping followed by Avenue Q.  Our tickets were for the front row which wasn't ideal for the singing but the show was a great time!

Grand Central Station

Almost every trip I took in Europe, there was either a snow storm or a rain storm.  Apparently that theme decided to stay with me in the US because when we got out of Avenue Q, it was pouring!  At this point we had nothing else to do so we got our luggage from the hotel storage room and trudged through the torrential downpour to catch the subway to the airport.
 
So here we sit, currently in the JFK airport, waiting for our 7AM flight to our next location.  Even though the only people who may read this probably know where that is, I'll keep it a secret until next week's post.

Granted we were really only in New York for two full days, the city surprised me, mostly in a positive way.  Everything was much cleaner and felt much safer than I was expecting.  The pace of life is definitely faster than what I'm used to/like.  The amount to do in this massive city is endless.  We hit up almost all of the major tourist sites but it would be fun to explore areas away from Manhattan.  Could I see myself living here?  Absolutely not.  Would I come back? Absolutely.

One more thing.  Vlad has been making YouTube videos about his time on exchange here in the US and they're pretty funny.  Here is his spring break compilation video. 

That's all for now.  Bye.