Quote of the Week: “With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.” – Thomas Fowell Buxton
This week was technically spring break. Although I did not get the entire week off, it has been one of the most fun, adventure-filled weeks here! From watching the sunrise and hiking to going skiing again, it has been full of a lot of fun things!
I worked Monday and Tuesday to make sure I got all of my required internship hours completed in the semester and got to do some fun research for the marketing team. I never knew how much thought goes into the advertisements on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Tuesday night we tried a new Pho restaurant called Pho 555. While it was not as good as New Saigon from earlier in the semester, it was still delicious! Also, their portion sizes were huge! We got mediums, but it lasted three meals and was good every single time! I am blown away by the number of places in Denver that are authentic and have given me insight into other cultures and traditions, because that is something I really enjoy exploring and learning more about.
On Thursday we attempted to watch the sunrise at Red Rocks again only to be slightly disappointed. When you look up pictures the sky is bright with color and is simply stunning. But that is not what it looked like when we went. But it was worth getting up at 4:30 am, hiking a mile, and going up the hundreds of stairs to see the clouds and the decent colors.
Later, my roommate Jolie and I went on a hike at Elk Meadow Park. When I was researching places to hike that were close to Denver this one came up highly recommended. I was slightly worried because most of the reviews talked about the wildflowers, and greenery because a lot of people go there in the summer. But we were very pleased with the scenery that we saw. The coolest part about it was getting to see wild Elk! The trail went right through a gang (apparently this is the technical term for a group of elk). Just by walking on the trail we got within ten feet of them. And they did not think twice about all the people walking past, instead they continued eating and wandering around. Personally, I think it is really cool to see wildlife in their natural habitat. Seeing how gentle animals are even when they are much bigger than we are is important. So many people see wild animals as dangerous, but the likelihood of them doing anything to you is so slim. It is much more productive and fun to watch them and take way too many pictures!
And to wrap the week up on Friday, we went skiing again at Loveland! It is crazy to me to see the improvements that I have made just within the two times I have skied. There were no lines at all, which meant we got to go down more runs (well, more like we got to go down the runs more). A few weeks ago when we went I stuck with the small green runs that are not that much bigger than the bunny hills, but I wanted to challenge myself because those have gotten easy. So, I went to the bigger lift thinking I was going down a green, but in reality went down a blue. This lift specifically has a stop halfway up the mountain which is the one I got off at when I went by myself because I was not about to go to the top of the mountain and do a blue run. Let’s just say both times I did half of the blue I fell really hard. But it is okay, everyone falls and you just get back up and keep going. Later in the day I went with Jolie and did the actual half green that I thought I was doing earlier, which by the way was actually doable and I did not die. And then I decided to do the green from the top of the mountain which I did not know originally existed. That was super fun to get to go all the way up and feel like I was really skiing. The whole way down I only fell once although it was pretty rough. There was a woman stopped not far away from where I fell, and she looked at me like I had just died or something. I definitely slid probably ten feet down the mountain after rolling a few times. At least that is what I have been told by the people who saw it. I also managed to go down the rainbow run twice without falling which was a literal nightmare last time.
I am definitely really sore today but getting “good” at something is so much fun, and the time and effort is worth it. Downhill skiing is something I have always wanted to do. Watching it in the Olympics is mind blowing and it is incredible what people can do. But no one can do things perfectly the first time, and the progress that you make is what makes the whole thing worth it! When you fall down you just have to get up, brush the snow off, and keep going. Otherwise, you are never going to learn!
Thanks for reading, until next time,
Aurora Franzon 2024