Coffee House

Last week Student Activities hosted a Coffee House for both on and off campus students. A lot of people showed up to hear Doug Wood play instrumentals and enjoy free coffee.

Doug really got the audience involved.

It started with one student dancing

and next thing we knew it was a full blown Congo line...then a dance party!
we even had students perform a rendition of "Spider Pig"overall it was a great night!

Thanks to everyone who helped out and everyone that came out and made the night a success. Be sure to check out the "This Week" for more upcoming activities including these:

Wednesday October 30th there will be a musician playing in at the Dining Hall starting at 5:30pm. At 9pm he will be giving free guitar lessons! SA is also getting involved with the Steamboat Film Fest this year. We will be offering discounted tickets to movie premiers such has TGR's re:Session and Matchstick Production's In Deep. For more info on show times stop by Tamara's office or go to http://www.steamboatmountainfilmfestival.com/

I saw an Elk!

This morning I woke up around 6am to head to Denver. My friend Ryan flew to NY for the weekend to surprise his Dad at his 50th birthday party and I agreed to pick him up at 9am. After stopping at The Bean for some caffeine I began the journey to Denver International Airport. Around 7am I began my way up Rabbit Ears Pass with the sun rising. I was thinking about the classes I'd be missing and the test I had to take later in the day when low and behold, standing on the side of the road was an elk! I know this is not something a typical driver wants to see because danger may ensue if he decides to run out into the middle of the road but I was thrilled. After living in the mountains for over a year I finally saw a real live wild elk! For obvious reasons I was unable to snap a photo, but I want to share with everyone that I will now cross this off my list of "Things I want to do in Colorado".

Rally Car Races

Last weekend was a big deal for the town of Steamboat Springs. You could hear engines revving everywhere you went because the Rally Races came to town. Although my knowledge of cars is minimal and awareness of celebrities is even lesser, I decided to check it out. Unfortunately the only event I was able to attend was the opening ceremonies where the riders got to show off their cars and everyone got a chance to meet them. This is where I snapped a photo with Travis Pastrana, possibly one of the biggest names in motor action sports. I'll admit I've seen his show Nitro Circus a couple of times but until this weekend I knew little about him. Apparently he used to be into motocross and retired from that when he became the first person to attempt a double back flip in the X games. Now he travels the country doing Rally Racing and has won the cup for the past few years. I was unable to see the actual races because I had to work, but my friend Mariah volunteered at them and got some great shots! Enjoy...

Chris, Me, Travis Pastrana and Mariah

This one was by far the cutest car at the show

My favorite car in actionAnother sweet shotThe pit crew doin' work

I'll take a large latte with an extra shot, sugar free vanilla and whipped cream

I'm currently standing inside the Steaming Bean Coffee House downing my second Italian Soda of the day. The sugar rush is starting to kick in and Jason Mraz is playing a little louder than usual as I haven't seen a soul walk through the front door for the past forty-five minutes. Don't worry, all the dishes are washed and put away and the coffee is fresh and ready for the next customer that comes in. I do like working when it's busy because time flies by so much faster but slow days come in handy when I have a lot of homework to do. Since today is an unusually slow day and a majority of my homework is done I figured I'd take the free time to update this blog.

So far this semester has been going great. I'm really enjoying living off campus. It's nice to go home after work and have my own place to escape to when I don't feel like dealing with the rest of the world. It's also nice to be able to make dinner whenever I want and I really like only worrying about one other person's laundry being in the machine rather than an entire floor.

Classes are going really well. The other night we had a "Star Party" for our Astronomy lab. Rather than sit in a classroom and try to understand the sky based on charts and equations we went out there and explored. I'll admit I could have thought of at least fifteen other things I'd rather have been doing on a Thursday night from 8-10pm, but this lab was my favorite so far. Jimmy put names of stars and constellations on pieces of paper and had us split up into teams of two. We randomly picked one of each and preceded to find them in the sky. If I had to try to find a constellation a month ago I'd show you the Big Dipper, which as it turns out isn't an actual constellation, it's an asterism. Yet there we were, finding Hercules in the sky.

I'm also enjoying my Ethics class. It's really interesting to learn about different philosophies and religions and what they consider a virtuous life. Being raised a Catholic I am thrilled to learn about the history of the church from a historical standpoint rather than religious. I also like exploring different ideologies and the ways people think.

Aside from classes and work, I've been working on this year's campus reader The Translator. It's about a man who grew up in Darfur and all of the terrible things he witnessed there. He wrote the book hoping the rest of the world would read it and come to help these pour impoverished people. It can be difficult to read because it's a complete reality check as far as what has happened over there, but it really drives the point across. I recommend it to anyone who's interested in learning more about the geneocides that have been committed in Darfur.