To Boulder and Back: Week 2

Today (Monday) marks the day that I have been in Colorado for exactly two weeks! It's unbelievable how fast time has gone by and how comfortable I feel here now. The YMCA of the Rockies has become like a little hometown for me and it feels like I've been here forever.

My second week of my internship went great. I interviewed and met several different people for the stories I was writing: a school counselor in Granby for a training program he attended about preventing child abuse, a student who went to Prague last summer for the YMCA Europe Festival, and a woman who works in my office about a new summer attraction coming to the YMCA of the Rockies. I've had lots of experience between newspaper, yearbook, and PR classes with interviewing people and writing about them, so I've really enjoyed this so far.

The other big thing I've been working on centers around two words: World Council. You'll probably hear more about that from me later on. World Council is a big event the YMCA holds every 4 years in a different country (so think Olympics) and this year it's being held at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. Thousands of people from YMCAs around the world come together for a week to attend workshops and brainstorm ways to empower youth across the globe. (Did I pick the perfect summer to come here or what?)

So far I've been working on several stories leading up to the big week. One I just finished is about the Global Mission Network the weekend before the World Council. (It's like the pre-world council party. But it's more focused on the people around the world who love the Christian mission statement of the YMCA and want to come and worship together. Very cool.) Another story I just finished is about the Change Agent Program the YMCA does. Change Agents will be leading the group sessions during the World Council and attend conferences throughout the year about leadership and global relationships.

Besides that, I've been doing things that need to be done here and there, updating and printing hundreds of yoga class flyers, answering emails, and oh yeah did I mention ZIPLINING?

Me, Brady, & the two zipline gurus up high

I officially have the coolest internship ever. (We're off the boring mundane internship stuff now. Thanks for hanging in there.) Last Thursday my bosses (Laura and Andrew, who are both hip-to-the-rhyme cool marketing people) asked Brady (the other intern) and I how we felt about going ziplining and getting new video footage of it.

UM, YEAH I THINK I'M OKAY WITH THAT.

Me & Laura my boss

I've never been ziplining before (I've done those dive-bomber things at Six Flags that drops and swings you though, that's close right?) so I was super excited! They let us do it 3 times and Brady used a GoPro to film as we went and I used my phone and it was the best day ever.

Last week I also went into town (Estes Park about 5 minutes away) several times for shopping trips and ice cream stops, played sand volleyball about 20 more times, made 100,000 more friends, and went hiking again!

Ice cream tip to townnn

Friday night I set out with 8 other friends to hike Cub Lake after dinner. We started around 7 and reached the lake around 8:20ish. It was a great hike with awesome views (let's be real, there isn't a hike here without a great view) It was different that Eagle Cliff where it wasn't an actual steep mountain to climb, but more of a long trail you followed up into the foothills, slowly gaining altitude. We kept going another mile to reach a place called The Pool, which was really just a waterfall and little bridge. Around 8:45 light was fading and we decided to head back (it was completely dark at like 9:15) and made it back to the cars around 10PM. Overall, it was around a 5 mile hike and we had a blast.

The beginning of the hike

Cub Lake with the crew

Saturday we slept in and enjoyed not waking up at 7:30 (my life everyday M-F) ate lunch around 11:30, then left at 1PM for a trip to Boulder. It took about an hour to drive there (and what a gorgeous drive it is) and we had the best time shopping around 29th street, eating real non-dining hall food, and enjoying the city. Boulder's a really cool city with so many things to do and not enough time to do it.

Sunday was a lazy day. I napped and caught up on shows (guilty) and then we ate dinner, played a little volleyball, threw a surprise party for a friend and played mini-golf. Mini-golf was a great idea at 8:30 at night until we stepped outside an it was 42 DEGREES. It is JUNE can someone please tell me why I'm freezing? Definitely a change from warm Texas nights. It's weird. We stuck it out and played a few holes and then we went inside to get away from the cold.

My friend Tristan's birthday selfie. I'm in red in the back

Overall it was a great week. Looking forward to what week 3 will bring!

Follow my instagram to check out my ziplining video and other cool Colorado pics.