The World Comes to Colorado: Week 6

There's this sudden realization I had this week that I'm halfway through my internship, which is unbelievable.

I remember my first day when Laura and Andrew asked me what my goals for the summer were - hiking a lot? Exploring Colorado? I think the answer I told them still holds true to how I feel now; I came into this summer wanting a new experience before my senior year of college, wanting to learn and soak up as much as I could not only with my internship and communication skills, but also with a new state, new people, and new growing opportunities. It's been all that and more.

Monday

Today was probably my favorite day of my internship so far this whole summer. Andrew came down into our office and told us there was a huge crowd watching the Nigerian vs. France World Cup game in the Rustic Cafe in the Admin Building. And that got me itching to go over there, (ok partly because I wanted to get out of the office) but mostly because I love the World Cup and talking to international people. So they let me go over and watch part of the games and hang out with the Nigerian crowd. (Read my article about the World Cup game here)


I talked to so many different people, one guy in his cultural garbs and hat, another guy who from Benin City, Nigeria. I asked him how to spell that and where that was and he asked me, smiling, "You haven't heard of Benin? You Americans don't read to much of international history do you?"

And that statement just blew me away.  I've traveled to different parts of the world, talked to Greeks and Egyptians and Israelis and Italians and Chinese people and they've opened my eyes to the world, but it's been awhile since I've been in the International mindset. When you're abroad, you see how other countries soak up different cultures. They learn their languages and become bilingual or trilingual, they travel across borders and visit different nations and keep up with American politics better than most Americans do. Why is that? In the US we don't stress different cultures as much. Sure, we're a melting pot and there's diversity and learning happening. But it's just so different. I really appreciated the opportunity for my eyes to be opened again.

Later that night we had round two of the volleyball tournament. They changed the rules trying to save time and made it a one game match instead of best 2 out of 3. One of our guys couldn't be there tonight and so we had another sub and she was fine, but we were just way off our game and we were facing this bright burning sun so we lost our first game. We weren't happy about it, especially since we just came from the championship game last week, but we found out Gold Diggers lost their game too, and if we win every game in the loser bracket we can still make it to the championships again.Afterward: taco bell run with the team. no shame.

Tuesday 

So I actually lied. Tuesday was my favorite day of my internship so far. I spent the morning finishing my World Cup stories, then at 1PM I hopped on a bus headed for Denver. You see, for the YMCA World Council the delegates all take a day to go on excursions around Colorado, learning more about our YMCAs and communities and programs and Laura and Andrew thought it would be great for me to go on one of the trips and write a story about it.(Read my article about excursions here and here)

Once I hopped on the bus and made my way to the back, I was greeted by a loud, super smiley face. His name was Sebastian Vo from Germany. I sat near him and his friend Otto from Finland, right in front of Hugo and Catia from Portugal and right behind a man from England. I was in international heaven.

Sebastian wanted a selfie outside the capitol

I spent most of the way to Denver talking to Sebastian and Otto - they kept teasing me about things I would ask them. They asked me what kind of music was popular over here and I threw out the name Justin Bieber and they were both like, who's that? So I went on this long explanation and started showing them pictures, completely baffled because I knew Europeans listened to American music. They were like, sing one of his songs! So I started singing Baby and then Sebastian jumps in and sings with me like, "I know who he is silly!" So the whole time they had just been pulling my leg.

We went to the Denver State Capitol and had a tour and a short lecture by the Youth in Government program. The tour itself was alright, but the most exciting thing was looking around at our tour group and seeing where everyone was from. There were guys from India and Hong Kong and Nigeria and a lady from Senegal (I didn't even know where this was on a map yesterday) and a super nice woman from Canada and I became really great friends with a lady name Marta from Ukraine. It was amazing to hear them ask questions about our government and get excited about the youth programs going on in Denver.

After the tour we took pictures and then got back on the bus to meet the other group at Manuel High School where they have a partnership with the YMCA. We had dinner there and I sat with Marta and Sebastian and my 2 Portuguese friends and a few others. Before dinner 4 different people stood up to say prayers in German, French, Spanish, and English. I later interviewed Otto and Hugo about their experiences and they told me dinner was their favorite part because they got to meet and discuss things with people from all over the world. It was definitely my favorite part too. I asked for pictures with some of them, and more and more people kept jumping in until it was this huge, excited,  international group all smiling and hugging and I don't know if I've ever been happier. How beautiful is that? I think Heaven will be like that one day.

Me, Catie, and Hugo - my Portuguese friends

On the bus ride home I thought everyone would be sleepy, but there were lively conversations all around. I interviewed Hugo and Otto for my blog, and then had a great discussion with Filip from Denmark about the Danish and their YMCA programs and traveling in general.

I came back and went into town with some Day Camp friends and it was so exciting being able to share what I had been doing with them. I wish everyday were like this one.



Wednesday

Wednesday at work featured Rachel:
1.Working on writing a ton of stories that had piled up - all the excursions the delegates went on, other miscellaneous things around the YMCA.  
2. Flying a drone. I FLEW A DRONE WITH A GO PRO ON IT. A drone is like this motorized flying helicopter looking thing that you can attach a small camera called a go pro onto. It's like a remote control car but cooler. I think I'm going to fly it during the 4th of July parade on Friday. I'm so excited.
3. Going CAMPING! I've been dying to go camping since I got here and I can't believe it's taken me a month to get out there! When I got the text about camping I just freaked out and was like, sorry Marketing Dept. I gotta leave early byeeeeeee. (As long as I get my 40 hours a week they don't care when I leave)

7 people. 4 person tent.

First we went to the RA office to check out sleeping bags and tents and then went to Safeway (the grocery story in town) to buy food to cook! We got to the site in Allenspark around 8PM, built a fire, and made burgers and smores and apple pie and then baked potatoes (turns out baked potatoes take foreverrr to cook by a fire) Afterward one my friends brought out his djembe drum and we sang and made up raps and it was the best night ever. There were 7 of us in one tent so while we were a little squished we were definitely not cold.

Thursday 

We woke up early at 5:45AM to give us time to pack up the campsite and drive back to the YMCA. I, luckily, didn't have work until 9 so I was able to sleep a little longer and take a shower. The others went straight to work pretty much haha.

My two new Columbian friends and Ingrid, the OWF representative

At work I interviewed a lady about the nonprofit she worked for called One World Futbol Project. It's so cool, they make they virtually indestructible soccer balls and send them around the world to kids in low income areas or refugee camps. The balls don't deflate and they can withstand holes and tears. All of the delegates at the YMCA World council are getting a ball to take back home.I wrote an article for the YMCA blog here: http://blog.ymcarockies.org/2014/07/03/ymca-partners-one-world-futbol-project/

Update: Just saw it was published in the Estes Park News here!)
Everytime I have the opportunity to learn more about other nonprofits or global organizations that help people (especially kids) I just feel so inspired. It just reaffirms why I chose PR as my major and why I want to work for a nonprofit - I see and hear about all these wonderful, amazing things organizations are doing and I just think, how could I ever want to do anything else or anything less than working to help other people?

After work was dinner with friends and then a trip into town to get 4th of July apparel! Since Estes Park is so touristy is was hard finding things. I've never wanted to be in a Walmart more in my life. (Alright maybe when I was in Greece for 3 months without a Walmart. But I'm in America and I haven't been inside one for a month. What is life.) After about an hour we all found something and successfully made it back to the Y ready for our grand 4th of July.

Friday

Fourth of July! Independence Day! I love it I love it I love it. The idea of summer, grilling out, fireworks, and an excuse to wear my awesome knee high America socks. Could a day possible be any better?

At work I practiced flying the drone outside. It was really windy out and the drone went a little crazy and attacked me but it was still really fun.

They've been doing this "international food" week in the Spruce Dining Hall which has been interesting. Lunch was Swedish food and it actually was pretty good (also they had brownies again so yes please) and then we spent the afternoon prepping for the parade (decorating Andrew's Jeep)

If you don't know me, I'm a huge fan of holidays, parades, or any sort of public festivities that give me an excuse to dress up tacky or go crazy. This 4th of July was definitely one of my favorites by far. I was flying the drone from a distance (I was really worried about taking a small child out with this thing) but could see what was going on. Many countries here for the World Council made signs and dressed up in their countries' colors and marched in the parade, singing and chanting in their native language. It was so cool. Check out some clips from the parade here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zjdkovnxsdv4syu/Parade.mov 


After the parade Laura and I sent the parade clips filmed by the other intern to local TV stations to make it in the news, then I went to dinner with friends. Dinner was great because
A.) We had chicken tenders.  Spruce hasn't does plain ole American classic food in awhile (especially this International week) so that was pretty exciting.
B.) This man and his deaf daughter sat at our table and I actually found out that they lived in Searcy (my college town) for a long time! It was so crazy talking to someone who knew about Harding, let alone knew where small town Searcy was. His daughter kept tapping my arm and pointing at my friend who had an American flag painted over her whole face. She would do the sign for "pretty" and start laughing. She did this every 5 minutes pretty much. It was so funny.

Our group watching fireworks on the boulder

Afterward I got decked out in more American gear and we went out to a park to meet up with a bunch of friends. We played soccer and ninja and camp games (I love camp games. Camp is life.) There's nothing better than a bunch of college kids playing a game called Sparkle.

As it got darker and closer to 9:30PM, we scrambled on top of these huge boulders by Estes Park Lake to watch the fireworks show. It was so much fun. The show was really great and lasted for a long time, and ended with a giant "USA" in the sky. So cool.

Also, I made a deposit tonight for a special certain something I'm doing next weekend. You'll have to wait and see what it is, but just know it's on my bucket list and it's ridiculously cool. ;)

Saturday

Hike day! I like to try and get at least one hike in on the weekends here now. Today we decided to do Twin Sisters Peak, a 7.2 mile round trip 11,428 foot mountain. We ate breakfast around 9 and started hiking at 10:45AM.

The first part of the trail winds slowly around woods and then opens up to this really neat area where a rock slide happened. I thought it would be cool to hike up the avalanche path instead doing 100 (exaggeration) switchbacks on the normal trail (I don't like switchbacks) so we climbed up the rocks for a little ways and jumped back onto the path. From there you go through more trees for forever.


 


Once you pass treeline, the trail opens up to a beautiful view of Estes Park on this awesome rock path. It took us 2 hours 15 minutes (ish) total to summit the mountain. The view looks out at Longs Peak and we had a great time taking pics and hanging out. Unfortunately we couldn't hang out long because rain was coming and we wanted to get below treeline just in case.

It wasn't one of my favorite hikes - I enjoy the hikes that have more to look at along the way or more variety.  I do love the feeling of reaching the top of a mountain though, so finally getting to the peak was great..

If I had to rank my hikes so far:

1. Sky Pond (including Alberta Falls and the Loch)
2. Dream/Emerald/Nymph
3. Gem Lake
4. Eagle Cliff
5. Bridal Veil Falls
6. Twin Sisters Peak
7. Cub Lake
8. Bierstadt Lake (I did this at night so that may influence this decision)

But that's definitely subject to change as the summer goes on! And each hike of course is beautiful in its own way and it's hard to compare lake views to mountaintop views. Some hikes I'm still looking to do: Bible Point (baby hike everyone does their first week that I still haven't done) Sprague Lake, Bear Lake (another short hike but still good) Ouzel Falls, Lake Haiyaha, Deer Mountain, and Calypso Cascades.

I still haven't decided if I want to do Longs Peak (the big 14'er in the area) this summer. It would be awesome to say I did it, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if I left without doing it. (You have to leave super early in the morning at 1 or 2AM and climb a looong time. I did that whole thing climbing Mount Sinai last year) It's also really dangerous and they've already had to rescue people several times this summer who went by themselves  So we'll see.

Sunday 

Sunday we took a trip a little over an hour away to Fort Collins, or FoCo as the locals call it. My friend Erica was meeting her cousins there and invited us to come along for the day. I really liked the city (there isn't a city in Colorado I haven't liked) We ate lunch at a pizza place called Beau Jo's where they had this ridiculously good "mountain" pizza. You eat the crust with honey. So good.

We walked around the streets after, stopping in little boutiques and book stores and thrift shops (we also stopped for ice cream. You can't pass Ben & Jerry's and not stop.) Erica's cousin has two kids, one is a little 6 month old boy and the other is a 6 year old girl and the girl and I became best friends. We sang Frozen together and made wishes in a fountain and played tag in a thrift shop. Erica's cousin was like, "she must really like kids! she's good with them." and Erica was like "Rachel likes everyone." I miss being with kids.

Erica went to get her tragus pierced and afterward we all went to Chipotle for dinner. I swear I heard angels singing as I opened my burrito. I hadn't been to Chipotle in forever so it was a great way to end the day.


So there you have it, week 6! Sorry it's lengthy, but it was one of the best so far.

Who am I kidding, every week here is really great.