-Let my works, not my ambitions,
Bring me to the precipice of my life
And my faith to the path of my salvation.
April 19th, Leadville CO. I had lunch on that peak behind me at 13,100 ft the day before with Ioan during the hut trip i did make to the 10th mountain hut. Hightlights from that trip include: the hike to the peak, playing big booty, and a crazy dude who crashed the party and did not kill us in our sleep.
Well I can't say my past posts have been very complete so don't expect this one to be either. Ecuador finished out with bang. I met back up with Kristina the last night and had some dinner with her roommate then we went out for some drinks and all of Quito lost power. In a normal town i'm not sure if this would be a big deal; but where we were and the fact that its Quito the streets suddenly became very dangerous. so we were forced to stay in the pub and sip our drinks and I told some riddles. oh yea, i'm an entertainer all right. The president of Ecuador was set to give a big speech that night and in protest a number of cities had their power cut by his opponents. THe first blackout lasted for about 20 minutes then the next one came on long enough for us to try and move locations and then went out again. This time it was for a few hours. We all decided to brave the streets and called it a night. I don't know if its true but my theory is if you run you can't be mugged so i sprinted back to my hostel and decided to get a good sleep before the taxi arrived at 5am.
At 4:50am in I was almost robbed, but with my quick thinking I was able to escape back into my hostel moments before the assailant nabbed me. This is how it went down. I couldn't sleep because i was too excited so at 4:30 i gave up, packed and went out to wait on the curb. This drunk guy walking up the street starts yelling at me "what are you doin? are you crazy gringo? you ganna get robbed!" he tried to get me a cab but i had a ride scheduled already so convinced him to stop hailing cabs. about 10 minutes later a sinister looking fellow was walking down the cross street and suddenly stopped. turned towards me and began walking very quickly right at me. All the buildings in quito have metal gates with locks controlled by someone on the inside if you don't have a key. I realized this guy meant business so i rang the bell, waved at the sleepy attendant, he buzzed the door, i opened and pulled it shut just as the crazy dude grabbed the bars in the window of the gates. He banged on those metal doors for a while yelling at me as stood out of site getting my blood pressure back down. This time i took the drunkards advice and waited until my ride arrived before i left my sanctuary.
On the way to the airport I drove with a Lisa from Norway and we turned out to have mutual friends at the Spanish school and the same flight to Houston before I went to Denver and she to Norway so had a good time chatting. In houston we enjoyed our first american meal in months and ate at Wendy’s (welcome home fast food). Joel picked me up from the airport and we caught up for a bit wiht some beer and he dropped me off back home. aaaannnnddd then when I was about to go to sleep my roommate got home and he very surprised because he thought I was dead because I had given him the wrong return information (about 15 days before I actually returned) so he and my neighbor and I dressed up in my souvenir clothes (poufy white pirate shirts) - sorry dad the shirt you got has been worn before you -from Ecuador, put on funny hats, grabbed a bottle of whiskey, started a bon fire in our back yard, and sang crazy songs and talked like foreigners ( I was English, neighbor was Irish, and roommate was pikey) for 4 hours until 2am. It was so fun. I laughed really really hard for a long time. And then slept for the first time in 38 hours. The end - of Quito.
Ok, that was January 15th and 16th. School started on the 19th.
Life lesson from the semester: Some things you can't force. its like trying to hold onto campfire smoke.
It took me about 3 months to remember that i needed to study outside of class so these past couple of months have been a little fast paced. Spring break would have been much better. I was a little stressed. I wouldn't have had to cancel one of the hut trips i was going on, and I would have been able to use my 4pack at A-basin and Keystone. But overall my first semester of grad school has been amazing. I love the subject. Urban social problems are really interesting and learning about the different programs set up to address these issues and how they have and have not worked has been eye opening. Plus i've met some great people in my program and out of my program. I hope these friendships continue. yes i do. they are fun people. I thought i was going to be able to do alot more with my 'free' time when I first envisioned grad school life. I thought i could be a little assistant to my pastor at church, running errands and crap like that. did not happen. I thought i would do more snowboarding. did not happen. I thought i would eat better. did not happen. I thought i would substitute teach for extra money. did not happen. I thought I would volunteer on the local search and rescue. did not happen. I thought I would get a job doing research at the school. BOOYA! This happened! shit. that was awesome. I thought I would have a lot of fun. Also happened. I thought i would do some simulation work on the side. did not happen.
no problem. time management is a good skill to learn so maybe i can add one or two of those thingies on for next semester. for the summer i hope to do these:
1) mountain bike lots
2) hike and camp with friends
3) have fun
4) continue to work for the school
5) get an internship
6) do some out-of-state trips with my buddies here
7) see Dave and Val's new baby
8) make it to Joseph Oregon
9) learn spanish
10) clean my room
ok, got some goals. we'll see how that works out for me.
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