Random note

It's interesting living in the dorms. You often get random notes taped to your door like the one above. But this one made me laugh. I've always wanted a British accent.

Then I looked at the tutor's names. Now, I knew that this was a joke on me. What are the odds that my name's on there, along with the name of a beloved character in a Jane Austen novel?

Now, that's just weird.

But then I saw one posted on everyone's door in my area. Not a joke after all...

(Plus, before any of you correct me, I know that Darcy can be a first name for a girl. Which I think is really cool.)

More running

I was told we had practice at 6:30 this morning. So, I got up and went to the pool, only no one was there! Luckily, a late swimmer came to grab his stuff, so he told me where I really was supposed to be: right behind my dorms! (Blast not being able to hear!)
So I got there a few minutes late, and they had just started jogging. We jogged right up by the hospital, and up into a trail that leads up into the hills. Soon, jogging turned into walking, and walking turned into struggling. The mountain (hill?) we were climbing was very, very steep. Soon I was in the last of the pack (the people behind us turned around and went back). Luckily, I was with Jen and Kristina, old friends. We finally reached the top, after we've seen everyone coming on their way back. We saw a trail and a bunch of boys that were ahead of us on it. So we decided to go over the mountain, and down this trail.
The first problem we encountered was: how do we get to the trail? It was a bunch of steep craggy rocks, but you could see the trail right there...so we picked out a path to make our way to the actual trail. My only misfortune was that I almost stepped on a sleeping rattlesnake. That was scary.
This path was actually a lot more level and easier, until one point, where it declines quite a few feet over a very short time. Very, very steep. Jen, Kristina, and I found a way to get down, though. I'd like to call it "the human version of penguin sliding." We just sit on our heels, and slide down. It was way fun, strange as it probably sounds.
Now that it's over, I'm okay. But the climb up was ridiculously hard. If I thought mom set tough paces to keep up with...I'm forced to change my mind. Some of the boys jogged or ran up the mountain, and down the mountain.
This is going to be an interesting year.

(I think we probably went about 5 miles, round trip.)

First workout

Oh, boy. Do I have a talent for starting things off the wrong foot, or what? (Or wrong hand, for that matter.)

We had our first workout today, held by the seniors. So it was easier than what we should expect in official practice. We stretched, and ran forever.

The whole workout wouldn't have been so bad, except for one small incident.

At the beginning of the run, my lucky shoelaces became untied. (Both of them!) I stopped to tie my shoes, and everyone else continues running at full speed. I'm already quite a few yards behind, and I hurry up and run so I can try to catch up. I didn't see that darn pothole! Back down I go! I succeeded in bruising my right palm, so it even hurts to type. My left hand did a good job of getting itself cut up. After the first section of running, we had to get down and do pushups. Not wanting to look like a slacker, I did them the best I could, but to my dismay, I saw dirt and grass shoved into my wound. We kept running and running, and I was very sweaty. (For some odd reason, they made us run during the hottest part of the day.) I was so sweaty, I bet I could beat dad in "who's the sweatiest now?" I felt like a sponge letting go of all the water in it. Trickling salty sweat everywhere! Ewww! We finally finished blasted running, and dryland, and were excused to get our suits on and get in the refreshingly cold pool.

The workout itself was no big deal. Once I'm in the pool, I'm in my element. Nothing can break me in the pool. It's the dryland that kills.

But, alas! We did a set where after every length, you had to get out and do push-ups, backwards pushups...(I don't know what they're really called...you put your legs out in front of you, hands behind, and lower yourself down and up...), crab walking, squats, lunges, etc. Getting in and out of the pool was a pain...and swimming? It's very annoying to have a piece of skin flapping about, causing more pain than I should really feel. I tried chewing it off several times, but the skin was too thick. (Gross! You really wanted to know that, huh?)

Great way to start your first day of college practice, Nat.

Gah! I've never realized how vital your palms are for swimming!

Some discoveries thus far:

• I really need to get a razor scooter. Maybe I'll get to Institute on time, then.
• I have no time (and no stomach) to eat a decent meal between my last class and before afternoon practice. I'll have to find yogurt, granola bars, etc., to stock up in my room so I won't die at practice from lack of energy.
• Ovaltine is the definite lifesaver. It's so nice to come into my dark cold dorm, walk to the fridge, fill up my nalgene bottle halfway (yes! I drink that much!) with milk, and pour in some ovaltine. It tastes so good!
• I miss my CTR ring. It's somewhere at home.
• I need more milk. My drinking habits are getting out of hand.
• Phones are easily lost, and difficultly found.
• Utah swimmers are...interesting. I'll have to stay away from them. (e.g., A swimmer had a huge bruise on her knee. I asked her how she got it, and the reply? "well, I tried to go for a run while I was drunk. Didn't really work.")
• The Trax and Shuttle are very nice to know about.
• My body is very out of shape for swimming (and running). What am I to do? Ack!
• I miss mom and dad immensely. Growing up is overrated, and a pain.
• Enjoy free time while you have it, because it'll be gone before you know it.

The Food

The food here at college can be quite an interesting experience.
My first experience dealing with food at the Heritage Center was for breakfast. I selected the scrambled eggs (you could've gotten hash potatoes too), the sausage (just one link. You could've gotten bacon with gravy), and the main entre was not your choice. It's just whatever they have at the moment. So I discovered that my main dish was to be...scrambled pancakes? Yes, scrambled pancakes it was. I discovered that the pancakes were quite crunchy, and so was the sausage, something almost unchewable because it was so chewy... then as I left, they had fresh french toast for all... I think I'll just get a simple bowl of cereal tomorrow.
Lunch, however, proved to be better. I got pizza, a huge bowl of fruit, and chocolate pudding. Much, much better. No complaints there.

Then came the student-athlete banquet at night. It was one of those meetings that want you to "get to know other people from different sports/departments." You're assigned a random number, and you get to sit at that table for the evening. Oh, joy. I was surrounded by a bunch of huge burly football players. And they are very, very easily distracted! Oh, my! But they were amusing to watch.
The food there was pretty good. Some kind of shredded meat in bbq sauce served on a bun. (For some reason I don't know what it's really called!) There was also fruit and other sides to eat.

But I think I made a very, very good impression on my new coach at that meeting. As I was stuffing my mouth with m&m's before the meeting, Ron taps me on the shoulder, and introduces me to Greg Winslow. Oh, my! The horror! All I could do was a muffled "plllsssdtameecha" he grinned, shook my greasy hand and walked away...
In fact, now that I look back at that darn banquet, someone would always start trying to talk to me right when my mouth was full...
gaaaah!

First day of college

Well, well, well.
My first day of college. It was quite interesting...and boring. I look forward to next week, because swimming will start right up and make my life hectic once more.
I got to sleep in, then I went to breakfast. Then I walked down to the Trax station and rode it to the stadium. From there, I proceeded to my music class. The first day was unbelievably boring.
But luckily, the Calculus teacher was a new one, an enthusiastic and funny professor. I enjoyed that class very much because we dove right in to the actual material and started learning. My favorite quote from that professor was when someone asked him if they actually have to buy the book. And he waves his hands around wildly and helplessly, and said, "well...books...are supposed to be read..." And everyone immediately started laughing with him, because he can't come up with a reason why we should even get the book, besides doing the recommended practice problems we don't even get graded on...
Chemistry was interesting because it seems like there were more than 200 students in that class. I arrived a little late, and almost didn't even get a seat. It caused me to feel a serious case of claustrophobia, something I don't ordinarily experience. Brittany waved her hands at me, and told me she has my phone. I didn't even realize I dropped it! After class I couldn't find her. So I still have no phone. Something I'm seriously missing, because it's one of the only ways I stay in contact with people over such a large campus. I just hope I'm not missing some mandatory meeting or anything...
I rode the Trax back, and hooked up the computer...to find that getting it registered at the library doesn't do the trick to receive the internet: I needed a certain cord I've never heard of. So I decided to be daring and rode the shuttle to the bookstore. (The shuttle is a lot faster than the Trax, I found out.) I bought the necessary cord, came back, and here I am.

So the worst two things that has happened to me are these: I lost my phone. (I still don't have it. I hope I find Brittany some day.)
And my roommate has a boyfriend that's over...all the time! Grrr...

Yellowstone

This is going ter be a longer post than usual. So I suggest that either you buckle down, give me yer undivided attention, and make yourself a nice big cup of ovaltine to drink as you read…OR for your convenience, I have divided it into sections. You can read a section, realize that this is pointless reading, and come back later to finish it… Let the posting commence!

Yellowstone: “The Bowels of the Earth”
I know, I know. Chicago has arrogantly claimed this title for themselves. But I will restore the title to its rightful owner: Yellowstone.

Day One: “We can’t find a place to stay!”

After a few hours of driving, we arrived at the west entrance. We drove along, only to realize that the Norris campground was full. We drove north. Indian Creek was also full. We slowly made our way to the northwestern most tip of Yellowstone: Mammoth Hot Springs. Luckily that camp was not full! (A rare thing for three in the afternoon.) Yay!
We found our camping spot, and we saw why it wasn’t full yet. This camp was made for the desperate. Like us. One of the main roads of Yellowstone wound around us; it was about 300 yards in front of us, and 50 yards behind us. The land was bare and stark. They set up sandboxes to set up your tent in. At night, the loud drone of trucks would wake mom and dad up, but not me! The lights woke me up…glaring off the tents.
Anyway, after we set up our tent, we explored Mammoth Hot Springs. Luckily, we overheard a way to get a more decent camp spot—reserve one by phone. Only a few camps do this, but it might be easier than rushing to the first come first serve areas. We secured a spot at Bridge Bay, Southeast from our position, and next to the large Yellowstone Lake. An ideal camping spot.

elk in Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Three elk in M.H.S. area

Day Two: “Buffalo are little Piggies”

After getting up, we packed everything up and drove south to Norris. There we looked at Norris Geyser Basin, which was very interesting and stinky. It was here that mom made the memorable observation that Yellowstone is the bowels of the earth.
After Norris, we drove west to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We hiked along a good portion of the northern rim. We saw the lower and upper falls. On our way back up, Mom spotted a hike she had to do on the southern rim. This is what it looked like from the northern rim.
We ate lunch before proceeding to the southern rim of the canyon. On our way to lunch, however, (or back…I can’t remember) we saw lots of buffalo crossing the road, in Hayden Valley. One particularly large one looked like he was going to bulldoze our car, mom probably got an impressive picture of him, since her upper body was out of the window…but he changed his mind, and went around the back. I’m glad mom’s still intact, too. We thought the buffalo sounded cute. Only mom thought they were very cute. So cute, that they couldn't possibly harm anyone. We should go pet one. They made sounds like little piggies snorting. Then in my imagination, I imagine three or four piggies inside a buffalo costume roaming around…
Uncle Tom’s trail just hurt looking at from the northern rim. Up close wasn’t any better. Every instinct in my body told me not to do it…but there goes dad and mom… The trail descends about 500 feet, has about 350? steps, and is all see-through metal. You have just one rock wall on one side, and nothing on the other, but a deadly drop. Luckily, there were rails to keep you safe. Dad observed that all of the paint is worn off the rails, because everyone, including me, grips them with a death grip. I think both ways were equally hard. Down was hard because you had to look down to be sure of your steps. The problem of looking down, is that you see right through the steps to the bottom of the canyon floor. Yikes! The problem of going up, is that you see all the steps that are slightly bent, kicked in, etc. etc. etc.
Uncle Tom’s trail was way worse than any scary ride in Lagoon. Scarier than the skycoaster. My legs were trembling so hard, they hurt. Mom wasn’t of any help to ease my fear, constantly yelling to me, “Nat! This is really scary! This is the worst part! Natalie!” (The scariest part consisted of looking down and the fall is easily 100+ feet.)
After Uncle Tom’s, we drove to Bridge Bay and set up camp. We ate dinner, then drove to Mud Volcano, where we smelt more foulness and witnessed more wonders of nature.

Yellowstone Lake




Now, that's what I call bad gas. (It's low quality. I apologize.)

Video and picture from Norris basin

Canyon pictures
No way! Are those really buffalo?

Uncle Tom's Trail: Northern Rim view

Day Three: “Let’s Erupt!”

I don’t know why Old Faithful is so famous. It’s kind of like Delicate Arch. Why is that arch famous? I’ve seen many cooler ones…meh, it’s not up to me to decide what’s famous and what’s not. I think Old Faithful is particularly famous because it’s easily accessed and it’s certain to go off in the next 100 minutes…and it’s pretty darn big for a predictable geyser. It’s pretty cool to watch, no matter what angle you’re at, whether you’re in front of it with the large crowd, far away, looking at other spectacles, or at the observation point on a mountain. It’s pretty impressive.
As we walked along the trails beyond Old Faithful, we just missed the Grand Geyser, something that is a rival of Old Faithful. It’s supposed to go for 20 minutes, in four or five bursts. However, I did get to watch the Riverside Geyser go off. I think it’s pretty because it’s all by itself right next to the river! It looks lonely, though. Many other popular geysers have buddies that go off as well.
Pathetically enough, my favorite geysers are the “baby” geysers. The Anemone Geysers were a particular favorite. Their cycles were only about seven minutes long. They looked completely empty, then water appears out of nowhere, making a pool, then they burst! After a minute or so, all of the water is immediately swallowed away from view, swallowed with a toilet-like sound. I think they should be renamed to “Magically unclogging clogged toilets.”
After the Old Faithful region, we drove North to visit the Lower Geyser Basin. We went to Fountain Paint Pot, and Firehole Lake Drive. That’s where I got to see the White Cone Geyser erupt. It was pretty cool.
Then we visited both Biscuit Basin and Black Sand Basin before returning to camp.

Old Faithful (too many people go to Yellowstone! [Look in the background.])

My favorite: The Anemone Geysers. The one in the background is finishing up its cycle. The one in the foreground is currently empty.

White Cone Geyser

Black Sand basin (I think. Could be Biscuit)






Day Four: “Can we be done yet?!”

We packed up, but couldn’t do anything fun in Jackson, WY. Why? Because mom said so, that’s why. No, we must work, work, work! No fun. Just find a place to hike, and we hike. Why? Because you must keep moving. You aren’t allowed to sit around. That’s wasting time. No, we’ll find a hike to do on the way to Jackson to pick up Emily. Let’s go to…Jenny Lake. And there we rode a boat to our hike, hiked, then rode it back (on the ride back we spotted two…moose?meese?). I will confess that the hike was very pretty, the mountains are simply majestic, craggy and overwhelming, and the lake looked so inviting.... After the hike, we picked up Emily and went out to dinner with Emily and Carvel. So I didn’t really get to see the famous town of Jacksonhole. We just ate at the “Merry Piglets.”
The “Merry Piglets” was an amusing stop, because knowing me, conversations are bound to go wrong when I’m present. For example, I got the feta cheese wrap, but only succeeded in eating half of it. It was larger than my foot! I was stuffed, and mom told me to eat some more. “But I can’t eat any more! I’m full!”
Carvel: “Have you moved?”
Me: “Why, no, I haven’t. That’s a good idea! Usually you move to wiggle in some more space for food…”
(Everybody’s laughing…I finally comprehend…)
Me: “No, I haven’t moved in for school yet. I do that on the 16th…”

I took pictures of these signs because they were found all over Yellowstone, and I thought they were quite amusing.

Yes, that's me and my tie-dye shirt in the sign.

Animals seen:
eagle
osprey
raven
crow
bull snake
bull elk/elk
deer
squirrels
chipmunks
buffalo
various water fowl
fish
moose…meese?

Places Visited (not necessarily in this order):
Mammoth Hot Springs
Roaring Mountain
Norris Geyser Basin
Grand Canyon of Yellowstone
Yellowstone River
Yellowstone Lake
Bridge Bay
Fishing Bridge
Sulfur Canyon
Mud Volcano
Old Faithful
Biscuit Basin
Black Sand Basin
Fountain Paint Pot
Firehole Lake Drive
Continental Divide
Lewis Lake
West Thumb/West Thumb Geyser Basin

Languages heard:
German
Asian (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, who knows?)
Italian
Swedish
Hindi
And many more I couldn’t distinguish…

One Last Thought:

Humans are like lemmings! They have to do what everyone else is doing. We were held up for about 15-20 minutes-not because animals were crossing the road, but because everyone driving by had to stop, park their car, and take a picture of the animal way beyond the road, or next to the road.
When we were waiting for a geyser to blow, we sat there with 2-3 other people. Within five minutes, there were 20-30 people looking to see what we were looking at. Unfortunately, many lost patience, and left after waiting 2-3 minutes.
If I had the time, (mom would never allow this laziness) I’d stand at a random spot on the road, a camera to my eye, and with a look of excitement on my face. I wonder how many people would stop to look for what I was taking pictures of—nothing.