The Continuing

Friday, January 19, 2007
12:00:14 AM

Today was an awesome day indeed. It was our first chance to do some traveling as a group. Arriving to the RMCAD campus this morning we met for morning meeting in the Rotunda building. Announcements were short and included the fact that today was Sandra from China’s birthday. Throughout the course of the day I think she had happy birthday sang to her at least three times and she also received a cake with candles fully lit while we were on the bus. Anyhow, the last of the morning announcements was that each of us were supposed to find a “bus date”, someone to sit with on the bus that we really hadn’t had a chance to get to know so well yet. I ended up sitting next to Evans from Mexico. We had great discussions on many topics ranging from geography and climate to the phenomenon of Canadian “Snow Birds” (not the aerial acrobatics team) heading to Mexican resorts for the winter months. I told him about how I myself had done something along the same lines in going to the Dominican Republic for March Break during high school. This reminded me how Armando was saying the other day how Americans and Canadians “Go South” for the winter or vacation; Mexicans don’t go north or south, they just go. As it turns out, the bus driver we had today is going to be our bus driver for the duration of the US tour so he unofficially joined our cast today. One of our Canadian girls was sick for the second day in a row (one too many margaritas eh?) as were three others just for today. Too Bad; they missed an awesome day. We drove up into the foothills for about an hour before we reached Boulder. We got off the bus at the library and were placed in groups for the morning scavenger hunt. I was designated the leader of my group. We read over all the questions and formulated our route. We stopped and asked quite a few people for information ; some knew what the UWP program was all about, some didn’t. It was all Good™. The questions ranged from “Why is it called Boulder?” to “Name a local Micro-Brewery and find one of their beer coasters”. Lunch was served just outside the Courthouse. I had a Chipolte Steak wrap and man was it good (not to mention filling). They certainly like to spice things up down here! After lunch all of the groups met back up at the library where we boarded the bus once more to head to the Celestial Seasonings manufacturing plant. I’ve never (and probably never will again) see so much tea in one place at one time. The statistics were crazy, something like over a million teabags a day are made there. We had a tour of the plant where we got to see the process from milling to packaging. Because of the nature of the plant, we all had to wear hairnets. I also had to wear a beard net; Some said I looked very arabic. One of the highlights of the tour was the fabled “mint room” where they store all of the peppermint and spearmint. It was so strong that it made our eyes water. We ended the tour at the gift shop where I bought a few souvenirs. There was also a tasting room where you could try all the new tea flavors; It felt kind of like being in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We all kind of dozed a bit during the bus ride home. When Peppe and I got back to the house we had some pretty darn good leftovers for supper. I had 2 (more) wraps. I guess I’m quite the wrapper now. After supper we saw the movie “What the Bleep” it was all about how thought can influence matter at a sub-elemental level. For example. There is a noticeable pattern of difference between water crystals quick frozen after being exposed to “happy thoughts” and those exposed to “negative thoughts”. I would recommend watching the“ Double Slit Experiment from Down The Rabbit Hole” from www.whatthebleep.com/trailer/drh-trailer.shtml . Its really interesting stuff. Who knows, there could be some validity to it. Anyhow, I’m going to wrap (again) things up for the evening and head to bed as we are now on 6 day work weeks going all out.

I’d just like to point out as well that right now I am very spoiled because I have high speed comcast cable. There is a very real possibility that in some of the areas I visit while on tour that I won’t have such readily available access. Not to worry though. I’ll still be (as I have been) writing my journal locally and posting it when I can.

Like I said, Its all Good™

Ryan And I