All in the golden afternoon

Took my latte and went to read in the gardens on campus yesterday. So lovely...

I get to walk through here later on my way to class, too!

xxo, S

∆Z - Delta Zeta

I got my bid for the Rho Chapter of Delta Zeta Sorority tonight and I couldn't be happier!!!!

After a looooooong weekend of Recruitment (Thurs - Sun), I can finally relax and get to focus on the one house that has made me feel completely and totally welcome: Delta Zeta.

I would rather not focus on Recruitment (a.k.a. Rush) right now because it was a painful, stressful, exhausting process that I would never do again. So it's a good thing I got into a house! Instead, I'd like to share the joy I feel right now from being welcomed into the DZ family. I know it sounds corny, but it's true: from the beginning, I felt close and connected to the girls in DZ. This is the house for me and I'm so, SO happy they let me in!

pref (Preference) night - sunday

my floormate next door

me & my roommate :)

with one of my pledge classmates, bid night - monday

with my turtle buddy

party at the DZ house

celebrating in our room - even though we are all in in different houses!

older DZ members came to decorate our doors

look at my delta zeta pride!!!

sporting official DZ sunglasses

me and my roomie playing around on photobooth

the DZ sign

SO HAPPY TO BE A DELTA ZETA GIRL!

pink and green forever

xxo, S

Denver weather

Just a quick post to say that today is the first cloudy day I've had in Denver so far. And I've been here for over three weeks now. That's 15 straight days of sunshine! Of course, this is the city that has 300 days of sunshine per year, more than L.A. or Miami.

xxo, S

My new weekend

Every weekend this quarter I have a three-day weekend. Oh yes, be jealous ;)
My schedule just happened to work out that I have no classes on Fridays, so Thursday is the beginning of my weekend. And that is such a sweet deal.

This being the first of the ten such weekends, I had some fun adventures. A few of my friends who have a similar schedule (i.e. no Friday classes) went into downtown Denver (Lodo) on Thursday evening. This time we took a car instead of the handy light rail system, so I got to see different parts of the city on the way there.

On Friday, I went exploring downtown myself. The 16th Street Mall is a mostly pedestrian area that has lots of shops and restaurants (and tourists :P) so its fun to explore and do a little shopping. I got sometime to myself at Starbucks (my home away from home) and began reading my book for Geography, Postcards From Tomorrow Square: Reports From China by James Fallows. It's very interesting and I would recommend it to my Global Seminar teacher from last year.

Saturday was also spent in the city, but this time, we did something a little different; we went to an amusement park! Elitch Gardens (which used to be part of the Six Flags family) is a small amusement park that also has a water park in the summer months. But it is small and mighty! There were several roller coasters (all of which we rode) that completely blew my mind... in particular the Mind Eraser.

There was also an old school wooden one that reminded me of Coney Island, except this one had a surprise tunnel that was very fun. Later in the evening, I went with one of my friends whose brother also goes to DU, and we all hung out with some of his friends.

Sunday, I did laundry for the first time at college. Not as exciting as you'd think. And also not as disastrous, since I did lots of my own laundry at home (thank you very much). But the laundry room is quite an interesting place. There are the inevitable people struggling to figure out the machines and how much detergent to put in. Surrounding them are people doing homework while waiting for their wash to finish. And people are always going in and out; I guess they are trying to decide whether or not laundry is worth all the trouble (remind me not to stand too close to these people - phew!).

So this is the end of my long weekend! Good thing the next one is only four days away...
xxo, S

A regular academic

Today is my first day of the weekend!!! I don't have classes on Fridays, which is so lucky, so I've got a three-day weekend every weekend! My schedule is awesome, and I love all my classes so far (except, of course, math. You know me). I moved up a level in French (the level that I originally tested into) so I'm now in the 2400 class. I feel so smart ;) My geography class seems like a cross between history and economics, which is a mix I am totally excited about. And I love maps so it's pretty perfect. Last night I had to write my first paper for my freshman seminar (supernatural things) and I hope it's good enough. This is my first attempt at writing for a college class.

Last night was also the first meeting of the DU Alpine Club, which is a really cool organization that gets students great discounts on really awesome outdoors trips like hiking, rock/ice climbing, biking, skiing, and even spelunking. There is a rock climbing trip this weekend (not like a rock wall, the real outdoors!) that I wanna try. Also, Icelantic skis gives DUAC members a sweet discount, so I might have to make my next pair one of those.

DU's campus is so pretty!!! As soon as I get the chance, (maybe Saturday morning?) I will go around and take some nice pictures to share here. The one thing that I see everyday that makes me go "woah" is the gold tower at the Ritchie Center.

it has chapel-style bells that ring all the time (and of course, every hour).

Off to a Bollywood dance class now with mes amies.

xxo, S

The land of fire and ice

My Iceland trip was so much fun!!! Okay, so it was over two weeks ago, but I've been busy with college and all, so I haven't had time to write about it. We spent two weeks, staying in places like Þingvellir National Park, Borgarnes, the Blue Lagoon (Bláa Lónið) and visiting such sights as Geysír, Snæfells, Vatnajökull, Jökulsárlón, and Skogafoss.


The Blue Lagoon is one of the main tourist sights in Iceland. The water is superheated from a nearby lava flow and then pooled into a bathing area for spa services. It gets its blue colouring from a unique algae and sulphur and silica minerals.

silica mineral rocks along the edges; lava fields surround it

at night

The house we rented at Þingvellir was right on Þingvallavatn. Some people go scuba diving here and it has an average of 100 meter visibility. The first parliament was established in the national park in 930 A.D.

windows on 3/4 of the walls

view from the porch

Nearby is the famous Geysír, the original geyser, and several other geysers.

Geysír, no longer active

Strokkur, active every five to ten minutes

Blessi, crazy blue coloured hot water

warning about the hot water

The next town we rented a house in was called Borgarnes, a small town on the edge of a fjord in West Iceland. It felt like we were on the edge of the world....

view from the house at sunrise

walking through the town

skipping stones by the shore

Then we tried to drive to Snæfellsjökull, where Jules Verne set his novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Unfortunately it was swathed in thick clouds and we were unable to see the glacier, despite being pretty much right next to it. So we checked out some spooky old "whispering" caves instead.

inside the cave

we had to climb up through the top of this one

so foggy!

catching water dripping off the cave

sign to Snæfellsjökull

After Borgarnes, we drove south to see waterfalls and more (visible) glaciers, including Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe (11% of Iceland's area).

Svartifoss

you can walk behind this one

Skogafoss, usually there is a rainbow you can see

there are cows and sheep pretty much everywhere

legendary rock formations in Vík

black sand beach from volcanic rock

approaching Vatnajökull

this used to be a bridge until the glacier ate it

Jökulsárlón, the glacial lagoon

The very last thing we did on the trip was to go ice climbing at Vatnajökull. Our guide was really fun and cool and showed us lots of unique glacier things, too. I have completely fallen in love with ice climbing and I can't wait to try it again!

my gear

the edge of the glacier where it meets the dirt

weird little ice cave in the side of the glacier

last look back

The last time we were in Iceland was five years ago. I hope it's not another five years before we return again, but if it is, I will be waiting anxiously! Until then, I hope I get to travel to a million other new places.

xxo, S