Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I have been fortunate enough to return to my homeland of Alaska for the Thanksgiving holiday. I have definitely enjoyed being back. The perks include:

•Free food

•Free transportation (I'm not filling up that gas tank!)

•Getting to see old friends

•Getting to see my family (Mom, sister, and dogs)

•Having some free time to think without being in a time crunch

•Free shopping trips (Let's go shopping!)

•Enjoying Alaska's great outdoors

It's nice to come home and not have to completely support myself. However, I'm looking forward to going back to Bozeman. I have realized that as time goes on, I feel more connected with Bozeman than Alaska. I have been warned of this phenomenon by my older sister, but I thought since last year I came back and everything felt the same as when I left that would continue to happen. This is not so. I'm okay with it, though. I love Bozeman and I think since I am committed to going to school for a few more years it would be good to settle in Bozeman even when there's not school.

Either way, I can't deny I like all the perks of visiting home. For instance: I just had a great, free, family Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm thankful.

'Tis the season

...of group projects.

In the past two weeks I have have two group projects due, and a third one is due after Thanksgiving, so at one point I was juggling three group projects at once. I've definitely been feeling the pressure of the semester coming to a close, which means that we're all supposed to have learned enough in our classes to complete large and arduous assignments. I have never had so many group projects at once, and one of them involved five people and another involved six, which made it almost impossible to figure out a time everyone could meet. However, I'm pretty much done with those now, which is a huge relief. For the project due after Thanksgiving, we made a movie, which is about 20 minutes long and tells the story of the Book of Acts (from the Bible; it's for my Biblical Foundations of Literature class). I'm pretty excited about that; it's definitely the longest movie I've ever made. I helped one of my partners put it all together last Wednesday, and it's still in the final editing process. Hopefully, when it's all done we can upload it onto YouTube or something and I can post it on here.

Another group assignment I had was to design "the ideal school for teens." It was for my Lifespan of Human Development class and was supposed to be a partner assignment, but I ended up in a group of three. We decided to make a little booklet describing our school, and I thought the cover was the most entertaining, so here it is:

This is a picture of how it looks on my computer, because I didn't end up with the hard copy after it got graded. But, I can assure you the booklet was very legit and we got a high score.

While I am relieved to be pretty much done with group projects, there is still a lot to do before the semester ends...mainly writing a term paper for my Biblical class and studying for finals. It's nice to have Thanksgiving break coming up, but I plan to spend a lot of it studying. (Key words: plan to.)

Miller Dining Hall

...from an employee's perspective.

Last year I lived in Roskie, so I ate in the Miller Dining Hall 99.9% of the time. I never ventured to Harrison, although I was fond of Hannon if I was on campus or felt like making the trek. The point is, Miller was a favorite hangout of mine. After about the first month of school, it became impossible to go there without inadvertently seeing somebody I knew, which was nice because it meant I rarely ate alone.

Now, I don't live in the dorms. However, my job hunt at the beginning of the year did not go well, so in desperation, I applied to Miller — they have tons of employees and a high turnover rate, so I figured my chances were good. They actually didn't have any openings when I first applied, but they took down my name and phone number and said they'd call me. There was no actual application involved. It was a very informal process, but they actually did call me about a week and a half later. I accepted, having no idea what I was getting into, and the next day I was dishwashing.

Being a dishwasher in the Miller Dining Hall isn't actually that bad, especially because I don't live in the dorms any more. I still see people I know there every day, and I get to eat there when I work, which is actually an awesome perk when you're paying for your own groceries. Most importantly, I get a paycheck, which is more than a lot of people can say. It's a pretty laid-back job, although dinner shifts can get crazy - Miller is the biggest of the dining halls and therefore highly trafficked.

Another thing I like about my job is the hours. I only work 12-15 hours a week; since many of the employees are students, the shifts are short and you can choose your schedule. And, it's close to my house, because my house is close to campus, and that makes my life way easier because I can walk to work. Overall, I would recommend working on campus (even if dishwashing isn't your cup of tea) because there are a lot of jobs available and it's convenient.

Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, Mr. Lif, and Lyrics Born in Bozeman

As I mentioned at the end of my last blog, last Saturday there was a concert at the Fairgrounds in Bozeman featuring the above hip-hop artists (Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, Mr. Lif, and Lyrics Born) . I was really excited for the concert, and doors were supposed to open at 6:30. My roommates and I went to our friend's apartment on Main Street around 5:30, and we were planning on walking from there. At 6:30, we got a call from our friend who was currently at the concert, and he said doors weren't opening until 8; apparently it was a bit unorganized. So, we waited at my friend's apartment until about 8 and then walked to the concert. We got there in good time to see Mr. Lif and Gift of Gab, who played first.

I love concerts and my main goal is always to be as close to the front as possible. I made my way to the front of the stage by the speakers, where I stayed for the remainder of the concert, which was amazing. Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5) is one of my favorite rappers and seeing him live was awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but...

This is Gift of Gab freestyling. I just watched a documentary on the art of freestyling last night, so I find it to be very impressive. I don't know how he raps so quickly.

The fairgrounds is probably Bozeman's best concert venue, because it's big and the concerts are all-ages. Last year, Girl Talk and Atmosphere played there, to drop some names. I'm hoping more artists decide to play there in the near future.

Pray 4 Snow and MSU Hockey

On Friday night, I had two new experiences at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds (which are in Bozeman). One was the Pray 4 Snow festival and the other was my first MSU hockey game.

Pray 4 Snow is an annual event in which snow enthusiasts of all types get together and, supposedly, "pray for snow." I had never been, but heard it was fun. It started at 6 and went until 11, so I showed up with some friends around 7:30. When we got there, a band was playing inside the barn, but not many people were there—my friends who had gone last year said there had been a lot more people when they went. We decided we were probably early. By 9:00, there were more people, but still not a huge crowd. We walked outside, to where a large wooden dog (about 15 feet tall) was set up with a bunch of firewood below it, waiting to be burned. Apparently, we got there at the right time—some people had just lit it on fire. We watched as the fire grew until it overtook the dog and created an immense amount of heat. I puzzled over the question of how burning a massive amount of wood and releasing more heat into the atmosphere would help encourage snow to fall, but apparently these rituals are beyond my comprehension.

The burning dog, in all its majesty.

After the dog burned, we decided it was time to move on. As luck would have it, some of our other friends were attending the MSU hockey game, which started at 10:00 at the ice rink next door to where Pray 4 Snow was taking place. I didn't even know MSU had a hockey team until I heard about this, so I figured it was worth checking out. Hockey is a huge deal in Alaska, but I hadn't heard much about it in Montana. The rink at the Fairgrounds didn't have much bleacher space, but soon it was packed with people. Apparently the people that do go to hockey games are really into it. I decided to leave about a third of the way through, but it was a good game. From a little research I just did, I learned the MSU Hellcats hockey team is a Division II team. They are a registered club at the university, but don't get any funding from it; it's completely student run. You can check out their webpage here.

All in all it was an interesting night. The fairgrounds is a happening place; I'm looking forward to seeing Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, Lyrics Born, and Mr. Lif in concert there next Saturday...stay tuned.

Greg Mortenson

If you haven't heard of Greg Mortenson, he's a world-famous local of Bozeman. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice for his work establishing schools in Afghanistan, and has founded 131 so far. I got the chance to see him speak at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on campus this past Wednesday, and it was pretty interesting. The talk was free to the public, which I thought was pretty cool. I took somewhat extensive notes, because I was somewhat delirious from not getting enough sleep for about a month and from the busy day I'd had already. I decided to take pictures of my notes and post them, because I think they are my best account of what happened. Mortenson told a lot of stories about his work, and invited two other people to come up on stage and tell their stories.

Mortenson's book "Three Cups of Tea" is internationally recognized and today is required reading for all military officers, after General Petraeus read it and found it to be profoundly helpful in his outlook on the "conflict" in Afghanistan. He told Mortenson the three most important lessons he learned from the book were to listen, to respect, and to build relationships.

Something I found most intriguing about Mortenson's work is that when he started his efforts, he was completely broke. He got the opportunity to talk at an elementary school, and the kids took interest in his cause and one told him he'd donate the contents of his piggy bank. From there, Mortenson started the "Pennies for Peace" program, which has exploded into schools internationally and raised millions of dollars.

Yes, Greg Mortenson said it; Bozeman is awesome!

Halloween in Denver

One of my favorite things about living in Bozeman is how easy it is to drive virtually anywhere in the continental U.S. (as you can imagine, living in Alaska does not make road trips to anywhere but other places in Alaska easy). I am fortunate enough to have a car, and this past weekend three of my friends and I road tripped to Denver to see Bassnectar in concert at the Fillmore.

To put it simply, it was amazing. Here's a video from Bassnectar's set (the sound quality isn't great, but you'll get the idea).

Heavyweight Dub Champion and RJD2 opened, but due to poor planning we didn't get there until halfway through RJD2's set. However, it all worked out because there was an afterparty at Casselman's Bar & Venue, and it was 18+ which is convenient for me because I am 19 and it irritates me when my age prevents me from going to shows. So, right after the concert we took a taxi to the afterparty, where we saw Heavyweight Dub Champion, then Bassnectar again, then a sweet DJ named Wolfe. I had tons of fun and danced until the very end at approximately 4 am. Here's a video of Wolfe (he wore a clown mask the entire time—impressive).

Although I didn't do the traditional Halloween activities, I had an awesome Halloween. This was my second time traveling to Denver for a concert and it was definitely worth it—big cities are a different scene. Roadtrips are a lot of fun, and for me they're definitely a perk of going to college outside of Alaska.