Norris Hot Springs

Norris Hot Springs is one of the greatest activities you can do with a group of friends on a weekend night, especially after a long day skiing. It forty miles out of town so it is a bit of a drive but it is completely worth it when you get to sit in the hot springs while listening to live music that they have every night. They have a sweet deal where if you tell them in the beginning of the night that you are a designated driver then you get a coupon for a free entrance next time you come. I really like to take advantage of this because there is nothing wrong with a good soak and good music especially if you aren't 21! They most often have folk music playing which is my personal favorite and is the perfect music to relax to. And if you are lucky, which in the big sky is quite often, you may just get a clear sky that provides you with a beautiful starry sky to peer up at. As they like to put it, It's the water of the gods! I like to agree. 

REACH Art Program

Through most of the departments at MSU there are tons of great opportunities to get out into the community and get hands on experience relating to your major. I got the opportunity to help out every Monday afternoon working with adults with disabilities. Every week we have a new project that we work on and they are all so great and have pumped out some amazing works of art! It is so much fun to get to know them from week to week and see how their personalities are reflected in their art work. We are almost done with our six week class and at the very end we are going to have an art show where we will invite people from the community to come and see what we have all been working so hard on. 

This has been such a great opportunity for me going into education because I have never worked in this field before and I don't think I could enjoy it anymore! Today we painted watercolor flowers and they turned out beautiful. We all have a grand time enjoying great company and doing one of the most fun things in the world... ART!!!

OOOH Canada...

For one  night durning my trip out west (see below for more information) we decided to turn right and head up to our friendly northern neighbor, Canada! Vancouver is breath taking the second it comes into sight. We drove over a huge bridge and at the top the city scape of Vancouver appeared. The sky scrapers are scattered into a few groupings of tall white buildings that seem to mimic the vast white Canadian Rockies that provide a beautiful back drop. As for big cities I'm usually not a fan but Vancouver changed my mind a bit. Maybe Im just becoming more open minded in my old age :)  

I have a friend that plays basket ball for the University of Alaska Anchorage and they were playing at Simon Frasier, a college in Vancouver. This was actually the reason the whole idea of this trip came into play. We went to the game and just happened to be the only four girls in the stands cheering for UAA as well as the only fans with a big sign saying GO ALYSA!! We only got a few dirty looks from the little girls basketball teams that came to watch as well. It all turned out great for us because UAA took the win so we didn't look so stupid in the end. I got to talk to Alysa for a total of about 8 minutes after the game but it was so good to see her play that it was all worth it. 

Another girl from Kodiak wrestles for Simon Frasier so we crashed in her dorm room. Before which we headed down town for the thrill of being allowed to drink in the bars at 20 years old. 

There were a few strange things about canada. Their money is all multicolored as well as their coins being called loonies and toonies. Their green traffic lights blink half the time which was so confusing and I could not figure out why this was happening. I came to the conclusion that until I figured it out they meant to watch for moose. So I did, until I asked our cab driver and he told me it meant watch for pedestrians, which was a big disappointment. 

 

I want to send out a big old thanks to my father, Papa Bear himself for providing me with the gas funds! Your a peach dadio!

To the Ocean and Beyond!

We just recently had a three day weekend so I decided to get out of my normal groove and head west! I have some friends from high school that go to school in Bellingham Washington and I have been dying to see them so that is where I headed. My roommate Liz had never been to Idaho or Washington so she decided to tag along and we also got to make a new friend Quin who wanted to go see my friends as well, she went to Western Washington for the past two years and was roommates with one of my friends. Small world! Having grown up on an Island where the ocean is a constant presence, living in Montana, where the water is much more scarce, makes me feel like there is something missing. So you can imagine my excitement when I finally got to see the big old blue again!! My goal for the weekend was to jump in but I epicly failed which makes me embarrassed to even say that I had the plan in the first place. Despite my failure I still had a blast and got to see my amazing friends and smell the sweet salty scent of the ocean air. After twenty four hours in the car in four days it was definitely a relief to see the gorgeous Bridgers shining in the moonlight once again. 

Sculpture

This semester I have one studio and it is sculpture. I wasn't so excited for this one because I had never made a sculpture before. Once we got started though, I realized that it is actually amazing and I am loving its. Surprise! I always end up being really excited about whatever class I am in at the time. Eventually maybe I will need to stick with something for a while. 

Our first sculpture assignment was to pick a story of any kind and choose one feeling that describes that story. Our sculpture had to be made out of wood and depict that feeling. 

I chose to use wood that I found outside like dead tree branches and rounds of wood. I ended up cutting the rounds into disk shapes and cutting those in half and then attaching those to the wall all around the top of a staircase and creating an environment that you walked into. My original idea was not even nearly close to this idea but my feeling of confusion may still come though if you think very conceptually... ;)

I was only allowed to keep it up for a week so it no longer exists but I think I'm going to make some shelves out of the left over parts. 

MSU Friday

I'm sure I'm not the only one to write about MSU friday this month considering that most of us are highly involved in the activities. For me the day always starts off super bright and early to help set up at 7 am. The one thing that always gets me going is the thought that as soon as I get there there will be a plethora of donuts, coffee and even orange juice.  Now this is not the point of MSU fridays by far but it definitely doesn't hurt the early morning mood. MSU fridays are awesome and I enjoy sharing my love for the school with students who should come here!!! Our next MSU friday is actually this friday coming up, March 4 and I am super excited to mold these little minds yet again!