"Looper" (Walking Blog #10)

            Today, I went with a couple of my friends to see a movie at the Century Riverside movie theaters. This theater is basically on the river walk, and it is in downtown Reno.  We were running late to the movie, so we had to run from the parking garage to the theater. We bought tickets to see “Looper” and I told my friends that we had to go on a walk around the river walk after the movie. We found our seats in the theater and right after we sat down, the previews ended and the movie began. Perfect timing.

Movie ticket to see "Looper"

            The movie was insanely good, and we were glued to every moment of the entire 1 hour and 58 minute movie (except for the parts when I was covering my eyes; there was a lot of blood). After the movie, we decided to walk around the river walk while debating the actual effects of time travel.

            Now that we were actually going on a walk like the assignment said were supposed to be doing, I began to observe the people around downtown that appeared to be homeless. But this time, I was thinking about them in a whole new way. Instead of terming the word “homeless” on them, I considered whether the word “houseless” is actually a more fitting label. All of these people did seem to have a keen awareness of their surroundings, and they definitely posses some survival skills that the ordinary person doesn’t have. I mean, it would be hard for me to find a place to sleep and food to eat, but they do these things everyday. Also, these people as a whole probably do not impact the environment as negatively as those who live in houses. This is the case because they don’t use excessive amounts of energy to heat their homes and to light their homes.

            Another aspect that I was considering was the amount that these people were involved in the community. It seems like many of them know each other, and they have a sort of friendship with each other. I guess their common bond of being “homeless” has brought them together. They also know a lot about the services the city provides. They are knowledgeable of the free transportation and of the free food at food banks and such.

            As I was walking around, I was thinking about how the movie compared to the things I was seeing downtown. It does coincide in some ways, because the movie takes place in the year 2044, and the world is portrayed as a place where almost everyone is poor, and there is a rampent amount of homelessness in the movie. Downtown Reno has nowhere near the amount of intercity poverty that is shown in the movie, but it is interesting to think about how the two compare. I really hope that everyone won't be stuck in poverty 30 years from now.

            All in all, I do think that these people are not exactly “homeless,” but instead, I think the proper term for them is “houseless.”

The theater as seen from across the River

            My friends and I decided to walk back to the parking garage and start on our way home. They were all still discussing whether what happened in the movie “Looper” actually made sense. 

The Casino District (Walking Blog #9)

                 It was late on Wednesday evening, the sun had set, and I decided to go on a walk. Now, you may be thinking that walking through the casino district of the city of Reno after dark probably is not a very safe thing for a female college student to be doing alone. Don’t worry, I was thinking the same thing. Because I was not about to walk alone at night, I called 4 of my friends from high school to go with me. One of the nice things about going to college in your home town, is that you will always have someone to call when you want to do something, because at least one person is going to be free.

The Reno Arch from the balcony of Commrow.

            My friend Andrew picked me up, and in the car were my other friends too. Kris, Olivia, and Bob. We drove to the Eldorado because we were too lazy to walk all the way there, and the Eldorado parking is free. As we were walking around, I read the walking blog prompt aloud, so that my friends could help me find in depth answers to these questions.

            Olivia, my best friend, was the first one of us to point something out that related to my writing topic. She said, “There’s a big difference between down town and UNR.  UNR is much cleaner, and is a whole lot safer.” As I looked around, I completely agreed with this statement. I feel very safe around the campus of UNR, but I have always been at least a little bit scared of going into the casino district, no matter how big of a group I go with.

            We continued on our stroll, and saw the Reno Arch, and we had to take a picture. It is one of those things that is completely required to do. We found a random security guard and handed him my camera, and we all stood in front of the Arch and smiled. As we were standing there, a man in a car yelling something out his window at Olivia. When she heard this, she ran away from the car, and she messed up the picture. We had to take it again. This is also a big difference between campus and the casino district. On campus, you don’t have to worry about having someone yell at you because they think you have a nice butt.

            As we passed Commrow, we couldn’t resist going inside. All through summer we would all go rock climbing there, and we made so many amazing memories. Even our high school prom was in Commrow. We walked inside and immediately went to the escalator and took it to the second floor. This is the floor were the rock walls are. We went out to the balcony and looked at the Arch, and from the balcony, we were actually able to touch the arch.

Us in front of the Arch!

            It was getting late, so we went back into the car and started to drive back to campus. On our way back, we discussed whether or not the casino district is off limits to college students. I do not think that the down town area is off limits to college students. In all reality, it is a nice place to hang out with friends. Places like Commrow have made it more student-friendly, because now people who are under the age of 21 have fun things to do down town.

            The casino district in Reno is not a bad place to be. And the Awful-Awful is in the Little Nugget, so I love down town!

            

The River Walk (Walking Blog #8)

          Today I went on a walk down to the river walk to observe what I saw there.  I went with my friend Anita, and because it was getting late and we wanted to get back before sun down, we started our journey by taking the Sierra Spirit bus. I have never been on this bus before, and I have always had the idea in my head that this bus is somewhat sketchy and mainly for hobos. Having to actually ride the bus actually changed my opinion on it. Yes, there were the few strangers that I got a little bit scared by, but in all reality, I had nothing to be afraid of. I was just taking advantage of free transportation around downtown, and so was everyone else on the bus.

The Spirit Bus!!

            As we got off the bus, I got really excited to show Anita around the river walk. I grew up in Reno, so I grew up going to concerts at Wingfield for Art Town and just walking around the river area. My absolute favorite part of down town is the river walk, so I got out my camera and started to document the beauty of the fountains and the nature.

The Truckee River

            I was walking by all the fountains when I saw a man that appeared to be homeless, but I wasn’t scared. In the past, I was a little afraid of homeless people, but over the summer I had spent more town around down town, and I even feed the homeless at the shelter on Forth Street behind the Aces stadium a couple of times. Through these experiences, I over came my fear, and realized that the homeless are people too, and that they are some of the nicest people you can find.

Anita's first time at the Truckee River.

            I absolutely love the river walk. I believe that it was money well spent for the city of Reno. I have spent so many summer days playing on the river, going down the man-made rapids, and enjoying some epic concerts. The park downtown has created a sense of unity for the city of Reno, and it gives us a place to convene to experience nature and the fine arts. I have had so many good memories from this park, and today I was able to make more of them.

The sun shimmering of the River about the time of Sunset. 

            

As we walked around, I showed Anita the movie theater, and since it’s the closest theater to my house, I have spent many hours inside of it. I started to recall all of the midnight showings of Harry Potter and of The Hunger Games that I attended. This caused me to dearly miss some of my friends who graduated alongside me, but who went to different colleges around the country. I also pointed out The Hop, which is a cute little ice cream shop that I have been to with my cousins who came to visit last summer all the way from Sweden. 

A sign inside of the bus!

            This blog is the first blog that has caused me to think about all my amazing memories of Reno, and that reminded me of why I love it here. For the longest time, I really wanted to get out of Reno and go to college somewhere “exciting” and “life changing,” and up until now, I hadn’t realized that the University of Nevada, Reno, gives me more than I could ever ask for. I am getting a superb education while meeting some amazing people. I was always afraid that UNR would be exactly like an extension of my high school, Reno High, but I have realized that college is only what you make of it. If you decide to only hang out with your old friends, then it will seem like the same experience. But if you decide to go out of your comfort zone and meet different people from different places and backgrounds of yourself, you begin to grow so much as a person.

            I love it here in Reno, and the River Walk really is not as sketchy as I thought it was when I was a kid.

Nature Walk! (Walking Blog #7)

      I went home for the weekend to spend time with my family and to take a break from the fast-paced life of college. While I was home, I decided to go on my walk for my blog to be in a new location that I have not written about so far. I went on a walk this morning with my mother and my dog, Toby. We walked about a half block and then walked through Dorokstar Park where there is a bike path. We left the house and started our journey.

My house in Reno, Nevada.

        As we were walking away from our home, we saw all the road construction that is happening on our street. It has been going on for over a month now, and it can be really annoying sometimes when you have to drive to drive through dirt piles to get into our driveway. Road construction majorly detracts from the beauty of nature, because instead of looking at my neighbors' landscaping in their front yard, I end up focusing more on the bright orange cones and the randome piles of gravel that line the side of the road.

The road construction outside my house.

      We walked the half-block to the park and before we went down hill into the park, this is the view that we saw.

Dorokstar Park

       I would say that this park is a pretty good place to observe and write about nature. We were walking on the bike path, when my mom said to me, "do you want to go on this little path? We can go see where it leads." I agreed to this venture, and my mom let Toby off his leash so he could roam free. As we were walking through the nature path, we passed by a couple of houses. there were dogs behind fences at these houses and they were barking at us. Above these houses were power lines that birds were sitting on. Every time one of the dogs in the yards of these houses barked, some birds would fly away. I wanted to get a picture of all the birds on the line, but by the time I got close enough to capture the birds, only two were left.

The birdies!

        These birds made me think about the connection that man-made objects have with parts of nature. The birds found these man-made power lines and decided to sit on them, but without human land development, there would be no power lines for birds to sit on, so in a way we are helpful to nature, but in ways, we are detrimental to it. 

The trees with the plastic around their trunks.

        I continued on my walk, and I saw little aspen trees growing, but at the bottoms of the trees were black, plastic tubes. I was wondering why they are there, and I came to the conclusion that people who are trying to restore the park put them there to help them grow.  I guess my neighborhood is doing what it can to beautify the park and to promote nature. This park does a really good job of creating a little nature sanctuary in an urban area, and nature is represented as a calming environment in my neighborhood.  The entire time we were on a walk, people were going on bike rides and runs. They were all enjoying the nature too.

Pretty blueish purple flowers!!!

      We continued our walk to the river and we went over a large bridge. The whole time I could not stop myself from thinking, "Many years ago when this bridge was not here yet, instead of standing on this bridge, I would be waist high in water right now."  I'm glad there was a bridge, because I really don't like going in the river at 8:30 in the morning.

The bridge over the river

I'm really glad that the bridge is here!

I started my trek back home and I realized that even though my dog has been off his leash the whole time we had been at the park, there was a sign at the park entrance that said, "Pets must be leashed at all times." That's weird, there have been multiple other dogs off their leashes too. I guess I'm not the only one who disregards these signs.

Toby, my dog!

The sign.

         It was getting time to end the walk, so my mom, Toby, and I walked back up the little hill and to our house. I do love morning walks.

Re-Tracing my steps (Walking Blog #6)

            So today, I had to retrace my steps for a past walking blog to see how the campus is different at various times of the day. To do this, I chose to re-walk the route for the blog that I wrote at 9:00 am on a Sunday morning. I thought this would be interesting, because my walk on Sunday morning was the most calming and least distracted walk of all that I have done, because very few college students are out and about at 8:45 on a weekend morning.

            Today I was let out of my math recitation class early, and because I had some time to kill, I used it to go on a walk.  Instead of it being 8:45 on a Sunday morning, it was 1:15 on a Tuesday afternoon, so it was a much different walk. For starters, I actually saw more than 10 people. Also, the sun was high in the sky, and it was much hotter than it was last time.  I began my walk near the Jot Travis building like last time and headed towards Manzanita Lake.  The lake was beautiful, as always, but somehow, it wasn’t quite as peaceful and relaxing as it was the last time I walked this path. The exciting thing about this walk though, was I remembered to bring a camera, so I was able to get photo evidence of the things that I observed.

            As I was walking by the lake, people either eating or doing some sort of studying surrounded every picnic table. This made me realize that people actually do spend time enjoying the outdoors, and the only reason why I missed this last time was because I was awake long before most of the campus.

            

Manzanita Lake

   Another thing I saw today by the lake was geese. Lots and lots of geese.  They were all over the Lake and I had to walk around some on the sidewalk. I came to the conclusion that geese are just the more annoying version of a cow: they eat grass, they honk instead of moo, they poop everywhere, but they can fly all over the place, so they are really, really annoying. I even saw a goose do this really weird action when it extended one of its wings and raised its left foot at the same time. I will never understand the actions of geese.

The geese by the lake.

         I also was able to see a beautiful white swan. Seeing this extraordinary creature probably made my day.

The majestic swan!

            I continued my walk, and I saw a tree that I saw last time, but was unable to take a picture of.  This time I made sure to capture the sight. It is the same kind of tree that I have in my backyard at home. I have never seen another tree like my backyard tree until I saw this tree while on my walk last Sunday. I call this tree a bean tree, because it has strange bean/seed pods hanging from it, and because I am clueless of its actual name. It is really nice to see a piece of my backyard on campus, because it reaffirms the fact that the University of Nevada, Reno is my new home.

The Bean Tree!

            I needed to get to my next class, Biology, on time, so I decided to finish up my walk. I went pass the quad and noticed all the students playing Frisbee on the grass and socializing in the shade of the tall trees. It was a very comforting sight, seeing all these students interacting with each other and with nature. It made me glad to notice that not one of these people were on their cell phones or laptops. They were all just enjoying the company of one another and of nature.

            I started the trek up the never-ending staircase to my next class with a happy feeling inside and with a skip in my step.