Did I just see a goat??? (Walking Blog #13)

            As I opened my e-mail this afternoon, I was somewhat worried about what the walking blog topic was going to be. I mean, we have an eight-page paper and a walking blog to do all in the same weekend? It seems like quite a lot.  At least it did until I read the prompt and I realized that it is a free- write. I read the prompt and I became really excited, because some days I see some odd things happen while on my walk, and I don’t really get to write about them all the time.

The fallen rock pile.

            So this Sunday afternoon, I was sitting on the 5^th floor of the Knowledge Center (the quiet floor which actually is eerily quiet) attempting to bust out and amazing paper, when I decided it was the perfect time for my walk. I was five pages into the paper, and I just really needed a break and I needed to get my blood flowing again. I left my backpack with Anita (my homework buddy) and I left the library to begin my day’s walks and adventures. Sometimes I really like walking blogs, because you really never know what you will encounter along the way. I walked out of the South side of the library, and went behind the Raggio Building. While walking by this building, I realized that some rocks that were previously stacked in a formation had been knocked over. This came as a sad blow for me, because this pile of rocks, however it came into being, was somewhat a metaphor for my high school friends who all went elsewhere for college (Oregon State, University of Oregon, Rutgers, and Colorado State). Over the summer, six of my friends and I took a six day vacation to Meadow Vista near Auburn, and spent one day by a river building rock piles. Because of this, when I saw this rock pile by the Raggio building during the first week of school, I was reminded of all my friends, and I sent them all a picture of it. Now that I see that the rock pile has been knocked down, I am starting to notice that my relationship with most of them has done the same.  I haven’t been keeping up with them as much as we promised we would, and it’s just sad seeing some awesome friendships wither away. I really miss some of them, and I know I’ll see them over winter break and we will relive some of our crazy shenanigans, but in some ways, it really will never be the same.

A rock pile I made with my friends over the summer.

            Enough with the sadness, although I had been missing my friends all week. I continued to walk and I was going towards the Davidson Math and Science building, I saw the prettiest fall scene. All the trees had changed colors, some red and some yellow. I had never really enjoyed fall until this year, when I finally realized all its beauty (and I really couldn’t wait till boots and sweater season which is finally here). In previous years, fall was always the sad transition out of summer and into all the hard work of school after all the teachers stopped teaching us review, and when we actually had to start to learn. But this year, it’s different. I really love walking though campus and seeing all the red and yellow shaded trees and hearing the leaves crunch beneath my feet. It’s just really calming.

The fall trees by DMS

            I decided to start to head back to the library (I still had three pages to write of that essay) and I was stopped dead in my tracks at one of the strangest things that I have ever seen on campus. You’re not going to believe me, but I swear that a man was walking a goat on a leash. No, I did not just mistake a dog for a goat, because this creature had hooves. It wasn’t just any normal goat-walking either, this goat was freakishly hyper. It was darting all over the place and running into things and trying to keep up with the dag that the man was also walking. I think the goat was convinced that it was actually a dog. It definitely was acting like a dog.

Trees!

             I had some mixed emotions on my walk today: sadness, reminiscence, calmness, and surprise. All in all I really enjoyed my time with just my camera and my thoughts, and I can’t wait until we get another prompt just about walking and reflecting. Now it’s time to finish that essay!

Architecture of the Vegas Strip (Walking Blog #12)

            When you end up spending a whole weekend in Las Vegas, you end up having a lot to say on the matter, so just like my last blog, this one will also be about my epic adventures in Las Vegas.  It was Sunday morning (so maybe it wasn’t morning, but it was like 11:30) I revisited the Las Vegas Strip with Terrayna because our flight back to Reno wasn’t until later that afternoon. She showed me more of the downtown area, and because it was daylight, I was able to observe the architecture and the building styles. One thing that I noticed was that Virginia Street in Reno does not even come close to comparing to the Las Vegas Strip. The Strip is spectacular, and it has so many unique buildings.  It seems like each hotel/casino was built to represent a theme. For example the Luxor looks like a pyramid for and Egyptian theme, and the Excalibur is built to emulate a castle from medieval times. My favorite casino based on its architecture is the New York New York, because I like how one building is made to look like many buildings all smushed together.

            The thing that interests me the most is that all the buildings are plastered in flashing and moving lights. It’s almost like it is a competition as to which building will catch your attention first. I continue to walk and I see the Stratosphere in the distance, and I start to realize how awesome Las Vegas really is. It is really in a class of its own when it is compared to other cities. First of all, it’s a casino city, so there aren’t many other cities in the United States where this is legal. Compared to Reno, Las Vegas is magnificent and enormous.  While I am used to planning an extra 5 minutes of travel time to go through downtown Reno, it would probably take over 30 minutes to get through downtown Las Vegas.

            The architecture of Las Vegas points to the importance of entertainment in the culture. Everywhere you look there are signs that advertise different shows to see or different palaces to eat, and it is obvious that the city lives and breathes just to entertain people while they are vacationing. These are some values of our society, because in this day and age, people sometimes feel entitled to being entertained and to having fun.

Las Vegas, then and now (Walking Blog #11)

This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to go to Las Vegas and see all the sites. Now for everyone in my English class that may think that it’s not a big deal to Vegas, think again. This was only the 3^rd time I’ve been to Vegas, and the first time was with my parents for less than 24 hours, and the 2^nd time was for the State Cup Soccer Tournament.  Being able to walk around the Strip with friends who knew it like the back of their hand was a really memorable experience.

Driving into downtown Las Vegas

It was Saturday night after the Nevada versus UNLV football game, and Anita, Terrayna, Travis, Hannah, and I were ready to have an adventure. Before I get into the story of our time at the Las Vegas Strip, I want to be sure to mention that Nevada won the football game, and the Fremont Cannon remains blue. Now, back to the story.  Everyone who I was with had grown up in Las Vegas, so I was the only person new to the Strip. Before going, I Googled the Strip’s history, and I found out a few interesting things that I can now compare it to. Something that I learned from my research is that in 1910, gambling was illegalized in the state of Nevada, and it was all shut down until 1931, when it was brought back to earn taxes to help pay for public schooling. While walking through down town Las Vegas, it is hard to imagine what this town would be like if gambling was never re-legalized. So much of Nevada’s economy and well-being is directly affected by the tourists who come to Las Vegas (and Reno) to gamble. As I look around and see so many spectacular hotels of every color and theme, its just weird to think about what else would take its place if gambling was not a prominent part of our society.

The sign all lit up

Anita had our whole night planned out. We were going to walk from the Bellagio parking garage to Serendipity III at Caesar’s Palace. We crossed over the street on one of the walking bridges, and we walked past some fountains to Serendipity. While there, we all ordered frozen hot chocolate (what a strange, yet delicious, concept!) and enjoyed them next to a dazzling fountain. Las Vegas is the only city with a Serendipity other than cities on the East Coast. The only others are in New York, Florida, and Washington D. C. This shows how large Vegas is and how well it attracts tourists, if a small but amazing desert chain decides to put its only West Coast location here.

Anita, Terrayna, and I under the Las Vegas sign!

Las Vegas must have been a much different place before 1931, when gambling was legalized. Its insane how much this city has grown and evolved into a popular tourist attraction since then.