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Day 22
The first day back after a 3 day weekend is never easy, it is especially difficult when smoke from a fire miles away is looming over the city and making it smell and slightly harder to breathe. The fire continued through the day and it was not at all contained.
Day 23
It rained at dinnertime and this was generally welcomed, it was hoped that the rain would stop the fire but unfortunately it did not last long enough and the fire continues.
Day 24
After another gruelling 8am - 12:30 schedule I went to the gym. I'm getting used to the machines now and don't look like a complete idiot when trying to work out how to adjust the seats. In the gym was the most Neanderthal man I have ever seen, he was pale as a ghost with long mousy coloured dread locks that reached down to this waist. He had about 5 eyebrow piercings and walked with his knuckles dragging along the floor. Ok so he didn't actually walk like an ape but he might as well have done. I went to a meeting for the Hiking club, some of the pictures they had looked absolutely amazing, there are trips practically every weekend and the best trip was the fall break trip to the grand canyon. I would definitely be going on that especially as thanksgiving week here will be very boring because all the American students will go home to their families. Hopefully I'll find something to do! The winds in the evening picked up to nearly 60mph and residents west of broadway (the main street dividing the campus from the tourist area of boulder) were told to prepare to evacuate in case the winds pushed the fire closer to their homes.
Day 25
I've been having rather strange dreams recently, which has interested me especially as I am reading Freud's book on interpreting dreams. I haven't managed to successfully interpret them yet but I'll recall them in case you're interested. The first dream this week involved me being at the Red Hart (my local pub where I work and drink) and when outside star gazing I saw what appeared to be a UFO. When I called my friends outside they were stunned but as it came closer I saw that it was in fact an atomic bomb. The bomb landed a few miles away but I did not die and wake up as you'd expect to in such a dream. I survived and slowly died of radiation poisoning over the next couple of months. A very peculiar dream indeed. The next was even more so.
I was in the mountains of Colorado trying to catch a glimpse and a photo of a wild bear. I found one and stalked it for a while, just as I had the perfect picture the terrifying llama from greenmeadow community farm in Cwmbran, Wales jumped out of the trees and started chasing me. This strange reminder of a childhood trauma ended when I jumped over a style and it could not follow me. 2 nightmares in a row for me is very unusual.
Maybe I had too much macaroni cheese at the canteen?
The main event of this day though was my trip to Denver to see one of my favourite bands Karnivool. In Australia where they're from they would sell out arenas but in America they are almost unheard of. So the venue they were playing was a pizza takeaway with a back room about the size of a small village hall. I estimate there were about 250 people there, even I've played to bigger crowds! I think I was one of the only people who had bought a ticket from ticketmaster as opposed to on the door, a lot of the crowd hadn't heard of the band, they probably just come down every Friday night to see whatever band is playing. As this was such a low key event I saw the band outside smoking before the gig and went and had a chat. I got a picture with the lead singer and feeling rather chuffed I went inside. The gig was brilliant, I was right at the front and could have touched the band, I was so close that the face-finder tool on my camera actually could distinguish the faces of the band members!!! Unfortunately halfway through my favourite song a fight broke out in the mosh pit and the band stopped while security separated the fight. They didn't play the rest of the song and I was absolutely gutted. Other than that it was a great gig and just as the band left the stage I ran on stage and grabbed the setlist. I then waited behind after the gig and got a few autographs! So I took the hour long bus home absolutely buzzing and slept like a log.
Day 26
On Saturday I didn't really do that much. I got some reading done and then at 9 I was convinced to go out clubbing in Denver. As clubbing goes it was pretty good, I met some nice people and when walking home I saw a Racoon - which to me at least was a big deal as I'd never seen one before. The Americans laughed at the fact that I was upset I didn't have my camera with me! It turns out though that clubbing in America is generally for older people. When I told one of my flat mates that I went clubbing he said "dude I associate that with like 30 year old women who are desperately trying to find a guy to marry". Quite different to the UK it seems. We were probably the youngest people in there and we saw some rather bizarre characters. There was one Mexican guy that looked he was either doing some strange traditional Mexican dance or having an epileptic fit, as I say it was hard to tell what was going through his head. I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd pulled out a Sombrero and danced around it.
Day 27
Little to report, I woke up at 12:30pm, had an exchange student meeting then did homework
Another fire has started.
Day 28
Firefighters say the fire is nearly 87 percent contained. It has burned 10 square miles and destroyed 166 homes.
So far, the fire has cost more than $6.7 million to contain.
Day 29
What a terrible day. I slept badly as the neighbours were talking loudly all night, I then had lectures 8am till 12:30 and then a lab session from 3 till 6 30. Very tiring day and this evening have refused to do any more work.
The fire has been pretty much stopped now, the fire has lasted the entire week - from one blog entry to another, I consider myself lucky that I was unaffected and my thoughts go out to the people who had their homes burnt down.
Thanks for reading
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