Pray for Snow

Every year around this time, a huge Bozeman-wide party is put together to "pray for snow".  No praying is actually involved (unless you choose to do so by yourself of course) but activities are planned all night for the occasion.  A band or DJ or a few come and everyone dances, games are played, and my favorite part... the huge, gigantic bon fire.  People usually will start to dance around the fire and see who can get closest to it without getting too hot.  Last year, I started a "dancing train" around the fire and got a whole bunch of people to join!  The party is tons of fun and is looked forward to every year.

HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween around here is a big thing.  Everyone dresses up and turns the holiday into a weekend event.  This year, my roommates and I had tons of fun in the weeks prior of Halloween making our costumes!  I was mother nature... inspired by customers at Jo Ann Fabrics (where I work).  I saw tons of animals this year while roaming the streets (zebras, cows, an owl, bears, lions, cheetahs, an antelope, a rainbow fish, etc) and tons of super heros!  My favorite though would have to be the construction cones.  Three guys dressed up as giant construction cones and stood out in the street to stop traffic.  When the cars tried to go around them, they would move right with them! I was laughing SO hard!

I didn't get a very good picture of my costume... so this is the best one I got.

Midnight Mania!

Midnight Mania was, in my opinion, one of the most fun events that the University has ever put on.  From 8PM - 1AM the field house was transformed into a wild child's heaven!  There was a velcro wall and a climbing wall and an obstacle course you had to do while wearing drunk-googles, and sumo-wresting and FREE FOOD!!!!  Tons of prizes were handed out and everyone was having such a good (and safe) time!  My favorite part (besides the free food) was probably the velcro wall.  You put on a velcro body suit and you jumped around on a giant inflatable floor and bounced into the wall.  Then you were stuck on the wall for a while until you threw yourself off of it.  Great fun!  Great night!

The Top picture is of Me and a friend Sumo-wrestling.  We ran into each other and fell over and couldn't get back up without help!

The bottom picture is my roommate, Jon, jumping into the velcro wall

Off-Campus Housing

Bozeman is quite the college town, and college towns have many perks like lots of coffee shops and student discounts.  Another awesome thing about college towns... lots of off-campus housing options that are ideal for college students.  Most of which are close to campus, and some even have school year/summer leases.  I was in the dorms my freshman year (North Hedges woot woot) but my sophomore year I moved into a house right across the street from campus.  My sophomore year I lived there with six people two dogs and a snake...(i usually don't associate with things without legs).  and this year we rearranged and now I live with four other people and one dog... and a fish that may or may not be dying :-(  Off campus housing is big fun:-)

In the picture~ my roommates: Jon, me, Britta (my cousin), Hamdan, and Thor (also my cousin)

PS - the color of the text is the color of our super awesome shag carpet!

Football Games!

I really don't go to football games to watch football.  I actually have no clue what is happening on the field!  Nevertheless, football games are fantastic and the best way to spend a free saturday.  Tickets are free to students (thank goodness)!  I dress up in my school spirit bling and yell and jump around a lot and chant and cheer when the crowd does! If you like to people watch like I do, you would like football games because people do weird things at sporting events! Tailgating is a fun part of the games too... assuming you're not walking around in waist deep mud.  There is not actually waist deep mud, but after we get snow dumped on us and then it melts the next day... mud gets the best of me.  I guess people out here in Montana are hardcore because a little mud never  stops them from having a blast!

In the picture~my roommates and I about to leave for the game!  All decked out in our Bobcat attire!

Road Trips!

Road trips are always a good time, and in Montana, there are so many cool places to go and visit on a spur-of-the-moment weekend trip!  Missoula was my first road trip that I went on in college, we went out there for the Tour de Fat (a bike festival thing).  It was a crazy adventure and tons of fun!  This past Labor Day, my cousin and I took a trip to Washington and Oregon to take our friend, Jessie, back to school in Oregon.  We camped for a night in Washington and stayed at Jessie's house in Oregon the following night.  Even though we spent almost three days straight in the car, we had SO much fun!  Plus we got to see a bunch of aunts and uncles along the way and they fed us giant, delicious meals! (always a plus when seeing family!)  This picture was taken while going over the bridge between Washington and Oregon... and my toes!)

Painting the M

I love to volunteer, and MSU provides many, many opportunities to give your time.  A few weeks ago, a group of 50 students or so, woke up nice and early and hiked up to the town's mountain "M".  (Basically, just a gigantic M painted on a mountain)  With 60 gallons of bright white paint, we gave it a nice looking, much needed facelift.  A few weeks before, the M was vandalized, painted red, yellow and green, so there was a lot of work to be done.  I was not so psyched about waking up that early on a saturday, but it was worth it for sure!  The hike was beautiful! It was a beautiful, sunny day and every volunteer was given a free T-shirt (who doesn't love free T-shirts?) and lunch!  It was a lot of fun and I met some really cool people in the process!  The M is repainted by MSU students twice a year to keep it looking bright and sparkly:-)  Even my grandpa painted the M when he was a student at MSU 62 years ago!  

~In the picture: A few guys were kiting, and took off right above the M!  They were really fun to watch!  You can see some of the red and yellow that we were painting over too.