Race Report: Autumn Leaves 50/50

Pre-Race

Getting up at 4am never gets easy. The world snoozes on as I scramble to find something to eat. I ate my usual bowl of cereal and stashed away a Nutella-sandwich—the meal of champions—to eat on the drive up. Usually I eat pancakes in the morning, but I felt short on time and wasn’t entirely motivated to make them. Unfortunately, sitting on my mind was my recently sprained ankle that was being unusually tame. 

At 5:45, I was at Ally’s house and we had loaded up a tent, chairs, and all the necessities for my one-woman crew to keep herself comfortable on my 50 mile journey. 

During the drive to Champoeg park, we discussed the plan: Run a single 6.2 mile lap and make the evaluation based on how my left ankle felt. We would simply have to take this race a lap at a time. Nothing more. 

You can see our tent to the left! This is what the start,
turn-around looks like.

We arrived to the race approximately 20 minutes prior to the start, and walked to get my bib and race shirt. Fun fact: Ally and I compete to see who can have the lowest bib number and the highest. I had the lowest bib number with a value in the 20’s, and she had bested me by 1 for the highest value when we ran a color run together. The color run bib number was approximately 50,000! I knew I wasn’t going to get a value to beat that, but at Autumn Leaves I got the new lowest number at 11, which Ally teased me wouldn’t count unless I finished the race. 

With the help of some nice runners, Ally and I pitched the canopy-like-tent so she could have shelter from the forecasted rain, and I put on my headlamp, laid out my meal of energy gels, and stripped out of my sweats to the sound of race instructions being relayed to runners jumping to the start line. Before the countdown began, the early-start 50 milers came in to finish their first lap, and it was very cool to cheer them on as they stopped at the aid station to gear up. 

LAP 1

Bringing in lap 1 with some smiles

With a quick countdown I soon found myself running for the first time in nearly a week. As we headed down into the parking lot, I saw that earlier arrivals were able to park along the course and I was directed to park in overflow parking. The parking lot soon lead to a walking-biking path, and I found myself running ambitiously in the lead with the male 50K leader running approximately 7:00 min/mile pace and the female 50K leader running approximately 8:00 min/mile with me. We quickly got to know each other and I soon found out that Pam was an avid ultramarathon runner and returned to Champoeg yearly for the running of Autumn Leaves-- She would go on to win the 50K for this year. We ran together through the first aid station and followed through to the one-lane-bridge and through the rolling inclines to the 5K turn-around. We discussed races, tactics, and all things running for 4 miles until she picked up the pace. I declined any aid from the aid station as I ate my first Gu energy gel 5 miles in at 40 minutes. Ginger Ale was a sure-fire way to wake up! I hit the trail and my fears were confirmed here. The ankle-stability that trail running requires was burdensome on my ankle, and I was fighting each step to avoid planting my foot wrong. Luckily, this trail portion was 1.2 miles, and the rest is entirely paved road. The pain radiated along the front of my shin, and dorsiflexing my foot helped with the pain but encouraged cramping of the toes. I mitigated this with slower miles as I reached the first lap.

LAP 2

1.2 miles of trail for all to enjoy, unless you sprained your ankle

Ally told me she was going to go to sleep in the car, but she was wide awake and ready to assist me on my first lap. Pleasantly surprised, I grabbed a mint chocolate Gu, had a sip of ice cold water, and headed out on my way, eager to keep a lead on the field.  I was feeling extremely comfortable and my effort wasn’t high. As the sun rose, I was able to ditch my head lamp and focus on the scenery that was shrouded in darkness during lap 1. I took the lap slowly and enjoyed the green and red painting that unfolded before me. 

LAP 3+4+5

Starting to board the pain train

It seems this way in all races: up to the halfway point everything feels good. Well, with sub optimal training this was still the case. Around the marathon mark, I started to feel general fatigue in my right quadriceps, and the cramping sensation was stronger in the left foot. I grabbed my Nathan running backpack, hydration pack, and a water bottle filled with Perpetuem by Hammer Nutrition. During these laps, I listened to Sawbones Medical Podcast and munched on bananas each time I passed the aid station. I would eventually be passed, but I was content with this. My goal was not a trophy or a record, but to finish and complete 50 miles for the first time. 

LAP 6 + 7

My pacer arrived during my fifth lap, and he looked too eager to run! Will, my younger brother at Oregon State, decided to get his long run in with me during my 6^thand 7^thlap. We walked more than he wanted to, I’m sure, but it was good to have company as the race thinned out and I would be stuck by myself for a long time. For his efforts, I snagged a small snickers treat from my aid station and he munched on this as he finished his 2^ndand my 7^thlap. 

Lap 8

Starting lap 8 was something else. Up to this point, I was able to keep my competitive nature at bay. But when I started my last lap, I noted I had just over an hour to complete my 6.2 miles. On any given day, I would scoff at the notion of 6.2 miles taking me an hour, and blitz through the run in 35 minutes. Today was no normal day. 43.8 miles in, my legs had never gone this far in one day. I continued to shuffle forward hoping to hold off the impending wave of “over 8 hours” that I could feel chasing me down. Saying “good-bye” to every fern, tree, and bridge was a fun way to keep myself moving forward. I refused to become negative during my run, and I refused to let a “bad” 8^thlap define my run. Thus, my mantra became the following: “If I do all my goals today, what will be left for tomorrow?” I don’t define this as settling, but I had to be proud of the goals I had accomplished thus far today. 

With 1.2 miles to go, and rain pouring down as it does in Oregon, I gushed my grateful sentiments to the volunteers before pushing towards the finish with 15 minutes left. As I rounded the corner and “sprinted” (8:00 min/mile felt like a sprint really) up the final incline fighting cramps, I crossed the line. And as always, I checked the watch: 7:56:04. Under. Eight. Hours. 

Post-run

I collected my long-sought-after silver belt buckle and heard a phrase I won’t soon forget: “It was a pleasure watching you race”. I don’t know what would have happened if the race was 51 miles, or even 50.1, because I soon collapsed in a chair, with assistance from other runners and supporters. I couldn’t even sit-down without assistance, but the roaring fire that Ally had going pierced my soaked singlet and warmed the soul. In my books, this was a win. I have a year to decide if I will be coming back to Champoeg. 

Things I improved on: Being positive! (Huge win for me, mentally); pacing myself (improved, but not perfect); eating more, drinking more, and being consistent. 

Places to improve: Eat and drink earlier and more often; do more long-runs in training; focus on recovery more; don’t step on walnuts and sprain any ankles!

All credit for photography goes to ORRC!
My formal race report with Bibrave! 

The views to the finish 

Run Gum + World Indoors!

The Falls during Winter time

Look at those hills

I know I know, it's been a while! But since the New Year started, I think 2016 is finally going to be my year of running! I just recently registered for the Buckmountain Mudslinger which is a brutal 6.5 mile run through Silverfalls Oregon (picture is pretty relevant). I'm hoping to keep a constant pace of 6'45" through the hills. When I'm up at the falls, I tend to have trouble finding any GPS signal so I might just set splits to hit at miles four and 1.3 so I can just have a stop watch keeping track of my progress.

Look at this sick badge. So official. 

Back in Fall, I applied to a few Running Ambassador Positions, namely BibRave and RunGum. BibRave is a website where you can review your races and help others find out more before they themselves register. I find it fun to just talk about what you did and what kind of great experience you had. It's a growing community and they also have fun chats on Twitter with some great give-aways. I didn't get selected as a BibRave ambassador, but I got some exciting news on the tail-end of December notifying me that I got selected as a RunGum ambassador! I'm now part of the #RunSquad which is a really tight community of runners who share their running experiences and help each other find opportunities, races, or training tips.

I recently connected with an opportunity that was posted on the page. You might remember that I volunteered with Ally at TrackTownUSA up in Portland talking about the World Indoor Championships. I recently found out they had started to recruit volunteers to help with the setting-up and hosting of the event. I forced Ally to sign-up with me but we secured two volunteering shifts at the athlete warm-up section! This is super exciting because we also are volunteering on the last couple days! (Hopefully during the Finals???) All the athletes we will see will be top-tier in the world and faster and stronger than I could ever imagine being.

Speaking of Ochem....

School (the boring stuff)
Right now, I'm working on finishing up Winter term of my Sophomore year before I can get to Worlds though! I'm studying Anatomy, Socio-Cultural Dimensions of Physical Activity, Human Nutrition, Organic Chemistry, and Introduction to Writing Centers. I have a lot on my plate, but I'm also continuing my work with Housing as a Resident Assistant (RA) as well as seeking out volunteer opportunities at the Corvallis Boys and Girls Club (I will be working as a tutor with middle school youth and maybe as a track coach during the Spring). Finally, I am looking to begin research with an assistant professor on campus (More details to come unless it's top secret)!


Check back around early March for my race review, and I'll cross-post it with Bibrave!

Hood to Coast 2015: Youthful Wisdom

This summer in the final days of August, a group of groggy-yet-excited 18-20 year olds piled into a van even before the sun had risen, all of them shivering from the excitement and the cold.

Hood to Coast is a 198 mile relay race starting from Mt. Hood at nearly 6,000 feet where it drops the runners into Portland. Straying from the highway it leads through the forests around Mist and ends in Seaside, Oregon. This was my 5th year running the relay (4 years in high school for Portland to Coast) but it was my first year running the full Hood to Coast (HTC). This year, Dick's Sporting Goods was looking to film a story about a team to put on their blog, and the Ridlings were selected to be filmed.

The links to the two videos can be found right below!

Video 1: http://blog.dickssportinggoods.com/2015/11/hood-to-coast-how-this-relay-brought-one-family-together-to-run-for-a-cause/
Video 2: http://blog.dickssportinggoods.com/2015/11/hood-to-coast-see-if-team-youthful-wisdom-can-finish-strong/


6:00 pm the Night Before
We had an early start time for HTC this year (10:15AM) and being far away we had to leave at 7:00 AM to beat the traffic. So to do so the team spent the night at Ally's house. The filming crew from New York arrived early to film some interviews and watch as we decorated the van. Slowly all the runners from the Youth van showed up, and we ate some good spaghetti and passed out in the living room with sleeping bags littering the floor.

The Morning of
The following morning we all woke up early, some waking up easier than others (looking at you Irvin). We ate a quick and light breakfast before throwing all the bags into the van. Sharon, a family friend of Ally's, was our driver and with a mug of coffee in hand we took off to Mt. Hood. Our van had six runners (in running order) Spencer, Austin, Grant, Irvin,  Jonathan, Ally; our driver and co-pilot Sharon and Savannah, and then the cameraman Johnny. On the way down to Mt. Hood, it was quiet. The excitement had died down as sleep began to take over, and the minutes to the long drive seemed to tick away oh so slowly.

Legs 1-6
When we got to Mt. Hood, we took some time to take pictures and look at the booths of free stuff since we got their early. We hadn't entirely anticipated how cold the elevation and the early morning would be, so we were surprised when we had to bundle up. To beat the traffic, we left Spencer on the top of the hill and he took off precisely at 10:15AM and made his way down the huge hill. At the bottom, we waited for Spencer to hand-off to Austin. Spencer ran faster than we had anticipated which put us ahead of time. Following Spencer's lead, Austin, Grant and Irvin also ran faster than we had predicted, and we could see that we were going to hit Portland earlier than we expected. Once Ally and I had also finished our first legs, we met up with Van 2 to make the official exchange. Ally made the exchange with Karla with a huge hug, and Van 2 was off on their run to Portland.

Legs 7-12
While Van 2 was running, we drove into Portland and parked near the Hawthrone Bridge to await the exchange. Since we had some time before our next leg, we all went to Subway to get some food. I was feeling extremely dehydrated since the weather was so nice in the 80's and 90's. After getting something for our stomachs, we all slept on the grass and waited until we anticipated Phil coming in for leg 12. After a solid hour of relaxing in the grass, we packed up the van and moved it closer to the major exchange. We had Spencer get ready, and we prepared for Phil to come in. It was getting later in the evening, and you could tell the sun was beginning to set. The air was becoming the nice cool night air, but Portland was still as active as ever.  The hum of the generators at the major exchange greeted Phil when he handed off to Spencer, and we scrambled back to our van for our second run.

Legs 13-18
Spencer ran through Portland, running along the Waterfront and meeting us far out by a train yard where Austin ran over a small bridge and began the long highway miles. Spencer seemed to be dealing with blisters and sore feet, so we had him rest in the back of the van since we had several hours before his next run. Grant received the exchange from Austin who was definitely feeling his last run, and took off on a long highway night run. By Grants leg the sun had set and runners could be spotted along the highway with flashlights in hand and blinkers on the back of their reflective vest. Both Grant and Irvin ran extremely fast for their legs, and I was having trouble staying in control of my stomach. Food was hard to eat and Gatorade sounded gross. Backing off on the beginning of my leg, I took the second leg at a much more considerate pace. Our van was having a competition to see who could get the most roadkills (1 roadkill = 1 person passed) and I was trailing after my first leg wasn't a bountiful harvest. Grant was leading the van with roadkills, so with that in mind during my long leg, I picked off other runners as I clipped away six minute miles. In previous years, I ran this leg and finished much faster than I anticipated leaving my next runner unprepared for my arrival. This year was a little different since I was handing off to Ally who knew that I would run faster than I predicted. I handed off to Ally and felt wonderful after my run. Finding Ally's exchange zone was difficult, but we were able to make our way there and made it in time to see her hand off again to Karla.

Legs 19-24
While Van 2 ran their second leg, the Youth van drove ahead pushing through the dark until we hit Mist. Here, we camped outside the van, bundling up in sleeping bags and ignoring the pitter patter of the rain on our face as we struggled to recuperate. In Mist, we had no cellular connection to the other team, so based off of estimates that we made on the speed of the other van, we had to wake up earlier and be ready at the exchange. As the time drew closer, Spencer and Ally braved the cold and the rain to meet Phil out at the exchange when he came in. Once Spencer took off, it was time for our final legs.

Legs 25-30 
Spencer and Austin both pushed through their legs and managed to hold their pace, which was impressive due to the speed of their previous runs. Irvin and Grant both coasted through their legs with ease, Irvin even giving off some extra effort in the home stretch. My leg was a major hill that required me to focus entirely on reaching the summit. I was feeling nauseous before the run, but once I had the baton I was able to ignore any nausea I had. Reaching the summit was one of the most exhilarating things I've experienced; runners had toilet paper acting like a finish line for reaching the top. I decided to surge and utilize the downhill which lead to me catching many other runners. Exhaustion made the flats and even the small uphills a challenge, but I just ticked off the minutes and focused on finishing. I handed off to Ally who had to battle huge gusts of wind on her leg. As soon as I stopped, the nausea took over again, but I forced water and chocolate milk down and it was the most delicious bottle of Muscle Milk I'd ever consumed.

Legs 31-36 + Afterparty
Once we snagged Ally from the finish of her leg, we sped towards Seaside all hyped for the After Party. However, when we reached the finish, the entire finishing zone had been blown down by the strong gusts of wind. The Finish line had been altered to finish on a street rather than the beach. This was a little disappointing for us returners, but we decided to make the most of it anyways. While we waited for the Wisdom van, we sent them pictures of a hotel hot-tub we relaxed in, pictures of us freshly showered in comfy clothes, and the amount of food from the all-you-can-eat morning breakfast we went to. When Wisdom finally arrived, we met up with them and ran with Phil as he finished, and crossed as a team.

"I just did something absolutely insane, but I did it. I conquered it" 

Hood to Coast 2016, we're coming for you! 

State Recap

Two weeks ago, hundreds of high school students all over the state of Oregon travelled to Lane Community College to run their hearts out in pursuit of the state title. Back-to-back for two years, Silverton high school (my hometown high school) was able to qualify and make the exciting trip down. Traveling down was one girl (individual qualifier) and the boys varsity team (2nd at districts).

Oregon decided to give no mercy to the state runners and didn't provide them with the unusual sunny weather that had been seen through the fall season, but instead gave them the famous Oregon rain. The course is generally accepted as a slow course; the start is the length of a football field, and quickly funnels into a hill, which crests over "the bowl" and leads to the back forest which marks mile one. The runners are then guided alongside the highway along a trail where they pass by the start and loop around "the marsh", exiting at the same point of the entrance to complete mile two. The second mile is met by the same hill from the start, and then a drop into the bowl instead of running along the crest. Then climbing out of the bowl, the runners cut the course short (instead of going back to the forest) and make their way to the marsh where they run towards the track and sprint the final 300 meter on the blue Lane community college track.

The Girls 5A race was quite fast with the leader putting on a sizable lead and finishing in 17:46 (37 seconds ahead of 2nd), with the Silverton runner earning her berth to BorderClash in 5th place.

Boys team With an 8th place finish!

Beautiful running weather 

The Boys team had no individual runner place 30, with the first Silvertonian crossing in 39th place at 17:12. However, the boys were able to secure 8th place in state, giving good hope for returning next year.

Also at the State race was Ella Donaghu of Grant high school who broke a 22-year old State course record in 17:26. Just last year, the boys state record (previously held by Olympic Silver Medalist Galan Rupp) was broken uncontested by Matthew Maton in a blistering 14:45.

Maddie in the far orange on the podium!

As aforementioned, BorderClash is an elite race that takes the top 12 runners from 5A (top 40 from Oregon) and pits them against the top 40 runners from Washington. They compete as a state team in hopes of seeing which team is better. It turns out that Washington having the larger pool of people to select from usually handily crushes Oregon on the team score.

Photos courtesy of Amber Stutzman and Silverton CrossCountry

Congratulations everyone! Now on to track! 

Districts, and on to State!

Silverton cross country showed up to the District meet on Wednesday ready to roll.

Girl's Varsity Race
Maddie Fuhrman from Silverton ran a dominant race, extending her lead from the first mile and just adding to the gap with ever mile that ticked by. Maddie ended up running an 18:38 (compared to her 18:05 PR at Sandelie) and was able to secure the new school record from Morgan Anderson that was clocked at 18:54 on the State course back in 2011. Corvallis was able to win overall for Girl's and was followed up by Lebanon and Crescent Valley (56, 66, and 67 respectively). Central high school missed the berth to state by a mere four points.

Boy's Varsity Race
On the Boy's side, the race was very fast paced. The first mile was clocked around a controlled 5:00 for the leaders and was led by Marcus Corbett and Gustavo Lopez. Trailing behind were Sam Roth and Gavin Bomber, two who would eventually end up battling in the last 400 where Gavin would secure the district title. Corvallis managed to secure another district title, with Silverton and Crescent Valley taking second and third respectively.

Since William (my Sophomore brother) was running in the Varsity race, it was exciting to see how it played out. Unfortunately, Silverton was ranked 1st but wasn't able to compete with Corvallis in scoring as low as they did. However, the Mid-Willamette Conference (being one of the bigger conferences) allows the top 7 individuals to qualify for State and the next three teams. This allowed the boys team to qualify for State two years in a row, a feat that hasn't been matched for over two decades.

This Saturday at Lane Community College, Silverton will try to push out Corvallis on the State course. Sure, Silverton has a very consistent team, but Districts showed us that Silverton doesn't have the experience it needs to compete at a larger level. State will be interesting to see; Corvallis has been here pretty much every year for as long as I can remember. Silverton can make the podium if they run smart and pick people off, and it's up to these boys to decide their fate.

Boys posing in front of the Foxes Flag.

Back?

So I'm back at OSU (yay) and totally just tonight remembered that there was something called "Minute Rice Runs at OSU" that I was writing about. I guess my Engineering curriculum last year really had my hands-tied for free time like this.

So to the few (loyal) people who read this, thanks for reading! I'll try to be more consistent and maybe more running-oriented.

With the mushy part out of the way, I want to share the following picture with you:
This is my studly brother running a 5K (at the Sandelie Golf Course I believe) out in the Portland Area.

Back to learning how to tie shoes

Somehow he managed to lose his shoe in the course of the race yet picked it up and continued on to get a PR. Now I'm super proud of this kid because he's moving on to Varsity Districts this week and there will be some photos up because it's going to be close by in Corvallis (I'll probably end up running there).

After districts, if his team places top 3, they move onto State, and the odds seem to be in  their favor because they are currently ranked 1st in the district according to Athletic.net.

So yeah! Super cool, super exciting, and a big congratulations to see his hard work pay off. 

In other news, I dragged my wonderful girlfriend Allyson into volunteering at the Portland Marathon Expo a couple weeks back, and it looks like we are invited back to volunteer for TrackTownUSA at the Portland Indoor World Championships! So in March, keep an eye out for some amazing photos, autographs (maaaaaybe) and other cool running related things. For now, peace out Oregon. It's time for me to go review some anatomy vocabulary. Like bones. And cool stuff like MITOSIS and CELLS. YEAH. 

(Disclaimer: I know this post isn't my usual 'quality' but it's going to help me get back into the groove. So stay tuned).

How you feel when you miss an assignment

Everyone knows that feeling. The gut-wrenching, heart-jerking, stomach-dropping feeling of a missed assignment. The moment prior to realization, when you are blissfully unaware of the emotional havoc you will wreck on yourself; it's nothing short of a naive bliss. And then you open your planner, you look down at the one un-checked box and you realize that nothing will save you from the missed chemistry lab report. There is no God who can extend a hand to fudge the time stamp when you submit it late to the devil known as Blackboard, or it's counterpart Canvas. The following seconds are filled with frantic thoughts on how to save your ass from the 0/10 that will wreak havoc on your grade. The following minutes will have created several lies that you will tell to your lab TA or group members to persuade them that indeed, Blackboard was down and you were hospitalized that evening. The following hours may or may not result in a time of solace, where you come to accept the grade you will receive, and decide against immoral methods. The key phrase here would be "may or may not". No matter, it will be the first thing on your list when you rush out of class. No matter how sunny, the weather will be gloomy. No matter how cheerful your friends are, they are filthy plebes. No matter the greetings, the texts, the e-mails you receive during the rush back to your computer, there is only one thing on your mind: "God damn it, I done fucked up".
Throwing your backpack aside, you'll clear a spot where your computer will hit the desk. You'll frantically type your credentials to log-in, just to find that the wireless internet isn't connecting to your computer. After a few minutes of obscenities and desperate reconnection attempts, you'll finally log-in to Canvas to submit the late assignment. And as you log-in, and attempt to upload the assignment, of course the upload icon would be gone. Why wouldn't it? Canvas is practically the new-age spawn of Satan right? 

And that's when you'll notice. Your lab group did it for you. They fucking did it. 

Tears of joy and cuss-words will slur together, but nonetheless, chemistry lab has been defeated once again.

Sorry for the profanity. But it only better explains how emotionally distressed I was. 

Also, I did not proof-read. I never proof-read. You should know that.

Dead Week, RA position, and North Dakota

Wow, this term has kept me on my toes. It's interesting how classes aren't how they seem at the beginning. I went back and looked at my "Beginning of Term" entry, and how engineering was "awesome". Well, not so much awesomeness now but that's a totally different story.

Dead Week
Wow where do I begin? It's been a lot of Chemistry studying. My math grade is holding up, and I just need to get a passing grade on my final which has me extremely happy. Engineering allows notes so that hasn't been difficult to study for. Just taking in all our homework and assignments categorized to destroy that final.
Yesterday studying consumed most of my day which resulted in my first nap here at college where I passed out in the study room for a good 30 minutes. I had to go to an NRHH meeting which was in downtown Corvallis at a really cool Gelato shop. They all bought us half a pint of Gelato, but the servings were so generous it was probably closer to a whole pint. I got cookies and cream and then cookie dough since they allowed su to get two flavors. Highly recommend. 10/10 service and quality of gelato
(For those of you who don't know what Gelato is, it's like Italian ice cream but without so much fat and stuff so it's very smooth and very good)
Afterwards, Lauren and a new NRHH friend Jasmine and I went to the concert to support Lauren's roommate Kati as she sang. It was really cool to be there because the Acapella group started off and sang "Your Man" by Josh Turner and that was absolutely amazing. They also sang "Sweater Weather" which was really cool how they were all in sync. But then the final group sang a song called "Northern Lights" and it was the most amazing experience ever. I'm not good with music, and I bet I'm pretty tone deaf, but I know when I hear something amazing. Overall, I was glad that I went because dang, OSU has some people who can really sing.

RA Position
This was super nerve wracking leading up to the big reveal. They told us that March 6th at  5p.m. they would email us. Those who didn't get the job wouldn't receive an immediate email. So I was sitting there trying to study Chemistry and not freak out around 8 p.m. but I couldn't help but think the worst. Then I got the email notifying me that I will be the RA next year for the ILLC and I couldn't have been happier. The ILLC is the "international dorm"
So me being me, I researched what it was like at the ILLC, and I've paid a visit. Here are some pictures from a couple years ago that offer good insight into my room.

This is what my study area will look like 

Entrance. You can see the bathroom door is open 

Yes, I have two beds and two desks.

RA's have double the space and furniture. At first I thought this was because they worked hard and deserve the commodities as such, but then when I was signing my life away to UHDS signing my job acceptance, I was reading through the responsibilities and cam across one that was interesting. If a student is between places (so they want to move out of their dorm, or they are having roommate issues) an RA is expected to house them for a period of time, which makes sense why there is double of everything.
Now, not all RA's have a personal shower and toilet. Actually, come to think of it, I think ILLC is the only place that there is such a commodity. But each dorm has it's perks. Some are better than others. Taking my current dorm Sackett for example, they have walk-in-closets (two of them) that nobody else has. So that's really cool. But I think I'll take my own shower and toilet over more closet space that I wouldn't use.

Tl;dr: I got the job and I'm stationed at the ILLC and here are some pretty pictures.

I know I know, personal shower and toilet is me being spoiled

North Dakota
Man, whenever I mention this the first thing anyone says is "Why in the world would you want to go to North Dakota?" Well first off, I like traveling, and any excuse to go out and see the world is a good excuse. This is probably thanks to my parents spoiling me with trips to Japan or Thailand in my earlier years. Secondly, I'm attending a National conference for National Association for Colleges and Universities Residence Halls. Or something along those lines. Anyways, it's going to be an experience. I don't entirely know what to expect. I have some feeling that it'll be a lot like FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) back in high school, where we went to Leadership workshops and made connections. Something I've heard of though, is that we bring OSU gear to the event and trade with other students from other schools. Now if you know anything about me, I absolutely love gear from other colleges/schools. Don't know why, I just have. I like to collect things. That's just who I am.

Okay, well I guess I should study Chemistry. Honestly, Spring Break couldn't come any sooner. It'll be good to be at home with my family and eat real food!

Beginning of Winter Term

Hey y'all! It's been a while again, but I found some time to update my blog from last time.

So things that are going on right now!

Engineering 
Awesome. Just pure awesome. My teacher is very strict and keeps us busy for every minute of class. But it's really fun! Week one and we are learning how to use Matlab for coding purposes. Our first lab session was self-teaching Matlab, and since I took C# back in high school, it makes Matlab seem like a review session. During our second lab session, we used an NXT LEGO robot (which we built) and synced it with Matlab to write code and tell it what to do.
Here's a picture of the robot followed by an example code I wrote:

Lego NEXT Robot with Voice Command Module

%This program searches for right triangles for

%which all three sides are integers 

%Initialize the counter m

clear all; clc; close all;

m=0;

%Loop to check all combinations of x and y up 

%to limits

fid=fopen('output.txt','wt');

fprintf(fid,' x y h\n');

fprintf(fid,' === === ===\n');

for x=1:25

    for y=x:25

        %Calculate the hypotenuse h

        

        h=sqrt(x^2+y^2);

        

        %Check to see if h is an integer

        %If it is, write x, y, and h to the 

        %screen

        %and advance the value of the counter

        

        if h == floor(h)

            m = m + 1;

            fprintf(fid,'%5i%5i%5i\n',x,y,h);

        end

    end

end

fprintf('\nThe number of triangles found = %i\n',m)

Math
My teacher's sarcasm is hilarious and it makes it really enjoyable. He's super fast paced and it's sometimes difficult to keep up but he's very approachable and makes a world of difference between him and my last teacher. Definitely planning on leaving a good review!

Health
Yes. I have to take health. So far it seems like we will be focusing on nutrition this term. I'm not having too much fun, but it's supposed to get more fun approaching week five so let's see how it goes.

Physical Activity Class (10K Trail Running)
I chose this class because it's being taught by Tyler, the coach for Crescent Valley high school, and I definitely wanted to see what it would be like working with him. So far it's been a lot of fun, although I was only able to make one class (As some of you may already know, I injured my MCL (Medial Collateral Ligament) when on a run, and ended up going to Health Services to get it checked out and it's a sprain. Should be back in the game next month or so but we will see.

Chemistry
I kept the same chemistry teacher from last term, and I have to say I'm enjoying it. He's definitely the funniest teacher I've had in all of my college classes. One of the funniest things he's done so far was that he showed us what happens when you set fire to liquid Oxygen. It really makes the flame grow fast, and even though he had a "blast-shield" set-up, it burned over the shield and landed on a conveniently placed roll of cotton. The entire roll of cotton caught fire and he used a meter stick to push it to the ground. The plus outcome was that the cotton was able to be stamped out. The delta outcome (we aren't allowed to say negative in Hall Council) was that the meter stick caught fire too.

Hall Council
Man the opportunities! Joining Hall Council (HC) was by far the most important and door-opening thing that I've decided to do.

• NRHH (National Residence Hall Honorary): Basically a group of students who live in resident halls. This is a prestigious group that is limited to a total of 1% of all students in residence halls across the nation. I'm planning on applying for the position because it has a small time commitment and resembles National Honor Society back in high school. 
• RHA (Residence Hall Association): This is like the mother of all the hall councils here at Oregon State University. I'm planning on applying for the Treasurer position (surprise surprise). 
• RA (Residence Assistants): These are the guys and gals that monitor the halls to make sure you know where everything is and aren't doing anything illegal. If I get my RHA position, I would wait to RA until next year. 
• NACURH (National Association of Colleges and Universities Residence Halls): This is a huge conference in North Dakota and I'm really trying to get in. Everything would be paid 

Clearing up what it means to be a fan

Okay, so 2015 is already seeming to bring some tensions between teams. 42-20 the Ohio State Buckeyes just won the National Championship against the Oregon Ducks. However, this seemed to rustle some feathers on the University of Oregon side and cause an attack on anyone associated with Oregon State University. So here's some clarifications so we can all enjoy the National Championship next year no matter who goes:

1. The Concept of Being a Fan
There are many levels of being a fan. Some of us associate ourselves with one school (ex. Oregon) whereas some of us like myself have more than one favorite (Washington State, Oregon State, and Ohio State). There are also different intensities with which you can be a fan. Some just watch the game online. Some pay for season tickets. Others decorate the fire hydrant outside of their house to the colors of green and yellow. It all differs. No matter the intensity you wish to enjoy your game, you should never drag another person to your level. Don't tell others to "mellow down" or "you're not a good enough fan" unless the actions they are taking are directly hurting or insulting another. Easy enough since we're all adults.

2. Bandwagoning Fallacies
Hah, what a wonderful concept. In some instances, this seems to be a problem with people misdefining what it means to be a bandwagon fan.

A bandwagon-er is not someone who roots for a team AT THE TIME OF THE GAME. This is because of a novel concept that if you are watching a game, you will eventually choose a side. I know that no matter the sport or event that I watch, if it's a competition I will always end up choosing a side to support. This is not bandwagoning.

Also, don't call someone a bandwagon because that lowers the amount of people who watch the support. Basically you are trying to destroy the community. You need to respect how other people choose to support their team. Whether it's for one game or one year.

3. Support your state fallacy
Incredible. Our Duck brothers and sisters called on the Beavers to root for them and cheer them on when they made it to the National Championship. See something wrong with this? The famous quote "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" could not be more applicable here. This is because of something that has been long established as a tradition: RIVALRY. If you for one second believe that the FANS of U of O have built a supportive community that doesn't tear down the Beavers no matter the chance they get, then you are obviously blind and mistaken. A good example of this would be the Twitter account @AutzenStudents. They are the representative student body of the University of Oregon on Twitter and provide the prime examples of taunting and hatred towards Oregon State which keeps the rivalry alive. Because of this tradition, there is no way that there can be support from OSU to U of O.
To apply this to other sports, let's take a look at the Beavers two-time National Championship in baseball. Was there any support from the Ducks? Probably not. Will there be any support from the Ducks for our nationally ranked Women's Basketball Team? We can assume not.

4. Ducks will bring football fame to Oregon State as well as money
No. Just no. The state in general will not receive fame for football. Think about it: you're making one school look good if they win (U of O). Oregon State will actually see an increasing amount of difficulty recruiting because we have to play against U of O and compete against them for recruiting purposes. Also, the NCAA doesn't award any more money to the winning school. Schools that play in bowl games, and schools that advance to the top 4 receive money for their region. Hence, the PAC 12 received lots of money, and wouldn't have seen a shift had the Ducks won or lost. For these reasons, don't tell me to root for another school. Educate yourself on the laws first.

5. Ad hominems on ad hominems on ad hominems. 
Just stop these already. You look foolish and mark yourself as a complete idiot (haha get the irony in this?). Basically this: DON'T TEAR DOWN OREGON STATE BECAUSE YOU JUST LOST TO OHIO STATE. This is what I hate most. The Beavers who root for the Buckeyes are being tormented by Ducks who continue to argue that "Beavers football sucks" and "You guys haven't beat us since 2007". First off, schools is much more than football. So lets make an academic listing shall we?
A. Oregon State triumphs over U of O in research funding by 50+ million dollars a year
B. 78.9% graduation rate versus 67.4% and OSU triumphs again
C: 48,000 and 42,000 are the average salaries for graduates with Oregon State on top yet again
D: Linus Pauling, Cecil Andrus, and F. Wayne Valley are the first three "notable alumni" from Oregon State University. Their professions as a scientist, governor/politician, and businessman identify OSU as what it is. The Ducks starting three are Phil Knight, Bill Bowerman, and Mickey Loomis. They are in order, the founder of Nike, track coach, and NFL coach. If you have half a brain, you can see a trend. "What does this even mean?" you ask, and I reply as follows: Each school has its qualities. Obviously. Both possess different levels of different qualities.

Conclusion TL;DR
Don't embarrass yourself, read up, study up, and be smart when you enjoy a football game. Comment on something I missed, something you want to see me elaborate on, and I will be more than happy to add an *EDIT* section for anybody who reads this!

Finals (This is probably just me procrastinating but whatever)

Hello all, I know it's been a while and it's probably because I was on the verge of drowning under work.
So updates updates and more updates on my life!

1. Finals week and Dead week are probably the most interesting weeks at OSU
When these weeks hit, you suddenly see kids in your class you never saw before. Everyone on Yik Yak (a social media application) complains about finals and how they're all like "Don't drop that GPA, ehhhh" or "I feel great I got 40 minutes of sleep!" when in reality it's not all that bad. The only reason I got 40 minutes of sleep was because I was too excited for my final. Justin on the other hand decided to just pull an all-nighter because he didn't want to sleep through his final. Fair enough, right?

2. What is food?
At college, you forget what food is. It becomes bland. No taste. The same thing every day. Suddenly pizza doesn't sound so good and I get random cravings for salad. It's sad.

3. PACURH
Pacific Affiliate of Colleges' and Universities' Residence Halls (I think. or something like that). Anyways, they are like the Overseers of student council for Oregon State. Here's the food chain: NACURH > PACURH > RHA > Hall council. I am on Hall council, but also recently got a position on the Feedback and Revisions so I'm super stoked to see what that's gonna be like.

4. I am procrastinating
I had 3 finals this term: Chem, CBEE (Engineering), and Communications. Chem went well and I secured my A in the class. Kinda proud about that. Engineering was a slaughterhouse, in the sense that the Engineering exam is conquered. I am pretty sure that I secured my over 100% grade in that class, but the professor still has a few assignments to put in so we will see. I am procrastinating because my Comm finals is in 2 hours and I have been going over flash cards but don't want to do anymore work. It's been a long day/week.

5. I have some kick-ass friends here and I'm going to really miss them.
When you live with some people and share the same pain of finals, you get to really know them. Over these 11 weeks, I have made some amazing friends. Granted it will be only 3 weeks that I will go without seeing them, I will miss them. Some won't even return after the 3 weeks since they mistakenly transferred to a school where A) they don't party as hard as Beaver Nation B) they are ducks C) they rhyme with ducks. CoughcoughGoodLuckAtUofODereakcoughcough
But I will definitely miss Hall Council. Once elected, it was like immediate friendship. They are all awesome and have amazing ideas for council. But even better than that they are super supportive. Whether it's midnight brownie parties in H wing, or it's watching Spirited Away at 2AM during dead week, I am definitely excited to see what Winter Term has in store for us.

So with that Cheers! You can expect more constant updates now that it's break and Christmas/New Years is coming and my running is finally progressing in to looooong distance stuff.

A very happy anniversary

With my second week of school done, I was really looking forward to what the weekend had in store for me. Ally had a horse show down in Albany, and since my mom teaches at OSU on Fridays, I just asked for a ride to the arena. So here is my weekend broken down:

Saturday
This day we spent the whole day with the horses. For me, it's always a learning experience when I go. I'm not even close to being horse-smart, but I enjoy learning new things (and sometimes being forced to try new things). We had fun just hanging out or prepping the Daniel (Ally's horse) for the show. When I first met Dan, I was definitely intimidated by how big he is combined with how non-horse-smart I was. Now knowing a little more about horses, I'm pretty comfortable being around him which made this show much more fun because I hugged his face and snuggled with him which is actually quite comfortable. Ally also brought her slightly overweight miniature named Bucky to the show. Bucky's job was to show in the costume contest, but nobody knew that and we kept it a secret. When the time came around, we dressed up Ally in her usual running attire and then put XXL shirts and shorts on the Mini, gave him sweatbands, and put on shoes over his hoofs. He looked extremely cute as you can see in his half-dressed stage below.

Sadly the judges didn't judge on the character of the horse and owner in the arena, but only judged them by how they looked, which kinda took the fun away from Ally and Bucky running circles around everyone and then running through the finish line. 

Once the event was finished, we drove back to Silverton so we could go to our Color Vibe run the next morning. I was driving because everyone else was tired, and we were about 3 miles away from her house when there was something white in the road. We all thought nothing about it since it looked like a garbage bag. It was only when we were seconds away from hitting it did it rotate its head to look at us. I couldn't swerve, I couldn't hit the brakes, so I just kept on trucking, and that's how I killed an owl that night. After a scream from Ally, and a thump-thump from the owl, it was quiet. There was like a moment of silence before we all started freaking out and even though I felt horrible hitting the majestic creature, I coped with my guilt by laughing. 

Sunday

It was an early morning for us. Waking up so we could get to the race that started at nine. It was a chilly morning, and we left our sweats in the car because we didn't want to get the other clothes stained with color. We all had on our Color Vibe shirts, and Ally, Ally's mom and I met up with some of Ally's relatives at the race. Only Ally and I were going to run, and the others were going to walk the course. Well we all received yellow powder in the sign-up packet so we opened it up and were playing around when Ally thought of the brilliant idea to color her hand and smack me. The result was a pair of perfect handprints on my Gluteus Maximus.   

We snuck in to the first wave, and made our way to the front of the line so we could take off without having anybody interfere with our running. There were four color stations, starting with green, blue, pink and then ending with purple. A tip to anyone running these would be to close your mouth when you run by the stations or you will have blue teeth for the rest of the run.  We ended up running very consistent miles 6:41, 6:47, 6:45 ending around 20:40 if I remember right which counts as a new personal record for Ally. At the end of the race there was a very happy Ally and a very proud boyfriend by her side! (Also proud because every single person I've paced has a run a new personal best!)

After the race, we drove back to the horse show where Ally finished out her performances and we helped pack up camp. Ally's parents took the dogs and Bucky back home, and Ally gave me a ride back to OSU. We ended up walking to a Dutch Bros. on campus and got dinner at West Dining hall. Before Ally had to leave to go catch the season premiere of The Walking Dead with her family, and I had to attend elections for Hall Council where I was elected to be the Secretary/Treasurer for Sackett Hall. 

Long post, but all in all, an excellent anniversary weekend with an amazing girl! Thank you for everything Ally 

OSU to U of O

After the first week had finally finished here at OSU, Dereak and I made a semi-spontaneous decision to bike down to Eugene. Dereak wanted to hangout with some old high school friends and go to a concert known as "Life in Color", and I wanted to meet up with Kylan and hangout for the evening. Well since we are college boys, plans never really go accordingly. Our expected 7 am wake-up turned out to be 9 o clock, and we were about an hour and a half behind on departure (not that it really mattered). The total bike ride was going to be 50 miles, and we were following Siri's instructions and focused on taking backroads instead of major highways in the area.

The first long stretch was probably the worst part. We had about 18 miles or so on highway 99, and it was hard to get started because the miles were ticking away ever so slowly. I was also pretty relaxed during the trip and failed to hear Dereak's turn command or recognize his turn signal (The real reason was that there were sheep on the side of the road and I was "Baa-ing" as I passed by). So Dereak turned down a road, and I had to wait for it to clear before biking pretty hard to catch up.

The road we turned on was a really nice back country road of about 8 miles. It reminded me a lot of Silverton backroads, and was pretty awesome since we only saw 3 cars take the road we were on. We took silly videos on Snapchat, and Dereak sent one in to Snaporegon where we got featured, so he was pretty stoked on life when we decided to take our break. We stopped in the shade at a little house on the side of the road, and got some water. Taking a break is probably one of the worst ideas because starting back up seems a hundred times harder. We took about 20 minutes on the side of the road before tackling the last stretch of the backroads which lead us into Junction City.

In Junction City, Dereak and I wanted to find a convenience store to get some fresh cold water at, and we were almost out of the city when we found a tiny shack on the side of the road. It's one of those things that looks slightly sketchy, but you give it a shot anyways. Turns out it was really good because we got bottled water that tastes like mango for fifty cents. We took another 15 minutes here for a break before biking along the highway for another 8 miles.

Once we got off of 99, it became much more turn oriented as we were lead to bike paths in Eugene. This part was absolutely brutal because our thighs are already sore, my hips were tight, and my hands were raw from the uncomfortable handlebars.

Once we made it to Dereak's friends' apartment, we split up and I went to find Kylan and meet his friends. We had an awesome time catching up, I got to meet many new people who were equally surprised that I was a beaver and that I biked down from Corvallis. Admittedly, U of O's campus isn't as bad as I thought it would be. The feeling of being in a major city isn't appealing, but I loved the food there. Being a runner, it was like heaven when I heard that Ky's dorm (Carson) had an all you can eat buffet.

After staying up all night playing Risk and watching movies, we had the brilliant late-night idea of building a fort in the commons. We used the sofas and put bedsheets crossing over from one to another, and put chairs on the sofas to hold down said sheets. It looked really cool, and once we added the bed mattresses quite comfortable too. However, once it became noon and an RA walked out of her dorm, it was another story. The UO students all got written-up, but I was under the care of Ky so there wasn't much they could do about me. So that was a win on my part.

Dereak and I decided that that trip was freakin' awesome, and so we're looking to continue doing spontaneous biking trips. I don't know where we'll go next (Silverton? The Coast?) but I'm totally pumped for another adventure.

Day 1 of way too many

I was definitely tossing and turning last night I was so freakin' excited for today. I mapped out where I needed to go, I planned out every minute: I was ready.

Well, I thought I was. I woke up at 6, and was out the door at 6:30 which led me to West Dining Hall, a minutes walk from my dorm. Turns out West doesn't open until 7, so I was stuck reading my Chem book in the cold. Class act for me right? I gulped down a quick breakfast, and rode behind a guy in an orange jacket to class where I was in the doors by 7:30. Turns out that the guy in the jacket was my professor, and I had the front middle row seat to his class. 

After Dr. Nafshun made us laugh extremely hard during his syllabus introduction, I had 8 minutes to get to Math 251 in Kidder, which took me 7 minutes exactly. Again, front row seat since nobody else wanted it and I had notes from when I took 251 at Chemeketa, so that was nice. 

My break consisted of Justin and I meeting up to go to Winco to get free food. However, we didn't have enough coupons, so we used detective work to find out they have old coupons and newspaper in Snell, so we grabbed four days worth of coupons, totaling 160 dollars of free food. We biked there and got 12 pack of top ramen, poptarts, popcorn, tuna, and a bag of cereal. I paid 0 dollars and 0 cents. In fact, the lady paid me six cents for re-using a bag (my backpack), so I am making money going to Winco to get their free food. Blows my mind but whatever. Top ramen party, am I right?

At 3, I went to my COMM 111 lecture which had about.... 200 people. So that was new. My professor is the mother of the coach of Crescent Valley XC, so it's funny seeing all the pictures of him. Then, during our lecture we watched a speech and had to identify why it was so good. Most answers consisted of the basics: eye contact, enunciation, tone, natural sounding. And then there was me: "I liked how he used the hook in the introduction which led to the roadmap that he followed perfectly". My professors response was "Get out of my class. You already know everything". Couldn't help but feel good (and feel the temptation to take her up on that offer). Later, I received an email address to contact to continue my Speech and Debate career in college. Considering it with no further comments. 

Afterwards, I had 20 minutes to go join the OSU XC team on their run, which started at Dixon and lead to Bald Hill. Climbing up the steep side of Bald Hill makes the Monster at Silverfalls look like a child. It was tough, it was fun, and I was trucking up that thing like I was made to run it. After we all met at the top, I helped push the pace going home where we averaged mid to low sixes (even though it was obvious the captains wanted the first day easy. Oh well). 

My last class was CBEE (Chemical, Biological, Environmental Engineering) class which had about, 100 people. So not too bad. Dr. Skips was really funny, and made a point to say we can call him Skip when we pass the class. He also has ran 1,000 days in a row or something (I think it was more). He's pretty rad. He also doesn't use TA's and insists on teaching everything himself, so that was a huge relief. 

After eating my dinner during CBEE (Yogurt and poptarts), I went to Ultimate Frisbee practice. It was really intense and there was a lot to learn. I'm not sure it was the thing for me, but I ran probably another 4 miles there just running all over the field. My commitment is currently hesitant, and probably unlikely. But it's definitely fun, and if I have spare time to go to a pick-up game, I totally would. Just attending practice after a solid 8 miler was brutal on the legs (and butt because it cramped during Skip's class which made for my most awkward Freshman moment yet). 

On this note I will end this post: My milk is still not thawed. 

Connect Week

Wow! I took some time off because I was going to post at the end of Connect Week, and before I knew it I was swarmed with all this stuff to do!

Some notable things that happened during Connect Week!

Cupcakes and Clubs
This was an Engineering "party" where there was a plethora of delicious cupcakes and engineering clubs to join or check out. I think I will be joining the CBEE club, but I'm not entirely sure yet. I'll go to their ice cream social on Thursday, where we will be using liquid nitrogen to create ice cream. So cool.

Dixon Rec. Night
This would've been more fun if they had like dodgeball going on, but there was a bunch of clubs or intramural sports around OSU that came and presented. I gave my information to the Ultimate Frisbee team, Running Club, and the Triathlon club. Outside around nine they had laser tag, but I was way too tired to check it out. Maybe next time!

Symposium, Convocation, Picnic
Early one morning, we had a scholars symposium. I dragged my roommates along, and it was okay. We learned about how foreign exchange works, and really gained some insight on how that process all works. Turns out, choosing where you go wisely can make your tuition lower. It's hard to explain and would bore you out of your mind (if you aren't already!)
After the symposium was a thing called Convocation. We all met at the Memorial Union, received tassels that we keep until graduation (just to motivate us), and we walked the route we will in four years to Gill Coliseum. There we heard speeches from Ed Ray (the president) and other motivational speakers. I would've stayed until the end, but one of my roommates (Dereak) managed to forget his wallet in the dorm and needed let back in, so luckily I had an excuse to sneak out. This allowed me to get to the picnic on time, which served dry chicken for seven bucks... Kinda felt ripped off as well as the rest of OSU Freshman. But many sorority and fraternities were there as well as other clubs, so I am currently looking in to a zombie run that happens across campus. So cool. Zombies for life.

Friday Night Live
Finally my favorite event so far! This was free and I would've gladly paid the seven bucks from earlier! I got to the event early, and it was a blast! We were served fudge and cookies to our hearts content before filling in the auditorium. When we were all seated and satisfied, there was a quiz down. First person to stand up got to answer the question for a gift card. I managed to stand up on one that was stumping the crowd: Name four of the seven cultural centers. I managed to say Cezar Chavez Cultural Center in a terrible manner of pronunciation followed by the Asian American Pacific Islanders cultural center. Then I remembered the Native American long house and had trouble remembering the fourth. I said the African American cultural center, but they didn't accept that, and with a desperate last shot I said Black Cultural Center, which got enough laughs that they just gave it to me. So yeah: 25 dollar gift card to Bed, Bath and Beyond that I will probably never use.
After the quiz down was an awesome comedy club much like "Who's Line is it Anyway?" that I saw in the eighth grade: Comedy Sports. They made me laugh so hard that night that I may or may not have shed a tear.

Today was my first actual day of classes, so there will be a separate entry for that. Right now at 12:17 AM I am working on thawing a half gallon of milk that we accidentally froze and watching my roommates get absolutely trashed by Borderlands for Xbox. Glad to know I'm being productive. But alas, don't worry (Especially you Dad), I don't have classes at all tomorrow. Well, that's a life. I have COMM 111 Recitation at 4PM, so sleeping in for me!

Game Day! OSU vs San Diego State

Wow, today was the longest day ever! That being said, watching the Beavers protect Reser Stadium against the Aztecs was pretty awesome.

Watching football alone is fun, but it can get boring. When you throw in a couple friends, it becomes better (especially if you have chips and dip). But if you stand in the student section of the Beavers football game, it's a whole new experience. At first, it was disappointing. OSU has a new rule in effect starting this year where the ticket purchased actually does apply to where you sit (whereas in the past it was first come first serve no matter the ticket). We were sitting about 9 rows back, so we weren't really complaining, but having got there 90 minutes early, we really thought we could get the front row. As more people entered, it became apparent that there was no way the security could enforce the new rule on hundreds of determined students, so we joined the masses and moved to the fifth row on the 20 yard line. The view was awesome, and the people were even better.

Behind us was a 7th year (he graduated and came back) who was more than slightly tipsy, and was determined that a back-up kicker by the name of Owens was better than the OSU defense. Whenever we began cheering "Ooooooo" he would always change it to "Oooooweeeens" and demanded that Owens play quarterback too.

In front of us was a group of rowdy people, but they were the good kind of rowdy. They started many chants, and got stoked with every good play, and gave high-fives to about 20 people every time. I was constantly laughing, especially when we started keeping score of the WSU vs U of O game which was really close. (Ducks ended up winning 38-31, but playing an unseeded team when they are 2nd and only winning by that much is beyond embarrassing). Whenever WSU would score, our section would have intermixed cheers of "Go Cougs" and "___ the Ducks" with the blank being filled in by profanity rhyming with "Ducks".

Since the game started at 7:30, it was close to 10:30 or so when the game finished. I probably went to five high school football games. Silverton was always strong, so it was almost always a guaranteed win. However college games take it to another level. Whether it's hearing drunk guys say hilarious things, or hoping the ice cream beats the cottage cheese (it's one of the silly games they play to keep the audience entertained), college games are far more intense. I can't wait until the next game, and I'm totally ready to camp out for front row tickets, because at the end when I was leaning on the concrete wall cheering on our team for the last three minutes, it was so awesome.

Ghost Peppers and Berliners

Saturday was by far the day we were looking forward to the most. We had a trip to the McKenzie River down in the Eugene area to go rafting on some tier 2 and 3 whitewater rapids. For the record, it wasn't my first time; when I went to Yellowstone we had a lazy river trip, and then I've rafted on the White Salmon River 3 times (which I very much recommend).

Waking up to be at the back of Dixon recreation center by 8 was probably the toughest part of the trip (especially when you're watching movies with everyone else). When we finally arrived after our two hour trip, the sun was beating down at a harsh 90 degrees, and the water was a solid 50. After the general instructions and preparing the rafts, we had the opportunity to divide into different rafting routs depending on difficulty of the river: Mild, Medium, and Spicy. But there was one special boat. It was smaller, brown (different from the traditional blue) and the Elite written on the side of the boat was calling to me. It was called the Ghost Pepper boat, and it was guaranteed to flip you over, and as my guide said "Have a kick-ass time". Irvin, Robert and I took the tiny boat along with our guide Collin and a mentor named Nate. After setting our boat in the water, Collin demonstrated how easy it was to flip the boat by having us all sit in the back row. That was my first time falling in the river.

It wasn't long before we hit our first level 3 rapid. It was a very swift moving part of the river, so of course the Ghost Pepper crew decides we need to flip the boat. As soon as we hit the rapids, our guide used the rope that was tied to the front to pull the boat up to a 90 degree angle, and then we all used our body weight to tip the boat onto us. When you flip a boat, everything goes from calm and collected to instant chaos. Or that's how it felt anyways. My paddle was instantly ripped from my hands, and I was submerged for quite a while. When I surfaced, the boat blindsided me and I had to grab on, just to realize I had been moved about 100 meters. That was the second time.

We ate a brief lunch on shore, and then continued on our way. It didn't feel like a 5 hour rafting trip, but before we knew it we were approaching our final rapid. And that was intense. Just imagine the waves being about 6 feet high after it drops you down into it. It looked pretty badass, and I was ready for it. What I wasn't ready for was the fact that we decided to flip the boat. Again. This time the boat didn't flip over, but just dumped us out after going 90 degrees. We then bobbed up and down with the current pushing us as we tried to locate the boat. And so that was my third and final time.

Now I incorporated "Berliners" into the title of this post because Oktoberfest was that week, and it was dank. Oktoberfest is like the best german food party a small Oregon town could host. Anything from strawberry shortcake to bratwurst, even the smoothest root beer known to man is available on the streets of Mount Angel. I probably gained about five pounds while I was there, but no worries.

To end this post, I just wanted to share a quote that my dad sent me:
"When the air is bitter cold, I run faster, for my muscles need to work harder to stay warm. When rain is pouring down, I run farther, thankful for the drops that keep my body cool and my mouth moist. When the sun scorches, I run harder, burdened by the weight of extra water. When nature sends it's worst, I run my best." - Bluco Knight


***EDIT***
I forgot that I promised Irvin that I would post this short story. We were walking back from getting OSU Football tickets, and Robert was talking smack about how he got to the stadium before us because we took the long way around. Anyways, he was talking, and also texting while walking backwards, and he turned around just in time to collide with a light post head-on. Needless to say, he couldn't talk smack anymore since we had the upper hand!

***EDIT EDIT***
Due to a high amount of request, I am also adding this: Louis also ran in to a pole the other day and he wasn't even on his phone; he was just talking to Abraham about getting rainbow colored hangers.