Week 11 - April 23

Manitou Cliff Dwellings - Colorado Springs







Hi Everyone,

Hope you haven't been too bored with my blogs so far. Am trying to give you a glimpse into my life here in Denver. So far, it's been a fun journey, discovering all the cool places.

I spent this past weekend visiting various bike stores, shopping for a mountain bike. Haven't found one that I want, so I guess I shall keep looking. There are simply way too many choices here, so it's definitely making my decision so much more difficult.
Since I happened to be in Boulder, I decided to hike at Chautauqua park once again. It's just so spectacular! I highly recommend this place to anyone who comes out to visit!

I discovered another fantastic place called the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, down near Colorado Springs. It's a fascinating place where we get a glimpse into the lives of the Native American Indians , who once reside in these ruins back in 1100-1300 AD. It's hard to imagine how they use to live in these "cave like" homes. The rooms are quite narrow and small, and only standing at 5'1, I found it quite difficult to squeeze myself through from room to room. I guess the native Americans were quite small in stature given the fact that their diet only consisted of maize, greens and what ever animals they could hunt.

Week 10 - April 16

Greetings,

Hope everyone had a fabulous week. Mine was absolutely spectacular. It was a week of mental and physical exhaustion. I met a fellow aussie by the name of Michellie Jones. Not sure whether I need any introduction, but she is the current Kona ironwoman champion, silver medallist at the Sydney 2000 games in the Triathlon event and the No.1 ranked triathlete for the past decade. I was quite privileged to run with her in a 5K fun run over the weekend and got to chat with her briefly. She is sooo down to earth and just your typical aussie girl. Mind you, I was struggling during the run, trying to keep up with Michellie and the group of runners, but she’s inspired me to take my training to the next level. My goal is to finally compete in a triathlon event during the summer. I went for a great ride Sunday morning. The air was quite crisp. Nonetheless, by 8.30am, there were hundreds of other road warriors with the same intention – to become fitter!
I managed to squeeze in some rest time and watched the DU men’s lacrosse team play Ohio State. It’s a fun sport to watch, so much like hockey.

In case you are all wondering about work, it’s going well. I had quite a hectic week preparing for the upcoming summer semester, but nothing has been too mentally challenging for me, so I shall wait patiently for that day to come……

Week 9 - April 9

Buffalo Bill - Wild West showman



Elk Meadows Open Park



Chautauqua Park in Boulder

Greetings,

It’s been a fantastic week so far. Once again, I ventured to the great outdoors. My first stop, Boulder. It is truly a spectacular place. In my opinion, it is sooo much better than Denver. It’s only less than 30 minutes away , but you are situated right in the heart of the mountains.
I spent the day hiking in Chautauqua Park. Wow, this is definitely my “favourite” place to visit. Well, in case you haven’t notice, every new place that I’ve discovered has become my so called “favourite” place. I’m not sure what the elevation was, but from above 5200 feet, the views are remarkable!

On Sunday, I spent another few hours hiking at Elk Meadows Open Park. I truly felt at home with the ponderosa pines, poison ivy and other wildlife flowers. The openness of the park was quite frightening at first. The only human contact I had was every couple of miles. Just like Gretel, I too had to carry a bagful of pebbles, so that I would be able to find my way back. Nonetheless, the tranquility of the forest definitely will lure me back for another few visits.

I stopped off in Golden to see what all the Wild West fuss was about. Apparently a famous showman named “Buffalo Bill” was buried there, so I had to pay the museum a visit.

Capping off my week was a pit stop to Red Rocks once again. This time, I hiked around the trails. Interestingly, I encountered a rattle snake along the way back. Let’s just say, I must have set a new record for myself, averaging 3 minutes/per mile. Probably won’t be able to crawl out of bed tomorrow, but as usual, it was worth it I think…….

Week 8 - April 2

Happy Easter Everyone!

Wow I can't believe it's that time of year once again, and unfortunately for me, there are no easter holidays over here which is ironic, since this is quite a religious country. Anyway I guess someone's got to continue working around here :)

Work is progressively picking up momentum which is great news for me as I was becoming insanely bored with mundane duties. I'm excited to be working on some upcoming projects that include; video shoots, a departmental symposium, ePortfolios, podcasting and training in a new version of a content management system - Blackboard 7.2

Due to in climate weather, I was confined to my apartment and indoor malls this past weekend, which is an experience to forget. However, I did make good use of my precious time and actually started reading a book called "Stumbling on Happiness" written by Harvard professor Daniel Gilbert, who I thoroughly enjoyed listening to at a conference last week. Hopefully next week, I'll take a trip up north to Boulder and explore Este Park. So long for now!

Week 7 - March 26

Hi Y'All,

Had quite an eventful week. Spent 2 days downtown at an Internet Technology in Education conference hosted by eCollege, a competitor to Blackboard/WebCT. The seminars that I attended were all quite interesting, but unfortunuately no new information to absorb. I saw another ePortfolio presentation conducted by Foliotek and also a web conferencing tool - Elluminate Live. I'm trying to encourage staff and the Associate Dean here to implement some of these technologies, so fingers crossed that they'll just on the bandwagon.

I took a tour of Denver University over the weekend and it's quite impressive! I watched some guys play rugby and also the men's tennis team. Their athletic facilities are fantastic. Check out their indoor pool on my flickr photo album.

The most exhilirating part of my weekend was going to the Garden of the Gods. It's less than 10 mins from Colorado Springs and just over an hour from Denver. It's truly breathtaking. I thought Red Rocks was impressive, but this by far has topped my list of fav places to visit. I have just uploaded the pics onto my flickr album. Check it out!