X-Games and Winter Carnival

It seems like everything in Colorado is about snow.  On the weekends the entire campus empties because everyone goes to the mountains to ski.  It's kind of cool that everyone has this common interest.  I love being up in the mountains, even if I'm not that great at snowboarding.  Well this weekend is a very exciting time for most of the campus.  Every year the winter X games are held in Aspen, CO, about 4 hours from campus.  I would say about half of the students drive up there to watch.  If you haven't seen the X games, it's like the olympics on speed.  The crowd is very involved.  In fact, there is an event called "big air" that is actually decided by the crowd.  There are a bunch of huge stars that all head up to Aspen for the games.  If you don't ski or snowboard, then you may not know most of them, but I think it's safe to say that pretty much everyone knows Shaun White.  And he's definitely there.  Daniel and I wanted to go, but by the time we got around to making reservations every single hotel was booked.  The events are free to the public and the resort even has a 2-day ski pass for $65.  That's a really good deal, because usually a 1-day pass is $90.  I know, skiing is expensive.  But anyways, everyone is really excited about going up to see the x-games.  It's like a huge party.  The crowd screams and goes crazy and the athletes really interact with the crowd and get into it.  Next year Daniel and I are definitely going next year.  At first it sounded miserable.  It's cold outside, crowded, you can't really see anything, and you have to get there hours before the event if you want a good spot.  But after talking to a bunch of friends that have gone, I've changed my mind.  They said that you don't really need a good spot to see because they have big screens set up with video of the event.  And as long as you bundle up, it's not really that cold.  We'll probably share a room with a group of friends, or even better stay with one of Daniel's fraternity brothers who lives up there.  I wish we had thought about this a few weeks ago, but that's okay.  We'll be in Denver next year too.  I'll have to settle for watching it on TV all weekend.  

Speaking of snow, in a few weeks the school is sponsoring "winter Carnival".  The student government (I think that's what it's called) rents out a bunch of rooms at Winter Park and sells them to students for cheap.  They also have discounted lift tickets, sledding, tubing, and sleigh rides up on the mountain.  On campus, they have "polar bear run", free Ben and Jerry's ice cream, and a big snowball fight.  Daniel and I can't go up to the mountain because we work, so we'll have to settle for the on campus activities.  However, the "polar bear run" does not sound fun to me, so I think I'll eat ice cream and throw snowballs at people.  That does sound like lots of fun.  See why I say everything in Colorado is about snow?  Coming from Arizona, I thought that everyone hibernated inside in the winter.  Nope!  In Denver, people take full advantage of the snow and they love it.  Too bad there hasn't been any.  Only one good snow about two weeks ago.  It's supposed to "snow-rain mix" tomorrow.  Yuck.  I hate that.  Regular snow you can just brush off and it's fine.  But snow-rain is wet and cold and all your clothes are soaking and when you go inside you're dripping.  And none of the snow sticks either.  But at least it's an excuse to go to starbucks and get hot chocolate :-)  Hope and I don't need an excuse for that.  It was 70 degrees today, and we went anyways.  lol