Colorado State University, I have arrived!

(Me @ CSU, 3/14/11)

So, here I am in the great state of Colorado! This morning marks my 2nd day of being here. Yesterday I traveled about an hour and a half north to the city of Fort Collins to visit the Colorado State University campus. The drive was cool, the interstate we took runs parallel to the foothills of the rockies, which are about the size of my beloved ADK mountains! On the left of us were the "foothills" and to the right was flat flat grassland, towns, farm land, OIL FIELDS, etc. I've never seen an oil field. It was slightly depressing to see. For as far as I could see there were oil drills that looked like this:

(http://mikespub.net/pictures/Patagonia/page18.html)

I'm aware that they are a necessary evil at this point of time, but the environmentalist in me wishes for alternative energy to be exclusive some day!

After arriving to CSU, I had a brief orientation presentation, and then a tour. We walked the campus, which was suprisingly not that spread out. I want a bigger school than I've been at, but I don't want to be overwhelmed by a college that's its own city. So, I was relieved to find all of the buildings that I would be primarily spending time in very close to one another. After the walking tour I had an appt with an advisor to just go over my transcripts and figure out where I stand. It was an awesome meeting an Dr. Savidge was such a sweet, helpful, knowledgeable woman! I can't thank her enough :) :) :) I really got to know my potential degree (fish/wildlife/conservation biology), so all of my stress and many of my fears are layed to rest. I just now need to pass chemistry, get my math classes under control...and figure out if I really want to move 1700 miles across the country! I think I do...but I still need to do some 'figurin'.

So far the only wildlife I've seen are prairie dogs, and a magpie! Both were pretty cool, as I've never seen either! Still holding out for a big cat, bear, elk, black footed ferret, eagles, etc. I'll take whatever I can get! There have been recent Lynx and Cougar sightings by friends of my cousins in this area, so I'm hopefull. Also, my cousin Evan has an interesting tree at his house with some interesting marks on it. I think that will be the topic of my next blog....until next time!