19.10. - 25.10.

This is about the sixth week in Denver Colorado. Even though I still spent the first half of it in Greeley with a very nice family! This is where I went to school as the german teacher of highschool wanted me to come to her other three classes and talk to the students. They again asked a lot of questions and I sometimes had to think really hard to find a suitable answer. So on wednesday night I was driven back to Denver and my hostfather Urs arrived some hours after me (my hostmother Mary Ann went straight on to Las Vegas to Zion National Park).

The next day I left National Jewish in the earlier afternoon to see downtown in the evening. It is really cool, with a lot of shopping opportunities and beautiful illuminated skyscrapers.

Friday I went to see the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which is one of the best I have ever seen! They had a whole bunch of stuffed live-sized animals like bears, walrus or bisons.

I finally made it up to the very top of the museum where there was a platform with a gorgeous view on downtown with the rocky mountains range in the background!

The next day I made it into the museum again, although I didn't visit the museum, but the iMax, which is a cinema-like hall with a huge screen (about 15x25m) where they show spectacular documentaries. I watched one about the 'secrets of the ocean', and I really felt like being in the sea at watching it. After that, Urs and me went to see the Colorado Symphony which performed an evening full of Strauss.
Sunday morning we went to the Wildlife Refugees park near Denver to see a herd of bisons and many many prairie dogs. In the afternoon Mary Ann arrived at the airport, so we picked her up and had a fantastic dinner. I spent the rest of the night with watching American Football, although the Denver Broncos had a free weekend.
Now I'm looking forward to the last two weeks of being in the states!

12.10. - 18.10.

This is about the fifth week in Denver Colorado, whereas I only spent 2 days in Denver. On Tuesday night, I moved to Greeley, which is about 2h from downtown, to stay for a week as my hostparents are in China for work. My temporary hostfamily has two children (Ana, 16; and Nora, 12), two cats and one huge grizzly-like dog, who has a pretty suitable name: Oso is spanish and means bear!
On Wednesday I visited the German classes in the highschool of the town when I had to answer a lot of questions! The students wanted to know everything, like what the biggest difference from home to the states was, how the mountains are like, what I think of american football and and and... I really had to think hard when they started questioning about the political system in CH and how it is called.
On Friday, we (the sister of my hostmother, Ana and Alexis, a friend of hers) went to Rockie Mountains National Park for a hike.

As it was a mid-semester holiday and schools were closed, the park was quite crowded; it was beautiful though. In the national park,  I saw animals I have never seen before: one of them were chipmonks (I actually spotted some on Mt Evans) of which one jumped on my lap! The other wildlife animal I discovered was a crowd of elks which were literally huge!

Sunday we went to downtown for a wedding and spent the night watching football (the Broncos won their 6th game in a row!) I'm already looking forward to their next game as they play against the other undefeated team so far.

05.10.-11.10.

This is about the fourth week in Denver, CO. The highlight of this week was the concert of the Jerusalem Quartet on Wednesday night which was just indescribable!
My host mother Mary Ann was in Cabo Pulmo for a week of scuba diving, so it was only Urs and me and the two dogs (one of them ate my wallet!!) at home. I could go to the labs in Boulder on Thursday and Friday which was very interesting and informative. We prepared and analysed some testing about antibiotics.
On Saturday, I was at the Red Rocks, a huge outdoor amphitheatre-like stadium (pic). It was quite impressive, there is space for about 10k spectators.

In the afternoon, we harvested the veggies from the garden,; it was a lot of product (pic shows about one fourth).

Sunday was football day, the Denver Broncos won their fifth game in a row and are still leading in the American Football Conference. I would actually love to see a game in the stadium, but the ticket range is from $300 for the cheapest and some thousand dollars for the more expensive seats, so unfortunately I cannot afford to watch a live game.

28.09. - 04.10.

This is about the third week being in the states. And it was the most exciting one so far. On Thursday afternoon, we drove up on the highest passable street in North America up to the top of Mt Evans. On the way up we passed some beautiful yellow-turned aspen trees and a bunch of bighorn sheep.

 The top of Mt Evans is at 14'300 feet, which is about 4'348m (compare: the elevation of the Matterhorn is about 4480m) and the temperature was at about 45F, so quite freezing. From the peak one could see for hundreds of kilometers far into the Gr. Plains. It is way above the tree line, but yet full of wildlife. We saw Chipmonks, Pikas, Ermines, Ferrets, Mountain Goats, Bighorn Sheep and Murmots, which were really large! As we drove up with the truck and two dogs in it, we finally ended up sitting in the open back of the truck as there was almost no space to sit inside.

On Friday noon, I went off for a 7h road trip south to Santa Rosa, New Mexico, to get dive certified in the Blue Hole. The blue hole literally is a hole in the midst of the desert with a depth of 81 ft, a surface diameter of 60 ft and a bottom diameter of 100 ft, so it is bell-shaped. The water was extremely clear; standing on a small platform at about 25 ft depth (where we had to show the skills we learnt the previous weekend) one could see more than 60 ft down to the bottom of the hole. The feeling being underwater and being able to breathe is just awesome!!