Life in Montana! (so far...)

I’m so glad y’all enjoyed ‘London’s Tail’ so much! I think London enjoyed it also ;)

Life in Montana is going great! The weather has been an absolutely beautiful recently. Last week, we were hotter than Texas! Okay, maybe that was a little hot for Montana, especially when air conditioners aren’t the norm up here. Then it wasn’t pleasant when the A/C at work, one of the few we have, went out. It wouldn’t have been bad, except in the afternoons the sun shines directly into the windows. The one time since I’ve been here that I regretted those windows. It got pretty warm. But they were able to fix it! It’s been perfect weather for riding my bike. Now that I’m getting the hang of actually riding one again, I’ve been having a lot of fun cruising through my neighborhood. With the weather like it has been, I’ve seen a lot of other people enjoying the small parks and trails around my place. It’s just now starting to cool down. In fact this weekend looks to be down right chilly!

I had my first test this week. I must say, it’s a little weird for me to be back on an undergrad campus, in an undergrad class, even though I’m taking it at a graduate level. The day before my test, I remembered that some professors in undergrad require these things called blue books. I couldn’t remember if my professor said we needed one or not. So I freaked out a little about having time to go to the campus bookstore to get one. Ends up we didn’t need it. The graduates had different tests than the undergrads, and we all just needed to write on the test. And the test? Well, it wasn’t what I expected. For my Masters, I was trained to write essays to answer questions, and have 3 hours to do so. Here, we only had an hour, and it was short answer. I think I wrote mini-essays for my answers. I don’t know how to condense something into two sentences when I’m used to explaining myself in paragraphs! Hopefully it’ll work out. And hopefully I didn’t fail. Eek! I’m nervous about getting it back. Cross your fingers that I make a decent grade!

This past weekend I had to opportunity to go hiking with my neighbor and her cute son. We had a blast! We just did a short hike to Grotto Falls, in Hyalite Canyon. It was a beautiful day, though pretty cold in the morning when we got there. It warmed up nicely, and the falls were so pretty!

My neighbor and her adorable son.

Manda also came to visit me a couple of weekends ago. I’m so glad she flew up here! We made picnic lunches, hiked a little, and just had a blast. I showed her the town and we managed to do a little shopping. We also went to Yellowstone, which was so much fun! We weren’t seeing many animals, but the few bison we did see were really close. I must admit, though, if one was close enough to get out of the car for, Manda was the one who got out. We actually ate lunch with a bison not far from us! We started driving back up north when we decided we wanted to turn around and see the Upper and Lower Falls. When we did that, we found the herds of bison. And I mean herds! And they had no problems walking in the middle of the road to hold up traffic. The funniest part was when these two bison were walking up the middle of the road between the cars. When they got close to my car, I admit I started to freak out a little. You don’t think those animals are too scary until brush up against your car. If they had turned their head, they would have hit my pretty silver car pretty badly. Let me tell you, I had my windows rolled up. I only wish I had better pictures that show how close and huge they were! But it was a pretty fun trip. Again, I’m so glad she was able to come visit me.

I don't think they follow traffic laws...

Oh no! Here he comes!!!!

WAAAAAY too close for comfort...

Upper Falls

Lower Falls

A tree I thought was pretty cool, after driving up to the top of some mountain...

Manda at Headwaters State Park. Such a climber...

On another note, I have to admit that tragedy has struck. London’s favorite bowl, given to him by my Aunt Julie and Mimi, has been broken. Apparently, my cat is also a little scientist, and he wanted to test the laws of gravity. Unfortunately, the bowl did not survive the experiment. Now he’s back to drinking out of his blue bowl, with the rubber bottom that he cannot push around. The cat also had to have a bath the other day. He was so dirty! Giving a cat a bath is not as easy at it seems. But now he is clean, though I had to suffer his glares the rest of the night. And then, to retaliate, he sat where I usually sleep on my bed, getting the whole side damp. Thank you, London….

Anyway, that’s about all that’s been going on in the life of amyg! My mom comes in tomorrow, and we plan on having an awesome weekend. I’m also planning on some home-cooking. Not to make my mom work or anything, but some homemade mom food sounds pretty good right now. I can’t wait!

-amyg

And, just something to wind up my post... I just wanted to post some things I love about living up north, here in Montana.

· I love the location! The mountains are so pretty, and the sunsets are amazing. I’m sure the sunrises are as well, but if I’m up that early, I’m already in lab working.

· The whole town supports the Bobcats, the Montana State University football team. The. Whole. Town. It’s awesome that the team is so supported! For example, the homecoming pep rally was in the middle of downtown.

· The people. Everyone is so helpful here. My neighbor and her son let me tag along when they went hiking. My lab puts up with me asking a million questions, all the time. The other new girl in our department had drinks with me and then we just hung out.

· All the available outdoor activities. I never thought I was much of an outdoor person, and I’m really not, compared to people here. But I really like to ride my bike. And there are so many easy trails around here that lead to some fascinating places. Like Grotto Falls.

· A working and regularly used downtown. The shops are pretty amazing, and the bars are pretty fun.

· On that note, the bars. A lovely place to have a drink or two with friends. They’re not like clubs with loud music, but rather a nice place to talk and meet people.