Quest Life: Stop and Stare!

Imaging sleeping in (which I haven't done in so long), snowboarding for 4 hours on smooth, white snow while enjoying the warm sunshine (I didn't fall once! :) ), and then spending the rest of the night rocking out to a band from your hometown. My Sunday was bliss!

The slopes were so nice! The runs weren't too crowded and there was hardly any ice. On the way up the gondola, I could see the winding blue bobsled track in between Whistler and Blackcomb mountain.

Have you ever had a really good conversation with a complete stranger? Well, it seems to happen to me all the time for some reason, especially when I'm riding the gondola up the mountain. Sunday was no exception. I met this dentist, originally from Vancouver but living in Los Angeles, who was here enjoying the Olympics (he was going to the bobsled event later that day, coincidentally). We were talking about both of our experiences studying abroad. He had studied in Italy and South Africa and now was going back to school in France. We talked about how much a person learns by studying in a foreign country and how it's funny that so many people are scared to do so because of the differences in lifestyle from country to country. He told me, "People are people; they all want to be friendly no matter where in the world they live." It reminded me of how great Quest is and how we welcome people from all over the world into our community. And also how it's part of our curriculum to study abroad and to learn about different cultures and perspectives of life. It was so nice to talk to someone that had been in a similar situation as myself and being able to reflect on what life is really about. I love conversations like that.

The day continued to go well. Snowboarding was such a blast. I don't know why but that day, I felt like some super power had come over me; I wasn't scared of anything. You should have seen me! I was flying down the mountain with no worries or fears. I was Super Jenny! hahaha. And I surprisingly had no epic wipe-outs. Thank gosh!

There's nothing like seeing people from your hometown to make you feel proud of the place you came from. On Sunday, I went up to Whistler to go see the band OneRepublic who are originally from Colorado. It made me so happy to see them showing Whistler how amazing people from Colorado are (even though there are plenty of greats bands not from Colorado, I just like showing my Colorado pride). It was such a great show!