My time in Boulder has finally come to a close. Tomorrow
morning I am picking up my mom at the Denver airport and will show her around,
which I am really excited to do. I have been looking forward to showing anyone
around Boulder that is new to it.
This weekend I spent a lot of time with my roommate, Yun,
which was nice because we haven’t really gotten to know each other. After I
went to the Saturday farmers’ market for the last time, Yun and I drove to
Denver where they were having a Dragon Boat Festival. I did not really know
much about dragon boat racing, but Yun actually used to do it in New York so
she told me how it worked. There were also some food tents and lots of other
vendors. That night Yun and I went to Pearl Street for a late dinner at Pasta Jay’s,
which my boss had recommended. We split seafood cannelloni stuffed with shrimp
and crab and baked in spicy red calm sauce – so amazing!!!
Sunday Yun and I went to Leaf Vegetarian Restaurant for
brunch. The décor was really cool and the food was unique and delicious. For
starters we shared cinnamon coffee cake and baked Brie. Then for the entrée I
had lavender waffles with green tea whipped cream. Later that day I visited a
new coffee shop downtown called Amante, which was very European and was even showing
the Olympics on a TV. That night was my last CouchSurfing mixer – sad!
Yesterday I met Elisabeth for coffee at Amante and walked
around Pearl Street for a little until I went to work. That night I went hiking
in Chautauqua and the Boulder Concert Band was playing, so I listened to the
end of their concert after my hike.
The rest of this post consists of random stuff I learned,
observed, etc. from my time in Boulder.
- There are so many start-ups in Boulder and several companies don’t have offices, so they work from coffee shops (i.e. Atlas Purveyors, Ozo Coffee, The Cup). I learned at a CouchSurfing mixer once that there is such a thing as “coffee shop memberships.” I don’t know exactly how it works, but I would think you pay a certain amount a month to get a much coffee as you want or at a discount?
- There is such a thing at a BUI, or Biking Under the Influence. I was very surprised to learn that this was an actual thing. I always thought biking was a good alternative to driving because you won’t hurt anyone (except perhaps yourself) and you won’t get a ticket. Do BUIs exist in other places? If you know, please enlighten me!
- In Boulder, sometimes it looks like it will rain, but doesn’t and sometimes it will start raining when the sky is sunny. There were several times this summer when I was thinking of going for a walk or hike but decided not to because the sky looked like a storm was coming. Also, I’m used to checking the radar to see if rain is coming and it usually is right. However, in Boulder when the radar shows that something over Boulder or about to hit Boulder, often times it does not rain. Another thing about the rain here is that I will check in the morning if there is anything on the radar to the west of Boulder to see if it is supposed to rain later, but a few hours later something forms completely out of nowhere and a storm hits. This happened yesterday. Clearly I do not know anything about how the weather works out here.
- A little over a week ago I realized that my time out here might be the most nights spent sleeping in one city consecutively in a long time. So this past Saturday I had officially spent more nights in a row in Boulder than any other city for 2.5 years (53 nights). I don’t know the next time I will spend that much time in one city without spending at least one night somewhere else!
- For about the past week I have been getting these feelings of really not wanting to leave and would get really sad. They started very sporadically, but have become more often as my departure approaches. I have not had feelings like this except when I am about leave home to go back to school after a long break.
- And finally, I just really love my life here. Here are some things I enjoy about living here that I don’t have in other cities I spend time in:
- Walking on Pearl Street (the feeling of it does not compare at all to State Street in Madison)
- Meeting Elisabeth for coffee downtown and catching up on our lives
- Riding my bike on the bike path and the ease of being able to bike downtown. Before I moved here I did not realize that the apartment I chose was less than a minute to the Boulder Creek Bike Path and I am so thankful every day that it is.
- Spending time with the CouchSurfing people. They are all so fascinating and welcoming. They even have a group text set up so that you can text everyone in the group to go do something. The app is called "GroupMe." I joined the group about halfway through my stay.
- Having a job where I can say or think “I need to go into work for a few hours at some point today…” This is my job in Boulder, not my internship. I actually only ended up worked 47 hours in 6 weeks. Obviously this would not work in the long run…
- Being able to go read or talk on the phone with a friend by the creek. It is so peaceful and you seem secluded even though it is right off the bike path.
- Running into people I know downtown. Boulder is small enough and the people I know spend a lot of time downtown, so it happens often. Even though I have only lived here 2 months, it still surprises me that I know enough people to randomly see them.
The other day I was curious as to how much time I spent doing things every week, so I decided to make a chart! I decided to included it just for kicks :)
The numbers on the left are hours. Looking back, I wish I had gone hiking more...
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