Yesterday (7/30/2010) I felt like doing the incline again, however, I didn’t feel like going by myself, so I decided to ask on twitter if anyone wanted to tweetup and was down to come along.
After waiting for a while, I still had no response of anyone who was willing to go, so I went to the twitter website and searched for people around Colorado Springs area, and that’s when I found @HURRAYYme‘s post.
We tweeted and scheduled to do the incline at 9:00 AM. I left the house early enough to find a spot to park. However, when I got down to Manitou Springs, almost everything was covered with cars. I drove around for about 10 minutes untill I found this spot.
Nick was obviously better in shape then I was, so I told him to go ahead and I would meet him at the top. Nick got to the top in 40 minutes, which is very impressive, believe me. It’s 5000 steps, it’s an old cog-train trail which is 43%-63% incline the entire time. Here is Nick’s post if you would like to check it out.
This was now my second tweetup, and if you ask me, it’s one of the most fun things to do if you want to meet new people!
After three weeks of staying around Yoder and Colorado Springs, Debbie, Chris, and JoeJoe had to keep following their schedule for travel, so they decided to head out. However, the Colorado Renaissance Festival was coming up and Debbie wanted JoeJoe to experience it. I had never been there before either, so we all decided to go camping at Jellystone Park at Castle Rock. It’s a RV park right next to the Interstate 25 and a railroad track. It was loud as hell, no fun! Well it was fun when there was no train coming by! haha. So anyway, Tim, Elaine, Rachel, Zach, Jessica, and their son Benjamin came along camping for two days and went to the festival. We camped there from July 23rd till the 25th. Sunday morning Debbie, Chris, and JoeJoe headed out to Wyoming.
Yesterday (July 20th) we went to Manitou Springs to do the incline! It was lots of fun! Chris, Debbie, and I left the house early in the morning so we didn’t had to fight the sun! It was a great work out, I’m definitely going to do this more often from now. Also, Tim wants to hike up the Rocky Mountains more often and do different trails with me, so I will get some hiking done I’m sure!
We did the 4,5 mile hike, we went up the incline and took the Barr Trail down. It was pretty neat, we found lots of rocks to climb on and beautiful views to take pictures of. If you want to check out Debbie’s story about the incline please do because it’s pretty funny!
On the map you can see what trail we walked. The green solid line is the incline, thats the way we went up, and we took the red trail back down.
Here are some pictures of our hike up the Manitou Springs Incline!
Here is a video of Debbie struggling with hiking up the incline! haha.
For some reason I haven’t posted anything for the past two months.
My summer started great, I went to Ohio to see my sister graduate from Bowling Green State University and saw where she lived and all that. My parents and my little brothers were there too! We had a wonderful family time! It was nice to be all back together after a long time not seeing each other.
After I went back home to Colorado from my trip to Ohio, Richie and Melinda from California invited me to come over and visit them. I took their offer and got on a plane to Sacramento, CA. I’m actually there right now until July 19th! I have seen pretty much everything around the Clearlake area which is really nice! However, I really hope I’m going to be able to see the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. If so, that would be awesome! If not, so be it. Although, I don’t think we are, because the car broke down.
Monday the 19th, I will be going home like I mentioned. I am looking forward to it because of two reasons. 1. It’s too freaking hott out here in California. At least that’s what my iPhone says. (See temperature screenshot) and reason number 2. is that Debbie, Chris, and JoeJoe from Arizona will be there! They are doing a trip all over the United States, so they are in Colorado right now. You can follow their stories right here. The day after I get home, the 20th of July we will be doing the incline at Manitou Springs. It’s going to be pretty hard to do! However, fun! Also, we might go camping and that will be totally awesome, because that will give me a reason to go fishing! I have been wanting to fish for years now, but never found someone who wanted to fish. Or did I not try hard enough? Oh well, Colorado has these beautiful places where we can fish on trout, so it’s time to get on it while it’s still summer! I need to go to Walmart and get a fishing license soon!
About school, I will be going back to school August 23rd. How nice, the day before my birthday! But that doesn’t matter! I will be taking three welding classes. I think I want to focus on welding and get certified! I will be taking: Blueprint Read-Welders/Fitters, Intro-Gas Tungsten Arc Welding, and Advanced Gas Metal Arc Welding! So that will keep me busy this semester!
I know, I know.. it’s a long time ago.. again .. I have been so busy though! I’ll start from my last post. I passed my drivers test with 99%. He said I did everything alright, only I took my left turn too wide. Instead of taking the inner-lane I took the outer-lane. No major problems. I also managed to get a car,
I bought a Ford Explorer from a buddy of mine. I do not like Ford’s at all, but he sold it to me for a super good deal, so I kind of had to do it! Haha. Also, I have been liking it since I have a car. It’s a lot of more freedom. You can see some pictures at the right.
The weather has been really weird in Colorado. However, I guess that’s normal here. Hehe. I did made some pictures with my iPhone, which I’ll show you in a little bit. The end of this semester is already in sight! I’m excited. I can’t wait for summer, hopefully I’ll be able to do some traveling around the United States. I’m going to see my sister in Ohio for sure already, right after school is over. It’ll be great to see her graduate from BGSU. I have no other traveling plans yet, although, I would love to visit Debbie and Chris in Arizona, and Richie in California. I guess I just have to wait and see what happens.
Biking, is what I have been trying to do lots of. Every time it was nice out, or even when it was raining.. well, let’s say when I had time, I was on my bike.. doing rounds from 12 to 30 miles. I try to do every time longer trips. And hopefully I’ll be able to go up to the Rocky Mountains to bike. I think that would be a blast!
Bob Droog, a spontaneous, honest person who loves exploring and experiencing new thing; was born nineteen years ago in Schagen, Netherlands to Bob Sr. and M. Droog. Having an interest in America culture, Bob moved to the United States as an exchange student in 2007. A year later, he moved back to Holland for a year and a half. He returned as an exchange student in January 2010. The only family member that Bob has in the United States is his sister Arisca. She attends Bowling Green University in Ohio. Moving to the United States was a different experience for Bob. He had to adjust and assimilate some of his traditions and learn how to live in the United States. Following Gordon’s seven stages of assimilation, the changes that had been taking place in Bob’s life and in other people from Netherlands can be recognized.
Gordon’s seven stages can be divided in to two groups: The immigrant group; assimilation made by immigrants coming to the new culture, and Host group; assimilation made by people than live in the culture. Culture assimilation, the first stage; was the most important and hardest adjustment for Bob. Almost everything is different between Netherlands and the United States, including language, food, sports, education, housing, religious, and more. For example soccer (voetbal) is the most important sport in Holland, but it is not in the United States; therefore; Bob doesn’t have the opportunity to enjoy his favorite sport like he used to. The second stage is the structural assimilation; this category has not affected Bob at all. He is not a member of any kind of institution or societal structure. For example, Bob said that he doesn’t follow politics at all but he wants to change that, learn more, and maybe become part of a group or institution. Next, marital assimilation, for people in Netherlands marriage is very important, serious, and they see it as a connection between two people who are in love. Bob is single but he said that he won’t have any problem marrying someone from a different country or cultural beliefs. One of the examples Bob gave me that sounds very interesting is that in his country education comes first, people go to school and after between the age of twenty four and thirty they get married. It is very strange for Bob seeing how high school graduates get married when they are eighteen or nineteen years old here in the United States. Lastly; Identificational assimilation; Bob won’t consider himself an American in identity, he will always think of himself as a Dutch man, but he will consider himself an American citizen, because like he said; America is a bunch of people from different countries together that live here and consider themselves American citizens. If Bob decides to stay in the United States for the rest of his life he will adjust to it regulations and add traditions as part of his life but he will still conserve his culture as much as he can.
The second group has three stages. To start, civic assimilation, it refers to the power given to immigrants in the host culture. Bob’s mom told him that President Obama’s ancestors had some Dutch in them. The remaining stages are very similar; attitude and behavior receptional assimilation; they refer to the prejudice and discrimination that immigrants suffer when they move to a different culture. In Bob’s case he has never experience any kind of discrimination; on the other hand; people love to know about his culture and he has a lot of friends.
In Holland, it is not common to move to the United States; but for the ones that move here it is not hard to assimilate and be part of this new culture. In my opinion Gordon’s seven stages of assimilations is not a good model because it generalizes without considering that every person is different as well as every culture. Adapting to a new culture and its traditions can be a traumatic experience for some people and a great experience for others; like Bob. People just have to take their chances and start their way to a new life full of changes.
Monica Marcela C. is 23 years old and was born in Bucaramanga, Colombia. She lived there all her live until she moved to the United States. Monica was 16 years old when her mother found the love of her life. By the time her mother decided to move to the United States, Monica was still under 18, which is underage in Colombia, so she was forced to move to the United States with her mother and brother. Monica, her brother, and mother had to assimilate to the American culture. This will be explained usingGordon’s seven stages of assimilation.
First of all, cultural assimilation applied when Monica and her family arrived to the United States. They had given up quite a lot of their culture, such as tropical fruits, soccer, their language and more. Secondly, structural assimilation occurs because they gave up church even though they were Catholic. Monica’s brother joined the U.S. Navy, which shows a dedication to the United States. Then they had to assimilate by marriage; they had to give up marrying Colombians to marry others. Monica’s mother had no problem with this because she was about to marry a German. Monica herself had no problems with marrying someone from another culture or country either. The next stage, identificational assimilation, is one of the most difficult ones for most immigrants. This is something Monica could never give up. She says, she could never call herself an American even if she is a US citizen. She is proud of her roots and ancestors, and she will always be Colombian.
In civic assimilation, Monica and her family were allowed to become citizens and were considered naturalized. Monica and her mother are participating in America’s society, and Monica’s brother was allowed to join the U.S. Navy. There are not Colombians with political powers where we know of, but there are people who come from Hispanic nature with political powers; for example, the mayor of Colorado Springs. Attitude receptional assimilation and behavior receptional assimilation apply to Monica’s family because they felt discriminated against by some Americans when they moved to the United States. She said, when she met someone new, all they knew or remember about Colombia was about the cartel and drugs in Colombia, which was two decades ago.
What I’ve learned from using Gordon’s model is that it’s a great way to show if people are assimilating or not, and in my opinion it’s a perfect example to show what people are going through. These seven stages of assimilation are the big major steps that immigrants could go through. It’s not always the immigrant who has to assimilate; also, the host society or country has to change things around to accept the immigrant.
Wooden shoes symbolizes the Dutch culture. This folk object is completely hand made and has been carried for centuries. It reflects shared and community experience. Wooden shoes are always made by the old fashion traditional way. Creating wooden shoes is extremely tricky; its taught to children by their parents or great parents. Back in the day it was worn by everyone. Nowadays, it’s only worn by the old fashion farmers; it has become an Dutch culture symbol to the Netherlands. The wooden shoes connect individuals to the environment because almost everybody is interested and wondering how it’s made. People all around the world come visit the Netherlands and walk around the famous markets where they show you the Dutch culture. They also show how they make the wooden shoes in the old fashion traditional way.
