Christmas in the Canyon
by jonathanlimes
Yet another plane ride, this time from Las Vegas to New York City. We had a timely two-hour delay because of a huge rainstorm happening in New York, which allowed me to conveniently pass out on a seat at the airport, to work off a bout of fatigue.
Two days ago, I spent a big part of Christmas exploring around in the Grand Canyon. Honestly it didn’t feel physically like Christmas because I wasn’t exposed to much of the joyous atmosphere this year, but it was quite awesome just to stand on the edge of seemingly infinite layers of red rock and feel like you’ve conquered the world just by hiking all the way to a little rocky hill top that allows you to see the vast bottomless valley of canyon all around you. Some pictures are in tow:
My previously pristine brown boots now destroyed by the canyon dust. But it’s all good, I got a nice shoeshine back at the hotel later that evening!Aside from that, there’s something funny about Vegas. It’s positioned itself nicely as a sin city within which you can contain all your escapades of debauchery and forget all of the crap once you leave it. It’s also a little capitalist haven (or nightmare, depends on how you see it) because of how much it can potentially satiate your senses and hopes constantly and unendingly, using lights, food, smoke, gambling, games, roller coaster rides, sex, luxury, money, cars, sex, money, sex, money, sex, money. People put their money in, experience all that they can get, and they put in more again just to get that kick in.
Few more days of traveling around America and it’s back to Virginia again, for a good start to a new term. The past semester has been pretty steady and I couldn’t have asked for a better time. Now that I’m halfway through college (goodness I don’t even believe how much time has flown by), picturing myself graduating has become much clearer, and it’s a pretty exciting thought but yet I don’t want it to arrive just yet.
