"The mountains have always been here, and in them, the bears."

What an amazing weekend. Definitely one the best I have had in a long time!

At the beginning of the semester, a retired professor came into my Biology 100 class and told us he was going to take some of us into the mountains to see black bear cubs. Sadly, he said he would only be able to take a couple, meaning the majority of my class wouldn't be able to go. Those who wanted to go wrote their name on a piece of paper, crossing our fingers that we would be chosen. A couple weeks later when they announced the lucky dogs, my name was not called. You can imagine how upset I was, whining and complaining to my poor roommates and family on how I wasn't chosen. After a couple of days those, I was starting to get over it.

Then last Monday happened.

There I was, 2:00 PM in Biology, frantically writing down notes as our professor started his lecture on DNA replication. An hour and several hand cramps later, in walked the retired professor, Professor Black. As the names of the students going on the trip were called to remind them of the trip that weekend, I slumped in my seat and started to put again. Then he said these magical words, "We have a couple of spots open. Who would like to go?" My hand was in the air the second after he opened his mouth. "There. You. You get to go."

And so, that Saturday, I left my apartment on bike at 4:30 in the morning and biked to the Denny's right off of campus, the designated meeting spot. By 5:00 we were on our way, though it took a couple of tries before we found the highway we were supposed to take. {The professor expected us to make the four hour trip by ourselves, you see. Not really a good idea, especially when we're all freshman, still trying to find our way around Provo.} By 9:00, our group had reached the exit off the highway that would take us to the bears. It's a miracle we found it because we were seriously in the middle of nowhere-Utah. The desert. . We started to get really excited; an adventure was about to begin! We eventually ran into this little broken-down "bed and breakfast" and decided to check it out just for fun, since we had time to kill. Low and behold, Professor Black and his family were staying there! The next couple hours we drove 12 miles into this canyon, ate our brown bag lunches, and learned about the bears while we waited for a team to find and tranquilize them. Then we began our steep hike up the side of a mountain to the bear den! Unfortunately, we only saw and touched one bear. A black bear yearling about 50 pounds, sedated. Poor thing. But what a cutie! It was quite the experience though, to the be that near to a bear. I seriously only got to see it for less than 5 minutes, but that was enough. {There's really nothing else I can think to describe it, so I'll insert a picture!} The hike down was super fun with the people from my class, and way easier than the hike up. We also got to ride in the back of one of our peers truck on an empty, bumpy, muddy 12-mile dirt road. So. Much. Fun.

{adorable bear cub paws}

So that was my bear adventure this week! It was great fun, and I wish I could have said more about it. Nothing really new on Mèxico; I'm in the process of getting my passport and figure some other things out. More to come later. Thanks so much for reading! Have a fabulous Tuesday!

Isn't she or he beautiful?!