Crestone - mah Field Trip

At VVS there are these requirements you have to fulfill to graduate. We have to do CAS. We have to do school every day. We have to do sports. And we also have to do Field Trips. If you don't do Field Trips, you have to do service by yourself in the summer, because Field Trips are about many things, but for some, including myself, mostly about service. There are Field Trips going to L.A., Utah, Texas, Hopiland, all over California, but in my case, Crestone, Colorado. This is a tiny spiritual community in the mountains of Colorado, and I think it looks really beautiful there.

Photo by Bill Elzey. Image source 

When I come back, I will be able to show you my own photos, because I'm bringing my D-SLR. I'm not sure if this is the wisest the decision I've ever made, because it weighs a ton, but I think it will be worth it,  if I'm able to document that beautiful place in the high quality of my camera.

Before we go to Crestone, though, we will spend five days in Taos, New Mexico, where we will be working four full days helping build earthship homes. An eartship home is a concept that involves full sustainability, meaning that if you want to be off the grid, you can. Sounds like it would be useful when the Robapocalypse comes. Anyway, your home generates its own electricit (or at least it can) and a lot of these houses have a graywater system, where they use the same water for many different purposes. This is made possible by rinsing the water so that it can be reused, and thus, a lot of water is saved. The earthships are also made of interesting materials - they use car tires filled with sement to build the exterior, and they also have glass in the front for the greenhouse, wherever it is easiest for the sun to reach.

How cool is this? This is actually in Taos. Image source

As volunteers, our group will be a part of building an earthship house, but we don't really know yet whether we will be a part of the late or early part of the process. Personally, I hope we will get there at one of the early stages, because I think I prefer heavy manual labor over slow, detailed work such as painting. I like using my body and pushing myself to my limits, and this is part of why I enjoy service so much. I also think that service leads you to a lot of places that you never would have gone to otherwise. I, for one, can't believe that I get to work on an actual earthship home, something I've only read about previously.

After our stay in Taos, we go to Crestone, and here our trip will become more spiritually focused. We will visit a Buddhist ashram, and a Christian monastery, and we will also do some service work. We will try both yoga and aikido, which I'm really excited about. I don't know if this part of the trip will be as hard physically as our stay in Taos, but I think our stay in Crestone will be much harder emotionally and spiritually. I don't really consider myself a religious person, so it will be interesting to meet people who have devoted their whole lives to practicing their religion. Our leaders, and people who've previously been on this Field Trip, have said repeatedly that you get from it what you put into it, and I will do my very best to be respectful and open-minded, and hopefully, I will get a lot out of this. At the very least, I think it's going to be an interesting experience. I am definitely part of an interesting group, where a lot of the people are international, and it's going to be fun to see not only how we all interact with each other as a group but also how our beliefs will interact with each other in the face of new faiths that might be completely different from our own.

For the last part of the trip, we will do things that in my eyes require little effort but will produce a lot of enjoyment, such as hiking the Great Sand Dunes in Crestone (this is probably where I'll be the happiest that I brought my camera) and visit a Hot Spring Spa. Our very last day will be spent in Santa Fe, just wandering around the city, and I think that if there's ever a time our wallets will be emptied, this is it.

I am really looking forward to experiencing this adventure (also getting off campus for two weeks) and I believe I will learn a lot of things from it. And even though I get to shower and sleep in my bed, it'll probably feel awesome to get back home again.

Lerve,

Ingrid