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Films and Windmill Hikes as Therapy

March 10, 2021

During the second week of ECS, we have done a lot of off-campus activities today being the third day of our second week of ECS. Today we started on campus and talked to a filmmaker and writer, Mr. Ben Thompson. He was awesome and helped me learn a ton about all the things that go into a film. He showed us a film called Knick Knack, which is a film where there is a party going on and a snowman trying to escape his snow globe to get to a girl in the party. The snowman goes through a series of trying to blow up his igloo and even uses a jackhammer. However, when he blows it up, it comes to the front of the table and he falls off. He exits the globe and then lands in a fishbowl. Luckily for him, there is another girl in there, but his snowglobe lands on top of him. Another film we watched is called Presto, which is about a bunny trying to get a carrot from the magician. The magician also wants the bunny to perform in his magic act. The magician won’t feed the bunny the carrot, and the bunny will not cooperate with the magician and do his act. This all causes chaos, and the crowd loves it. In the end, the magician has a great act, and the bunny gets his carrot. Another activity we did with Mr. Thompson had us think of a toy when we were young and just write about it straight from what we were thinking. For example, Celina’s toy was a stuffed animal giraffe. After this activity, we recorded an interview asking questions about each other’s stuffed animals.

At eleven o’clock we departed CSS for the ENT Center by Pulpit Rock. We had lunch as a group, thanks to Mrs. May who brought us pizza and cookies. Then, we went hiking and viewed The Windmill Project made by visiting artist Patrick Marold. With the help of UCCS students, staff, and volunteers, Marold installed 2,000 8-foot posts with wind-activated components that turn small generators powering LED downlights. Although Marold has installed similar art and movement exhibits around the world, this particular one in Colorado Springs opened in October 2020 and will be on display through October 2021. My favorite thing about this project is learning that the hollow plastic posts glow when it is nighttime. After admiring this unique art display, we continued hiking up to Pulpit Rock itself. After taking some pictures of the rocks, we went down. From there we went into the Ent Center and looked at some amazing art. The next activity we did was my favorite. We went around for about half an hour and found all sorts of art and made a scavenger hunt for Ms. Miller and Profe Kunze. This was like what we did on Monday where we went downtown; however, this time, it was reversed. I found this really fun just looking at all the amazing art in this center. Today was a great experience since we got to get outside and hike as a group as well as admire the amazing art in this center. I can’t wait for the days that are to come in this ECS and engage in way more activities that are just as fun as the activities that we did today.