1 week down, 11 more to go!

Hellloooo everyone!! (I know that in one of my Tanzania posts, I greeted you all in Swahili... BUT I think it will be a while before you witness me using cowboy greetings)

Well. 1 week down, 11 more to go. I'm happy, life is good, I'm actually at Parelli Central, for real. I go to sleep in my log cabin to the sound of horses, and I wake up to the sound of horses (yes, and to the sound of my cabin mate's alarm clock, but thats irrelevant right?) Today I bought Parelli clothes (woweee, so nicee) yes, I feel quite official.

The view from my cabin...

Need I say more?

hhmm, those of you who know me well, would understand that I've said enough. It's one of those "phew, Kerrin's happy!" moments.... but, for the detail lovers amongst you (and because I like writing, and I miss sharing the day to day interactions with my precious family and friends) I'll give you a bit of a blow-by-blow account. Rightyho.

So I arrived here on Wednesday evening, after a very long flight. I had my moments on the plane when I was so tired, I just wanted to be back in my bed, and I wondered what the heck I was doing.. I mean, I've just spent the previous 3 months near the bottom of the world, away from my 'normal life' (if you can define normal in my world), why would I want to spend another 3 months away from homebase?! And...I wouldn't even get to play with horses! BUT those thoughts passed as soon as I came close to Durango airport. The excitement built as I noticed the mountains, and open fields, and horses, and cattle, and streets and cars that looked like toys from up high, but became more real as we approached. 'This is real Kerrin. You're doing it. You're living your dream.'

Of course any notion of being tired disappeared as I got off the plane, and prepared to start the next 3 months of my life (and who knows, my commitment to Parelli will most probably go on for longer than 3 months in one form or another...) Gina, my new cabin mate, taxi-service, new found friend, and the other social media intern quickly found me, and we talked the whole way back from the airport! We found that we have a lot in common, and pretty much hit it off from the start.

The scenery en-route from Durango to Pagosa Springs was gorgeous, and the excitement that both Gina and I felt as we pulled into the Parelli Campus drive way was just amazing! Here we were, at the place where a lot of it all started, the venue where so many of the Parelli professional has come from, and educational films had been shot (Gina and I were constantly like: "Hey, that's where Linda filmed the circling game dvd.." and "wow, that's where Pat and Magic did a savvy club demo!")

We quickly found Brett, who basically plays the role of managing all that goes on in social media, and with whom we've corresponded with a lot (I also had my interviews with him). And, it didn't take us much longer to find the food! Wednesday night is BBQ and campfire night at the ranch, so we clearly arrived on a good day, although by now the tired-factor was building up for both of us (Gina had driven across America for 3 days to get to Colorado!) so we only stayed for a couple of songs around the campfire...

Our first day was spent chillaxing, getting to know the people, ranch and offices (Parelli Central is about 5-10 mins drive from the ranch) and Friday was spent at the office... followed by a three day weekend! Over the weekend we were involved with the 4th July parade through Pagosa Springs, and afterwards we had Pizza and Watermelon at the ranch (Pat Parelli was there, so that was awesome!) and on Sunday we went to see a rodeo. Gina was amused that I hadn't been to a rodeo before, and started teaching me how to 'yeeeehaaaa' properly *cough* apparently I'm too British.. or is it South African? hummm

Monday was a brilliant, as being a public holiday, we got the day off, but everyone on the ranch continued as normal! We had great fun joining in with a bunch of the theory lessons, and watching the fast-track student's lessons with their horses, oh and we also watched a couple of demo's by the mastery students and interns...

The rest of the week was spent at the office, familiarizing ourselves with all the cool things going on in the Parelli media world! I'm really enjoying the internship so far, its really interesting. Anyway, I'll upload photos in due course, and I'll also write a post about what I've been up to in the office!

Until next time..... LOVE