Backpacking trip

So this past weekend I went on an overnight trip for my Backpacking class.  I was pretty much dreading it beforehand: I had to get up early on a Saturday; Liz (my roommate, who is also in the class) wasn't going because she had a horse show that day, and I didn't really know anyone else; it was supposed to rain all day; and I just don't particularly like camping--you get dirty and smelly and there are no bathrooms.

But I had to go to get the credit, so I did.  I was late to the gym, where we were supposed to meet at 8:30, but that didn't end up mattering because by the time everyone was packed up and ready to go it was past 10.  Then we had a long van ride down to Susquehannock State Forest in PA (near Wellsboro), which I didn't mind because I got to read The Hunger Games and sleep.  After a picnic lunch and then driving to another spot, we finally started the hike, around 1:45.  It actually wasn't raining, and it was a perfect hiking temperature.  So that was nice, and I wasn't feeling too terrible about it, except that the trail immediately started going uphill.

One of the issues I somehow hadn't anticipated was that I was not used to walking while carrying a giant, full backpack on my back.  It was heavy.  And my poor body was not ready for that.  Especially going uphill.  So I fell behind the group right away, but my professor very nicely stayed with me and chatted with me as we walked.  But after a while, when I kept being slow, I felt bad and told her she could go ahead of me, so she did and I was all alone at the back.  I was so relieved whenever I caught up to the group when they had stopped to rest, because that meant that I could rest too.  Once when I stopped my heart was just pounding, so hard it was kind of scary.  It was around 50 degrees, but I was sweating.

Eventually, though, the ground leveled out, and I got a good steady pace going, actually walking in the middle of the group instead of straggling behind them.  The scenery around us was beautiful--lots of green, a pretty stream, cool plants that the prof. pointed out--and I actually didn't mind the hike too much then.  We had to cross the stream several times, which was sometimes tricky, but never a problem.

But then . . . it started to rain.  And because I had concluded before that since it wasn't raining it wasn't ever going to, that was kind of depressing.  It didn't stop, either, it just kept up, not pouring but still steady, slowly getting everyone wetter and wetter until most of our rain coats had soaked right through.  I was also getting tired and slowing down again, which wasn't fun.  And by that time my body was hurting in so many places--shoulder, back, and hips from the backpack, legs and feet from walking, ankles from the hiking boots I'd never worn before.

The trail had merged with a gravel road for a little while, and around 6 we came upon a campsite with a nice flat area for tents and a fire ring.  But better than that was the cabin right across the road, which had a covered porch.  Our prof. said we hadn't gone quite as far as she'd hoped, but she was okay with stopping there for the night, and everyone agreed.  We all sheltered on the porch, hanging up wet coats to dry on the nails so conveniently located around the edge.  Someone got out the stove and got water boiling right there so we could get warmed up with hot drinks.

We were hoping the rain would stop so we could set up our tents, but we ate dinner and it was still raining, so finally we just went over to the campsite and set up our tents as quickly as we could.  And then, because it was getting dark and there wasn't really anything else to do, we basically went to bed.  It was only 8:00.  I laid in my (actually Liz's; I ended up borrowing a lot of stuff from her because she's way more outdoorsy than me) sleeping bag and chatted with the other girls a little and read more Hunger Games, then, around 9:45, turned off my (again, actually Liz's) flashlight and went to sleep.
I fell asleep okay, but in the night I kept waking up, uncomfortable on the hard ground, or feeling squished between the two girls I was next to.  The prof. woke us up at 6:30 (when I was finally actually sleeping) and we ate breakfast bars and packed up.  It had, fortunately, stopped raining in the night.  Putting my backpack back on was painful (and every time I moved something hurt), but I did it, and then we started.

That day I was pretty much behind the whole day.  It got hilly again towards the end, and there were times when I thought I might just collapse on the trail, or at least I wanted to.  I walked super slowly sometimes, too tired to take any steps but tiny ones.  It was really steep, and some of the other people had definitely slowed down, too.  But then, finally, I reached the top--and we were done.  The hike was over.

It was such a relief.  And I felt really accomplished too--I had just hiked 10 miles carrying a huge weight (or what felt like one to me) on my back, and not collapsed, not given up, not even complained.  We drove to a pavilion for brunch and a church service, and then there was the long ride home and we were back at Houghton.  It was so awesome to get in my car and drive back to my house and be in civilization again.  Toilets, sinks, and showers are great.

So overall, it wasn't exactly fun.  But it wasn't awful either.  It was hard, it was exhausting, it was painful, it was cold and wet, but it was also an achievement, and definitely a memorable experience.

Australia!

Right now, I really wish I wasn't sitting.  My legs are aching, just like they ached the whole plane ride over here.  What I really want to do is lie down, but that isn't going to happen for a while, because if I lie down I'll fall asleep, and we have to be somewhere at 7 (right now it's about 6 here; we're 14 hours ahead).  This day has been ridiculously long.  I've had way too much time (a very uncommon problem for me)--they gave us 3 hours to unpack, then 3 hours to shop, then 3 hours before some sort of youth group at 7.  And originally we were told we'd be able to sleep at 7.

But it's been really exciting, too.  About an hour or so ago I saw my first wallaby, and it was pretty amazing.  Then he hopped, and it was even more amazing.  I saw a bunch more wallabies, too; they're all over the campus, just hanging around, eating, watching us.  And I saw this cool bird called a curlew, and we've been hearing kookaburras and magpies, and Professor Kettlekamp told us there are koalas all around this area, and I saw koala and wallaby crossing signs, and we drove on the left side of the road and it was super weird, and we can't go off the paths here because of snakes and who knows what else...  I'm actually in Australia!  It's actually real!  It's very cool, very weird, and very overwhelming.

Airport adventure

So, I went to Europe.  It was my first time flying alone, and after I went through security and left my family behind I felt very independent and a little nervous.  I quickly got way more nervous when my backpack didn't come out of the security scanner and the lady watching the scans called someone else over.  I waited while they talked, wondering what in the world could be in my backpack that could cause a problem.  I'd packed everything I needed for 10 days in Europe in there--clothes, a few small guidebooks, shampoo and toothpaste in 3-ounce containers sealed in a plastic bag.  There was nothing wrong with any of that, was there?

They let my backpack out, and a man felt around inside.  "Do you have maple syrup in here?" he asked, and I suddenly remembered that Nora's mom had sent a quart of maple syrup with me as a gift for the friend of Nora's we would be staying with in Prague.  None of us, not Nora's mom, not my mom, not me, had realized that I wouldn't be able to bring that in a carry-on.  I wondered if they would confiscate it, leaving Nora's friend gift-less, but the man just told me, "Next time, put that in your checked luggage" and let me take my backpack back.

Very relieved that I wasn't unwittingly carrying explosives or illegal drugs, I headed to my gate, where I found that my flight had been delayed.  Even after everyone boarded, it still didn't take off for a while; I actually fell asleep while waiting.  So began my trip to Europe.

Yay! The power's out!

On the 16th, around 9:45, I was vacuuming up on the fourth floor of Gillette. Suddenly, the vacuum shut off. And all the lights went off too. It was a power outage, the first time that ever happened while I was at Houghton. It was new and exciting.

There were emergency lights in the dorm halls and stairwells, which was really good. I had been planning to meet people in the campus center at 10, so I put the vacuum away (fortunately I had been almost done) and headed out. All the outside lights were off too, of course, and I could see all the stars. It was amazing. I didn't know you could see that many stars. It was beautiful.

I found my friends in the campus center, and we hung out there some and walked around outside more. People were running around all over the place, screaming and yelling. Someone was setting off illegal fireworks, and I heard that someone drove a car on the sidewalk. People also climbed on the roofs of buildings, and the next day graffiti was found in several different places. That really annoys me, because most people were just enjoying the novelty of the power being out and admiring the stars, but some people thought, "Oh, the power's out, it's a great time to do bad things!" Which is stupid.

Anyway, it was an adventure. The Student Life office handed out glow sticks, as if they'd been prepared for this. The lights came back on a little after 11. Apparently the power had been out in several towns in the area, and I still don't know why. But I really didn't mind at all; it was fun and different.

An away-from-Houghton adventure

Yesterday Adam, Steve, and I borrowed Alexa's car and drove to Rochester to see Avatar in 3D. I drove, and no, we did not get lost. There was a lot of traffic as we got close to the city, and there were pretty strong winds, but everything went fine. We got to the theater and watched the movie, which was almost 3 hours long. The story was really cliché, but the effects and the 3D were really cool, so it was worth seeing.

Afterward we went to Adam's house for dinner. His mom made us calzones, which were amazing, and we had real salad, so much fresher than Houghton's, and brownies and ice cream for dessert. It was a delicious meal.

Then it was time to drive back, which was when it really became an adventure. Steve drove, since I'd driven the whole way there. It was snowing a little, and it was dark since it was about 9:30 by the time we left. We made it onto the highway and back off fine and continued to follow the directions I'd gotten from Mapquest. But the directions must have been wrong, because we'd been going for a while and hadn't seen the road we were supposed to turn onto.

Then I suddenly recognized where we were--the tiny town of Short Tract, which was really ironic because Eri and I and some other people had been lost there on the way back from church a few weeks ago. We'd called Dan and he had looked up directions and told us how to get back, so I was pretty sure I remembered. But we'd driven past the road we needed to take, so we had to turn around, and the inside of the car was getting really fogged up and the defrost wasn't working very well, so Steve pulled over so we could clear it up. But he'd pulled onto a side road with a good amount of snow on it, and it turned out to be deeper than it looked. We opened a window and wiped the fog off the windshield, and then Steve tried to pull back onto the road. But we couldn't get out--we were stuck in a ditch.

I definitely had a moment of panic, wondering what we were going to do. Adam and I got out of the car and Steve drove forward, able to move in that direction but still not able to get back on the road. It really looked like we were stuck there. Then Steve tried backing up, and as Adam and I watched the back end of the car pulled up and out of the ditch, and the front end followed. After jumping up and down in celebration, Adam and I got back in the car. Steve turned it around, very careful not to go back in the ditch, and we drove back the way we'd come. We had to turn around several more times because I was confused about whether the road we needed was on the left or right, but we found it, and it was the right one.

It was about 15 or 20 minutes back to Houghton from there. The only other problem we had was that Steve's window wouldn't close--Alexa's car is pretty old and beat up, and the driver's side window gets stuck. There's a special way you have to close it, but I didn't remember what that was, so we had to drive the rest of the way with the cold wind blowing right into the car. I felt really bad for poor Steve!

But we did make it back, finally; it was almost midnight and I'd expected to get back around 11. It was definitely an adventure, with its scary moments, but it ended well and makes a good story. It was great to get away from Houghton for 9 hours and see a movie in a theater and eat a real meal in a house with a family.

***

Right now I'm half-watching the Olympics. The biathlon is on, which is a weird sport. Before that was ski jumping, which was pretty cool. Hopefully I'll be able to catch some of the figure skating tonight.