Kittens!

It seems I was always doing something at High Sierra. Earlier this May, flying back to Wisconsin, I thought I would finally be able to rest. Boy was I wrong! Because I do foster care for the humane society, I called them two days after I got back to let them know I was home in case they needed help. Later that day they called me to let me know that they had four little kittens in need of foster care! So right now there are four little kittens cuddled up in my room who need to be bottle-fed every eight hours. I’m working on weaning them (it’s a slow process), and they’re just beginning to use the litter box (Thank God!). Although because of them I’m getting less sleep than I was at college, they’re so worth it.
I just...i love kittens. Like, so much.
Sorry all the pictures are a bit blurry. Kittens and flashes don't go well together, because their retinas are still so sensitive.

Musings

I've learned a lot in the past year. One of the most influential things I've learned was from Lisa, Alex, and Stacey: Live spontaneously. If you see a good climbing tree, climb it! If that water looks great for swimming in, by all means, go for a swim! If you have an inkling to just run and lay in that meadow...run and lay in the meadow!

Today after getting a book at the library, I decided I needed to be more spontaneous. The swing-set in the playground looked so inviting--so I went swinging! Reminded me a lot of someone ( you know who you are ;) ). Swinging, I thought, "I need to be more spontaneous. Screw what other people think, do what I want." Not in the sense that, hey, I want that car, let's go hijack it, or stealing, or saying whatever is on my mind at the moment. Instead, I want to embrace my childish impulses to explore and adventure.

Sooo....we'll see where that takes me this summer =)

Oh High Sierra...

Soo...I've been pretty awol lately. After getting back from spring break things have been going at high speed here--tons and tons of papers and studying! I've only got 4 more papers to write, phew.

First off, today was amazing.
This morning we all got up at 8:30. In our pjs we dragged pillows and blankets into the meetinghall and ate breakfast there while watching cartoons. =)

Then, after tanning for a little bit on Star Rock, I biked out of camp with Alex, Kel, Kylynn, and James. We planned on biking to a nearby restaurant, the Forks, and just chilling at the coffee shop there and doing homework. However, things didn't go exactly as planned.

First stop, we passed a crafts market so of course we had to stop and see what they had. While Alex, Kylynn, and Kel were listening to bluegrass, James and I biked ahead; we stopped at a dam and got out and explored. It was pretty cool, we found this stream made out of rusty tin cans, we stood on the edge of a rushing river, and we slid down a hill.

Then we resumed biking to the Forks. However, our professor DJ's house is on the way to the Forks. So of course we had to stop by and say "hello." He and his wife were doing some spring cleaning, but they invited us inside and offered us some delicious chocolate-chip pumpkin bread (this was at 2 pm). We had such a great time and we were all talking and laughing and watching silly youtube videos. Then we decided to just stay there and do homework, instead of going to the Forks. Pretty soon, it was 5:30. Instead of biking back to camp, DJ suggested we all get pizza--so we got pizza with him and his wife, Annette. Then, we did some more homework...until someone suggested ice cream and Toy Story 3. Of course, who could say no to that? So we all had ice cream then made video of us all dancing to a silly song.

After our stunt as actors/actresses/dancers, we all curled up in the living room and watched Toy Story 3. It was pretty cute. The movie ended at 11, and DJ piled all our bikes into the back of his truck and drove us home.

Wow. I love my professors, here. So much.

P.S. Here's a link to the Elk's article: http://www.elks.org/enf/news.cfm?StoryID=68381

I'm going to miss it here SO much, but I am excited to see Wisconsin in five days!  
P.S.S. Due to time constraints this is not a proof-read post. Don't judge. 

Midnight Sledding

So much has been going on lately--I don't know what I should focus on!

Friday we put on a talent show at a local nursing home: lots of people sang, played instruments, and some even read poems. I just came and sat and talked with the people there...I think/hope they enjoyed it. But going to nursing homes always makes me so sad =(. I always feel so sorry for everyone there...

It snowed all day Friday and into Saturday--so Saturday night we went midnight sledding! We went off Hurricane Hill, a large hill we have behind camp. It's tricky, because it curves a lot, so going down I usually wiped out before I got to the bottom. But once or twice, I actually made it to the bottom where we built a ramp. You got SO MUCH distance on that ramp, even though it was comparatively small. Going off it, you could fly forward in the air for like six or seven feet--crazy!

Gettin' crazy speed

Group Picture

After sledding, I made a snowangel!

Then last night we all swingdanced! It was so much fun—I love swing dancing, if only I was better at it, haha. I think this summer I’m going to see if they offer any swing dancing in Wisconsin. And next semester I’m totally joining the underground swingclub at APU.

On another note, yesterday I bought my tickets to Seattle to go visit Stac and Dave. I’m SO excited to see them, agh! I’m really bummed I couldn’t afford to make it to Hawaii, but hopefully I’ll be able to visit there before I/Josh graduate.

Now to go find someone on staff to replace the battery in our smoke alarm...it's been beeping non-stop since 5:30 this morning >_<

Dress up

I've mentioned it before, but we often dress up here. Because High Sierra also functions as a summer camp, there is a whole room dedicated to dressing up. It is appropriately called “The Dress-Up Room.” Today during lunch we spontaneously decided to dress up as our celebrity look-alikes for dinner. I had no idea who my celebrity look-alike was. I'd like to think Kiera Knightly or Megan Fox, but...I think we have slightly different chin structures =P. Then I had an epiphany: everyone asks me if I'm Native American as it is, I'll just go as Pocahontas! That one never gets old, lol

There were some amazing costumes. One girl, after applying heavy eyeliner, looked JUST LIKE Avril Lavigne. Two guys dressed up as Jacob and Edward from Twilight, and someone even dressed up like Lady Gaga. 

Roommate Picture!J

The dog I'm holding is actually my raccoon, Meeko. Because I couldn't find a Native American costume in the closet (I was surprised--I mean, really? That place is packed full of stuff and they don't have a single "Indian" outfit? Whaaaat?!) So I improvised with Lisa's skirt and by draping a fur cloak over my shoulders. Probably more Native American that way anyway. 

You can probably tell, but Alex is Ms. Frizzle from The Magic Schoolbus, and Lisa is the girl in Jurassic Park.

Trek 2

Soo…Trek 2 was , in one word, amazing.

The first day we got to Yosemite we set up camp then had our solo time—five hours of prayer, reflection, reading, and writing on the Rostrom. It was so beautiful.





Part of my view from solo: From where I was sitting, I could see 4 waterfalls.

 

Then that evening we attempted a night hike to the Devil’s Bathtub. Unfortunately, because of the six feet of snow Yosemite received over the past few weeks all melting, the path was turned into a waterfall—not only was it dangerous to climb up to the Devil’s Bathtub, it was almost practically impossible to do so without slipping or getting soaking wet. Soo…we didn’t.

Day 2:

The Second day we did an all-day (9 mile) hike to Preston Falls, a beautiful waterfall not many know about. When we got to Preston Falls, DJ dove in! Although it was overcast out, it was warm so we all went for a swim! How many college students can say they went for a swim in a waterfall with their professor!?



Preston Falls




Swimming in the freezing-cold water!



The water was so cold (colder than or equal to Lake Michigan), that after standing in it for five minutes I couldn't feel my toes!

That evening we played mafia—it was so much fun. We also did affirmations. The first trek we had each told our life story, so this trek we took turns affirming each member of the team.

Day 3:

The third day was by far my favorite. Initially, we were going to go caving, but then Nols, the director of operations at High Sierra (and a total beast), set up a swing for us in an alcove of El Capitan, the largest single piece of granite in the world. We hiked to this alcove in the morning and spent the whole part of the day swinging from it. It was amazing—the view was beautiful, and swinging from El Cap, although it was scary, it was definitely one of the most exciting moments of my entire life! What was really cool is that few people know about the swing, and even fewer get to swing on it.  

Hopefully this video will give you a glimpse at how amazing it was:

As explained in the video, to get the swing started you had to run off the cliff--agh! That was the scarriest part. You can also see the view from the top: beautiful!



Swinging off El Cap'



After we had all gone off the swing a few times we hiked down and went rockclimbing. It was hard, but so, so fun. I really need to practice rockclimbing more: I’m so bad at it, haha! But I did get to the top of this really hard one, even though it took me forever:

Climbing the tricky one!




This one was a bit easier...



That evening we played silent football (a REALLY fun game I’ve never played before, but definitely plan on playing again), and we did more team affirmations.

Day 4:

Today we packed up camp—it was really muddy, so everything was pretty dirty. We had set up all our tents in one area; it was like a tent village, haha.



Yeah...it's pretty muddy.

After packing up, we finished affirmations then went to Rostrom to meet with all the other teams. There we had a short chapel then our leaders took us off one by one to pray for us. After that, we headed back to High Sierra

I’m so glad I got to experience parts of Yosemite most visitors don’t get a chance to see. Preston Falls, the El Cap Swing…it was such a beautiful experience. I guess that was the point of second trek: At High Sierra we’re so close to Yosemite, Rob Simpson (the camp director) figured it would be a shame for us to leave High Sierra without having adventured there.

Kayaking

Today I went kayaking! The water in Bass Lake was finally a decent depth from all the snow that melted from our recent blizzard, so we decided to take adventage of it and go kayaking.  It was a gorgeous day today—the high was probably 75 or 80—but walking to go kayaking we had to walk through snow. It was so weird, haha.

Walking through the snow to get to Bass Lake

Kenny and I gettin' our kayak on!

Tomorrow we’re heading off for Trek 2! But I have REALLY good news! I guess it’s this huge camp secret, but Trek 2 we actually don’t do much backpacking: we go into Yosemite and go camping. So we set up camp, we have running water and a toilet (praise the Lord!), and we don’t have to carry all our stuff with us everywhere we go. Then, the four days we’re there we go rockclimbing, caving/spelunking, and hiking. I’m so excited! This is going to be SO much more fun than Trek 1, lol.