Eventful Days

My Discovery orientation yesterday at least gave some idea of what we'll be doing. Our first trip is Oct 12-16. We'll be going on a four-day backpacking trip. Since it starts Wednesday after dinner, we'll be missing about 7 hours of lecture which we'll have to make up when we get back by listening to them on mp3. We've also been told that it's difficult to keep up with our required Bible reading during the trips so it's best to get ahead on those. We'll be getting together before the trip to plan it and learn how to pack our backpacks and what to bring and we also have a short handbook to read before. For some reason, it never really occurred to me that Discovery might generate more homework and take up time I should be doing other work, but I've been told that the homework we do here is nothing compared to what they do at Capernwray Hall in England so I'll count my blessings. The fact that we are jumping straight in with a four-day backpacking trip has motivated me to stick with running and try to hike the trails as often as possible. Once we learn to pack out backpacks, I'll probably add that to my hikes.

I tried to go to bed early last night so that I could get up a little early to run, and it sort of worked, but my roommates didn't really go to bed early and then I was pumped full of adrenaline for the ropes course today so it took quite a while for me to settle down to sleep. I got up a little early to run, but I didn't want to get up as early as the other girls so I ended up running by myself. I planned to run for 15 minutes and then turn around and walk back. Unfortunately, I got lost and my walk took me an hour and a half before I finally found someone who could give me directions back to Holsby and ended up driving most of the way because I suck at following directions. By the time I got home, I had missed breakfast completely (thanks mom for all the airplane snacks, they came in handy!) and I had mega-blisters on the backs of my heels from my new shoes. Needless say it was a lot more eventful than I'd planned.

At 9:30am, my family group got its turn on the ropes course; it was sweet! It starts out with a rock wall and includes several 'paths' between trees; a rope that you jumped to and swung to the next tree, and zipline at the end. The one I felt the most successful completing was two parallel cables between two trees; there was nothing to hang on to so you had to take turns sliding each foot along; it was hard to take enough weight off one foot to slide it along; at the beginning I could only slide them like an inch at a time, but by the end I was sliding each foot several inches and felt like I'd finally gotten the hang of it. I'm planning to post some pictures, but I forgot to bring my camera down and people are waiting for the internet connection.

My duty for the next few weeks is cleaning pots and pans after lunch. The first person sprays the pots down and scrubs them, the next washes them with soapy water and rinses them, and the third dries them and puts them away. I got to be person number one today. My body was exhausted by the time we were finished even though my mind wasn't that tired. I lay down for ten minutes and then met with my family group; we are in charge of planning this Sunday's service. It isn't that complicated, we just have to come up with the order of service, our staff leader is preaching the sermon and I am doing a devotion. Everyone has to do one devotion throughout the year and mine just happens to be the first on the list! I'm so glad I've done devotions at camp before or I think I'd be freaking out a little more right now!

Tonight we've got a dorm meeting so that should be fun!