Monday, March 9, 2015

Wandering in the Woods

3 days till Spring Break!  I think we're all starting to chaff a little bit...it's awkward to start Spring Break on a Thursday.  We had a lot of work last week... history tests, math tests, ESci chapters, English essays ... it just wasn't fun.  Hopefully this week will settle down.  Monday and Tuesday were nice and ordinary ... I think.  I'm having trouble remembering that far back.  Now, Wednesday, Wednesday was a fun day.  In outdoor program in the morning, we did the highlight activity of the season... Find Your Way Back to Campus.  This activity driven around blindfolded then being dropped off with your group a few miles a way from campus.  Then you have to use your map and compass skills to figure out where you are and how to get back to campus (No following roads!  We go through the forests!).  I was with a group of four other... Carmen, Shani (one of my awesome dorm mates!), Livi, and Sara.  We were loaded up with cookies, water, a sleeping bag, and a GPS that couldn't send signals in deep forests and valleys....  It was pretty easy to figure out where we were and to start hiking ... but then we hit a mountain.  Now, we've been doing a lot of exercise here and I'd say I'm in a lot better shape than when I came ... but we couldn't climb this mountain.  So, we went to the pass and lost our bearing.  We were able to find the end of the stream we were at on the map and take another bearing, but it was not nearly as sure.  So we kept walking and walking and eventually decided we didn't really know where we were.  Thus, the wandering in the woods part.  Eventually we found the brook that ran through our campus, but ended up walking the wrong way for something like 20 minutes.  We finally turned around and found the confluence.  Luckily, this was a point I was well acquainted with, so I could lead us back.  In the end, we arrived back on campus about 2 hours late.  We had been in the woods for 4 hours.  But we found our way back!!
Later that day, my dad came to visit.  Luckily, we have a lot of free time Wednesday  afternoon so I was able to spend about 3/4 hours showing him around.  He met all of my animal buds, #304 and Dave especially.  I think he enjoyed it .... but you'd have to ask him.
Thursday passed and then Friday we had the Garden Hill Fund event.  The Garden Hill Fund is available to TMS alumni who are fulfilling TMS goals in their own community.  I've been on the committee trying to decide who gets grants, and it's been hard.  There are so many great proposals.  On Friday, we briefly introduced them to the rest of the school in order to get the community's opinions.  The fun part .. each group had 100 dollars in ones to designate to the projects they chose!  On Sunday night, the committee met to discuss the results .. and we think we know where we're gonna suggest the money should go to.  Now we have to meet with the Alumni Board and agree!
Saturday I did virtually nothing... Saturday night was the TMS Beach Bash!  We dressed in our hippest summer clothes and got ready to party.  Activities include sand castle building out of yogurt cans, ping pong, four square, and limbo!  To end the night, chocolate chip sea salt cookie ice cream sandwiches!
Last thing to report ... some of you may know that I've been taking swing dancing classes once at week... well on Sunday before brunch, we culminated our weeks of lessons with a performance of the Shim Sham!

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