Fancy Friday/ Funky Sock Friday

Today was Fancy Friday and Funky Sock Friday at Conserve. It also happens to be Perspective Student Day, so you can see why we picked today to dress up. Not many people dresses up in formal wear, but the majority of everyone else had tall colorful socks on. From  left to right: Ella, Kai, Russ, Chase, and Zeki. Zeki is not only formal but also sporting some nice funky socks. Kai got my Doctor Who bow-tie and Ella's rocking the layer look.

 I've got my tall heart socks all the way to mid-thigh. Teahelan, Paige, Ana and most of the girls have nice stripy socks. The colors are many, the designs plentiful, and the prospective students confused and amused. Mission successful!

Denmark!

Checking my email, reading through all the boring, average, everyday mail when, BAM!, there it is. The one email I have been waiting for since I heard  of Youth for Understanding.

At the beginning of this last summer I was researching semester abroad opportunities. I came across a lot of different places, but I really liked a few. I applied for a couple after researching them more, and one of them was YFU. Almost 5 months later I get this email. And oh what a good email it is.

It says:

"To whom this may concern We hereby confirm that Kaia Rubin... will be an exchange student on Youth for Understanding's program to Denmark..."

I didn't even read the rest of the letter till a whole 6 minutes later, I just sat there staring at the screen and biting my knuckles so I wouldn't squeal.

This was an exciting moment for me. People say that in this day and age you have to hold on to the small pleasures in life. This email is the smallest part of the year to come, but it gave the most pleasure to read here and now.

watch out Elaine house: Loon wing is moving up

Loon wing has finally gotten it's rep figured out. Last night, Kate and I decorated our wing with as many Halloween decorations as we could possibly find, and fit. Most of the decorations consisted of lights and cobwebs. Our new Halloween theme was the talk of Elaine house that night.
We have moved up in the rankings from the wing that never did anything to the wing that had become the essence of Halloween.
With Halloween coming up, the great Cathy had put a box of decorations in the student apartment for the wings to use. When Kate and I found out, we ran and grabbed as much as we could. We spent the next 2 hours decorating the wing. It got so good by the end that people started gathering in our wing to see the new and improved Loons. This was a new experience for us since we had never had people come to our wing for more than 2 minutes at a time. It was great fun to decorate it and get to experience it with everyone. Thanks to everyone who liked it, Kate and I appreciate it a ton.

Happy Birthdays are in order!

In the last two days it has been Zeki and Mei-Jing's birthdays.
I want to give a shout out to them as two very awesome people.
At lunch on the day of their birthdays, Zeki chose the ever popular cheese-head hat and Mei-Jing, the day before, chose the very fine bear hat.
soooooooo.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZEKI! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEI-JING!
I love you both, you are both such amazing and funny people. Have a great birthday!

Exploration Week!

 The first day of exploration week was one of few really nice days. The wilderness surrounded us with birds, tracks, trees and clear waters.

 Our first portage was short in comparison to the ones to come later in the week. There was one where we carried the canoes with some of the packs in them across the small strip of land. The longest one was on the second day and then again coming back. It took taking two trips for each person and carrying the canoes to get across to the next lake.

Aaron and Russel go through the first portage in good spirits and we all succeed in continuing that way through the week. We all were so excited to be out in the wild that we didn't dell much on the bad weather or uncomfortable living. We had what we brought and that's all we needed.

 The scenery in the portages was amazing. There was so much wilderness, untouched by man. It seemed to grow in a more natural and wild way.

This is Paige carrying her packs.

Gwen is happy to start the trip.

   At our first camp site we found lots of different animal tracks. There was deer, raccoon, birds, and maybe even a coyote. All the tracks washed away with the rain the next morning.

 

Though it rained and hailed the whole week, we had tons of fun. Aaron's shoe melted down in the fire till there was nothing left to see, while my water shoes also melted a little bit on the side. Gwen made shoes out of plastic bags duct taped over her flats. The fire would be roaring every morning during breakfast and every night after dinner. All of our wet shoes, socks and bandannas dried quickly over the fire. We roasted socks on sticks like marshmallows. On the last night we went on a gorgeous night paddle, with the moon clear above us.

After the night paddle I wrote in my journal by firelight:

"The blue of my pants and yellow of my life jacket, fade to a grey, matching the tone of my jacket till it was all the same. The water looked like a black oasis, that when putting your hand in seems as if your hand would never come out again. And the temperature of the water was so perfect that when your hand got wet, you could barely tell. The clouds looked like the sky, lit by the crescent moon. And the sky was so black, but had the stars, and the clouds did not. This was the only way you could tell which was which. The silence fills your mind and you think of nothing but of how beautiful it is."