Adventure!

Today was good, tomorrow will be even better.

The rest of yesterday (a quick summary) we spent going to a school and then going back home. I went to the market and bought some sort of weird spikey fruit and had a meal then pretty much went to bed.

Today (Friday) was really awesome as we finally got to work on our projects. But before even that I woke up and realized that I had locked Rachel out of the room for the entire night. I'd gone to bed early because I was not feeling well and needed to sleep. I am feeling 100% once again she didn't seem to mind too much so it wasn't a big deal but I felt pretty bad.

My group is hoping to tackle the issue of child poverty / child homelessness by looking into a lack of sex education and lack of access to contraceptives. We made an appointment to meet with an orphanage to talk to the director about why kids are being sent there. The director wanted my whole group to come so we can talk and play with the kids.

Outside of school was even better as we had been making plans with Mint, Mu, and Nut for three days to hang out. First of all let me say that Thai people are just flipping crazy. Honestly. They get around everywhere via motorbike and do anything but drive defensively. So when they came to our hotel I was more than psyched to hope on the back of a motorbike (Julie, Kelsey, and I) to go to our destination.

Our first stop was a school for the deaf because Julie is a sign language major. It was really really interesting watching her communicate with the Thai students who had very similar signs. We then were introduced and each given a name sign. Julie gave me the sign for "big heart" which was so nice and so flattering! The children (ages 4-11?) were so excited to see Julie and to be able to sign with an American. Nut commented that she "wants to learn how to sign now because it's a very beautiful language." I had to agree with her as it was just so tremendously cool that despite being from very different places, they were able to communicate just fine.

After we went to one of the biggest mall's I have ever seen. 7 stories. I'm talking huge. The weird thing was, however, that most of it was food stalls. Thai people love their food and yesterday I learned a Thai idiom that means "we must eat soon so we can keep having fun" though literally translates to "The army must march on, but first we must eat!"

At the mall, we went to a place to do karaoke. I felt bad because I feel like a lot of our fellow American students wanted to come but Nut, Mu, and Min specifically asked us not to invite other people because they are very shy. I got pinned with having to tell everyone that, no, sorry you can't come...I tried my best to be polite but I still felt bad.

Anyways karaoke was a blast. You get to the venue and you pick which type of booth you want to be in. We choose hip-hop. The room was supposedly decorated with a hip-hop theme. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. There was a chain-link fence on one wall and on the others there were these big toxic waste barrels and a picture of the Gorrilaz.

We looked through books and then picked out songs to sing. It was absolutely hilarious. We sang I Will Survive, Oops....I did it again, Bye Bye Bye, Barbie Girl, Crazy in Love, they sung a mixture of Thai and American songs and introduced us to their favorite Thai rapper called Titanium who randomly broke into English with phrases like "Pow-Alcohol" and "It's time to slow slow slow"

Thai rap is entertaining and the music video was hilarious and I guess Titanium is very popular. It has to be such a hard language to rap in....I can't really imagine doing it.

After Karaoke, we got back on the motorbikes and Nut and I got lost for about 20 minutes so we drove around trying to find where we are going. I used to think biking in Boston and weaving in and out of cars was dangerous... That's got nothing on Thai motorbiking.

Nut commented "my mom likes me to go slow but I like to go FAST!" In the end we found out destination. It was this place where one of their friends worked and we got a delicious meal. I think I got chicken with basil. Whatever it was, it was delicious.

Then they drove us back home on our motorbikes and Kelsey, Julie, and I hung out for the remainder of the night. Good times.

I finally finished the book I was reading. "The Riddle" by Alison Croggon. It's book #2 in the Pellinor series and really well written for anyone who likes good language and fantasy writing. I've enjoyed the series thus far because of it's expansive nature and the woman writing it has obviously spent time outside doing things like hiking and riding horses and being in a country where she doesn't know the language. I guess you could say I appreciate her getting the details right. If you want the first book, its called "The Naming." I will say that the books, while they are not written slowly, they are not written at a fast-pace either. Despite that, I find myself hooked on them.

Ok well time for me to get dressed for the day.
Ciao.

Today we took a crash course in sociological research methods in the morning AKA we learned things I already knew so I pretty much checked out. We had an awesome visiting Thai professor come and teach so that was fun.

Then, after an amazing lunch with Nat, Julie, Milk, Len, & Peng we got on board the tuk-tuk (love this word) bus cabs which are pretty much the coolest things ever. Imagine a truck bed covered, with benches that sit about 10 people. It's roughly the same size as a US cab except it hold way more people. We drove out to the country side which was only about a 30 minutes away, passing many rice fields and Thai-cows on the way. It was really gorgeous.

Then we were greated by the President of the district we went to. Thailand is broken down into provinces then districts then villages. This district had 8 villages in it. Each group went to a different village and experienced different parts of it. The village my group went to was actually the home of one of our students so he gave us a tour. We visited the Buddhist temple there and learned about Buddhism, the monk-lifehood, and the role of the temples within the community. The temples run solely off of donations and act as community centers and development centers for the village. Often they offer classes on Saturdays on how to use the computer or they will help students who need tutoring.

The story of the Buddha was painted on several large murals surrounding the walls of the temple. It's said the Buddha lived 10 lives before he reached his sinless life which allowed him to reach englightenment, so there were ten panels each depicting his previous lives and 10 other panels depicting his final life where he reached enlightment. Everything was silver and gold.

I will post some more later...right now I am just too tired.

Wow.

Global phenomenas are the quickest way to make friends. Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings? Twilight? Talk about a conversation starter.... especially when you are describing people as Voldemort (our lead professor) and Draco Malfoy (his side kick).

Thai kids have to be the craziest at making nicknames ever. My good friend, Nut, is known as Nut simply because her parents enjoy peanuts... Random.... Then most of our Thai class mates are given nicknames based on what they look like. (Nut, a little chubby, I guess looks like a peanut) One girl, Milk, is known as scream because her facial structure is literally the same as the scream mask. Another is known as Kerope (the frog that hangs out with hello kitty?) the nick names are random but, apparently, very important.

Tonight we went to the night market which is made for Thai people, not tourists. I bought sunglasses, a few pairs of earrings, a couple outfits, and the most delicious waffle I have ever eaten. Even better then the waffle place at Killington....

After the night market we took a tuk-tuk to the place we went to and went to the same place as last night and hung at a reggae bar for pretty much ever considering we didn't get there til 12 am. We danced to the Thai-version of Bob Marley, which is absolutely hilarious (anything done in English is hilarious simply because certain sounds and letters don't translate) but the Thai students are probably the most amazing people I have ever met.

After, we went to a bar literally five feet away and listened to some rock / punk-rock and I met a boy from Chelsea named Chris who got a full-ride for soccer at Northwestern for soccer, playing full-back. So far the final is a disappointment. near posts goal should never be the difference of a 1-0 though we left shortly after the goal so I have no idea about the score... we got back to the hotel/dorm and then just chilled for a while.

Wish I had something cool to say. tomorrow should be pretty legit.

xo

Day 2 is still in progress but I figured I'd write a quick update while I had the chance. Today, we got assigned partners for a personal interview project. I will be working wit a girl named Puy who's incredibly nice (though who in Thailand isn't?) We signed questions and answers and did pictograms to help one another ask questions. She has four dogs! Milo, Soda, Geen, and Inka. Talk about lucky... that's like half a sled dog team...

Anyways, today was once again unbelievably hot but we spent most of it inside and in the AC. Classes are very boring so far, much to my disappointment and its hard having to sit and wait through things being translated back and forth. Still, this whole experience so far has been well worth it simply for the good times we have had with the Thai students.

Today for lunch I went out with Puy, Tik, Peng, Ning, Daan, Thom, and Julie to a resturuant that only serves pad-thai and had quite the meal for less than a $1 USD. The pad thai had prawns in it and having never really eaten prawns I was kind of weirded out by the tentacles leaking out of their face and, in the end, chopped the head off with my spoon and just pretended it was shrimp. I'm not sure if this was correct but I'm also not sure I care!

Then we worked on our group projects except most of my group left after lunch so that it was only Michael, Anne, Nat, and me. I felt bad that Nat was the only Thai student with us and we had a hard time communicating but in the end we finished our presentation and did will in both languages though I was a little frusterated because our professor wasn't even patying attention while we were working. Not cool.

At break today, we were given all sorts of Thai fruit. We had mangos which were out of this world and then a really delicious fruit called mangosee (sp?). To eat it you pressed the fruit as if it were a stress ball and it magically opened up revealing about six small white pieces that sort of resembled garlic clothes but tasted unbelievably sweet. I must have had about 6 or 7 of these little fruits. The produce here is awesome and all of it is so different than what we have in the States. Sure, there is cross-over, but there are also a bunch of weird, almost alien-looking, items.

Anyways I have to get ready to go out for dinner now but my updates should be fairly regular. Rachel has a computer and we have internet in our room. Feel free to post / email comments.

I will try to edit this post later on to include dinner, but no promises.

***

Ok update is here. For dinner, we went out to a market run by some street vendors. Everyone tells you not to eat there but word on the street is its legit and so far all the Thai students and our professors have recommended it so we gave it a shot. Got Pad Thai. Again.

It's hard ordering food when you don't know the language...the last thing you want to end up with is pig intestines, or worse, dog. After dinner we walked into Old Chiang Mai City (~700 years old) and went to this place renowned for its bars. But rather than drinking my friend Shar and I got Thai Massages 100 Baht per hour or about $3 USD. Not a bad deal and it was very relaxing. Then we joined up with the rest of the group who was playing pool and listening to some Thai singers.

I know its probably politically incorrect to say, but listening to native Thai speakers sing Jason Mraz and Sublime is definitely pretty hilarious. P.s. their love affair with Mraz is pretty intense... So is their love for seven eleven there is literally one on every block.

After a drink I decided to head back to the hotel -- long day and Rachel and I stayed up til 2:00 am talking last night. Turns out her favorite drink is Gin and Tonic too. The similarities are starting to get spooky...

On another note, my classmates and I still don't like our teachers. They are pretty rude and arrogant and its been frusterating trying to deal with it. We don't know if we should say something or not -- I nearly did today. It's hard too, being couped up in the classroom all day. It's like highschool all over but worse because we're in a new and exciting place and the only thing we really want to do is explore and absorb every ounce of Thai culture possible.

Ok well that's it for now.

I don't really know even where to start. It already seems like I've been here far longer than I have -- but in a good way, in a way that makes this place sort of feel like home. Thailand is unlike anything else I've ever experienced and I don't know how to compare it at all to something back home.

The flight here (all 36 hours) was rather enjoyable. I enjoyed flying over the Artic circle and all the sea ice which was breaking up. Huge cracks split the endless white. Eventually, the sea ice turned into a more solid land as we passed over Siberia which simply seemed to go on forever. The area was beauitful and divided by thin straight white lines which I thought, perhaps, were gas lines though I cannot be certain.

I didn't get to stare out the window as much as I would have liked. Our flight attendants were angry and refused to let us keep the windows open. While it bothered me, I can understand why. It was extraordinarly bright and everyone's internal clock was off.

I got to see a bit of Mongolia and China as we flew over parts of there as well and marveled at all the farm land. It wasn't like US farming as there were many hill and the land looked rather like skin graphs around pimples or moles.

But enough about the endless flight... here is some on Chiang Mai, Thailand


The streets are wild with motorbikes and dogs. People are everywhere and everyone is unbelievably friendly. We got up yesterday morning and hurried out to a quick breakfast which cost about $1 and was one of the best meals I have ever had. The food here is unbelievably good. Take the best Thai food you've ever had and simply imagine it being ten times better. It is mother-wateringly good and lip-scorchingly spicy.

Class started promptly at 8:30 am at the nearby university where we were introduced to our Thai partners who spoke good albiet limited English. We were hopeless in Thai but managed to learn a few words due to their pateince and kindness.

The morning was spent learning about Global Pact and what we will try to accomplish during our time here. While I am not fond of our professor or our "chaperone" (neither one is a particularly good group leader and I found our professor surprisingly class-less) I love the Thai students and I think that we will have a great experience working together.

We broke for lunch and our Thai friends helped us order lunch. I ordered some sort of delicious spicy noodle soup which, despite the sweltering heat, was unbelievably good.

We were then broken into 6 groups. My group consists of me, a boy named Michael, a girl named Anne and three Thai students: Nok (girl), Nat (girl), and Game (boy) who are unbelievably kind and had broken conversations in English and hand signals and it was all rather fun...

Then we got taken to go buy our school uniforms. I don't think I have ever dressed up this much (but I'm not really one to dress up). Black skirt knee-length and short white sleeve button up as well as black shoes. The whole she-bang (three outfits and a pair of shoes) cost about $10 so at least it wasn't an expansive affair (though I definitely would have packed differently if I'd known about the uniforms). Trying them on was the worst as we were in these small cramped stores with the heat absolutely blazing... I was dripping in sweat and my Thai friends looked rather concerned, ran off, bought a folding fan, and started fanning me. I felt rather odd about the whole ordeal.

Buying shoes was a pain as no one really carries my size (I don't have large feet either. A size 9) and had to settle for rather uncomfortable open-toed shoes.


I have quickly made friends with a lot of people from both the USA and from Thailand. My roommate, Rachel, is pretty much my carbon-copy and we have a hard time actually going to sleep at night because all we do is talk talk talk. Her family is in the hog business (random, right?). Our first night there we were both reading and trying to figure out when the other wanted to put their book down and it was rather comical.

"Do you want to stop reading?"
"Not really."
"Good me either."

So we read for about a half hour before finally turning in on our first night...

Last night, our Thai friends took us to the night bizarre, which is sort of like a big (but rather classy) flea-market. I hesitate calling it a flea market but unless you have been to a bizarre I'm not really sure how to describe it except the shops seem to go on forever.

Unlike other places I have been to, no one tries to force you to buy anything but everyone wants you to look. I wandered around with my friend Julie and met a bunch of different shop keepers who were more than thrilled we were from Boston and one man proceded to pull out an entire photo album and tell us about his daughter who just graduated from UConn. It was rather adorable.

Then on the way home (we took these bus taxis called tuk tuks) we lost one of our members and everyone started freaking out, which was annoying and the last thing people should have done, I tried to calm everyone down but it didn't really work. The worst was that it only freaked the Thai students who had gone out with us even more.

Anyways, I am sitting waiting to go to school in my new uniform in an air conditioned room and am not really looking forward to having to go out into the sweltering heat but am excited about the oppurtunities and adventures today will bring.

I love Thailand!

Findmespot
track me once again using my find me spot page! No promises on updates but check it every now and then. Check it Here

Coming down to the wire now...

check out my adventuring blog
http://wanderingwithmyheadintheclouds.blogspot.com/

Pre-flight:

I am going flying with my brother. I love the sky.
You think this wouldn't be such a big deal considering I am flying to Thailand on Saturday and will be on a plane for a bagillion hours but it is.
I am very excited.

Post-Flight

If you really want to know the most unnerving feeling in the world, get into a plane that won't turn on. Then sit it while the mechanic fiddles with it. Then try starting it again only have it shut off. Then have them attach jumper cables because the "battery is dead." Try repeating the whole process twice.

See what it'll do to your nerves.

Impressively, the whole routine didn't bother me at all. I looked over longingly at the helicopters. If I'm a pilot which, you know sort of sounds appealing right now, I think I'd like to fly the choppers. I mean, my mom calls me Heli anyways. Plus you get to do some pretty cool stuff. I think the only reason I'd join the armed forces or coast guard would be to be a helicopter pilot...that stuff is pretty cool. Anways, back to my story.



When the plane finally stopped sputtering and the rotator prop finally started spinning it was all go! go! go! which was more of a relief than anything else. We marched the plane down to the beginning of the runway and my brother started his pilot speech (whatever that is) and soon it was zoom zoom zoom and we were off and flying.



It's strange how different places you've known all your life look when your a couple of thousand feet above them. The whole experience was wild and I found myself in a continual state of awe. I had a really great trip and even got to steer the plane for a little while which was, quite entertaining, until I sort of started sending us slightly closer to the ocean in a weird sort of turn thing...



The whole time I kept thinking how this wasn't the "space pilot" life I dreamed about as a little kid (for those of you who don't know, that was my dream job..flying into unknown galaxies and making friends with alien races until I learned that you know, that stuff didn't actually happen...yet) but it was still pretty grand.


It took me back to Alaska and the time when Drake buzzed our camp and had us hitting the deck like mad because he was barely twenty feet above our heads. I wanted to buzz the ocean but Matt said that was a no-go. Still, I thought it would be exciting to dip down near the water and send the salty water soaring into the air as we zipped on by.

Now, I'm getting ready for my next adventure which involves too much plane time without the whole "family connection" thing. But I've been stocking up on getting ready. I'm bringing some good books:

House of Leaves (which I have been reading intermittenly since Novemeber) very dense and hard to get through but entirely worth it... the story is about a house that is bigger on the inside then it is on the out... Not for the faint hearted nor the non-literary inclined as it is kind of hard to work through and there are many many allusions to other works (some real, some not). definitely worth the time its taken me.

The other books I am taking are from the Pellinor series. (Fantasy writing) And so far, I have been very well pleased. The author is very good at including good, strong, details that are not overwhelming. She also presents a tail that is hooking despite its slower pace. In fact, the slow pace makes it all the much more believable. I have had a wonderful time going through the first book putting all my little "editting" comments... for those of you who have never borrowed a book from me my comments consist of highlighting good description of people, places, or things, as well as a running commentary of the plot and things I think the author does well or does poorly. I find it helps my own writing and reading becomes, not only an enjoyable experience, but also a tool to help me improve my own work with.

I am quite sad I will be leaving my laptop behind as that means a loss of time for writing, but hopefully I can conduct the planning stages (aka the harder part) while sitting in nice Thai resturaunts or on the luxurious beaches of the Seychelles.

All in all...
I can't wait.

Xo.

If reading counts as an adventure, then I had a very busy day spent saving the world. Or actually trying not to save it. Weird Hero. Go team. Check out the book here: Howl's Moving Castle It's sort of predictable but there are some pretty charming aspects to it. Yeah, I still read kids books but hey, I want to write them too, so whatever.

The kids at home never fail to disappoint: they're always that fresh breath of air. It's strange how something like a small high-school will bring together the most random people and glue them together good and tight.

I love being home.

It's always nice having the familiar voice on the end of the line, in the back seat, on the way over.

Reunioned with the good crowd: Kerri, Johnny, Evan, Bridget, Dan and the way you can joke so easy and never have to put on any airs put a smile on my face again. There is something so refreshing about being here; I wish I could put my finger on it. Maybe it's as simple as shared history. Maybe it's something more.

Been pulling out all the stops the last few days. Last night Ben A came over (for the first time in a long time) and gave me crap for breaking the bracelet he bought me sophmore year. Have to say I did pretty well not losing it. Got some new string to rethread it on. Cai came over and helped me clean my room. Adoptive little sisters rock and it's been crazy watching her grow up.

Then found the digits I lost and called Ben P and it was good to have a quick chat to catch up. I'm excited to see him again and can't wait to fill him in on all the ups and downs and ins and outs of this city life gone wrong experiment of mine. I'm a country girl at heart.

Random happy thought of the day may have been calling my bank in Haines and having Marsha know exactly who I was. Small towns rule. I miss the 907.

Tomorrow playing basketball at 7 (lord help me).
Anyways time to read.

Looking back this should have been posted in DSAF but I'm too lazy to fix that right now.

[ problem fixed ]

The rain falls and everything remains unclean. Sometimes wash, rinse, repeat just doesn't do the trick. I'm learning so much but most of what I'm learning isn't stuff that makes your soul soar. Sometimes you don't have grand realizations, just small things that just chip away at some bigger picture.

I need to get out.

People reveal themselves in the strangest ways. True colors often surprise you and leave you speechless. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

Honor. Glory. Pride.

Bastardized concepts in our ipod era of go! go! go!

I think there is a reason I love dogs so much.

Date: May 10, 2009
Location: Folly's Cove, Gloucester, MA

Woke up without an alarm but God knows how I did it. Scuba takes so much out of you. The weather was beautiful, though the wind was strong making for an interesting entry into the water. The ride to the dive site consisted of some good old fashioned Twilight bashing and me learning just how crazy MIT students are (pretty crazy).

I feel like I'm always the first one ready which means I usually ended up doing more work than I needed to. We were only supposed to carry down two tanks each -- both days I think I carried down (and later, back up) about eight tanks. Pretty heavy over the long term.

Getting fins on in the breaking swells was pretty tough. Every time you are about to put your fin on you'd get smashed by this big wave hitting you in the face. Eventually I got the hang of it and paddled out to sea.

It was amazing what we could see today. The dive site, Folly's Cove in Gloucester, was fascinating and completely different from Back Beach where we went yesterday. There were a lot of large rocks (the cove was basically surrounded by 5.4 / 5.5 climbs...) that were covered in plant growth. Saw another lobster but also saw some moon snails (it's intense how big they get when they are outside of their shells), a skate (so cool!), more crabs, sand dollars, flounder, and some small fish.

I wish I had some cool adventure to report, like some awesome sighting but most of diving is simply exploring, poking your head around and looking under rocks. It doesn't really make for the best of writing, but it makes for a hell of a good time. I wish I had some pictures I could post for you but...I don't.

All I can say is you should definitely check out the under water world. It's a pretty happening place. The car ride home was spent talking about different things that could try to eat you while scuba diving (my favorite topic, let me tell you) but strangely, as much as I thought it would geek me out being in "shark habitat" I realized I really wasn't.

I mean there was a lot of cool stuff to see down there but if I were a shark I think I'd find some other locale... there really wasn't a lot to eat. Anyways I am pretty beat. Already took a 3 hour nap then watched a movie.

I think I'm going to go to bed.

oh and remember to check out ocean ledges in Rockport. looked legit. I'm writing this here because otherwise I will forget...

Date: May 9
Location: Rockport, MA

The thing you don't expect about scuba diving is how different it is then simply swimming with a mask on underwater. The ability to stay submerged for long periods of time without having to worry about how your going to breathe opens up a whole new world for exploration. Instead of the quick dive you do when snorkeling, your able to poke and prod around -- allowing you to really observe what's going on down there.

I probably saw more aquatic life in those two dives as I have in all my time in the ocean (I very long time) and I got to observe how the animals behaved. I won't bore you with the details with the actual purpose of the dives (pretty much going over how not to drown) but instead want to share with you some of the cool things I saw.

The thing that is still bothering me the most is this rock -- it almost looked like some sort of sandstone or shale with this white almost cermaic covering. It sort of looked like a door and was definitely man made but I didn't feel comfortable fidgetting with it too much (it was rather large). Though I did fidget with it enough to startle a one clawed lobster that was hiding under it to come out. I picked it up (grab just in front of the tail) and investigated it for a while.

Then I went out exploring a little more and saw a flounder. It's pretty neat watching them do their camoflauge...they're pretty dedicated to stay unnoticed... A couple crabs were literaly walking on it and it still didn't move.

I saw a tiny eel (very cool). Lots of shrimp thingys... I never did learn there name... A weird small orange crustacean that I can't find anything about (even via google!). Still curious as to what it was. It was maybe an inch and a half long and seemed to have a hard exo-skeleton. It definitely wasn't a sea worm, which a couple people suggested. I don't know... I'll have to look out for it again.

I think the coolest stuff, however, was actually just looking at how the vegetation on the ocean floor grew. The place we were diving in Rockport had really interesting sea weed. There were theses four to six length leaves that stretched across the floor like giant octopus tentacles except they never really ensnared you nor did they try to eat you...

Anyways the dives were really fun and I'd recommend taking a class and exploring the oceans a little more... It's really different from snorkling and, for the first time, I wasn't afraid of sharks! I think it had something to do with the fact that I was submerged in the ocean and was a part of it rather than simply floating on top like those gimpy fishing lures you use for trolling.

But the best part of the day had nothing to do with diving... On my way home from class I got a phone call from my sister who happily announced her engagement! I ended up driving home for a surprise visit and dinner before heading back...

It was such an awesome dinner trip. I love seeing my family and I think I really made my sister happy by going back. (But how could I not!) I brought champagne (had no idea how to pick it out) and we celebrated the wonderful occasion -- me, mom, dad, Matt, Leigh, and Brendan. Of course, being a Saturday night at Scraggy we had swordfish on the grilll and I found it rather ironic that I went from sharing the ocean with the fish, to simply eating the fish.

I can't wait for the wedding!

Brianna and Ronin of Mahoosuc Guide Dogs had a litter of ten puppies a week ago.


Brianna and Ronin (both are Polly's dogs) were two of my favorite at the kennel...

Brianna is a real sweet heart.

And Ronin likes to pretend he's tough, but he's a love bug too!

Anyways, I just thought this was some cute, happy, news!

I wandered around the dive shop yesterday getting ready for my trip. Bought this pretty sweet mesh pack for diving. Still need to find that A4 sized dive slate...

April came and went the way it always does. Some good times, some sunshine, a little sparkle, a little sun...

These past couple of days have had me wishing so many different things.

Day 1: Cathedral Ledges

When I passed out Friday night, the last thing I expected was to be awoken only a few short hours later by Maddie pounding like crazy at my door "get up! time to go climbing!"

I looked out my window -- a questionable grey hung on the other side of the glass. I kicked myself up and out of my shabby mattress bed, pulled some clothes on and grabbed my shoes only to discover Maddie hastily packing things out in the hall.

"Did I miss something?"

"We're going to the loj!" She said beaming. "I thought you talked to Tony?"

"Oh." I scratched my head, went back in, and tried to remember. I probably had talked to Tony. But it didn't matter one way or the other. I stuffed my sleeping back hastily into its stuff sack, threw on my carharts and a t-shirt, and dug around trying to find my rain gear.

An hour later, Maddie, Tony, and I along with a half eaten pizza were on our way to go climbing. A few hours later we unpacked ourselves from the car into a Sandwhich shop in North Conway, grabbed some lunch, and headed for the crag.

I had never really done lead belaying before so after a quick intro, Tony and I paired up and he led Bombardment a 3 pitch 5.8 climb... Did I mention he was wearing purple tights?


I got to clean gear and it was fan-flpping-tastic. I'm not sure why I'm into cleaning, but I find it gives me something to focus on while I climb. I'm really bad at taking rests and climbing slow so having to stop and shimmy out a piece with a nut tool for a couple minutes has taught me the perks of climbing slow.

The climb was pretty easy. I wish I had cooler things to say about it, but the truth is, I don't. Then, after climbing the three pitches we met up with Maddie and Goodhue who were climbing together and went over to a 5.9 Crack climb.

Here'a are some pictures of Maddie tackling it:

After rapelling down, Maddie, Tony and I went to Mr. Pizza. I got strombolli and only ate half of it, put the rest in a box, and proceded to drag it around with me the rest of the weekend. Tony wore his tights in on Maddie's bet. Our waitress took one look at our mangy looking group and boldly asked if we were through hikers. We cracked up.

I then successfully opened the loj (aka got signed off) and we chilled for a bit till Goodhue and his friends showed up. I passed out on the couch for a little while before making my way into 810 for the night...

Day 2 - Whitehorse

Moose sighting! A big cow when we were pulling out of the loj parking lot to go onto route 2. She was crossing the street from the river side to the loj side. It was pretty cool seeing her as I've never seen a moose up there -- plus the Hastings trail was full with Moose and deer tracks.

The night before Tony spent about two hours looking at guide books even though he picked a route within the first 15 minutes. We ended up clmibing Sea of Holes a 5.8(?) slab climb that's four pitches long at Whitehorse-- though the first two pitches are sort of a joke and you can pretty much just walk right up it. Still, it was pretty cool and I got to use my crappy footwork.

It's funny that I'm so bad with my footwork in climbing when I was so good with it at soccer. I still find that a little weird, though I guess they are totally different skill sets. Soccer foot work is about speed and agility whereas climbing footwork is about (according to Tony) "poise and grace."

The climb was beautiful and the best part may have been the fact that there was still a little bit of snow at the bottom! The climb, however, proved to be a bit crowded as there was both a group ahead of us and behind us. At two different points there were five people anchored to the same spot... Talk about a jam.

Anyways here is a picture from the second or third pitch with Tony rapping down. In all I think the climb was about 650 vertical feet. It was pretty cool though the view wasn't that great -- an ugly hotel but there was a pretty lake (Echo Lake).

Maddie then had to peace out for work so Tony and I headed back to the loj and made some pretty fabulous baked zitti. I passed out pretty much straight after dinner. Dead to the world.

Day 3 - Square Ledges

This was definitely my favorite place that we went to this weekend. The rock surface was just really interesting and there was a good mix of beginner and intermediate routes. It's across from Pinkham notch and had fabulous views of Mount Washington. There was also a pretty cool beaver dam and even though we didn't see the beaver, we defineitely heard it doing its tail slap.

All I could think about was that big old fat beaver (think 3 year old child big) that I saw on our last family canoe trip. The thing was probably responsible for the destruction of a small forest.

The approach to square ledges was very easy. Only a twenty minute hike and it offered a variety of routes. I ended up leading two different routes which was really exciting. The last time I'd placed gear on a climb was in Alaska and I'd been on top rope so it was just a little different. I led a 5.4 and a 5.5 woohoo for me!



There were two school groups that passed Tony and me while we were climbing and the instructor was really funny. She said to her group of kids "Now what don't we do?" and they yelled back "Touch gear!" Of course, we'd made this rather difficult as our gear was pretty much sprawled out everywhere (who expects running into other people on a Monday?) The school group was pretty entertaining and asked whether or not a peanut M&M could kill somone if dropped from high enough... this question rivaled the one Maddie and I posed earlier while on Sea Of Holes... Does a slinky on a escalator fall forever?



We headed out of there around 4 and then stopped at the slabs across from the rest area on the way back to the loj to see if anything was climbable. It wasn't. Unless you count that one route we found with a half frayed rope on what looked like a virtually impossible climb... Still it was a pretty solid adventure and we ended up stumbling across a black bear which we then tried to get a closer view ( probably a bad idea, but we failed).

All in all, a good time. We also found this cool flower called Red Trillium.



Day 4 - The Eaglet

I woke up at 7am, as planned, only to be told to go back to bed. Gladly, I crawled back into my sleeping bag and fell asleep for another half hour. Woke up. cooked eggs on a pan that was not meant to cook eggs. Did the dishes, closed the loj. ect. ect.

Tony and I then set off on our last adventure to The Eaglet, one of the only free standing spires in New England. The hike in was amazing. I loved it. Pretty much straight vertical at times, some good hand over hand talis scrambling... just really interesting stuff. Plus at the top you get a great view of Canon.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't really with us. Tony did the first pitch just fine and ended up on the opposite side of the Spire then me. We had some problems communicating at first but got it done. The climb itself was pretty easy. There was one spot where I got hung up on, but nothing that I couldn't handle.


When I finally got to the belay station it had started to slightly sprinkle, but we continued on. I was orginally going to take the pitch but after giving it the once over decided it wasn't such a good idea and boy was I glad when I finally started up it.

Although it wasn't too difficult, I definitely am glad I didn't have to deal with it on trad. Especially because the route itself wasn't very clean and there was a really loose boulder that you had to carefully finagle your way around... That part wasn't even the hardest part for me though... It was another one of those damn elevation/lip/edge things again.

After I got up, we decided to bail (no brainer at that point) as the last pitch was really exposed and the rock was already pretty wet. Of course, then we had to set up a rappel. That wasn't too fun. Tony was getting cold and hungry and although I was fine with the first rappel or second rappel had us on this rather sketchy looking tree. Upon futher inspection and testing, the tree was quite solid and didn't warrant my worry but I still made Tony go first. The rappell was pretty dirty but we got down ok.

I really liked the climb and hope I can attempt it again in nicer conditions. On the way out, Tony played director and made me stop every couple feet to capture a new angle of the rock tower. It was pretty cool.

Oh? And the best part? The site is occasional closed for peregrine falcon nesting and we definitely saw those. Those birds are so aerodynamic. It was a real joy watching the fly. I even got to see one dive while belaying Tony. The hike out was pretty interesting. I think I managed only to slip 3 times. (Pretty good for me). It's amazing my body can take the damage I dish out...

The ride home went pretty quick and we arrived back at Blue and the house got ready for a Cinqu de Mayo celebration. Good times.

Anyways that was my adventure.
Until next time!