Those Little Things

Hello~ Today I'm here to express my new found appreciation for some things most of us really don't think about.



This weekend I went on my very first two day hike, and I must say it was way better than I expected. It was a road hike, and it didn't rain during the day, so there were no accidents.

On Saturday morning we had to meet at a school for 6am. That meant I had to wake up at 4am =.= On Friday night I barely got six hours of sleep, but that was better than nothing. I got to the school at about 5:30, but I was one of the first people to reach. So, I waited for about fifteen minutes until my friends started to come. At about 6 our leaders checked our ration kits and first aid kits. As is customary for President's, this took the majority of an hour to complete.

Since there were limited leaders present, Alex had to hike with both Slackers (my group) and Heights. I knew Alex was kind of weird, but over the weekend I found out he was just plain crazy. On Saturday he wasn't really with us most of the time since Heights ended up behind us so he went to see what they were doing. Basically we were by ourselves for most of the hike. Luckily for us this was a road hike, so whenever we almost got lost (or thought we did at least) we just asked whoever was around.

We hiked from half seven to about half two. I think we would have finished quicker without all the breaks (but they were much needed), the swim in the river we passed (which was also much needed), and the fact that Christian (a boy in my group) forgot his knife at the river and only realised one & a half kms later.



Oh! And how can I forget the fact that Christian and Luke (who's in Heights) decided to collect glass bottles in hopes of trading them in for some marshmallows. They collected three bags full, and actually got a place to take them! That was the most shocking part for the leaders, who were just laughing the whole time. But they ended up getting little heart-shaped marshmallows, so they were quite happy.





After some begging, we were given permission to share tents with our friends instead of our groups. After trying three different tents (as the pole lengths were not suitable for the ones they gave us), we finally got a brand new tent. They didn't even let us put that tent onto the ground. Seconds after we put it up all the leaders bombarded it and refused to leave. I was honestly concerned they weren't going to leave, because that's just something they would do.

Cooking was relatively easy. This group was much better at starting a fire than my last group. We made hotdogs for dinner with some pasta that didn't taste too good.

AND OMG THERE WAS A HORSE AND IT WAS HUGE I WAS AS TALL AS ITS BUTT.

After dinner we had to go bathe IN THE DARK. The line for the girls was super long because some assholes decided to wash their hair and take forever to change. Some girls were so fed up they ended up bathing with the hose. Most of the boys bathed with the hose, save the few who waited until the leaders were finished bathing to use the showers. NONE OF THE BATHROOMS/SHOWERS HAD ANY LIGHTS. I didn't realise how much I'd miss that. I didn't even mind the freezing cold water as much as I minded the lack of lights. President's really does teach you to appreciate those little things!

Then we had "Talk Tent", which is when everyone comes together and each group has to perform something. Because all of us were totally unprepared, we got front support. At 10:30pm. In our pajamas. I was so exhausted I thought I would drop down. Anyways, after that we managed to pull together something (and of course one group just had to do Gangnam Style -.-). My group told a not so scary not so true story and then we sang Jingle Bells. And yes, it was as lame as it sounds.

I fell asleep way easier than I thought I would. I was just that exhausted. The boys tried to pull pranks on the girls and each other, but the leaders caught them. But they did manage to wake almost everybody up at 2 and say it was 4. I woke up at 3 and couldn't figure out why there was so much noise.

At 4 the first thing I did (once I finally willed myself to leave the tent) was go brush my teeth since I didn't the night before (don't blame me!). I went with three of my friends in my class, and since it was dark we turned off our flashlights and peed in front of each other. And here I thought I lost all my shame in form 1.

Speaking of flashlights, I'm not a big fan of using them for long periods of time. I need to get used to this.

All the groups started making breakfast and lunch kind of late, so no one finished much by 7. My group halfway toasted 8 slices of bread, and we ate that with raw sausages. We had the same thing for lunch (minus the toasted part. There were fruit cocktails, however!) We had a mini church service before we left, and we began our hike at 8:30.

This day was much shorter, as we finished at 1:30. We didn't have as many stops this time, and Heights and my group hiked together since Alex said he didn't feel like running between us. Alex was nice enough to buy us water and 1 bottle of coke (which we had to share). We deserved it considering he always takes our snacks.

THE BEST PART of that day though-

This guy was giving us directions or telling us if he saw another group or something, and then all of a sudden he said "Aye, smalls"

(the smallest person in our group was Luke, and I still think that's who he was talking to)

And he continued-

"My name is Orwin. I like to win, and I would love to win your heart."

WELL THAT WAS OUR ONLY TOPIC OF CONVERSATION FOR THE NEXT TEN MINUTES. After we walked quickly away from Orwin, we could not stop laughing. Luke literally would not shut up about it.

The rest of the hike was pretty uneventful, but my group was the first one to finish and I literally begged the leaders to let me leaver since my parents were already there. Luckily I dumped the tent on someone else and left first.

Last week I was freaking out over this hike, but as always I overreacted and thought too much into it. It was way better than I expected (even though I couldn't walk properly until Tuesday), and I wouldn't mind doing it again. Dropping out is still at the back of my mind, however, but we'll see how this goes.