Packing furiously at 9:30, I was late as usual. To make matters worse, It was the day we were to set out for camping. Rushing to finish, I just stuff everything in the bag and hope everything that needed to be there was there. I loaded up the car and patiently waited for my mom to finish her shower because she had been cooking all day and was helping the camping cause. I started to become impatient because it was 10 and that was the time we were supposed to be at church. We ended up leaving at 10:15 and I was super nervous that they would leave me. Then I remembered one thing, Asians aren't extremely punctual.
We got to church at about 10:45 and the group was supposed to leave at 10:30. Not everyone was there yet and even the leaders were not there. I started conversing and I learned that middle schoolers are always the ones who have parents who make sure they leave at a certain time or sleep at a certain time. Once we had to leave church at 4:30, and the high schoolers slept at 11 or 1. A sixth grader slept at 6:30! So when we were all sleeping, he was wide awake bored out of his mind and took it out on us! I was one of the first high schoolers there. Some didn't even come until 10:45. Our leaders were a little behind with an overload of preparing.
We were planning to go eat lunch on the way to camping, but we were so late that we just ate McDonald's at Harbison. The printer at church wasn't working too well so some people went to Kinko's to finish the printing. We finally packed up the van and left. It was 2:30. We were 4 hours behind schedule, the worst ever. Too make things more funny, the "late group" was supposed to leave at 4:30! No longer a late group, but just Group #2. The weather predictions for this week were supposed to be rainy, really rainy. Those predictions were confirmed as big splatters of water came down on the van's windshield.
Thankfully our leaders drove fast, and we got there in only 2 hours and 30 minutes, a record time, and the best thing when we got there was that it had stopped raining! We quickly did our tents because it was still very cloudy. We did tents for an hour and soon after we started cooking the food our parents had cooked previously. I was personally so thankful when it started again, God had provided exactly 1 hour for us to set up tents before it started to rain again. I volunteered to help warm up food. For those who plan on cooking during camping, don't buy those propane stoves, they don't work very well. I stirred for about 45 minutes and it still wasn't very warm. I had a person hold an umbrella while I was stirring.
Well a quick story about the tents. A six-grader named Kevin brought a tent and his mom had told us that it fit 4-5 people, and during the car ride he claimed that it only fit 2-3 people. We didn't believe him and we reprimanded him for lying. So we got to the site and we were setting up tents, and we realized Kevin's tent was so much bigger than everyone else's. We looked at the number of people fit in that tent and realized it was 8 people, Kevin still claimed after that it was still only 2-3 people.
While we continued to cook, the other people put up tarps so that we could eat in the dry. We finally gave up on cooking and served it as best as we could. We had a pretty rough dinner, because it was pouring. We had to continually lift the tarps because we didn't want the water to weigh down the tarps and eventually breaking them and drenching us and our dry clothes with the cold water. We were so cold and wanted to keep dry that most of us didn't even want to risk going over to the campfire. We were pretty stagnant, huddled in one place waiting for the unending rain to stop.
Usually we have at least a lesson a day. This first day was the worst day ever in the history of camping. We did nothing! All we did was set up tents, eat, and then retire into the tents. Even our leaders agreed that we shouldn't have a lesson, no one would listen because it was to cold and wet! We all retired extremely early. It stopped raining and we huddled around the campfire. I was debating whether to wait for the late group, which is now called the late group because they were supposed to leave at 4:30 but left at 5:30 and was supposed to arrive at 6 but it was 9 and they still didn't arrive.
I decided not to wait for them, but then I realized I needed to brush my teeth. As we were finishing up, the late group finally arrived! They arrived at around 9:45. The only high schooler was really ticked at being so late, but after we explained how late we were and the conditions we were in, he was quite glad he was that late. We ended up talking until around 12. Lots of it was gaming talk, and I blog, not game, so I just listened and tried to not be enticed by the addictive nature of gaming.
"Come on Mun Mun, don't you want to eat all of these Giant Lemon Scones from the Girl Scouts??" said my mom. I was so hungry I gobbled them all up. I was enjoying myself so much, in my dream. I woke up from the dream and realized it was raining again and that I was cold and uncomfortable. I tried going back to sleep...
"Where is my mom? Why hasn't she picked me up from youth group???", I exclaimed! "Your mother will be here shortly, but you need to wait in the principals office until she comes" said the secretary. I sat in a cold chair and waited for about 20 minutes, twiddling my thumbs the entire time, hoping to not anger the principal and to make time fly... "Aah" said Munchy, a guy in my tent. I was home-free! I had escaped the principal's office. I was so thankful that Munchy woke me up, because I didn't want my whole dream to be me twiddling my thumbs. We realized that it had stopped raining and that a little spot in Munchy's sleeping bag was wet, I hoped that it would stay there and for the rest of our tent to remain dry.
We woke up for the last time and were heading to the campfire to join the other people. We were about to talk about how horrible our night was and how Munchy's sleeping bag got wet, and then we heard the others' stories.
Mia: Mia's sleeping bag, unlike Munchy's, was completely drenched, so she removed her sleeping bag and just sat up straight and tried to sleep, that didn't work so she got a towel and slept in the fetal position. Lydia woke up and realized that Mia was like that. She immediately told her to go to the car and look for an extra sleeping bag, so Mia went. Originally all 4 cars were together, but one got moved later in the night and was moved to the left. Mia was not aware of this and thought it was a bear. She screamed and we all heard it. She quickly realized it was a car and not a bear, so she got in the car and decided she was going to sleep there, but she realized all the stoves were there, and she didn't want to die from inhaling too much gas, so she tried to open the windows, she didn't realize she locked the door, and she unlocked the door from the inside, and she opened the door, and the car alarm went off! Our youth leader, Dan, and his family were sleeping in the church van because their tent was soaked even before they slept, and they were immediately awoken by this. Mia eventually found a sleeping bag and went back to the tent for an unsuccessful night of sleep.
Middle School Girls: These girls stayed up late and were extremely loud, so loud I heard every word in their conversation. They eventually went to sleep, but they were quickly awakened by the ring of water, instead of hitting a certain spot, the water in their tent came in slowly in a ring form, drenching everything in its path.
Other tents: In the other tents they had some leaking but not as bad as the other tents, ours was in the best condition that night.
So we were pretty thankful that our tent wasn't too bad. We started heating up some breakfast and it started to drizzle. We were super upset at this because it was supposed to stop raining altogether the night before. The leaders had a secret meeting and there were rumors that we would pack up and leave if the conditions got really bad. I was super saddened by this because I did not want to go home! It was decided that we would go hiking and that when we returned it was still raining or extremely wet or no sun, then we would go home.
So we set out on a drive to go hiking. When we got there the sun came out! We were ecstatic! Our youth leader also warned us that the hike would be the easiest hike ever and that the next year we would beg him for a harder one. There was so much flat terrain it wasn't even funny! By the time we got to the lunch area, the name Dupont finally set into my brain! We were at the Hunger Games set! I was so excited and I took lots of pictures including this one of me camouflaging with a rock. (That is where in the movie Katniss finds Peeta) We finished the extremely easy hike very quickly and headed back to the site.
When we got back, almost all of us were so happy! The sun had come up and almost everything had dried! We quickly ran back to our tent and the puddle from the shoes had dried up and so was everything else! We quickly wiped up everything and headed back to the campfire. We also decided to go to the sliding rock!
Back in 8th grade, I went to the sliding rock for the first time! I was super excited and I went 11 times! And this time was just as much fun! The sliding rock consists of a.... rock! This huge rock is about 30 ft long and is all natural. Nothing man-made except for the support bars. We all had a great time getting super wet and super cold. The water must have been 0 degrees, because we were all freezing! I went 10 times because we didn't stay as long as we did in the previous year. I really wished that we could have stayed longer and that I could have broken my record, but that's that. We went to the parking lot and we sunbathed for about 20 minutes and then headed back to camp.
When we got back we had a lesson, and this lesson was about Jesus being The Way. When Jesus was talking about himself he could have only been one of three things: a liar, a lunatic, or telling the truth. I believe he was telling the truth and that he is the only way to heaven and by believing in him and repenting of our sings we can be with him in heaven.
After the lesson we had dinner. I have to say, I hate char-grilled food I can not stand having black burned things in my mouth. My mom says I am lucky I hate it because it is extremely bad for you. So dinner was hot dogs and since it was already pre-cooked, I ate a raw one. I always eat a raw one. And later we had some s'mores! I always only eat one, because they are extremely bad for you. Also on this trip I learned that grilled bananas are amazing! They taste so good and they taste just like banana bread! I wanted to make a banana bread s'more and it worked really well! Best s'more ever!
We had another lesson about Jesus preparing us a place for us in heaven and I am so glad he is doing that because I would love to spend eternity with him!
We were going to play Mission Impossible, a game that requires one to crawl on the ground in search for a frisbee with no light and if a leader shines a flashlight on you, you have to go to jail for a certain amount of time, but then we were to warm and we didn't want to be cold and have to crawl on the extremely wet and muddy ground. We played a little bit of frisbee instead, and we headed back to the campfire and had a good time of singing songs and trying to remember how the lyrics went. It was very interesting when we could not remember any of the lyrics or chords.
I decided to thank the senior girls for pranking us in the past few years. When I was in 6th grade, they stole our shoes and the upperclassmen were forced to go barefooted, and in 8th grade they put flour in the guys stuff and that was a bit over the top. So I decided to do a very mild prank just to make sure that it wasn't going to be a boring trip. So I stole the senior girls' mats and hid them outside the middle school girls' tent. I had an accomplice and she went to the bathroom so I waited outside the bathroom to scare her and for me to also have an ironclad alibi. Unfortunately the accomplice ratted me out, but I didn't know that.
I retired early that night to avoid any suspicion of me stealing the pads and to listen in on the conversations of the girls to see whether they were going to prank me back. It was cold that night so cold that it was freezing, colder than any other time I went camping. So somehow they knew it was me, but I pretended like I was sleepy and didn't answer them. They later were absolutely certain it was me when I started talking to the guys in my tent 5 minutes later.
We were startled awake in the morning when Kevin, who got pranked, was raging and said...
Kevin: ALBERT! ALBERT! WAKE UP! THE GIRLS! THEY STOLE OUR SHOES! THEY STOLE OUR SHOES WHEN WE WENT TO THE SLIDING ROCK! THEY PUT MY SHOES BEHIND THE TREE AND THEY ARE SOAKING WET!
Albert: mmm... Well I think I left my shoes in the bathroom...
Kevin: STOP DEFENDING THE GIRLS ALBERT!!! STOP DEFENDING THE GIRLS!!!
We heard this at about 7 in the morning, not the best way to start our day. I was so tired and warm and comfortable in my sleeping bag I went back to sleep until 9:30 and then I go to open the tent door and find out it was really heavy, I open it and all the tents are covered in frost! It was that cold. So we had breakfast and I had a grilled banana hot dog with peanut butter and some good ramen! Great breakfast. I had already packed my bags, I was always the first one, and I was extremely scared that the girls were going to prank me.
We had another lesson and this one was about the Holy Spirit. Once one accepts Jesus into their lives, they have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps by guiding us and helps us speak to others.
We decided to play frisbee and then go on a short hike. The game was good and we won! The hike was supposed to be .25 miles but it ended up being about 1 mile. It took a little longer than what we thought. When we got back, we loaded up the van, and a girl named Esther volunteered her car for me to put my bag in! So nice!
I got to sit in a rental car which is nicer than the van with the other high schoolers! We invented a game called Reverse Scum, or Straight Suck. I forgot. But it is just like scum, but if you win, you have to give up your best 2 cards. The goal was to get president twice! But I got scum twice instead of president. It was pretty embarrassing.
So we got back to church and I knew by now that the girls had pranked me back, because Esther was too nice in asking for my bag. They wrapped it in blue plastic wrap, and when I got home, my mom realized they plastic wrapped my clothes too.
So I had an unexpectedly great time and I enjoyed myself and everyone else did as well! I learned a lot spiritually as well as physically. Never underpack! I took forever to write this post and it is extremely long. I wanted it long and it is a total of 2965 words!
We got to church at about 10:45 and the group was supposed to leave at 10:30. Not everyone was there yet and even the leaders were not there. I started conversing and I learned that middle schoolers are always the ones who have parents who make sure they leave at a certain time or sleep at a certain time. Once we had to leave church at 4:30, and the high schoolers slept at 11 or 1. A sixth grader slept at 6:30! So when we were all sleeping, he was wide awake bored out of his mind and took it out on us! I was one of the first high schoolers there. Some didn't even come until 10:45. Our leaders were a little behind with an overload of preparing.
We were planning to go eat lunch on the way to camping, but we were so late that we just ate McDonald's at Harbison. The printer at church wasn't working too well so some people went to Kinko's to finish the printing. We finally packed up the van and left. It was 2:30. We were 4 hours behind schedule, the worst ever. Too make things more funny, the "late group" was supposed to leave at 4:30! No longer a late group, but just Group #2. The weather predictions for this week were supposed to be rainy, really rainy. Those predictions were confirmed as big splatters of water came down on the van's windshield.
Thankfully our leaders drove fast, and we got there in only 2 hours and 30 minutes, a record time, and the best thing when we got there was that it had stopped raining! We quickly did our tents because it was still very cloudy. We did tents for an hour and soon after we started cooking the food our parents had cooked previously. I was personally so thankful when it started again, God had provided exactly 1 hour for us to set up tents before it started to rain again. I volunteered to help warm up food. For those who plan on cooking during camping, don't buy those propane stoves, they don't work very well. I stirred for about 45 minutes and it still wasn't very warm. I had a person hold an umbrella while I was stirring.
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| This is me and below is where Katniss found Peeta! |
Well a quick story about the tents. A six-grader named Kevin brought a tent and his mom had told us that it fit 4-5 people, and during the car ride he claimed that it only fit 2-3 people. We didn't believe him and we reprimanded him for lying. So we got to the site and we were setting up tents, and we realized Kevin's tent was so much bigger than everyone else's. We looked at the number of people fit in that tent and realized it was 8 people, Kevin still claimed after that it was still only 2-3 people.
While we continued to cook, the other people put up tarps so that we could eat in the dry. We finally gave up on cooking and served it as best as we could. We had a pretty rough dinner, because it was pouring. We had to continually lift the tarps because we didn't want the water to weigh down the tarps and eventually breaking them and drenching us and our dry clothes with the cold water. We were so cold and wanted to keep dry that most of us didn't even want to risk going over to the campfire. We were pretty stagnant, huddled in one place waiting for the unending rain to stop.
Usually we have at least a lesson a day. This first day was the worst day ever in the history of camping. We did nothing! All we did was set up tents, eat, and then retire into the tents. Even our leaders agreed that we shouldn't have a lesson, no one would listen because it was to cold and wet! We all retired extremely early. It stopped raining and we huddled around the campfire. I was debating whether to wait for the late group, which is now called the late group because they were supposed to leave at 4:30 but left at 5:30 and was supposed to arrive at 6 but it was 9 and they still didn't arrive.
I decided not to wait for them, but then I realized I needed to brush my teeth. As we were finishing up, the late group finally arrived! They arrived at around 9:45. The only high schooler was really ticked at being so late, but after we explained how late we were and the conditions we were in, he was quite glad he was that late. We ended up talking until around 12. Lots of it was gaming talk, and I blog, not game, so I just listened and tried to not be enticed by the addictive nature of gaming.
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| The Night Sky |
"Come on Mun Mun, don't you want to eat all of these Giant Lemon Scones from the Girl Scouts??" said my mom. I was so hungry I gobbled them all up. I was enjoying myself so much, in my dream. I woke up from the dream and realized it was raining again and that I was cold and uncomfortable. I tried going back to sleep...
"Where is my mom? Why hasn't she picked me up from youth group???", I exclaimed! "Your mother will be here shortly, but you need to wait in the principals office until she comes" said the secretary. I sat in a cold chair and waited for about 20 minutes, twiddling my thumbs the entire time, hoping to not anger the principal and to make time fly... "Aah" said Munchy, a guy in my tent. I was home-free! I had escaped the principal's office. I was so thankful that Munchy woke me up, because I didn't want my whole dream to be me twiddling my thumbs. We realized that it had stopped raining and that a little spot in Munchy's sleeping bag was wet, I hoped that it would stay there and for the rest of our tent to remain dry.
We woke up for the last time and were heading to the campfire to join the other people. We were about to talk about how horrible our night was and how Munchy's sleeping bag got wet, and then we heard the others' stories.
Mia: Mia's sleeping bag, unlike Munchy's, was completely drenched, so she removed her sleeping bag and just sat up straight and tried to sleep, that didn't work so she got a towel and slept in the fetal position. Lydia woke up and realized that Mia was like that. She immediately told her to go to the car and look for an extra sleeping bag, so Mia went. Originally all 4 cars were together, but one got moved later in the night and was moved to the left. Mia was not aware of this and thought it was a bear. She screamed and we all heard it. She quickly realized it was a car and not a bear, so she got in the car and decided she was going to sleep there, but she realized all the stoves were there, and she didn't want to die from inhaling too much gas, so she tried to open the windows, she didn't realize she locked the door, and she unlocked the door from the inside, and she opened the door, and the car alarm went off! Our youth leader, Dan, and his family were sleeping in the church van because their tent was soaked even before they slept, and they were immediately awoken by this. Mia eventually found a sleeping bag and went back to the tent for an unsuccessful night of sleep.
Middle School Girls: These girls stayed up late and were extremely loud, so loud I heard every word in their conversation. They eventually went to sleep, but they were quickly awakened by the ring of water, instead of hitting a certain spot, the water in their tent came in slowly in a ring form, drenching everything in its path.
Other tents: In the other tents they had some leaking but not as bad as the other tents, ours was in the best condition that night.
So we were pretty thankful that our tent wasn't too bad. We started heating up some breakfast and it started to drizzle. We were super upset at this because it was supposed to stop raining altogether the night before. The leaders had a secret meeting and there were rumors that we would pack up and leave if the conditions got really bad. I was super saddened by this because I did not want to go home! It was decided that we would go hiking and that when we returned it was still raining or extremely wet or no sun, then we would go home.
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| I am Peeta and I am waiting for Katniss to save me! |
When we got back, almost all of us were so happy! The sun had come up and almost everything had dried! We quickly ran back to our tent and the puddle from the shoes had dried up and so was everything else! We quickly wiped up everything and headed back to the campfire. We also decided to go to the sliding rock!
Back in 8th grade, I went to the sliding rock for the first time! I was super excited and I went 11 times! And this time was just as much fun! The sliding rock consists of a.... rock! This huge rock is about 30 ft long and is all natural. Nothing man-made except for the support bars. We all had a great time getting super wet and super cold. The water must have been 0 degrees, because we were all freezing! I went 10 times because we didn't stay as long as we did in the previous year. I really wished that we could have stayed longer and that I could have broken my record, but that's that. We went to the parking lot and we sunbathed for about 20 minutes and then headed back to camp.
When we got back we had a lesson, and this lesson was about Jesus being The Way. When Jesus was talking about himself he could have only been one of three things: a liar, a lunatic, or telling the truth. I believe he was telling the truth and that he is the only way to heaven and by believing in him and repenting of our sings we can be with him in heaven.
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| No Idea what I am doing! |
We had another lesson about Jesus preparing us a place for us in heaven and I am so glad he is doing that because I would love to spend eternity with him!
We were going to play Mission Impossible, a game that requires one to crawl on the ground in search for a frisbee with no light and if a leader shines a flashlight on you, you have to go to jail for a certain amount of time, but then we were to warm and we didn't want to be cold and have to crawl on the extremely wet and muddy ground. We played a little bit of frisbee instead, and we headed back to the campfire and had a good time of singing songs and trying to remember how the lyrics went. It was very interesting when we could not remember any of the lyrics or chords.
I decided to thank the senior girls for pranking us in the past few years. When I was in 6th grade, they stole our shoes and the upperclassmen were forced to go barefooted, and in 8th grade they put flour in the guys stuff and that was a bit over the top. So I decided to do a very mild prank just to make sure that it wasn't going to be a boring trip. So I stole the senior girls' mats and hid them outside the middle school girls' tent. I had an accomplice and she went to the bathroom so I waited outside the bathroom to scare her and for me to also have an ironclad alibi. Unfortunately the accomplice ratted me out, but I didn't know that.
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| A clean bathroom at camping yes! |
We were startled awake in the morning when Kevin, who got pranked, was raging and said...
Kevin: ALBERT! ALBERT! WAKE UP! THE GIRLS! THEY STOLE OUR SHOES! THEY STOLE OUR SHOES WHEN WE WENT TO THE SLIDING ROCK! THEY PUT MY SHOES BEHIND THE TREE AND THEY ARE SOAKING WET!
Albert: mmm... Well I think I left my shoes in the bathroom...
Kevin: STOP DEFENDING THE GIRLS ALBERT!!! STOP DEFENDING THE GIRLS!!!
We heard this at about 7 in the morning, not the best way to start our day. I was so tired and warm and comfortable in my sleeping bag I went back to sleep until 9:30 and then I go to open the tent door and find out it was really heavy, I open it and all the tents are covered in frost! It was that cold. So we had breakfast and I had a grilled banana hot dog with peanut butter and some good ramen! Great breakfast. I had already packed my bags, I was always the first one, and I was extremely scared that the girls were going to prank me.
We had another lesson and this one was about the Holy Spirit. Once one accepts Jesus into their lives, they have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit helps by guiding us and helps us speak to others.
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| Our Tents! |
I got to sit in a rental car which is nicer than the van with the other high schoolers! We invented a game called Reverse Scum, or Straight Suck. I forgot. But it is just like scum, but if you win, you have to give up your best 2 cards. The goal was to get president twice! But I got scum twice instead of president. It was pretty embarrassing.
So we got back to church and I knew by now that the girls had pranked me back, because Esther was too nice in asking for my bag. They wrapped it in blue plastic wrap, and when I got home, my mom realized they plastic wrapped my clothes too.
So I had an unexpectedly great time and I enjoyed myself and everyone else did as well! I learned a lot spiritually as well as physically. Never underpack! I took forever to write this post and it is extremely long. I wanted it long and it is a total of 2965 words!
