Last Known Location: Anything Could Happen

May 27, 2013 - May 30, 2013

Senior Camp

Every year, as a tradition, the senior class of my high school goes to Yangshuo (in Guilin which is in China). Every grade has their camp trip (china studies is the name of camp at my school) at the beginning of the year except the senior class as they are in the middle of the IB programme at the beginning of grade 12 so it is not practical to leave school then. So after the exams we went on our china studies trip. And because everyone was still recovering from being exhausted for the entire previous 2 years the plane and bus rides were really quiet! That aside the scenery during this entire trip was simply GORGEOUS. This part of China is so beautiful and is mainly known (to me anyway before the trip and even now after the trip) for the mountains that can be seen everywhere you look when you are there. It is just beautiful. The first day was traveling so we had 2 days of activities and 2 days of travelling. All three nights we went to the west street (?)(I think that is what it was called), a very touristy yet sort of meant to be authentic shopping street with a lot of the same items being sold in the different shops. But there are also a lot of really nice shops in this street and some nice restaurants. On the 28th we had two activities. In the morning there was a hike. A long long long hike. I joined the slow group but it was still exhausting as it was up a mountain, down a mountain, more sketchy roads and walking in the wrong direction for 4,5 (!!) hours. Nonetheless it was fun and I hate to say this but I was proud that I was able to hike for that long. My family doesn't go on hiking holidays so I wasn't used to this sort of thing but it went well! I was exhausted at the end and because it had rained the day before it was slippery on the mountain and some of us were falling/slipping including myself. I fell once and slipped 5 times. The fall gave a beautiful big blue bruise on my butt that hurt very very badly.

After the morning hike we went to the mud caves! I had seen photos of this on facebook before so I was really excited but the part that they do not photograph or tell you about is the part where you have to walk into the cave for like 20 to 30 minutes in your bathing suit in flip flops... It was slippery inside and cold but the mud was fun. On the way back down all of a sudden the lights went out. Not so fun. Thankfully 2 of my friends and myself had just reached the hot springs and we were able to sit there and wait for the lights to go back on. Getting back to the hotel all of our clothes were wet and my bathing suit was filled with mud which seemed impossible to get out.

The next day we went rafting in the morning. Well not really, we had someone raft for us while we had a water fight! It was a lot of fun and a great morning shower... Anyway that afternoon we were meant to do three activities and we all did them in a different order. I started with biking because I am not a big fan of biking and thought that way I could get it over with. I had a terrible bike and at the end I was tired and no longer in the mood to do the next activity, mountain climbing. I did not go mountain climbing and even if I had wanted to I would not have been able to because a little after we got there it started raining. Pouring rain from the sky. It was insane. And our teachers could not decide on anything so we just stood there instead of leaving before the path made of dirt would become to muddy to walk over. In the end we ended up walking in the rain for more than 1 hour and were completely soaked when we got back to the bus. The third activity was crafting and looking back it would have been smarter to start with mountain climbing so I would have been inside when the rain started but I thought that crafting would be my last activity and I thought I was being smart. But nope.

And then the trip was over! It was a exhausting, wet and fun. That Friday we had a rehearsal for the graduation ceremony that would be happening that Saturday. I will write more about that later because now I need to get off my computer and read something from an actual book. Bye!