I hope this is going to be a long one, but I am so tired that I may give up half way!
Last week, nothing special happened. Work, frozen mocha's, physio, swimming, gym, work. That pretty much sums it up. On Wednesday we did attempt a group dinner which included strawberries and cream, salad, cheese-filled homemade bread, chorizo, and other random ingredients! A pretty good dinner!
On the Sunday before the one just gone, we held a surprise garden party for one of our friends for her birthday. Her birthday was in fact in February but lots of things conspired against us between then and now! We lured her to the Merrill garden by saying another friend needed her for her photography class...how sneaky. The roommate and I had spent the previous evening (not doing work as we had to lie and say we were doing to avoid hanging out with said birthday girl) making English trifle and lemon bars, along with more strawberries and cream, cheese and meats, while the guys made iced tea and pot stickers! She was very surprised, and didn't expect a thing so I would say that was a success:)
Now, onto the main event.
This weekend I have been getting thoroughly wet and sunburnt all at the same time for I have been white water rafting! I think it has been one of the best weekends that I have had this year. I didn't want to leave at all! I went on a trip organised by the recreation department and it only cost $95 including food! Bargain.
We gathered at 11.30am on Friday, met everyone, played some names games, got our wetsuits, packed up the mini-van and headed out. Our destination was the Kings River, in the Sierra Nevada Foothills just past Pine Flat Reservoir if anyone wants to look that up on google earth. On the way we stopped at a place called 'Casa de Fruta' which was this massive indoor market full of fruits, nuts, chocolate, anything. We all stocked up!
The journey was about 5 1/2 hours so we didn't get to the campsite, after winding around the reservoir for miles and miles, until around 6ish where we set up camp, cooked some food and hunkered down around the fire, making smores, telling stories and playing games! I have never properly camped before and fully expected to not sleep but I was out like a light, to the sounds of the flowing river and frogs croaking.
Saturday morning, up at 7am, made breakfast, wetsuited up (that took me a long time. I put it on backwards as well which caused some laughs but I couldn't be bothered to change it), then got back in the van to head 10miles up river where we were launching the boats from. There were 11 of us in total so we had two inflatable rafts with us. We doned our life jackets, grabbed an oar and clambered in. These rapids were a class 3, where 6 is impossible, so they were pretty choppy but ok for beginners! We had such an amazing time going down this river. My boat decided to go all British and our guides used 'tally-ho' for forward, and 'halt' for stop. In fact the whole weekend everyone was speaking in a British accent which was hilarious! I tried my American accent after being begged, but quickly shut-up! Along the way we stopped at some big rocks, climbed up about 12-15ft and hurled ourselves off which was pretty terrifying! It didn't look that high from the water! We stopped at an 'eddy' where we had lunch and floated around in the water. The weather was so so hot, around 80 degrees for the Americans and 29 for the British readers. The water was very cold so was pretty refreshing when you were splashed in the face on the raft, and thrown from the boat! And yes I am in these two pictures below if you can spot me;)
We got back to camp around 4, made water slides out of the rafts and just played around on the shore before taking a walk, playing frisbee and just messing around. That evening I was suffering from some severe sun-stroke so was pretty out of it until 9ish when the smores came back out;)
The next morning, we got up and did it all again! This time, everyone was a lot more daring and more people got catapulted from the boat over some rapids! We took an inflatable kayak with us as well which we got to take turns in. I was s**t scared of that but I did it! and I would do it again in a heartbeat! The next activity, I have no intention of doing again; swimming a rapid. We got to one set of rapids and one of the guides asked if anybody wanted to swim it. I said "hhelll no" but after seeing a couple of the girls in front jump in I decided I would give it a go. Unfortunately I decided a bit too late so when I was practically pushed from the boat, I was straight into the rapids, being spun around, swallowed up, spat back out, and repeated. Even though at the times where my head was above water, I just couldn't suck in air, just water! I was eventually rescued and pulled back to safety with everyone laughing at how terrified I looked! I was just grateful that I survived.
We stopped for lunch at the same place, had a round of 'helicopter' which involved spinning the boat around as fast as possible until everyone is in the water, got back in the boats and headed back to camp. We packed up and headed back to Santa Cruz, stopping at 'In n Out' in Fresno and again at 'Casa de Fruta', in between games of 'If I were a tree' and singing along to Backstreet Boys!
There is something about being in the absolute middle of nowhere, with people you have only just met but already formed great friendships with, no technology, no sense of time, just nature. It is so refreshing. The whole trip, not one person said no to anything, we all just grabbed hold of the opportunity and had the most amazing weekend. I thought I wouldn't be a camping person at all but I think I could be converted! I got used to the toilet that is a hole in the ground, no running water, the need to keep food bear proof etc, but, I was dreaming of a shower in the van on the way back! I think we all were! This trip made me re-focus on why I am here. It made me realise that I am in California to have new experiences, not just to study. It made me realise a lot of things actually; say yes to anything, being outside your comfort zone is when you have the most fun, new people are nice, and facebook and the internet isn't the world! There were some guys that pulled up on the second night, pulled out their guns, set up their tents, then got out their flatscreen TV and X-box, hooked it up to the car and spent the evening on that. Lame. You may as well stay at home. You are in one of the most beautiful places ever, mountains all around, and yet you are playing video-games. I couldn't help but laugh at them.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this weekend, so much happened but I won't bore you with all of it! Those who have to talk to me on skype will get those little gems;)
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