Internet two days in a row?

Tomorrow begins the backpacking trip!

I chose to go with the lazy group, so we are spending an extra day in town (which is why I'm on the internet) and then tormorrow we are heading to the Three Sisters mountain... uh... range? I don't really know what it's called. I packed up all my wool clothing in hopes that I don't get hypothermia and all the dried fruit and ramen I can possibly hold. We are hiking up to a campsite tomorrow and then spending the week there. We will hopefully have a chance to do some reading, fishing, campfire-ing, day hiking, story telling... etc. Hooray! I've been learning some Greek this semester as well, so this will be a good chance to work on it since my Greek teacher is the leader of our hike. He is hilarious and ridiculous.

Here are some random pictures.


Our produce-filled refrigerator.


My cabinmate, Rosanna, after our group porch sleep-out. We had "breakfast in bag" that morning.


Our tour of the Yamsi Ranch.


Tippy and I.


Kasey and I, wearing our "booties" for the backpacking trip.

I climbed a mountain!

Yes, a real live mountain. 9,500 ft elevation. 11 miles there and back! It was rough, but amazing.

Whoo!

Oregon Extension

Classes are great! I love it here!

My daily schedule goes something like this:

8:00 Morning hike. I hike for about 20 minutes and then head back down. I usually go in my pj's and it's a great way to wake up in the morning. I usually see at least one deer, if not more.

8:30ish Breakfast and teeth brush time.

9:00 Lecture begins. We start every day with a different poem, and then one of the professors gives a lecture that somehow ties in to the reading we've been doing. The lectures have been great so far, and really thought provoking.

10:30 Break time. We usually go back to the cabin and have some fruit or coffee or something. On Fridays we have an organized break and the registrar makes us cake or cookies and coffee or tea. It's always wonderful.

11:00 Small group discussion time. We have groups of four students and one professor and we just talk about the reading. Sometimes it relates, sometimes we go off topic, but it's always a rewarding conversation. On Fridays we do something called "memos" too. We all write a one-page, single-spaced paper about ANYTHING. Literally, whatever we want. And then we share it with the group. It can be really deep, really personal or really silly. It's so awesome.

Then the rest of the day is up to us. (Except Friday. We do chores from 1:30-4:00 which usually include something with lumber.) We usually have around 120 pages of reading and note taking that has to be done (which is pretty time consuming) but we've still had more than enough time to get in a couple ultimate frisbee games, board games (Settlers of Catan!), group pot lucks, dance parties, hiking trips (including a group night hike), Greek lessons, letter writing, cabin bonding and plenty of other wonderful things. On the weekends we go to Ashland and hang out in coffee shops and do our grocery shopping. Tomorrow we're climbing a mountain and Sunday we're taking a group field trip to Klamath.

Everything here is fantastic. Even when I feel "stressed" with intense reading assignments, it's a good stress. The whole place is calm and beautiful. The professors are real and really into learning. Hooray!

I love and miss you all.