Grand Canyon + Grand Alumni : Summit Semester Week 7

What an eventful week! I marked a few things off my bucket list, we celebrated a few birthdays, we did some fun things. It's a big, long update this week so bare with me, but it's worth the read!

What happened this week:

     Sunday was a travel day. We went to church that morning and afterwards, in the parking lot, we said goodbye to the seven of our group that were staying home from the Grand Canyon trip. We packed up, and were on the road. The Grand Canyon was a seven hour drive from where we're staying here in Pagosa Springs. (Technically it's 6 ½ hours but with 25 of us, you have to make stops.) I was in the back seat with Micaela and we listened to music, napped, read, and laughed among ourselves at whatever crazy things were going on in the rows in front of us. We had a grand ole time. Halfway through our trip we reached the Four Corners, and we were gonna be spontaneous and go see it, but it was $5 a person and where we stopped wasn't even the official Four Corners (just a touristy spot that would make you drive further to actually reach the real spot), so we turned around (almost hit one of our other vans in the process) and kept going. We reached the Grand Canyon National Park around 7:00 and unpacked and started pitching tents. It got dark real fast (we were in another time zone than what we're used to) so we worked somewhat quickly. Micaela and myself were tent buddies and it worked pretty well, because we were both freezing and tired so we put on all our layers and went to bed at like 7:30.

     It was good that we went to bed at 7:30, because we woke up at 5:00am on Monday. You'd say that we're crazy, and we were, but we went to go watch the sunrise over the Grand Canyon, so that was completely worth it. It was cold, but so beautiful. After watching the sunrise, half of our crowd went hiking to the bottom, and the rest of us (the lazy, relaxing ones, including myself) just went to explore on our own. I went with Micaela and Ashley, and we took the shuttle buses that travel around the canyon and stopped at almost every spot. We took lots of photos (some cliché and some risque) and had a good time. We got hungry, so we went back to the visitor center and got some lunch and in the process, found Jed (one of the male staff) sleeping in the Summit van. We scared him accidentally, but we asked if he wanted to join us for the rest of the day. He grabbed some lunch for himself and accepted. We made one stop (forgot the name) and decided it was our lunch spot. A few of us made phone calls and ate and we had a good time. Ashley (the adventurer of our little group) wanted to go hang out on a ledge/rock/ridge below us, and somehow convinced the rest of us to join her. It was kinda scary, because it was a rock out in the middle of the Grand Canyon with an immediate drop, but it was beautiful because it was like a little island/peninsula rock. Looking at it directly below it didn't seem super scary or intense, but a nice little hang out spot, but once we got off, it looked kinda dangerous and we were glad we saw the dangerous side of it after we got off. A few read, a few napped on that peninsula rock, while I called my parents. It was so nice. We wanted to go as far as we could on the shuttles, but we didn't have enough time. So in the process of trying to get back to the visitor center cuz Jed had too much to drink, we missed one of the important buses (my bad) and had to wait for more. All of the buses were also super full and we once took the wrong bus. Long story short: we were late for our meeting spot back at 4:15. The crew waiting for us though, so that was nice. Back at the campsite, we ate dinner super quickly because we were off to watch the sunset too! The sunset was beautiful. We all split up into different groups and we started regrouping at the vans once it was dark, and I decided to stay and make sure that one of the girls wasn't left behind because she needed to use the restroom before leaving. Well, while waiting for her, she left without me realizing it, so I eventually made my way back, but I went to the wrong parking lot. I searched for our white vans, but I kept finding the wrong ones. I didn't have a flashlight other than the one on my phone, and I kept trying to call people, but nobody answered. Finally, Micaela called me back and she and Zach (the guy who successfully helped me down Mount Sneffels) directed me back to where I was supposed to be. It was quite an interesting end to the day. All while that was happening, nne of the guys, Casper, accidentally drank some water with a wasp in it, and the wasp stung his mouth and he had an allergic reaction to it. He went to the clinic on the national park property. He ended up being sent to the clinic in the van that all the girls were planning on sleeping in (tents were too cold!), so we had to improvise. He's okay, the doctors found nothing serious wrong with him, so he's just taking things slowly and carefully.

     I was awoken on Tuesday to the van moving. Apparently a group of people were going down the road to pay for showers that morning, but they didn't realize I was still sleeping in the backseat until they had left, showered, and returned to our campsite and I sat up. It was quite funny to see the guys' confused and surprised reactions to see a sleepy Becca in the backseat. Tuesday was Grace's 20^th birthday (one of the students), so we obviously had to sing to her at least three times during the day. The ride home wasn't as much fun, mostly because we were all tired and ready to be back to our normal routine. We made quite a few stops, or at least it felt like it. I slept and listened to music and ate Pringles. Everyone was so happy to be back home and in their own beds and in their own showers. We had dinner together and ate dinner, followed by dessert because Grace's birthday (we really only get dessert when someone has a birthday). I'm pretty sure I went to bed at like 8:30, and I have no regrets about it.

     Wednesday was a pretty calm and relaxing day, which everyone was happy about. Breakfast was optional, which was a relief to everyone who had a long few days in Arizona. We had a family meeting, which we just talked about our week's schedule. After that was solitude time, which was so nice after having a seven hour drive with thirteen others the day before. That afternoon we had small groups (since we were gone on Tuesday, when small groups normally happen), which was really good. We talked about our highs and lows of our week and had a more reflective group, talking about what we've learned since being here. Later that afternoon was exercise time, which I spent going on a walk and learning to throw + catch a football correctly. I kinda have the concept, but I think I'll leave it to the professionals (aka all the guys who played football in high school).

     Thursday was my best friend's birthday (MICAELA) !!! We spent the whole day spoiling her and giving her hugs and making her feel loved. It was such a great day. We had class like a normal day, and worship team practice with Jason that led into work crews. Since we had a lot of company coming for the weekend plus we were gone on Tuesday, we had work crews on Thursday too. I spent it scraping paint off bunk beds (again, I know) with Micaela. We had a great time and had some pretty great conversations. We realized that we're like best buds but we really don't know a lot of personal/historical information about each other, so we spent three hours of work crews getting to know each other more, which was super great. She had been telling everyone that she was making herself dessert for her birthday, but apparently it was a cover up so nobody would actually make her something (she's picky on her dessert and didn't want anyone to go out of their way for her). She was super sneaky about it, but it's a good thing that her roommate Emily is also super sneaky and got some good dessert information out of her that morning, so the kitchen crew had enough time to pull it all together for dinner! HAAA, in your face Micaela. ;) After dinner and funfetti cupcakes, Micaela and myself spent an hour or so talking to one of the guys, Matthias, and getting to know him more. He's super funny and intelligent, and we've both decided he's such an underrated guy (he's normally pretty quiet) and we'll all be good friends. After class that evening, Micaela and I spent a good amount of time on the floor of my room just laughing and talking. It was a great day spent celebrating my best bud.

     On Friday at breakfast, I came into the dining hall to be surrounded by unfamiliar faces. It was the beginning of alumni weekend, and there were hundreds of them everywhere. Just kidding, but there were a lot and it was kinda scary. I felt like I was intruding their space, when in reality I wasn't because I'm the student and they aren't anymore. But really, the alumni are pretty cool and fun, it's just weird having so many new people show up and join our regular schedule. Classes were pretty good in the morning, lots of arguments which made everything kinda tense. It's all good, though. We had work crews again, and guess where I was? You guessed it: bunk beds with Micaela. We had more good conversations and had some fun in the process. We went a little over on our time, so I was rushing to shower and get ready for dinner. Madison and myself literally ran from our room to the dining hall with one minute to spare before we'd be late for dinner, only to find out that dinner was delayed another fifteen minutes. With my shoes halfway on and my hair still wet, I was kinda frustrated but it's all good. I sat with Bella and we had some fun (new close girl friend!). I made sourdough dough with Khyri after dinner, which was really me doing all the work because her hand were sore from raking leaves for work crews. We had a grand ole time. Class was great too – we learned about Gothic cathedral architecture and I was a part of the group that did the group demonstration on how Gothic cathedral structures were created and how they worked. That was fun to watch Dr. B try to climb on top of the arms of Madison and Grant to be the human steeple, and almost kill their arms in the process.

     Saturday was jam packed. We had class in the morning and early afternoon, which was full of discussion on poetry (again) and John Milton (again). Later in the afternoon, I played basketball with Madison, Hudson, and Alden for exercise time. We played two on two, and I finally got the hang of the moves and terms of basketball! I lost two games, won two games, and it was a fun time. I was prepared to have dish pit after dinner, but we were surprised to find out that the alumni had dish pit instead! It was a relief off my shoulders, because I was not looking forward to scrubbing eight casserole pans. We went over our music for the worship team once again, and I went to the kitchen to make sourdough bread with Khyri. That night, instead of class, we had a huge dance party. We danced swing, Virginia Reel, Scottish Reel, line dances, and some freestyle also. It was a bunch of fun, and came out of it super exhausted. I was ready to go to bed by 9:00!

What I learned this week:

     I learned to how successfully screen a player during a game of basketball and how to correctly rebound the ball at the basket to make a point. Hudson gave me quite a few pointers and tips, which would really help me out if I ever thought about joining a major league! (don't count on it)

     I've also come to the realization this week of all the things I want to take home with me after I come home from Summit Semester. Such as, exercising on a weekly basis. I always think of exercise as going for a run or visiting a gym, but being here has made me realize that it doesn't have to be that way. I can go shoot hoops at the park down the street for an hour or go throw a Frisbee around in the backyard with my brothers. I also want to take home schedule study time or reading time! Back home, I could often find myself wasting the day away on my phone or the computer, watching videos or texting. But I want to make sure that I schedule time out of every day to either read something that isn't a college textbook (I have a reading list already on standby!), or digging into the word or studying for school or myself. I've realized how important it is to read and study and learn, even if it's not for a grade but personal interest/gain.

What's going on next week:

     This Sunday (Oct 22^nd) is host home day! It's a day when all the Summit Semester students get split up into groups to go hang out at the homes of the people we attend church with every Sunday. We get paired into groups of 2-3, and we will be distributed into different houses (depending on who signed up to accept students into their homes) to eat lunch with that family and talk with them and just hang out with them. All they have to do is provide food and wi-fi (in case we need to check emails or call our families). We will do this once again in November, and I'm super excited to better know the families at the church we visit, because we do only see them once a week and we don't get much interaction with them because we leave right after the service is over. I'm also excited to share new memories with my Summit classmates! I know I've been living with them for seven weeks, but it's still fun to get to know people in different and new ways based on circumstances or experiences.

We might be going to the local hot springs on Tuesday! I'm pretty excited. Pagosa Springs (the town we've been living in) is known for it's hot springs and we get to go! If not this week, definitely sometime in the future, which I'm so pumped about! Maybe photos and definite stories will be shared.

     Because our work load in class will be pretty light this week (yay!!!), they're planning on doing more things that aren't like our regular schedule (such as visiting the hot springs) or even taking a butcher class! The property manager, Nathan, did some hunting last week and will be giving a class for how to butcher and skin elk. I'm super interested in taking that class! I hope I will get the opportunity to learn some things that I probably won't ever again.

PS: Here's a link for the video of our worship team from two weeks ago!

Thanks for following along with me as I do life!

Blessings,

Becca

Sunrise!

DAX!

muh best fwand !

If you look closely, you can see me sitting on the edge of glory! (jk it was pretty terrifying at the time)

That rock where the guys are standing? That's the rock we slept/hung out on for a few hours. It was a lot scarier looking at it after the fact.

Micaela, Ashley, Jed, me - my crew for the day.

Sunset with Ashley!