Great day

Today has been the best day so far. I woke up at a bright and early 10:30 and got to class at 11 exactly. I think Greek mythology is so cool. Poetry was kind of boring today--rhythm and meter. Film was REALLY boring. I was kind of spacing out the whole hour. After that I was done with class for the day.

I check my mail because I've been told I should make sure I'm up to date on that. Well, Adrianna sent me stuff! It was awesome--tortillas, brownies, spices, jarritos, Hamlet, crackers, and some empanadas that didn't quite survive...but I'm sure they were delicious. Oh yes, red chilis too. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but they're hot so that's excellent.

I had a few hours until MUCK started and I knew that if I stayed in my room until then I wouldn't go. I was already starting to talk myself out of going, so I ditched all my notebooks and filled my bag with shorts and a tshirt (I forgot a towel) and my book and my journal and I left. I was starving so I got something to eat at this place on campus and sat there for an hour. Someone came and started cleaning the place up at around 5 and I felt like I should leave so I did, but I had almost two hours until the meeting started. I decided to walk around south campus cause I really didn't know what was down there. It's amazing down there. I didn't have my camera with me and in a way I'm kind of glad. I just got to enjoy it without putting everything into a shot.

So, the main part of south campus is a cluster of beautiful old old old buildings with ivy and some other plant growing up all the walls. There's the big huge cathedral with this massively tall bell tower--I now know the bells ring on the hour and then there's a shorter jingle thing every fifteen minutes. I walked around the backside of this tower and there's path that was paved a long time ago. It's one of those perfect walking paths you see pictures of all the time--you can't see the end of it and the trees on either side grow over and make a canopy and there are fallen red and orange leafs covering the path itself. I had to go down there. On one side is a pristine rugby field. They probably mow it every single day whether there's practice or not. When you get down to what looks like it should be the end of the path you'll find that there is no end to the path--it circles the rugby field. One corner goes off down another long path with a canopy made of different trees. I went down there and at the end is what used to be a farm. There's this really great sign that I have to go back and take a picture of. It says you are leaving the campus and entering a farm. That there are dangerous animals and you're taking you life in you hands when you go in there. It really says something like that. I went in anyway cause it very obviously isn't be used anymore. It's amazing in there. Old stone buildings with wooden doors painted bright blue, broken windows, a small pond looking thing overflowing into what was the road and huge empty tent looking things. It was really eerie actually. And I got freaked out when I heard a car drive up and a bunch of guys voices kind of yelling and laughing. So I left.

Back down the path. I only had one more edge of the rugby field to go so I went that way and it keeps going straight. There's another abandoned looking field--there are still rugby end zone post things but plants are in between instead of grass. It's awesome looking. By this time it was getting to be dusk time--still really bright and light outside, but that sideways light that make the best pictures. The path goes into a little park, and then you come to Jesus on the cross...thing. I guess it's a statue. It's really tall and really creepy and I couldn't stop looking at it. Behind it is the creepiest shrubbery canopy ever. I don't know what kind of plants they are by they look like really tall, dark green, incredibly stiff bushes. The two facing off on either side come together at a point probably 20 feet up. These go for like 50 feet and then there's an old stone wall with an open gate--these bush things looking like their growing into the wall. Outside of this thing it was still really bright out but if you look into it was getting dark. It was so creepy and menacing looking I had to go into it. It looked like it came straight out of a movie where you walk down to the end and turn around and there's someone behind you. It freaked me out but I really wanted to know what was behind that gate.

It's a cemetery. Huge grave markers , a tomb, small unmarked crosses, completely surrounded by a ten-ish foot tall wall. It was really cool. And really silent. There were graves facing in on all sides of the wall. It was a lot creepier and I walked a lot faster through that tunnel the second time. And that Jesus thing freaked me out again. But then it was light again and I went back toward the inhabited part of campus. I came upon this beautiful garden in between two buildings with huge windows and nobody inside. Then it was legitimately dusk and everything looked pretty no matter what it was.

I walked around the library twice looking for people before I found them. Half a million people signed up for this club. It's awesome. The pool is pretty small though. We form into groups of five, go inside, get changed, get out to the pool, and the first thing our person says is that today we are going to learn how to get out of the boat when it flips over. I was really hoping that was more of an advanced thing that I wouldn't have to do on the first day. We had to do this stupid "swim test" which was just swimming from one end of the pool to the other without drowning. Everyone passed. Even if it took you ten minutes.

I started freaking out about the being upside down underwater though. I can't do a flip in water. I always get really disorientated. I knew the people weren't going to let me drown or anything, but I was still scared to do it. I just kept picturing myself panicking. So, I was standing there on the side of the pool watching all these other people do it before me and it didn't look that hard--we had to do it twice. The first time they flipped you over and you tap on the sides of the kayak and then they flip you back over. No problem. The second time they flip you over and you tap on the side of the kayak and then you have to pull the "Jesus cord" which frees you from this suction like skirt they put you in. You put it around your waste and the bottom goes all the way around the opening in the kayak--it's so that your boat doesn't fill with water. Anyway, there's no way you're going to get out of a flipped over kayak without that thing coming out with you, so you pull the Jesus cord and then you're supposed to just be able to push yourself out and get to the surface. It doesn't sound that bad. But I was stressing. I was standing there with my arms crossed across my chest for a few minutes and when it was getting closer to my turn I straightened my arms and everything from my elbows down was just tight. I had to focus on trying to unclench my fists and when I would relax they would go back into a fist and my elbows would bend. It was the weirdest thing I've ever felt. So, then that was freaking me out more than anything that you could ever do in a kayak and I just focused on calming the hell down cause I didn't want the rest of me to tense up and then it'd be like having that one muscle disease. Well soon enough it was my turn and I did it and the worst of it is getting water up your nose. I still was disoriented when I pushed myself out of the boat, but people float. So if you just relax, you come out on top of the water.

Then we did other things like rescuing someone who can't flip their boat over or get out and how to hold your paddle and the last thing we did was a relay race. For my team, Team One, the challenge just became steering straight and not falling out of the thing. We won, but barely. The hardest part for me was getting out of the damn thing in a hurry without tipping it over.

I am very very glad that I went. They are doing two trips this weekend. I'll do one them for sure. I missed the sign up for the Glendalough trip cause I just completely forgot about it. It's not far though, I'll get there.

I think I'll actually be able to sleep tonight.