The Lake District

First I would like to inform you all of my bad luck, because then I can get to the good stuff. So remember how some asshole stole my phone and used all of my minutes? And remember how the people at my phone company said that they would credit me that 15 pounds? Yeah, not so much. Some cranky phone lady said they wouldn't give me my money back because, ahem, "Who was to say that you didn't just use it all  yourself?" Well, me, but whatever. I will just not text anyone for a couple of weeks. Anyways, the day after that me and the 26 other students from UMD journeyed off to a place you may all recognize from Pride and Prejudice: the lake district. And while it was one of the most exhausting weekends of my life, it was awesome. We got there on Friday night and did not really do anything except get settled in and eat. The next day, however, was an entirely different story.

For some crazy reason I decided to be all adventurous and go on a mountain hike (who did I think I was, Chuck Norris?). Let me just say that I am a short person with asthma. Short people with asthma have short legs (and asthma) so the whole walking straight up a mountain for five hours bit was a little rough. And did I mention that it was pouring? Because it was. I have never been so soaked in my entire life. I even ruined a pair of waterproof shoes, and this was while dressed like a fireman in a big, red waterproof suit, which after and hour or so became basically pointless as I was soaking anyways. But, as not many of you can, I can now say I hiked up a mountain in England. So suck it Chuck.

The next day was nearly as strenuous as the previous. We started the day with a canoeing trip on Lake Coniston. It began a little rough as neither I nor my partner really knew what we were doing in a canoe, but it turned around quickly. Lake Coniston is GORGEOUS. I totally understand now why it is a rich person retreat. If I were a rich person, I would retreat there too. Our guide made us do all sorts of fun, ridiculous little things too. First we played this game where we stood up our paddles and had to catch the one to either side of us depending on what directions the guide called out. I love that game. I wish I had a bunch of paddles just so I could play it all the time. Screw canoeing. Then he had us paddle back out into the lake and things got a little crazy. And by crazy I mean our crazy freaking tour guide made me stand on a buoy in the middle of the lake while people held my legs. WTF. And I did not even volunteer for this. I was volunteered, once again, because I am short. Also apparently they call buoys "boys" so when he started telling us what we would be doing it came out like, "Alright guys, there is a small boy out in the water." And all of us got really wide-eyed like, oh crap, now they are going to send us on a rescue mission. So yeah, I stood on a moving buoy in the middle of a lake. Soon after that we all sailed back together as one moving vessel with a make-shift sail that me and 2 other people held up. It was pretty sweet.

Later that day I did a low ropes course with about 5 other people. Now you may be thinking, "Low ropes? That is pretty lame. I bet everyone else got up 30 feet and did the high ropes course. What is wrong with this chick?" And you would be partially right. But I am not lame. There is absolutely zero chance I could have reached the wire to hold onto in the high ropes course. I am short, guys. Give me a break. And the low ropes course was actually really challenging. They made us get two pitchers of water across the whole thing as a team without spilling (almost) any. Not that I helped with that part, but still. It was more fun than it sounds like.

After that pretty much everyone just wanted to go to sleep, but did they let us? Of course not. Instead they made us get into teams, build rafts, get on said rafts, and race around another "small boy." My team apparently built a, "rather unique" raft that managed to keep us afloat quite nicely and give us a win (which we did NOT cheat to get, thank you very much). So while I am dead tired today, I got an experience out of this weekend like no other.

 My big, red fireman's suit.

 Hiking up the mountain...

 ...and hiking back down.

 Lake Coniston.