college.

Well, here it is folks. ITHACA.
ACT I: Moving in, Adventures of ECHO.
Moving in was actually alot better then I expected. I came early, so there really wasn't anyone in the building except for my fellow Jumpstarters (early program for Ithaca). I had to bring stuff up to my room on the 3rd floor (I kinda hated my choice after my 3rd time down and up) and helped put all my stuff away. Got my lights, my posters, made my bed, put clothes away, put all my Chucks under my bed, and set up all my desk stuff. It looked really cool after it was done though. You know.. my side.. cos my roommate Amelia wasn't here yet. I have a lovely view of the parking area, the dorm across it, and a lot of trees and distant meadows/ houses.
So I arrived early for a program called ECHO (Experiencing Communications by Heading Outdoors) where we went on a four mile hike around Hector National Forest, and set up a camp site. We were divided into groups according to colors, our group's color was a weird orange-yellow colour so we called ourselves Mac&Cheese. Hardcore. I had never been camping before so I sort of went to gather firewood while the camping pros went to get the tents in order, it was really amusing to watch our leader Rob try to put together the smaller tent (it turns out that it was ment for 4 people, we just got the poles for the 2 person tent, we had to tie it to trees to help it stand up a little, it was hilarious). We talked for awhile about where we were from, camping/hiking experiences, about Ithaca's awesome obsession to keep envrionment-friendly, and desided what to do for our get-together later at the gathering (we had to create a game, do a skit, tell a story, ect). For dinner we had veggie stir fry and rice cooked over the fire for dinner, it was really good but the rice was a little mushy, oh well. After dinner we went to the gathering spot and meet up with the other ECHO groups. I don't really remember the specifics of what the other groups did, but I remember two groups did a story, one did a musical number (yea, they had mad talent skills), one did a fake news cast, and Mac&Cheese did a group game called "The Machine" where we asked the groups to do a machine they created out of people in 5 minutes and present it. For a demo, we made a recliner where the guys in our group where the seats, me and two other girls where the seat backs, another girl was the reclining button/lift, and our two leaders played a couple. GOOD TIMES, guys.
So, instead of going back to our campsite, we decided to eat our dessert there, since we packed our food stuffs in a backpack that we brought with us. So we hunkered down, built a fire, and started making Banana Boats..
Ok so, Banana Boats.. are god. Essentially, you cut open the banana right down the middle (leaving the skin on and such) and stuff it with chocolate, marshmellows, Resses cups, graham crackers, basically we all stuffed whatever we could fit in the poor banana, rolled it up in tin foil, and tossed it into the fire. When it was done, the banana was all carmelized, the things inside melted and it was almost ogasmic.
Moving on, Mac&Cheese desided to lay under the stars and chill a little, kinda talking about our adventure, Ithaca, majors, constalations, whatevers. We kinda got so comfy that eventually we desided to sleep under the stars, but first we had to get our sleeping bags. A short hike and a few minutes later, we arrived back to the stars. We set up our sleeping bags and watched some shooting stars pass us. Eventually groups came back to the site, probably first to use the actual bathroom that's located at the Gathering (must say, I was much more comfortable using it then the forest.. which actually isn't that bad) and then saw the awesomeness of Mac&Cheese and decided to join us. We got 3 other groups under the stars eventually and we all kinda zonked out around 12. For some reason, I woke up extremely early (8:30 something) and Rob was standing over me..
Me: *sleepyawkward* Um.. hey.. Rob..
Rob: *whispering* Hey, morning. You want some breakfast?
Me: Umm.. yeah.. *attempts to be alive*
Rob: I have it set up on the picnic tables, come over when you're ready.
Me: Mmmkk.
Rob is way too much a morning person, I can't speak correctly till at least 10 minutes after. Anywho, I had nutella and peanut butter on a bagel and it was delic. After everyone was up, we desided to go on a jont around the Gathering, which considering I thought it was a good idea to wear my shoes without socks (I had bandaged up my blisters from the day before and wearing my bulky hiking socks felt really awkward) was a bad idea... oh well, I survived, obviously, but with more cuts and blisters. Anyways, right after we got back, we heard that the buses were there to pick us up, and we drove back to Ithaca. And saw lots of cows and corn.