When I was about to go on the trip I had mixed emotions. I was scared, happy, sad and excited. We came to school on 5-18-09 with our bags and we were ready to go. We waited in the classroom for the rest of the people to come and also for the Outward Bound instructors to come. Then when they finally arrived we went outside and put ours bags in the back of the truck. We all divided up into the two cars and drove to base which was right around the corner from the Philadelphia Zoo. When we got there we played a game to get to know every bodies name and I found out that our instructors were going to be Brea and Tom. Then we emptied our bags out and the instructors told us what and what not to bring. They gave us boots, rain gear, thermals and our sleeping bag. After we got everything and put it in our bags that we would be carrying for the next five days we ate tuna. Then we were off to the Delaware Water Gap which was a three hour drive. When we got there Tom explained the rules and then we started hiking. The first day I thought my legs were going to fall off. We had to go uphill for a while then we finally made it to the camp. Brea taught us how to tie the rope to the tree so that we could hang the tarps up. We ate macaroni and cheese and hung up the food so that the bear couldn’t get it. The first night while I was sleeping I had a dream about my mom and I missed home so much. The next day we did our daily routine which was having fifteen minutes to stuff our sleeping bags into the bags. We had our morning circle which consisted of the instructors distributing the jobs, stretching, and set our time goals for how long it would take us to clean up camp and take the bear hang down. After we were finished that we would put our hiking boots on and start hiking for about forty-five minutes and then stop to eat breakfast. There were designated cooks everyday and some days we had cereal or oatmeal for breakfast. We had to drink 4-5 bottles of water a day and when we ran out of water we found a stream or lake and put the water in our group water bottles which we couldn’t drink out of, but we could share with the group when there water was gone and we put iodine in it and shook it up and it had to wait for and hour until  we could drink it. For our personal water bottle we pumped water in it and that meant that we could immediately drink it. When we were hiking it was very humid and I thought I would pass out because the bags were so heavy and my back, shoulders and hips were hurting. When we were hiking every body told jokes even if they were lame and it made the walk quicker. One day Mr. Saar came up with this game called the bad joke game and you could make up any joke, but it had to start with someone or something walking in a bar. One of my jokes was that a tree walked into a bar and he saw a dog and the dog started barking and the tree was like I know I have a lot of bark. Ha Ha. It was funny then, but not so much now. Even though the first day was really hard I thought Thursday was the hardest because we had to hike for like seven miles which was crazy, but at the end I felt like I accomplished something and I was very proud of that.  On friday we woke up extra early so we could get ready to get to the cars. While we were walking we all saw a deer, but I wasn’t surprised because when I went to the bathroom I saw a deer and I was scared for my life. Anyway we walked for about a mile and a half and when we finally got there the cars weren’t there. I was real shocked, but the the instructors got the cars and we packed everything in them. The drive back to base was three hours and when we got there we had to clean the dishes, wash the cars and clean the clothes and we put our clothes on that was in our bags that we brought there. I was so excited and thankful that Mr. Saar chose for me to  go on this trip because I never really experienced something like this and I never think I would’ve if I didn’t come.

On Monday we are going on the camping trip. I have mixed emotions. I’m happy because it is a new experience, but I’m also sad that I won’t be seeing my family for almost a week. I’m excited to see how everything is and the challenges that I will have to overcome. I’m a little scared because I don’t want anything to happen to me like a bug crawling up my ear. I hope that I come back and be proud of myself since I accomplished being in the wilderness for 5 days.

I look outside and see the beauty that is there;
I watch the birds fly by, they are very rare;
Red, blue, black and yellow
All the flowers are lying down; they seem very mellow
Chirp chirp I hear the birds say;
It is such a wonderful beautiful day
The orange and red and green leaves fall off the tree
Buzz buzz, It’s a bee
The large sun is shining awfully bright;
I look up in the air; a little boy is flying a kite; I stand still and look around; there are many fascinating things that I have found. It is such a beautiful day;I hope you can come out and play;

Today we went to Trevor’s place and I didn’t recognize some of the faces so I assumed they were new. I said hi to almost everyone and I started doing work with Tah’Diyah. She had to do math work and I helped her by counting on my hands like if the problem said 5-2=? I would put up five fingers and take away two and ask her how many were left. After I finished helping her with her packet that consisted of math and spelling we just drew. At the end we gathered all the kids around to put stickers on the chart. I had a great time like usual and like always I’m excited to go back.