my spring break was 9 days long officially. but i extended it by a day by ponning friday's lesson to go and visit las vegas for a day! hohoho!
Bellagio hotel
Mirage hotel
Vegas is really cool at night. The glam and buzz and lights - simply dazzling! but i didn;t take many photos cuz my camera really suck at taking photos at night :( hence explains the subquality photos. anw, my night there wasn't that satisfying cuz 1) we are underage, so we can only play slot machines. (and still risk getting chased out of the casinos without being able to redeem our winnings) 2) the famous bellagio fountain did not perform that night due to strong winds! WTH?!
but it's ok. that's not the highlight of my trip at the west coast. the best part is actually the 7-day backpacking trip with cornell's outdoor education department at the beautiful canyons in Utah!
Day 1: me standing at the trailhead. the background is where we descended into for the rest of the trip. i nearly couldn't even make it down this canyon with my outrageously heavy and humongous backpack :(
Day 2: changed camp base and did some hiking, learnt how to cross river. This is the Escalante River which is super long and has so many meanders that we at least crossed it 18 times throughout the entire hike!! See those branches and plants by the banks? they would soon become my NO.1 enemy in this trip. grrrrr!
Day 3: day hike without the pack! yes!! explored this really narrow canyon called fence canyon, at the risk of confirm-will-die flash flood (it rained after lunch fyi). haha.
Day 4: another relaxing day, though have to carry pack and change camp base again. After lunch, we dropped our pack and explore this beautiful side canyon. This is the end of the canyon. there would be a waterfall if it was a wet day!
Day 5: quite an insane day. crossed the river at least 13 times just this day alone. hiked the entire day with our backpacks! nearly couldnt make it to camp base in time lor. but in the end we pressed on and made it! superb location for camp base: it's high up and the sky was unobstructed! the stars at night were AMAZING!
Day 6: final hike! this time round without our instructiors! nearly got lost but my team members were wonderful at navigating! another intensive day: morning was all the way through the F****** branches (i got really really fed up lor) and the whole afternoon was UP AND UP the canyons with our backpacks! no joke lor! but i made it in the end :) an amazing day though!
Day 7: back to the camp site of the first night! spent the morning chilling out and relaxing and finally reunited with the other team which got lost the previous day! one last shot before we climb back up to the same trailhead and head back to our van but i emerged much stronger and tougher :)
It was definitely not the typical way of how most people spend their spring break.. spring break is usually associated with beaches and chill outs and what-nots. but i don't regret spending my spring break in this "hard way" of no tap water, no sanitation, hot sun, cold nights, physical exertion, filth and mud and sand, cuz the chance of being close to nature, breaking out of the mandane and meaningless routine and challenging myself to my limits at the same time are so rewarding i will never forget this amazing experience for life! :)
and i thought that's all the 'drama' for our trip...until we underestimated the time by going to buy coffee and souvenir after checking-in and ended up being late for boarding the plane! and so, we missed our flight -__- worse still, all the later flights were overbooked and we were on standby indefinitely until 3 flights later before we FINALLY got out of las vegas airport. fyi, that is 17 hours in the transit lounge of las vegas airport. not fun.
hence, i missed monday's classes as well, unintentionally. in dead shit now. missing 2 jap lessons is a disastrous blow to my daily grade. and i am lagging for my other courses as well. 2 prelims next week. SIGHZ i am going to suck big time for this semester's GPA :(
back to work now! and LAUNDRY! sandy and muddy clothes and socks -- sianzzzzz -__-
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