Because I LOVE blogging sooooooooooo much, I'm making tonight's post extra long and filled with every little detail of the past few days which I have missed. (for that I am sorry, but I can't just make internet appear everywhere) sorry if there are mistakes, I'm tired and writing a lot.... so.....
Let's start off with a question:
Have you ever slept on dirt?
Well I have, even before this trip.... and that first time, it was a terrible experience.... hence the fact I was in the middle of a humid forest listening to mosquitoes buzz around my ears all night...
However, sleeping in a hogan was a rather a interesting and more positive experience. To be honest, yet not to brag for I know not everyone actually slept, I slept pretty well... This might have been the result of the hours of baseball we played that day on the reservation (I pitched) or the heat and dryness... My bet would be the baseball... That can take the breath right away from you. Maybe it's both, I don't know... So before even falling asleep, what should I have decided to do....? Stargaze? What an excellent idea.
Stargazing in Arizona is so much better than in Jersey, let me tell you... in Jersey you look up and see four? five? if you're lucky; six stars? maybe the big dipper? Well in the middle of a dessert, with barely any lights, and a whole lot of nothing, you don't have to look further than the tree line to see at least one star. It's like a blanket of stars over you, everywhere you look there's a new constellation or cluster of stars. Some of us, (cough, cough) tried star tripping.... which resulted in many thorns the the feet and dizziness, but it was all fun in the end.... We were even lucky to see a few shooting stars, which was an exciting experience, by the sound of everyones screams and squeals, for the entire group.
This was followed by two more days on the reservation filled with making Fry Bread, an explanation of the Navajo culture, as well as learning a bit of the language, and a new addition to our many sports; soccer. Also it was Jake's birthday and we celebrated and we had cake and it was really fun, and a surprise so, yay!
So of course every trip has it's breath-taking, mind-boggling, favorite, never-forget experience... If you've been on a trip without one, think harder, but this unit's one, for me, was Canyon de Chelly. For the first part of the visit, we drove around the rim, looking at some cool views, interesting sites, the whole shi-bang, but I think the best part was when we actually started to hike down INTO the canyon... People still live in it, and I don't blame them... the view from everywhere along that 5 (ish) mile hike was absolutely beautiful. Along this hike, I saw what a lot of people don't normally get to see, and this was ancient pictures on the walls of the canyon, which were up pretty high, which makes me wonder how on earth they got up there.. but anyway the walk was beautiful and at one point we were able to take off our shoes and walk through the river... That was really fun, especially running through puddle-like sections and not realizing how deep they were and totally just soaking our shorts. I'd post pictures like some other people on here, but I do not have my connector thing.... so that's not an option... don't get me wrong, I'd love to post a few, but I can't... ANYWAY aside from the rocks and drawings and such, we saw some wild horses every so often which is just so rare.... and beautiful.. and majestic.. and now I'm just blabbering about horse beauty...
So today (well the first half is going to look like nothing compared to the hike and stuff....) we sat on the bus for 8 hours and retraced the Long Walk... Once arriving in Fort Sumner, we went to a ranch and met up with local high school students... yes at first, like many first encounters with other people after seeing the same faces everyday for about a week, this was a little awkward but after eating and cooking and doing some experimenting, we all sorta got to know each other and it was really fun, and we had a good time... During this fun time I won Ninja... On the cultural side of the night my group created some sort of dough and bacon salad thing and coffee, which we drained using a plastic bag... it was definitely interesting... So hopefully we will have as much fun at this ranch tomorrow as we did today..
So good bye.... Adios.... Auf Wiedersehen... Peace.
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