This weekend was great! I went on a retreat with the Honors College students. It was such a good time. A lot of time the first night was spent playing what I like to call "camp games" trying to remember everyones names. It realy helped though and I made the best of it.
THe whole weekend was so relaxing. It was so good to get to know and spend time with so many new friends. It was a good feeling coming back to campus and really knowing faces and having memories with people. It's like I made so many new friends!
On Saturday, the group went to the beach on Lake Victoria which was so beautiful. The place we went to was a beach resort kind of place. There was a pool that we could swim in and/or go to the beach. I spent a lot of time in the water at the beach. Groups of us played Ultimate Frisbee and soccer, while others swam and hung out. We found out by unfortunate events that there were leaches in the water so we all kind of migrated to the pool.
After our swimming adventures we headed off to the zoo. It was so beautiful there. I got to see a lot of animals. I saw Zebras, wild boar, chimpanzees, lions, otters, rhinos, and probably more but I can't think of them right now.
The lion that I saw was laying on the ground against the fence while I stood less than a foot away from it and took pictures:) Once he got up growled and yawned, then laid back down. It was so crazy, I have never been that close to a lion before.
The chimpanzees were amazing. While Iwere watching some of them play on the island across from the fence I was standing at, a baby chimp came running to the gate right beside me. I lowered my hand down to pet him but as I did a zoo keeper came and called him away. She stood and talked with some of us for a while. Being so close to him made me realize how similar chimps are to humans. The lady there said that their DNA is 90% identical to human beings. I was looking at the baby chimp and his hands looked SO much like mine!!! lol it was so funny. The lady said that all the chimps there have names and know and respond to their names. When the lady told him it was time to go in and started walking away, he immediately tried to crawl up her leg in attempt that she would carry him. She refused and he got mad. He pulled his hand out of hers and ran to the bushes, turned around, sat down, crossed his arms and pouted. It was like a small child who was refusing to obey its parent. I was laughing so hard!
The weekend was great. I feel so refreshed and now I have friends. Coming back to campus after the weekend, finally felt like home.
My USP gropup is trying to coordinate a trip to go rafting in the Nile and bungee jump either this weekend or next. Most likely next weekend considering there are over 30 of us trying to go. But I hope this works out soon for us:)
8 comments:
Jeez! that adventure sounds incredible. the lion! the monkey! man o man. im so glad to hear that you have made friends with a group of the people your with. And that would be insaine if you ended up doing the rafting down the Nile River, and went bungee jumping!!!!!!!!!!! i pray for you daily, love Shawn
ummm...tell me about bungee jumping in the Nile AFTER you do it, OK? :-)
Mom
Omgosh that sounds like the best trip ever! i have never been close to a lion before i bet that was a thrill... the lil chimp sounded soo CUTE!! i laughed really hard when i read about him throwing a fit and i thought of the monkey that our moms had. The Nile huh? that sould be a blast (isnt that the river moses floated down?) bungee jumping? im so jealous! i miss you and pray for you! tell your new friends i said hi! love you!
O yea in case u wanted to know... i have a wedding date (finally) October 18th at 1pm..
I hope you come back home with a zillion pictures! I don't care if you up-load them now...just take a ton and we'll look when you get home!! :-)
I'm glad this was a relaxing weekend! That's what I prayed for you!! Hope the week is starting off good for you!
Love you, Mom
Dear Nicole: I just had to write to you after reading about your trip this past weekend. You sure sounded like you had a lot of fun. I hope your Rafting down the Nile, is just as much fun. Keep up the good work, & I'll keep praying for you.
Sincerely, Uncle Daniel
i am so jealous...I want to see pouting chimpanzees
What adventures you are having! It's like a whole other part of your life has been opened up to you! Lakeland will certainly seem like a sleepy town by the time you get back! Like your mom said, be sure to let us know AFTER you bungee jump! You sound like my son, jumping out of an airplane! At least he had a parachute! :-) But he did drop from 18,000 feet! Well, you guys certainly didn't get your sense of adventure from your mothers! I love hearing about your life there in Uganda. Love, Auntie Mom
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