First we HIKE then we EAT...no classes today!

Most everyone went on a 3.5 mile (up hill) hike through Ricketts Glen State Park.
We were supposed to do the hike on Thursday afternoon, but the forecast shows a good chance of rain, so we changed things up a little. Flexibility is KEY on things like this.

They left at 8:30 in the morning and it was COLD!! I (Becki) drove up to the top with lunch and then we went back with John (about a 1hr drive). A few of the adventurous ones walked back down, there were only about 5-10 of them though.

Here is some of the AMAZING scenery.

After a picnic lunch at the top of the trail we drove home to get cleaned up and ready for our class picture then our class "banquet". This was also an hour drive, we went to the Country Cupboard in Lewisburg, PA. My mom and dad came down for dinner and walked around the store, bought some fudge, then we headed back. It was a beautiful day, and kinda cool to have my parents come down and meet some of our friends and staff. We ended our day hanging out with friends playing euchre.

MuMu and Skeet shooting

What a wonderful day,the sun was shining and the pig was cooking. Well, not until we filled a big hole with hot rocks and wet banana leaves. We layered the pork, potatoes and cabbage, more wet leaves and then comes the covering. Cardboard boxes, a piece of paneling and then a tarp, all secured with dirt. The meat and veggies cook underground by the rocks.



John hard at work placing the leaves.

Even Eun Chan helped out!

In between the cooking and the digging we had a skeet shoot.
We all got to try if we wanted. We both tried 8 times and still never hit one. It was still a lot of fun.

Time to go dig up dinner...


About 4 hours later we went and dug it up and ate it for dinner YUMMY!!!

Here is the "after" pic of the pig. Much more appetizing this way. We actually had some of the heart and I think that tasted better than the pig meat. It was tender and kind of tasted like beef. MUCH better than I thought it was going to be, I would definately eat it again.

What a great day!!!

WARNING!!! not for the squeemish

It was a little rainy today well, a lot rainy!
We were in class from 8 until 12:30 and then lunch. In the afternoon we had some free time. There was an activity for your free time if you so chose, which we did...I will let the pictures tell the story.

Psyching himself out for the KILL!!!

Yes, we were able to help butcher a pig!!! There was a professional butcher directing the entire thing so nobody got hurt well, except the pig!!! One of the students got to slit the throat after it was shot, then they had 4 people pick it up by the legs and drag into the garage where they put it on it's back on this wooden thing, that looked a lot like what you would see in a manger scene for baby Jesus to be lying in, to start the butchering process. John was one of those people and he was on the bloody side so he got some on his clothes.

The weirdest thing about it was that the legs were moving and it looked like it was trying to run. My friend Amy is in the brown shirt skinning it along with 3 others. Notice that 3 of them are girls!!! Pigs are stinky when they are alive and this one was particularly stinky when he was dead.

After all the excitement and gagging which I did my share of, we went to get cleaned up and read some more of our book before dinner. I hope you enjoyed the pics!!

1st day at camp

For those of you who don't know John and I are in Jersey Shore, PA for one week. We are on our senior retreat and taking a class while we are here at the "old boot camp" part of the training. There are about 80 of us here including staff. Yesterday we all gradually trickled in, it was a beautiful day! We got here at 3:00 pm, got unpacked and settled in our room, then off to see the campus. Here are some of the pictures of the village that was made by students and lived in for 2 weeks or so.

We had dinner and Orientation then free time (John played indoor soccer)then off to bed.
The campus here is just beautiful and has many newly remodeled parts. Here area some pics
Enjoy!