Since I stepped foot onto campus last August, I have been busily working through my sophomore year in an effort to achieve the grand accomplishment of a college degree. All this time I have been so busy that any yearning for adventure has been unattended to. As much as I love what I do on campus, such as majoring in environmental studies, participating in the climbing club, ECO club, and enjoying life with my friends, I have been trapped in boxes for too long now, and I must be freed for some time. The good news is, my time spent in boxes will drastically decrease in the next month. In just a few hours, I will load up my baggage into a chain of fast moving boxes that will bring my group and I across the continent to Wenatchee, Washington. Once there, we will leave this chain of boxes (its a train... If you didn't figure it out) and load our stuff onto another box (this one has wheels... A bus). This box will take us to Chelan, where we will spend the night before we take a ferry across a lake to our final destination: Holden Village, tucked in a valley within the Cascade Mountains.
Once in Holden, a Lutheran retreat center, we will have three weeks to explore the mountains in the winter. The snow will be deep, and I hear the air is pretty fresh there too. Basically, whatever your mind conjures up from the words "winter wonderland," Holden Village is pretty close.
Although there is a lot of fun to be had, there will certainly be work to get done as well. While in Holden, we will be taking a four credit course with our professor titled "Environmental Issues in the Pacific Northwest." In this class, we will be learning about the complex issues that places such as Holden Village are involved in.
There is limited internet in Holden, so it is hard to tell how much more you will hear from us. However, I promise there will be more content from us soon. Come back and see what we post!
-Charlie