Day 12: Thursday, June 2nd

View from under my tarp

Unfortunately, I woke up at the crack of dawn, expecting my sherpas to arrive and pick me up for the long 20 second walk back to camp. It was actually pretty cold out this morning, so I huddled in my sleeping bag (zipped all the way up so just my mouth/nose were sticking out so I didn't suffocate--that would NOT be the way to end it). Anyways, I went the the bathroom like 4 times to pass the time when finally Greg came by to give me some gorp (Cheerio's, M&M's, peanuts, and raisins). I furiously ripped down my tarp, struggling to tie up all the cords so I just tucked them in my pocket because I had bigger things to do. Once again, I thought I was dying as I was taking my tent down. I was out of water and I couldn't really stand up for that long so I sat on the ground, then I sat on a rock, then I dragged out my sleeping pad after packing it away so I could sit on that and rest. Finally, Greg came back with the other girls and I heaved my huge trash bag of stuff (dirty clothes, empty bug spray, journal, Bible, empty poison ivy cream), sleeping stuff, etc.) and we headed over the small hill to get Caroline and arrive at camp! I have seriously never felt to weak in my life. I think I wrote that in a previous entry... but for real. Never in any sport season or anything have I ever felt like I was that close to unintentionally closing my eyes and collapsing.

So we got to camp which was SO WONDERFUL. The fire was going and the soup (with real vegetables!) we were about to eat was almost done cooking! I thought we weren't allowed to talk but the 5 of us girls talked so much while Greg went to go get the boys. Not that I'm complaining--I'm glad we weren't silent because there was so much to say and talk about. After the boys came back, we were all in a circle and it was slightly bizarre because everyone looked a little bit off. Like obviously I knew who everyone was but it was disorienting to see them, and also see them looking so... weird. Like some people looked thinner in the face, others looked puffy, and pretty much everyone had squinty eyes (or that's what it seemed like to me). It was just weird. And I'm sure I looked just fabulous, myself.

We had the soup that the sherpas made us, cheese and crackers, and "cheesecake" (graham cracker crust, some pudding, and strawberry stuff on top). Soooo it was pretty much the best thing I'd ever eaten. I wanted to have 5 more bowls of soup but I just didn't feel like eating anymore after the first bowl (a very strange sensation that I definitely was not used to). Anyways, we then did our ACES which was not as scary as I thought it would be... generally, people seemed to think I was a hard worker (I was happy about this because I would hate for people to think I'm lazy, and I certainly thought I was lazy at times). They also said that I'm funny (lolz) and that I should talk/open up quicker (which I expected this, of course). We then packed up camp and headed out! After a short hike down, we loaded up into the van and drove to base camp where I got to see Julieeee! After catching up with her at random times (between passing in some group gear/packs, setting up our tents for the last time, cleaning dishes with soap as compared to saliva), it was about time for THE FEAST. I'm not usually a fan of chips (or at least I wouldn't really go to them for a snack very often), I can honestly say I had about two full plates of chips. this was in addition to a hamburger, fruit salad, real salad, and Oreo ice cream! The ice cream was my favorite part because the sherpas had just mixed up the vanilla ice cream with Oreo's and they were just grabbing it with their gloved hands and stuffing it into our empty cups. It.was.so.good. Well now that I've used "so" about a million times in this post and in most of my others too...

That night we didn't do too much, just talked around the campfire. I think I almost fell asleep in the fire, I could barely keep my eyes open.