Opening Post!

So, this is my first post to all who read it (if the name didn't make it obvious enough) and I'm wondering what to write about....ummm...well I guess I'll start at the beginning!
This completes my first week at Pomona College, and though I am somewhat homesick, I have made a lot of friends from my hall and Orientation adventure (I'll come back to this) which have made the whole nerve wracking process of getting to know the campus and people much easier. I have most of my schedule now, including Chem 1, Calculus 2, Archery, Fencing, and Arthurian Literature, all of which sound pretty awesome. We also have to take what is called a critical inquiries class to develop our writing and discussion skills, and mine is called 'Apocalypse Whenever,' which should probably be frightening but to me just sounds really interesting. It is supposed to be about the Christian and Jewish ideas of the Second (or First, respectively) coming of the Messiah, and what it entails for this tiny blue/green rock of ours. Should be pretty cool.

Anyways, the Yosemite trip was pretty awesome. The first day, we woke up early to hike from Glacier Point all the way up Half-Dome, which, according to our advisor, should have taken about 6-7 hours plus Lunch break. Well, this estimate was a little teeny bit off, and we found ourselves at the base of Half-Dome, after a long and difficult hike, with over 2 hours of one-way hiking to go. So, a few of us adventurous ones decided to press on for a bit, and finally got to a 2 mile mark about 1/2 the way up Half-Dome (this was about Quarter-dome) which we thought was supposed to be the actual total height of the hike up. Still, a select few of us kept going, and got about 15 minutes of crazy fast hiking in before we had to turn around from lack of time (and a bit of exhaustion.) So, we turned around and headed back to our base camp at the start of Half-Dome, which I forgot to mention is at the top of Yosemite Falls, with a view I will never forget (and hopefully you reading too once I get pictures), and started to head down to the Valley. This would also be longer than we thought, and about 1000 painful rock steps later we descended down from Yosemite Falls to reach: Vernal Falls. This was very beautiful as well, but perhaps we missed a bit of it due the fact that it was 6:00 and we hadn't eaten anything but squished trail food since 11:00. More rock steps, a few slips and scratches and an assurance-of-pain-in-the-morning later, we were at the shuttle stop and almost back. It was about 7:00 by then. Needless to say, our head hit the pillows harder than the rockfalls that shaped most of the campsite we were in. I will take a second to write about our sleeping conditions, which were very good. We slept in Tent-Cabins, which are wooden decks with beds and a bit of furniture covered securely by a tarp, with a locking door. We slept very comfortably.
The reader must realize that I am not complaining at all about this first day. I had a ton of fun, saw some amazing views, and developed some wonderful friendships, all at the price of only a few sore muscles the following day. I would do it all again had I the chance.
The next day, we awoke late and had a wonderful leisurely breakfast of pancakes with whatever we wanted on them, and visited the Native American Museum, where we witnessed about the making of about 1/1000 of a Yosemite Indian cooking basket being created (some of the most detailed and amazing can take up to 4 years to produce!), and learned some of the tricks of creating arrowheads. We also visited the John Muir Gallery, which had many of the great photographer's own prints as well as an excellent gift shop. The rest of the day was spent on a nearby beach playing Frisbee and just relaxing.
The next day was our last, and despite the tardiness of the bus we managed to stop by the Mariposa tree reserve (at least, I think that was what it was called) and say some of the tallest and oldest trees in the world. One, the Grizzly Giant, was over 1800 years old, and the most gnarled and interesting tree i had ever seen. Then we arrived home, albeit a bit later than expected, without a hitch. The trip was wonderful, but it was nice to be back at Pomona.

Whew! Well, I am just about Scribed out. This was fun, and I hoped you all enjoyed reading it. I will record again as soon as I get a bit of free time and tell you my next adventure. =)

I leave you with this, a poem I found deeply meaningful on my trip:

"The Butterfly flitting from Flower
To Flower ever remains mine;
I lose the One that is netted
By me."
-Rabindranath Tagore,
Indian Poet