- Kili
People did many things over break. There are all sorts of treks all over the world. Many people went to Thailand. I could have gone to Ecuador to help a small buisness with their sustainability, but this required a lot of grant writing. I took the easier trip (umm, planning wise that is).
The leadership club @ Sloan was having a Safari/Climb Kilimanjiro Trip over Christmas break so I opted to go to Africa. I spent Dec. 18th-Jan. 2nd in Tanzania. The group was 6 Sloanies and 3 LFM's: Cal, Daniel and I.
First thing to clarify, I am not an extreme sports person. I do enjoy life participating in once in a life time experiences. Yes, I missed Christmas and New Years with my family but I really don't think I would get to climb a mountain through work. I had a hard enough time convincing my friends at work to go to Paris let alone a Safari.
So I was extremely nervous about going to Africa. I don't exercise, I don't do camping and I don't do mosquito's. I was going to be camping in the Serengeti with wild animals and This really sounds like it was bad idea.
Funny thing is the first hotel we stayed in was the worst of it. The Safari was the first 5 days. The hotels were all inclusive on food. The brought you hot towels when you got out of the safari jeep, even at the camp site. The camp site was exactly like the 1950's movies of english people on safari. Gaint tents with 2 people inside, a 4-poster bed, a toilet, a shower and a sink. They also had a small bar and all the beer you could drink. They also had electricity to charge your camera. This was really not camping.
- The hippo that could have attacked the stalled jeep
For 5 days we went to diffrent parks around Serengeti. I saw leopards, black rhino's, baboons, monkeys, hipo's, lions. The animals would get so close to the jeeps you could almost touch them, it was amazing. I saw two elephants fighting. One was really creative in using tree's to smack his opponent. I saw a lioness stalking a zebra. There was also a pride of lions stalking zebra that were interupted by an elephant. This was one of the coolest experiences in my life. I really want to go on Safari again.
The second week we climbed Kili. It is hard to describe the bond and sense of achievement climbing Kili really was. It's 6 days up the mountain and 2 days down. It's really just walking with a bit of an altitude struggle. I really got to know my Sloan classmates as we snuggled 2 to a tent each night. You couldn't help to learn about each other as we had many crazy dicussions while walking 3-6 hours a day. We bonded over the food. It wasn't bad but it did get boring. We got our breakfast porridge privileges taken away because we refused to eat it.
Honestly, climbing Kili is just a tiny bit harder than walking 3-6 hours. There is a whole team of people that take care of you so its actually easier than classes. They even brought a private toilet tent for us. Really not roughing it at all. The hardest part was summit day.
I made it to the top but there are two phrases people had for me when we were done:
"you were a blue parka'd penguin waddling to the summit"
"you were like the zombie from thriller without the hand motions"
It was tough. The last part is really deceiving because it take an hour and is totally flat. I was feeling ill but never got sick like many others on the summit. It was cold, windy, the sun had just come up and was blinding and yet it was beautiful.
- Cal, Daniel and me at the summit
I learned about staying together as a group. Being accommodating even when your tired and really annoyed. The biggest part of the learning experience came from returning to the states. Having been away for the holiday shopping season and city life in general it was an eye-opener as to what is important. All in all though I would say the effect the trip had on me is subtle but there.
I think the message though in all of this is that Sloan has some amazing experiences that it offers. LFM offers a lot of new experiences but putting yourself out there and trying new and crazy things grow even more. Trek's are also a great way to bond with classmates outside of Sloan, but you'll never be as close with the sloanies as your are with LFM.
