More photos from Maine of my new friends.

Hello, everybody. I hope that your months since my last post have been fantastic and yet still chaotic like mine. Though I am almost 20, emotions are running strong. I do feel a great connection to the world, however. A lot more has begun to make sense. So here are the first batch of photographs I took with my SLR on the trip. We will begin with the End, the climb up Mount Washington, which was hillarious, to put it in an all-encompassing phrase. (All-encompassingly!) You can see what greeted us as we cleared the timberline, as measly 7 miles out of the 12 it took to get up to the summit.

And it wasn't even that bad until we got to the top. The fastest winds were recorded on top of that mountain, 230 MPH (370 KMph) and then the instruments blew away (not while we were there, though). I love this photo, taken by Drew Philp.

On the way down, I experienced winds that I will probably never feel again! They literally blew me down to the ground, and we had to walk for miles over coverless rocks and boulders, through Felsenmeere of rock and without any vegitation at all to hide us, ducking low to the ground, backs bent, backpacks soaked, rain pounding our exposed noses like needles, the wind blowing us off the trail, which was only marked by large stacks of rock. It was so bad, I couldn't stop laughing the whole time. But we were happy! Especially under the cover of this ridge. And it was cloudy all day, but every once in a while, a hole would open in the clouds, and the mountain allowed us a glimpse at the country. Which was beautiful. But it was so sudden, i couldn't get my camera out of its waterproofing fast enough. It got wet when i took it out to take these though. But it survived. Like me.

I can't really emphasis how much of the program was centered around writing. I don't think I wrote enough, personally, but I still had my journal next to me every second, in case something was inspiring. I enjoyed running and jumping more than sitting and writing, but some others wrote a lot. This is a class, a journal group meeting, where we would talk about how our journals and experience was going. Most classes were small like this, some were pretty big, but all had an intimacy. Sometimes, we would rather have been outside, but writing was important.

Audra writing.

John Writing.

Ben and Becky Writing.

Here is the dining hall where we would be together. The food is being introduced and I am talking about something...

And the teachers! You can't pick them out unless i told you who they were. Here is Ryan (a teacher) who is from Elkins, WV, and became quite a great friend of mine. He is talking with Taryn about something. Probably poetry. He is a poet.

Nels, an english professor, brought his wife Jess, and their baby Emmy Lou.

The Atlantic Ocean with Becky, a teacher as well. I loved seeing the Ocean again. Its like an old friend, and it is always sort of surprising to think that you actually made it back again to see the sea.

Here is Becky mentoring a student. You can tell she is older and more experienced here, right?

Aric, he is a writer, and a great thinker. I had lots of important talks with him. And will have more, as he lives in Ann Arbor.

Alistair had a great name and is a very calm, patient person. I wish he would be around Ann Arbor, but he lives in California. He was so positive. Someone really to look up to as a college student.

Francis. I miss him. Kevin is in the foreground. He was a great person to have talks at night on the rocks with.

There were more teachers, but I don't really have pictures of them. The next set of photos are more of scenery and the Maine landscape. It was lovely. New England. Mushrooms.

This island is owned by the camp, and students could go out there to have SOLOS, which is where you spend about 24 hours alone. I did it and got sort of bored. But I tried fasting for the first time, and managed 22 hours, I think, without food. It was interesting.

A little dock on the solo island.

Gull.

Lake Sebago, where the camp was. These were right after a thunderstorm. Mmm.

Natural Layers, can you see?

This is, again, my favorite place at camp. I think the harmony here is so wonderful.

This is Somm Sound, the only Fjord in the continental US, or something like that. A glacier carved it out, and it is supposed to be very deep. But not as dramatic as typical fjords, of course.

A New England town on Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor. Our little group spent a great hour or so rolling and writing and tumbling around this green space. Beautiful.

I like this picture of myself, actually. Ha.

So thats the new update. I hope you like all of the new changes i've made to the site, I think that the pictures should fit better on this one. I will try to have more very soon. I always say that, but I have a roll to be developed and I would like to get them scanned. Otherwise, have a great time. I will put a post of my new bike on here to show you guys what i've been working on recently in Cincinnati, getting ready for school again. Oh man. Bye!