Check out my new ride...

Here are some random photos that I took with my digital camera. I realize i do not like using a digital camera too much. Thats all. The bike that I am working on and going to use in Ann Arbor this year is at the bottom. So far its cost about 60 bucks all together to buy and to fix. So not bad. I wish the wheels were a little bigger, for speed. But its still really really fun to be in the road bike position. Its so fun to ride, I guess thats all that matters.

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!

The Rain in Maine

Hello everyone! I am finally back and in this civilized life again. Though my living wasn't really that primitive. It is true that at the New England Literature Program, telephones, ipods, computers and whatever else was prohibited and physically taken away from me. So that made things very interesting. As sad as it was to miss the rest of my world, it was easier to concentrate on the present moment, because really, there wasn't anything I could do about the situation and where I was, so I just entered full speed and at full charge. The result was a gradual and total evaluation of myself, my beliefs, goals, values. I feel like this program and the experiences, the people, the way I was included and became a vital part of the community, helped me understand my worth. I can now try to describe myself in words, I know what I am good at and what I like to do. The mystery of poetry has been slightly cleared up for me, and now I am gradually accumulating a collection of memorized poems in my head. I hope to make that a regular activity. It really gets me excited about the literature and life, as corney as that sounds. I'll try to illustrate the trip for you, but the best pictures will come later. I have to get them developed.

Our van there stopped a lot, and so we were late, but as opposed to the others that HAD to get to the hotel, we saw some cool things.



Remember how excited I was about the vans spelling out University of Michigan on their sides? Well this is all we got.







Scooby-doo type scary house.





The first week, they taught us how to use a map and compass and then drove us in little groups very far away from the camp, early in the morning, and told us to get back to camp. I was very surprised, though some kids new about it. So we were dropped 12 miles away and walked the whole way through forests, down roads and through peoples' property. It was crazy, and every once and a while a truck or car would pass us, heavy with other NELPers, screaming at us in triumph while we trudged so tiredly down the road. It was a great experience though. Here we are sitting exhausted 2 miles before we get back to camp.

Acca and I in celebration.

Then we had a story telling circle, describing our feats. One team brought pockets full of spent machine gun shells.

A few days later, we had a day hike up Burnt Meadow Mountain, and had lunch at the top. This is Bryan Kelly, who took russian in school and we spoke a lot in secret.

Coming down steep terrain.

The next trip was an over night hike up a mountain to the summit. This is Sanjay. It rained the whole 36 hours we were there and then for 5 days after that. Did i mention it rained for 3 days after we got to Maine?

Nels, one of the instructors. I won't even get started on this incredible person.

Shaelyn.

Eating dinner, wet and cold.

What the evergreen forest looked like. The other photos are of the hardwood tree layer of the mountain.

And here is Kevin right at the timberline. The rain produced zero visability, but it was almost surreal and neat that way.

Back to camp, i don't have many pictures of it. But this is the dock, and I bathed here everyday, and didn't shower for 3 weeks. By the end of the trip, it was covered in water from the rain raising the lake's water level.

The Next trip was to Acadia, a national park-island where we camped on very nice campgrounds. People described this place as a vacation trip, and small groups broke up to go see things all over the island. It was wonderful to see the ocean.







That evening we climbed an incredibly precipitious mountain in about an hour, using all of these rebar steps and handles drilled into the rock. Crazy.





And then we journaled. Obviously, we were very serious about our journalling!

The next night i had my lobster that i paid for months in advance. I also finished off 5 other lobsters. My fingers were wrinkled from the lobster juice.

This is a very very good friend of mine now, Rachel, and an instructor, Alistair, who was a student at Nelp a few years ago.

Journaling about my own islanded place. If you remember my germany experience, I described that i am on an island when I go for walks, which is all i did in germany and do every saturday morning in Ann Arbor

The Coast.

Rachel and John's art project. Framing nature. Is it art? There was a long discussion.

So THEN later that week we went on an extreme hike in the northern Maine wilderness. It was crazy. Stream crossings and shit, just like Ryan is doing here. He was a staffer too, and from West Virginia.

Serious bug protection.

Eating lunch or something.

Moose tracks!

with packs on.

Here, good Kate is drinking from a Natural Spring. Delicious!

we selpt in some shelters on this pond.

and walked around on such platforms to protect the marshes.

BEAUTIFUL weather the next day. Lots of hiking around looking at stuff.

Here is a dragonfly metamorphosizing from the larvae. Can you see whats going on? Its weird. The dragonfly is hanging upside down, coming out of its former skin/life. It was dragonfly birthday or something, because we watched lots of these things happen.

Waterfalls



The Moose has become one of my favorite animals, without a doubt! Wow they are so so so cool.





Tomorrow i am flying to DC to visit my friend Gabby, but after that, I will show you the rest of my pictures! I have great film ones i need to scan.



Drawn out goodbye: