It’s been a busy couple of weeks here in Wilmington! Ever since I’ve arrived in the USA I’ve known I wanted to go to Asheville and go hiking – one of my loveliest friends agreed to take me on an impromptu two day trip – and it was amazing! Definitely worth the time away from school and our responsibilities!
We headed up to Asheville after class on Friday – it was a beautiful day and we were so excited – so it didn’t matter that it took us just under six hours to get there. There were many gas station stops for cheap candy and even cheaper coffee, and we had a fantastic playlist of 90's hits, so we made it in what felt like no time. We stayed with a family friend of the girl who drove us who lived about 15 minutes outside of Asheville in the most beautiful mountain home, and she was such a lovely host to us. We woke up to coffee and fresh bagels in the morning - It was nice to use her home as a base as we came and went from the mountains! |
We started our day at Mt. Mitchell, about 20 minutes onto the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville, which is the highest peak east of the Mississippi at almost 6700ft - it was so cold up at the top, it was only 5 degrees (42f)! We were freezing - so we didn't hang around, also there was a lot of fog so we really couldn't see much - although I imagine that the view would've been beautiful on a clear day! |
From there we headed up to Boone - which was a long drive on the curvy roads of the parkway, but the drive was stunning - there was no fog in the lower elevations and the foliage on the trees was just indescribably gorgeous - so vibrant and bright! We finally made it up to rough ridge - our plan was to stay up there and watch the sun come down – and it was the most exhilarating, humbling evening – we found a beautiful rock to sit on and it was so peaceful and quiet up there, and you could see for miles as the sun disappeared over the hills in the distance. It felt like we were on top of the world. |
We headed back to Asheville early the next morning, and another week of classes at UNCW resumed! Despite us being well into fall, the weather has been so beautiful, with days of full sun and temperatures in the high 20's - It's so nice to be out and about on campus when the weather is like that!
On saturday the lacrosse team went to the ∆Z turtle tug - which was an event supporting Delta Zeta's national philanthropy, The Painted Turtle Camp - which is a year-round camp for children with chronic and life-threatening illnesses. It was a beautiful sunny day so everybody was more than happy to get outside and spend some time with each other - plus we were earning budget points for our team - double win! The event itself was so much fun - it was a big tug of war over a tarpaulin covered in jello - so the loser went sliding through bright green goo! We were more than happy to get amongst it - and committed fully to our slimy slide when we inevitably lost. We were definitely the goofiest team there - the only girls still playing in the goo when the event ended - a full on jello war broke out, I was picking it off of my clothes for days! |
On saturday we went to a Halloween party hosted by ΣΑΕ - We had quite a variety of costumes from Rosie the Riveter and a couple of Minions to Vanessa Hudgens and Risky business - we looked fabulous if I do say so myself! ;) To be fair I'm not even sure what I was - I started out wanting to go as a gangster, and then It turned into a hillbilly, and then it was just american - the final outfit was kinda "Rosie the Riveter goes thug" but it was definitely open to interpretation. The party was a lot of fun and it was so fantastic to see everyone's costumes - everybody really committed to dressing up and there were some really creative ones! Everybody takes halloween very seriously here - and it's more than just a one day thing - it extends throughout the week before and the weekend after! In the week ahead I'm working at a study abroad fair, I have a couple of exams, and practicing hard for our lacrosse tournament next weekend - the fun never stops! No complaints from me. :-) Happy friday! |