kayaking

Hello everyone!!

I am sorry I didn't post last night, I was just too tired. This is my post describing yesterday.

Yesterday, with Rotary, I went kayaking. 20 kilometers. In the cold Belgian weather.

It rained, the sun shined, it rained again. We got wet, we were tired, we ran into trees.

But overall, I enjoyed the day :)

This is a picture of me, Emma, and our friend Oakley before the adventure began.

The kayaking trip was organized by Rotex, which is the ex exchange students, who are from Belgium and went to other countries in the past years. We met at a train station at 9:00 a.m. and after paying the 12 euro fee and getting our ticket, we were lined up with water proof buckets, lifejackets, and paddles, ready to hit the water.

Above is a picture of a girl named Aditi, who ended up being my kayaking partner. She had never been kayaking before, and although I have, I wasn't exactly the strongest paddler out there. However, we had fun running into trees and avoiding rocks in the water, although often times we ended up turning in circles and facing backwards. My good natured spirits lasted throughout the entire day, even after it started raining, we ended up going over two waterfalls- getting completely soaked, and after I realized I had forgotten to pack a lunch and thus had nothing to eat. Luckily for me exchange students just might be the friendliest people in the world, and I was graciously given lots of food to munch on.

Emma, Gaby, and I ended up riding home from the kayaking adventure with one of the Rotex boys. He had spent his exchange year in New York a couple of years ago, and thus his English was close to perfect. We had quite the experience riding in the car with him, getting lost, pulling over on the side of the road to search for my host mom, and scrolling through Emma's iPod looking for music that would remind him of the United States. In the end, we safely arrived on the correct side of the road to meet my host mom (after quite a few phone calls). We then dropped Emma off, and Gaby and I came back to my house to hang out for awhile until her host mom picked her up.

Overall, kayaking was beautiful. I enjoyed the views and I enjoyed the workout (because YES, it was quite the workout for me- I'm sore today!). Being outside and appreciating the nature was good for me. Not to mention racing other people, chasing ducks, and learning more about both Belgium and other cultures. At the end of the day, I had a great time, although I was freezing!

yesterday I appreciated: nature