White Water Rafting

Our rafting group in ME

The international boat

This will be the last post for the Fall of 2011 and the rest will include the excitement of  winter in Vermont.

White-water Rafting is a fun thing to do, which I had never done before. While I was back home in Afghanistan during the summer of 2011 and my parents didn’t allow me to do any activity that has to do with water because we in a dry place and were not much exposed to the water. But again to be more adventurous and try new things I thought I should be participating in an adventurous activity such as river rafting.

On Saturday September 17, 2011 there were about 35 students from Champlain College heading to Maine on a big bus with a friendly driver for White Water Rafting.  Before we head out from the College early in the morning; A breakfast of turkey and salad sandwiches, bottles of Gatorade and chips were passed around for a quick breakfast around at 8 AM and we ate the same around 12:30 PM where we stopped somewhere half way between VT and Maine to have lunch. Our trip was almost 6 hours but everybody used the time to watch a movie, read a book, sleep or chat with their  friends which was more convenient because that’s how it is supposed to be while you are in a bus. 

We arrived in Maine about 3:30PM and set up our camps. The weather was good so we could play Volleyball, soccer and all sorts of games.  There were small tents for 8-10 people and everybody started to set up their tents with whoever they wanted to live with for the night. There was a good BBQ for dinner and after dinner there was a large bonfire to keep us warm and roast chocolate with marshmallows until midnight. The night was very cold but thank God nobody got sick and everybody seemed happy and enthusiastic in the morning.  We took our tents and then clean up our stuff early on Sunday morning to prepare for Rafting in the river, which was very exciting to everyone.

We were given brief instructions and then were divided into groups of 8-9 with an instructor leading us to launch a boat on the river. Somehow our boat was called the international boat because our boat included three new international students and the the other boats were US students. 

I sat at the front of the boat where the huge waves could hit me right on my face and really almost I could drip into the water. I couldn't believe that I could actually jump from the boat and swim because I was so nervous at the beginning but as I saw people were jumping to swim in front of the boat I was tempted to actually jump and swim. 

Although it was cold and far, it was so worth it and if I had the chance, I would do it again.
I strongly recommend this to everyone in the future to participate in these kinds of “adventurous” activities especially white-water rafting because it is a good way to have fun and make lots of friends.

Thanks to faculties and members that plan and provide such activities that is really enjoyment and bring us together to be all CHAMPS yahh!

Biking Trip

Photo taken by our trip leader Morgaine Jennings

On the Ferry heading to Plattsburgh NY

I consider myself to be an adventurous guy because I am always open to trying new things.  On Saturday October 29, Champlain College announced a biking trip to Plattsburgh, New York and there was a large group signed up. Those of us who didn’t have our own bikes rented bikes from the Skirack and Champlain College paid for us.  I was upset and disappointed at first because it didn’t let me to sign up online, saying “list was full”, but somehow they let me go. When our group leader said that I was good to go, it made happy and excited again. 

We left Champlain around 10 in the morning and went to Skirack to get our bikes and then we took the Ferry to the other side of Lake Champlain which was sunny and nice but chilly outside.  I had five bottles of water with me to drink in case I got dehydrated and we started biking right after we got off the boat.  Biking was a big challenge for me because I only learned to  bike in 2007 and since then I only biked once on the streets of New York in 2010. 

When we arrived to Plattsburgh New York on a Saturday around lunch time and our leader gave us only 1 hour to relax and to have lunch because we had to get the Ferry back to Vermont.  The roads were good but there were so many hills to climb and those long hills killed our legs. Since we didn’t want to miss the Ferry we had to bike fast because we had half an hour to catch Ferry.  We arrived to the place where we had to take the Ferry 15 minutes early  and everyone looked exhausted. We realized that we all biked about 35 miles that day and for me, as a new biker, it was like participating in a national bike race. I was proud, patted myself on the back and said that “YES! Assad you are actually an adventurous guy.”