This weekend was Easter break and I was planning to enjoy a nice relaxing weekend in my room, accompanied by my books, my bed, and a bit of work. However, was I in for a surprise! Thursday afternoon I headed into work to put in a couple of hours before the office closed. It was sad to see my friend’s head home for their breaks, and I knew this meant I would probably have a very lonely birthday which happened to fall on Easter Sunday; I was beginning to feel homesick.

After giving a campus tour, I packed up my bag and headed back to my empty room. When I walked into the lobby I was surprised to see my four roommates. They invited me to go to dinner with them before they headed out. With only 10 minutes before the cafeteria closing, we got some of our guy friends to drive us over. As we hopped into the van I was greeted with several grinning faces.

Heading out of the parking lot, I noticed we turned the opposite direction…we weren’t headed to the dining hall at all. Now I was suspicious that something was up.When I asked what they were doing, my roommates told me they were bringing me camping. “CAMPING!” I yelled. I had wanted to go camping for weeks. I was so excited I was bouncing all over the back seat. We headed off to a camping ground called, Cloudland Canyon, about 30 minutes away from the school. There we met up with another one of my good friends who had been waiting with the equipment.

We got out of the car and I immediately began to set up camp. I grabbed the girls’ tent and demanded that we do it on our own. We girls did not need any help from the boys. And can proudly say we did an impressive job…with only a little help from boys. After putting up our tents, making the fire, and setting up our “kitchen” we all sat around the fire. We ate s’mores, told stories, and laughed until our conversation was monopolized by yawns. That seemed to signal it was time for bed.We said our goodnights and headed to the tents.

Wouldn’t you know it; Georgia picked a fine time to make a record low.We all froze as it got down to the 20’s that night. Although we bundled up as much as we could the brisk air still seemed to find bare skin to freeze into place. Some how, we made it through the night and woke up to the sun peering at us through the trees. What a sight to behold! We were all so glad to see it.We took our time getting ready for the day and then headed towards the waterfalls. Right before heading down to the waterfall we were greeted with a magnificent view of the canyon. The various spring greens popped on the trees. We all were speechless as we soaked in the beauty. The waterfalls were beautiful! I have never seen a waterfall close up before. It was only the startling chill from dipping my toes into the water that kept me from jumping in to swim underneath it. Oh, and I have decided to put “slide down a waterfall” on my list of things to do before I die.

After getting back to camp, taking a nap was priority on my list of things to do. A nap in a tent, ever done it before? No? Well, I would highly recommend it. It is one of my favorite things to do. It is like taking a nap on the grass outside, except you don’t have the bugs crawling up your arms nor any chills from the cold breeze.

That night the temperature continued to drop lower and lower. We huddled as close as we could around the fire, playing chase from the smoke. Then we felt something…water? No… SNOW! Our only hope for warmth was the little fire we had tried so hard to keep alive. We entertained ourselves by asking questions like, “Driving away from a tornado you pass a bus stop where three people are standing: an old lady, your true love, and your best friend; if you could pick only one to save, who would it be? I HATE questions like that! We all struggled to give some impressive answer, but failed.

There was talking, laughter, and silence as we starred at the glowing fire through the darkness. Then the cold got the best of us so we headed to bed. It seemed much colder then the night before. We layered socks, pants, sweaters, hats, gloves, scarves, anything you could imagine, and we were still cold. One of my roommates and I woke up at 2:30 and just started to laugh uncontrollably. We looked so pathetic…but oh were we ever having a good time.

The next morning we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then packed everything up. We headed home after a long, cold weekend outdoors. What a WONDERFUL weekend it was! I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present!