Three days IN "Cloud Nine."

Unfortunately, my creative juices aren't flowing enough to create a well-versed poem about our *amazing* (insert Leona's voice and finger snaps) adventures at Mt. Ka'ala, so for now I will resort to old-fashioned, but very handy, prose.

Last week was incredible, and probably my most favorite site we have worked at so far. Part of the reason why I liked it so much was because we got to work with others who harbored the same passions. It was very fun to learn about and connect with them, and the atmosphere was just always so lively. Happiness and fun made work a whole lot more endurable; it made it enjoyable. Another part of why I liked it so much was because it was so unlike anything I have ever done before (cliche, but true.) The bog itself seemed like an alien world, a different dimension, a hidden planet on our very own earth. It was just so alien. I've never in my life ever even heard about a forest like that. I have always pictured boggy areas as a lifeless expanse of land that was squishy and covered in fog, where a serial murderer would appear as a hulking shadow across the horizon. Definitely not the beautifully surreal forest hidden in the clouds on top of Mt. Ka'ala.

Though it was wet and cold pretty much 99% of the time, I LOVED it! I am a clean freak, and I hate dirtiness and wetness and basically all that awesome stuff you encounter when being outdoors, so I expected to be miserable. On the contrary, I was having so much fun. I thought to myself, whilst crawling hands and knees over trees on a vertical slope above a gully, "This isn't really the most appropriate time to feel this way but, I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN!" I felt like a kid in a jungle gym, literally. The sense of accomplishment at every ginger I cut and sprayed heightened my euphoria to a level that nearly brought me to tears when it came time to depart from wonderful Ka'ala. Despite only knowing those army people for two or three days, I nearly cried when we had to leave. If you guys are reading this by any farfetched chance, ADD ME ON FACEBOOK I miss you guys. ):

-Grace