American School of Doha - Day 3

Today I hiked up to a cave and I abseiled down a waterfall, and it was honestly so much fun. First we hiked from camp to this really cool old cave, and I loved that so much because I’ve been hiking since I was small, and its one of my favorite things to do. And during the hike, we had more than a few leeches. It was a lot of leeches, and to be honest I was freaking out because they sounded so bad. However, during that hike I totally overcame my fear of leeches, and I found out they're actually really interesting creatures. The cave turned out to be the place where archaeologists have found the oldest traces of fire, therefore man. That was really cool. We then explored the cave, jumped into a small waterfall outside the cave, and hiked to a beautiful stream full of absolutely gorgeous dragonflies. We had our lunch and hiked again to the top of the waterfall we would abseil off. When I saw the waterfall, I shuddered. I have a fear of heights and falling, so I was absolutely terrified. However, I went down 5th, just so I wouldn't wait on the top freaking out. To be honest, for about ¾ of the way down I was so scared. But eventually, I overcame my fear, and that is now one of the most amazing things I've ever done.

Today out group had a nature lesson, watched a movie, and went river rafting. Although we thought it would be better to get the rafting over with, we were glad to get some rest during the movie and the nature lesson. In the nature lesson, which we had first, we were taken around camp with out eyes closed and we got to open them for about one second and be able to identify where we were. We also picked something from around camp that we thought was the most beautiful, and then explain why we thought it was beautiful. A lot of people picked flowers and leaves, but I got a bamboo stick because it’s so unique. Later we watched a movie, and because it was so dark and warm, everyone but three people fell asleep at some point! We were all so tired from the past few days and the morning that we all crashed. Once one person was asleep, basically everyone was. But from what I saw of the movie, it was very fascinating seeing how fast the world is changing in our generation. It we want to make a difference, we have to step up and make a difference and stop talking! Later, we went river rafting. The water was so cold that I was shivering, and then it started to rain. Although it was cold, it was very fun because we played trust games, balance games, and learned how to flip the raft upside down and right side up. We also learned the different parts in a river. The currents, the eddies, the stoppers, the pillows, the strainers, everything that we saw! At first We were struggling to paddle up-stream because of the current but we eventually got used to it and it was very fun.