Campamento Artigas

What an exciting week it has been! I got to spend 4 more days camping this past week and it was absolutely fantastic. This time I didn't spend days on horseback, instead I got to be a child and essentially go to "summer camp." I am taking a techniques and activities of camping class that essentially prepares people to be leaders/ run summer camps (or similar things) for kids. Believe it or not this 4 days of camping was actually part of my second exam grade!

 Before going we were divided into groups and each group was assigned an activity to plan according to a certain theme- then we spent the entire weekend playing the games/ taking part in the activities everyone else had planned.

Winners of the Greek Olympics!
(there was a game including Frisbee-
I think my team had an unfair advantage! hehe)

Sure- their idea of camping and my idea of camping are slightly different, but hey it was still a nice vacation! We stayed the first 2 nights in cabins and the 3rd night a little further away from camp in a tent, but really that wasn't the most important part of everything that happened.
This was a wonderful weekend for really making some strong connections- not just with the people I was with, but for the first time I got to experience a strong connection with Uruguay. I don't know how to explain it, I just feel like I was adjusting, then once I felt adjusted things just started going so quickly, time was passing, then finally this weekend I had time to sit and process it all while surrounded by an amazing group of newly created friends as we watched the sunset on the beach. I don't think I could have asked for a more ideal time for it to happen because I know that those connections will make the rest of my trip that much more special.
 I almost feel like I am going through the process of separation now and it's wonderful at giving me mixed feelings. I feel like when I try to write about my mixed feelings of my time coming to and end, I just tend to ramble a lot. It's probably hard to follow, but welcome to the workings of my brain :)

Zipline

I also never used to take this much time to reflect on the happenings of life- honestly I probably would have said it isn't necessary to do so often. That is one thing that I have learned- its so good to be able to take some time to reflect on things flying by in life, makes it much easier to appreciate the small things and take nothing for granted. I have not only been processing the happenings in Uruguay, but what got me here and what made the the person I am today that's crazy enough to leave home and make this solo journey to a foreign country for five months. Sure- its fun, there's new people, and traveling, but its also very difficult and it takes a special kind of person to go through this process and succeed at doing so. I am proud to say I consider myself very "successful" for lack of a better word.
So- only 6 weeks and 5 days remain of this amazing journey. I hate to see it coming to an end because I still have so much I would like to accomplish and I hate the thought of saying good-bye to some of the amazing people I have met along the way. Yet at the same time when I think about it, I'm not really sad because even if we don't ever cross paths again the people that I have met- and that I will continue spending time with for the next 6 weeks- made this experience everything I could have hoped for (or better) and I will always remember that.
Anyway I want to share something that came to me- I sometimes write little phrases or poems when the words happen to grace me with their presence. While I was sitting there watching the sunset I felt kind of lonely, missing people, but stronger than ever and this is what I wrote:
Feeling lonely doesn't make you weak, on the contrary, it makes you stronger.
But strength is the person whose has the courage to face the world alone
yet still opens their heart to the support of other along the way.
And I think that's where I'll end for today- a little food for thought.

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