From Busy Week, to Relaxed Weekend

This past week has been perhaps the most stressful one I've experienced in a while. It was as if everything just kept accumulating and things were piling on top of each other and there was just no room for me to breathe. Not only was school giving me a hard time with multiple tests/quizzes on top of homework, but there was also some personal things that got a little rocky for a while. I like to think things will just work themselves out over time so for now, I'm just taking things as they come. Regardless of my hard week, my weekend was largely better by comparison!

On Friday, after buckling down and knocking three tests out of the way, my day wasn't even close to being over. Right after school, we had a massive Beta event which sent all 200+ members out in the community for some service. I ended up in one of my favorite places in Lexington (and where I volunteer every week) The International Book Project. There, our group was in charge of packing a pallet to Panama so we taped together boxes and then filled them with books before stacking them up. Here's all of us looking chipper and eager to volunteer! I also managed to snag a couple books (as I always do after I volunteer) making for a very happy Lusi;)

After volunteering, I headed out for Thai food with a couple of friends before I had to leave for a meeting. One of the seniors last year started a non-profit organization called Running Water which she passed on to one of my friends, Jared, who is a senior with me this year. He is now president of the organization and the meeting on Friday was the first meeting for Running Water. We discussed what fundraisers we wanted to host, our plans for a 5K, and most importantly, our trip to Bolivia. We plan on going there around spring break and installing water wells in areas and residential neighborhoods that otherwise wouldn't have access to clean water. They had the same trip last year and the people who went only had a wonderful experience with it. I'm excited to begin everything we have planned for this year! After our meeting, Jared and I just hung out and watched some movies to take a break form our busy week/day.

On Saturday, mom and I slept in (as we deserved to) and it was probably the highlight of my day. That and my delicious breakfast of mini-oatmeal bites which I made with banana and peanut butter!

We didn't do much Saturday except while mom went out to celebrate a friend's son's birthday, I had a mini-panic attack about college and I had to have a friend come over so we could talk college and the future for a while. Whoops! I had planned to work on essays all of Saturday, but then again how does one work on essays when one doesn't even know where she wants to go to school?? (Can you tell why I had my panic attack?) Anyway, my friend helped me realize what schools I genuinely would want to go to and which ones I was just hopelessly hanging on to. I even added a couple to my list per his advice. He was a big help to me, however I don't how big of a help I was to him...He had vowed to cap his list at 5-6 schools, but I convinced him to add a couple more. Now he's at 10....my bad! 

On Sunday, I actually got out of the house and got some fresh air for a change! Two friends and I had made plans to go hiking the first week of school, but that actually never panned out. But hey! Better late than ever! So today, we finally went on our long-awaited hike after nearly three months of just talking about going. 

We headed out to Red River Gorge which is something of a tourist attraction in Kentucky, but we love it anyway. After debating in between singing old Disney Channel songs and laughing at all the silly things we do when around each other, we settled on a 3.5 mile loop called Gray's Arch.

We could not have picked a better day to go hiking -- I'm actually kind of glad that our original plan fell through just because it would not have been as pretty in August as it was now in October! All the leaves were turning and the forest was full of colors. Our luckiest moment of the day was with the weather because not only was it sunny, the temperature was neither hot nor cold; perfect for a Sunday hiking. 

Too many pictures of the Gorge and the Arch were taken, but I just couldn't resist. The entire forest looked so awesome that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap up a couple pictures. 

On our way up to the Arch, we had kept such good time. We had brought along with us a guide book considering didn't know the trail and didn't want to get lost and have it get dark on us. Of course, in some ironic twist of fate, we did get lost. And to be honest, it was probably because we had the book with us. In our defense, the map was very small and very difficult to read! And, the trails around the actual Arch were not marked decently! Thus, we probably walked an extra mile or so and took turns leading each other blindly down what eventually turned out to be dead-ends. But hey, thats what adventures are made from! 

All in all, my weekend was incredibly relaxing and well-needed after an exhausting week. Hiking and seeing some friends was exactly what I needed to get my mind off of the stress of college, and regular school, and gosh knows what else. Also, I apologize for my lack of regular posts during the week -- I promise to pick those back up again considering this week will be much calmer! Here's to a fresh start and a new week -- hope everyone's weekend was as leisurely and restorative as mine!:)