All I do is camp

Well everyone, I'm back from camping and in about a half hour I'll be off to go camping!  Ah!

This weekend was the annual church camping trip.  To be perfectly frank, I don't like camping; I've given it many a shot, and it's just not my scene.  However, these kinds of camping trips are great times to get to know people better and grow closer, which is why I opted to go the weekend before Logo.

To give you the long and short of it, it was a good experience.  Yes, we had to hike through a rocky canyon in the dark for three hours.  Yes, I had to do the whole thing in Keds because I left my hiking boots in America.  Yes, everything was covered in dirt and my hair still smells like smoke.  But, overall, it was good.  Just like I hoped, I got to know the people better, and that made it worth it.  Plus, there was a banya.

A banya is a traditional Russian sauna.  It's like a sauna, but usually hotter, and once in the sauna (usually in a group) you whack each other on the back with damp birch branches, though any kind of leafy tree branch will do if birch isn't available.  Then, you jump into some kind of cold water.  Repeat.  It's really fun and really refreshing.

Our banya was built in a rocky canyon below a series of waterfalls.  The boys built a rock pile and built a fire inside of it, then built a kind of tent out of sticks and a tarp.  Once the tent was built they poured boiling water on the hot rocks and voila!  Instant banya.  In traditional banyas, boys and girls go separately and everyone is naked, but of course this was not that kind of banya; we were all in swimsuits.  This was actually kind of nice, because everyone could go into the banya together.  Once in the banya everyone is howling about the heat and whacking each other with branches, and whenever someone pours more hot water on the rocks everyone moans and screams "why??" but it's all in good fun.  Then when you can't stand it anymore you hustle out and jump in the cold stream and it's a chorus of "ahhhhhs".  It's wonderful.

I have to scoot and eat lunch because I'm leaving in about 20 minutes, but there's a little idea of what camp was like.  Pictures later.  I doubt I'll have internet the next ten days, but I'll try to drop y'all a line if I do.  Goodbye for now!

Пока ребята, Russian Jane