Imaginary Frogs & White River Tenting

I am camping out in the wilderness with a group of friends. It is nighttime and we are all exhausted. So we set up our tent and get inside to go to sleep. Before we fall fast asleep, the leader warns us that we are sleeping on pebbles so watch out for we all know what could happen. I am confused and freaked out. My mind starts to play tricks on me and instead of seeing the tent as it is, I see and inch of space between the floor and the rest of the tent. As I stare out into the darkness, I hear frogs and snakes shuffling around. A huge frog jumps into the dark tent and I hear it. I grab it with my hands and scream as it struggles to get into my sleeping bag. No one else seems bothered and the frog wins and gets into my sleeping bag. I am so grossed out as I feel the slimy frog against my cold skin.

Then I have a revelation. We are in a tent and there are no holes where frogs or snakes can get in! The frog and inch hole around the base of the tent instantly disappear and I breathe a sigh of relief as I fall asleep.

Now it is morning and our tent begins to slide on the rocks. Everyone is still in the tent and we roll right down the pebble bank into the raging river full of rapids. The tent acts as a boat and begins to proceed down the rough river. We stay afloat and little splashes of water jump inside as we steer around the rocks and rapids. We slow down and come to a dock where we all unload except for my friend and me. A huge burst of wind comes away and we get blown down stream towards the rougher rapids. The tent is taking on water and in front of us is a huge slab of rock. We storm to the rock and crash straight into it. The tent gets pushed up and water begins to flow in rapidly. We scream and our friends look towards us with worry. The leader takes out a remote and presses a button that closes off the river with a fence. We sigh in relief and float back to the dock wet, but very happy!

A Dark Wet Night

It is night time and I am preparing for a night canoe trip with high school friends. There are tons of my old classmates and it almost feelings like a reunion. As I walk along the waterfront, I slip in. The cold icy water attacks my body and I scream as the current pulls me away from the edge of the water. Suddenly I stop and grab the cement barrier to pull myself up out of the freezing cold water. I get out and am shivering completely. Still wanting to go on this canoe ride, I try to figure out how I could get some dry clothes. IAN! He lives really close to here and definitely will be able to help.

I give him a call and he almost hangs up on my because he is in the Rainbow Room (who knows what that is). I explain how I fell in the water and am freezing and just need some dry clothes. He says that he can't come and let me in, but he will tell his neighbor to let me in. I am so thankful and run off to fetch my dry clothes.

I travel across this huge bridge that arcs towards the ski. I can see all of the city from here and it is so beautiful. Then I wake up!

Red Umbrellas at Buckingham Palace

I have made it to see the Changing of the Guards. Everyone in the crowd has these huge red and white umbrellas. It isn't raining, but the bright umbrellas are in the air. It is time for the Changing of the Guards to begin. Buckingham Palace is looking a little different. There are no gates and we are up close and personal with the guards.

As we stand on the green grass, the guards start to march and everyone begins to bob their umbrellas up and down in the air almost in unison with the marching. It is quite bizarre, but fun.

Changing of the Guards

I am in London and at Westminster Abbey. I am with my friend and we are preparing to go to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. My friend is supposed to be Amy, but is actually Kristin. Weird huh? The service finishes and we are about to rush to see it. As we walk out of the Abbey, my friend’s parents decide that they want to go to another church instead of going to see the Changing of the Guards. I am not happy about this!!! I really want to see the guards with their silly hats, but now it won't happen.

I reluctantly go along and join the choir at this church. We practice and I am not into it at all. Kristin and I are mad and decide to just leave the service so we can rush to see the Changing of the Guards. With five minutes until it starts we rush out of the church and start running towards Buckingham Palace. I am completely out of breath and this run seems to take forever. We finally arrive and it is all over. We have completely missed it and are utterly disappointed!

Star Wars

I am in Star Wars!!! This is such a dream come true for me. I am Princess Leia and with Luke Skywalker. Where is Han Solo because I want to make out with him obviously! haha So we must get to this battle station to stop some evilness from happening. We jump into our little ship, which is about the size of a ski lift gondola for two people. We are just about to press the button to take off, when an evil woman comes to destroy us. She begins to push us off of the ledge! I scream and tell Luke to do something as we quickly fall to the ground. He presses the on button and we pull up at the last second to avoid crashing into the trees!

Now we are in outer space, but our hyper drive doesn't work. (this guarantees that it is Star Wars because the hyper drive is always broken!) We are heading towards a planet that looks like Saturn. It is so beautiful and the rings are amazing. As we go we can see the death star way below us moving towards the planet we were just on. The entire Imperial Fleet is heading away from the base and we watch them all engage their hyper drives.

We pass over top the disappearing ships and finally land at the empty base. We run inside and have to split up to finish our mission. Luke heads off with his lightsaber and I grip my blaster. Suddenly I have a friend with me and we discuss what we should do. We need to get to the Death Star, but without our hyper drive, it won't be fast enough. So we decide to go and steal a ship. We run through the space station not really knowing where we are going. Then I wake up. Did we save the Rebellion? Who knows?

Sound of Music Tour Denied

Kristin and I have made it to Salzberg. It is so beatiful and amazing! The weather is perfect and even warm. I am wearing jeans and my long sleeve blue shirt and I am a little hot. It is so perfect we think. As we walk around Salzberg, we see the Abbey from the Sound of Music and are so pumped. I have some issues with my camera and cannot hold steady to get a picture. Oh well, it is just one place and I will just get a picture later.

We arrive at the building where you buy tickets for the Original Sound of Music Tour. There are posters everywhere and we don't know where you buy them. Finally we ask someone and they tell us that they are completely sold out. We ask about tomorrow and it is the same. They tell us they are all sold out for the next week. NO! We have come all this way and cannot go on the one tour that we want to. DUMB!

Not Packed for England

It is the day I set off for England. I arrive at the airport with only my small backpack. As I am waiting in line, I see several of my freinds. They all have tons of luggage. I walk up to them and we start chatting. One of them notices that I only have a small backpack. "So Maren, is that all your are bringing to England?" I suddenly realize that I have forgotten to pack for England! How could this happen? I start freaking out and tell my parents (which actually appear as my host parents in England) that I need to go home to pack. They are like ok lets get going. We head home and I have very limited time to start packing. I grab my pack and just start throwing clothes into it. The time rushes by and my mom yells that we need to go otherwise I will miss my flight! Panic has taken control and the packing is just not getting done. STRESSFUL! I end up pulling some clothes together and getting to the airport on time, but I am having a panic attack and not excited for England at all.

White Cross

In my dream, I wake up with the image of a white cross in my mind. There is this sense of urgency for me to draw or paint this white cross right away. I don't know why it is necessary for me to do this, but it seems almost like a life or death situation. So I draw a white cross and get on with the day.