Adventure Weekend in the Lake District

Time for the Adventure weekend with the IFSA- Butler program! We went to the lake District in the middle of the mountains near Scotland. It didn't start out to well though. Once again, I missed the bus. What you say? You missed the bus!??? No, it was not my fault, it was the alarms fault!!! I set it, it was set for the right time. 7AM. I triple checked my alarm. Triple checked!! And then, i woke up. It was 10:00. The bus left at 9:30. I was SOOO MAD. I was so angry I wanted to cry. This was my free weekend with all the Butler Study Abroad students in the beauiful mountains and valleys of the lake district and I was going to miss it. I quickly called my friend Tyler who was on the bus and had him give the phone to one of the program coordinators. I talked to the lady and she said that there were a few students taking the train that night around 7 and it would be free, paid for by the IFSA-Butler Program. I was so happy! That night, i got on the train, and Butler paid for 8 pounds of food for us to gorge down on the train which was nice! We all got airplane bottle size bottles of alcohol. Such cute little bottles. We sat at a table with the other students and played Rummy 500 for 2-3 hours.

That Saturday, We got to pick from about 10 different activities, and I chose to do Gorge Scrambling (you climb up a watery, rocky gorge with waterfalls and tunnels and holes) and Tyrolean Gorge Crossing (crossing over a gorge on a zipline that is probably 350ft in the air). Talk about INTENSE.





Gorge Scrambling. They gave us a fleece jumper, like a body suit, and of course they gave me a kids size which did NOT fit me, it barely zipped up. I had a wedgie the entire time. ANDDDDDD over the fleece jumped we had these hardcore waterproof pants and coats. And wellies (british for rainboots). So, all suited up and ready to go, we had no idea what we were getting into. We walked down into what looked like a creek, but with huge rocks and waterfalls, and they told us to start climbin up the moutain. Hardcore.

The water got up to my waist a lot of the times. They had us do things like climb through a 2ft by 2ft tunnel that was probably 50 ft long, and the tiniest thing I've ever seen. They had us dunk ourselves under a waterfall, they had us jump off a ledge into neck high water. DO YOU KNOW HOW COLD IT WAS OUTSIDE? It was about 35 degrees. You can imagine what the water felt like. Coldest thing I have ever done ever. Just the mere thought makes me shiver. Being cold and wet has to be the worst thing one can experience.

It was fun though. I will admit.



The next activity was the Gorge Crossing. They gave you a harness and we hiked this steep ass mountain to get to the gorge that we were going to be ziplining across. From the top it was a gorgeous view. You could see the Lake, and the green green grass and the other mountains in the valley. I decided to take a video while i was crossing the gorge! So amazing.

This is the view from the middle of the gorge. Just gorgeous.





What a feeling, to be dangling up so high and seeing everything you can see for miles and miles and be right in the middle of it. Amazing.



After this, they took us to another little gorge where we type-rope walked over a waterfall. We were in a harness, don’t worry. That was just as cool. You are stepping on an inch thick rope and crossing 15 ft over a waterfall. Incredible. The whole experience was just incredible. Then I went rock climbing up a real mountain.

So, then that night, we got back, ate a free dinner, and got ready for the kickin disco that they there at the lodge. It started off like a jr high dance. The girls were all in the middle dancing and the boys were all watching from the side. Once the alcohol started flowing though, things loosened up a bit and everything got better.


I spent most of the night drinking in my room "the party room" with my roommate Kristine and playing weird drinking games with lots of people. Someone had Absinthe so i got to drink some of that! Only took a swig though. It tastes like mouthwash and black licorice mixed together. Horrible! Not enough to cause any hallucinations there!

So yeah......... the fun part. Sunday. We get up, have breakfast, all ready to do our last activity and then head home. My last activity was supposed to be going to the nearby town of Keswick to shop and look around. Around 7:30, I wake up, I take a shower, come out of the shower, and Kristine tells me to look outside. I look up in horror. There is a blizzard. A blizzard! In March!! NOT something I was expecting. We basically could tell right away that we weren’t going on our adventure to Keswick today, but we didn’t know if this would affect the bus ride home.


The coordinators didn’t know either. We had to wait. A long time. No one knew what was going on. We just kept waiting. Until they finally told us that we were spending the night again and that we had to skip all of our Monday classes and that they would take care of it. I mean, I guess, it was really nice to stay again- hang out with friends and get more free meals… but its hard to have no clothes left and stay in the hotel for another night!! Ughhh, so we left on Monday, which was fine. I just wanted to leave!! It was a fantastic time though. Never will forget it!

This is Jake and I chasing sheep through the snow!