Two days in the Catskills

This past weekend, I led a backpacking trip with PennOutdoors to the Catskills mountains in upstate New York. I had been looking forward to this trip all week, because I had never been to the Catskills and I had heard good things about it. So on Friday, we drove to the Catskills after a great dinner, and reached sometime past midnight. The drive there was good; I had an interesting conversation with Jamie and Jon. I guess the highlight of the drive was Jamie's reading of the preface to the book "There Are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves". The few lines which struck a chord within me were:

"I am one of the searchers. There are, I believe, millions of us. We are not unhappy, but neither are we really content. We continue to explore life, hoping to uncover its ultimate secret. We continue to explore ourselves, hoping to understand. We like to walk along the beach, we are drawn by the ocean, taken by its power, its unceasing motion, its mystery and unspeakable beauty. We like forests and mountains, deserts and hidden rivers, and the lonely cities as well."

And that encapsulates beautifully all the unspoken words within me. Perhaps that is the very reason why I love to disappear into nature ever so frequently, because I search for something that I don't know, something that's bigger than me. Most of the time I'm filled with the emptiness of the busy city life. But when I'm surrounded by nature, I am faced with the fact that I'm searching, I'm exploring, for who I am and what I want out of life. And for some reason, that yearning -for what I don't know- in me is quietened by the simple contentment that Nature gives me. I know I'm searching, but I'm not discomforted by it, because that is part of life. And perhaps, I'm also searching for someone "to share (my) sadness with", and "to share (my) laughter with", or just another kindred spirit to share my marvel of life, my constant wondering and wandering.

"We searchers are ambitious only for life itself, for everything beautiful it can provide. Most of all we want to love and be loved."

On Saturday, we started the backpacking journey with a short hike up Kaaterskills waterfall, one of the most painted waterfall in the States. It was beautiful; that's all I can say.

Next we drove to the starting point of the Devil's Path trail, and started our hike proper. As we got further into the Catskills mountain, the trail became more and more fun (i.e. challenging).

And this is why I love being outdoors so much (just part of the reason why)-- it makes me feel so alive, so in tune with the surroundings. That night, after an entire day of strenuous hiking, we set up the tents and built a bonfire. It was lovely, watching the flames, feeling the warmth, and being around everyone, with only the woods, the sound of the insects, and the dark cloudy night around us. That's my idea of a haven. That's my sanctuary.

An adventuresome weekend

This past weekend was an amazing one - hiking on Saturday, and a half-marathon on Sunday.

SATURDAY
On Saturday, I led a hiking trip to Hawk Mountain (about 1.5 hours' drive away from Philly), for 14 undergraduate students in the Life Sciences Management (LSM) program at Wharton. How this started was a PennOutdoors hiking trip I led to the Pinnacle along the Appalachian Trail several months ago. A girl called Iris went on the trip, enjoyed it, decided to plan one for her program (LSM), and roped me in to help lead the hike (and drive). Initially I was rather tentative about leading the hike, because I had a half-marathon to run the next day. But since the hike was supposed to be an "easy" one (to accommodate the different fitness levels of the students), and since I love hiking anyway, I decided to go ahead with it.

I thoroughly enjoyed leading the hike. The LSM kids (well, not really kids since I'm just a couple of years older than them, but you get what I mean... The "grad student" status really makes me feel so much older...) were an enthusiastic bunch, raring to go. It was too bad I couldn't lead them on a more challenging hike (because Iris didn't want to push the limits too much on the first hike with the group), because they seemed to enjoy their hike so much, especially the more difficult sections. Most importantly, I met some new friends that I felt I could really connect to, on the trip. I remember in freshman year I was the social butterfly, seizing every opportunity to go out and meet new people. As years passed and painful experiences accrued, I stopped taking chances to go out and meet new people. I got tired of trying, of reaching out. And I got stuck with a smaller and smaller circle of friends as they left, one by one, to other cities. But starting afresh as a grad student in a different school (though still the same college), I'm beginning to open up again, to reach out again.

And this is one thing I learned: sometimes you really don't have to think too much, and just go with your heart. If I had worried about twisting my ankle before my half-marathon, or exerting myself too much and not being able to run the next day, I would never have had the opportunity to meet new friends or have such a great time at the hike. Life is a journey, and where we are today is a result of the twists and turns we took. If we had just taken the path straight ahead at all the crossroads, or journey thus far would just have been one predictable straight line from where we started.


SUNDAY
At the ass crack of dawn on Sunday, I tumbled out of bed as the alarm rang at 6AM. The Philadelphia Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon would start in 2 hours' time. I grabbed breakfast, took a quick hot shower, and biked to the Art Museum, where the start (and finish) line was. It was quite a lively atmosphere there, though I wasn't surprised since this was the third time I was doing this half marathon. The difference was - this is the first time I actually trained for the half marathon. Technically, I didn't train for this half-marathon, I was training for the Philadelphia (full) marathon in November this year (2 months later!), but I guess it's still training anyway.

And the training definitely paid off-- I felt so much better during the run than the other two half marathons which I was so inadequately prepared for. I had also changed my running stride to land on the balls of my feet when I ran, which helped greatly in making me feel good during the run. I tried to keep it to the 8-min per mile pace, and generally succeeded, though several minutes were added from stopping at water stops and slowing down to eat GU at the 8th mile mark. But in the end, I finished with my best timing to date: 1 hour 46 min.

I felt great and still energetic after the run, unlike the previous 2 half marathons. Though I'm pretty sure I could have run 5 more miles, I'm not sure if I could have run 13.1 more miles there and then. But this is what I'm gonna have to do for the full marathon - 26.2 miles at one time, in the harsh cold winter weather. I guess I should buck up with my training, but unfortunately I'll have to take this week off, because I'm sick and because I'm leading another backpacking trip to the Catskills this weekend (that'll be the topic of next week's post!). I'm kinda worried about how my training is going on, though I guess I can try to make it up next week...

Several years back, before I came to Penn and to Philly, I never would have thought I would run half-marathons and marathons. But the proximity of good running trails and the popularity of running here, makes running such a viable activity. And running IS addictive; now I feel very restless and lazy if I don't run every day.

Overall, great weekend!

First impressions

Penn - the same old place that I've been for the past 3 years. The only difference -- I'm now a graduate student, no longer an undergraduate. I keep wondering, am I going to feel differently now that I'm a graduate student? What's going to change? What's going to remain the same?

One big difference that struck me, was how different studying at GSE was from just being one of the (literally) thousands of (undergrad) students studying at the School of Arts and Sciences. We are a small family, but a close-knit one. This much was apparent right from orientation, just a week ago on Sept 7th. My program - Applied Psychology and Human Development (APHD) - is probably one of the bigger programs at GSE, but still, were were about 50. Some programs had less than 10 (new) students. I personally think it's great, because it allows everyone to know each other, and to embark on this learning journey together. As I walked into the conference room at the Inn at Penn, I was comforted to see so many familiar faces -- fellow new GSE students, most of whom are not in my program, but whom I had met and gotten to know even before school started.

Some say Facebook is the new social security in the States. Well, social, yes. Security? Haha, I'm not too sure. But back to the point- all it takes is a Facebook message to get to know the rest of the lovely people here. Our socials probably started when, sitting around at home being bored and waiting for school to start, I decided to post a comment asking if people (who were already here in Philly) would be interested in a Happy Hour. I was pleasantly surprised by the many people who responded to that. So I organized a Happy Hour the following Sunday at City Tap House, right next to campus. And that was how the string of pre-orientation socials started. Several days later, the group of us (plus new people) went to an outdoors concert and had a great Ethiopian dinner later. Next was karaoke. And by orientation, we already could count several people as friends in the crowd of new faces.

And the start of school did not prevent us from hanging out more. Just this most recent weekend, we celebrated Glenn's birthday with a pubcrawl in the Fairmount / Art Museum area. I got introduced to bars that I had never been to, in the 3 years that I've been in Philly, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience (and of course the drinks and food)!

So one might ask, is this any different from undergrad life? Definitely. We're just as social, but we party with responsibility. No crazy frat parties and uncontrolled binge drinking. But yes, lots of socializing, talking, and social drinking. And of course, having fun - the sustainable way.

I definitely look forward to spending the next year with my new friends at GSE!