smitten

the strangest thing happened this weekend. 

there i was, resisting the allure of the wilderness and conscientiously maintaining my carefully cultivated veneer of "xiu jie"-ness when all of a sudden, i fell head over heels in love with the great outdoors. admittedly slow on the uptake, having had many prior chances to get with the program but somehow never really quite taking to it. 

am not entirely sure when that switch flicked but it was probably when i realised that being outdoors didn't 1) hurt 2) make me sweat 3) give me freckles. my biggest issue with being immersed in nature is the sun. i've more freckles than i care for and live in fear of them coalescing into one huge liver spot when i turn 30. but the wonderful wonderful thing about the uk is the weather! possibly the only clown thrilled when we didn't get much sun, and because it's so windy, i didn't break a sweat at all :) 

not one of pain and physical exertion so when the walking was manageable and it didn't seem like a collapse was on the horizon, i started to really enjoy the whole wilderness experience. odd how just 36h away can change my perception and i feel absolutely ridiculous for being so anti-outdoors before this :( the scenery was breath-taking, the teaching sessions fruitful and staying in a hostel with a better shower than the one i have in hall almost makes me want to do a wilderness trip every weekend now. being able to let go of my fears (of dirt and mud and extreme weather to name a few) was liberating and after a certain point i stopped caring how squelchy my shoes were getting (note to self: buy real boots).

however, as the proud possessor of possibly the only hairdryer in kielder, it will be some time before i relinquish my grip on all creature comforts. but it's nice to know that there is so much out there to discover, and yay to conquering fear one baby step at a time :)

on a lighter note, looks like this newfound love for the outdoors welled up just in time...

dundundunnn...