Ok, before I launch into a re-cap of my fabulous (sunny!) mountain field trip, let me post this e-mail from Sara... who is currently winding her way through Asia on her post JET "I don't want to go home and get a job" journey to see the world. The card she mentions is a birthday card from Jaclyn made of sponge material that was in the shape/form of a sandwich. It was funny.

Hi Jaclyn
How's it going? I'm having a good time. Right now I'm in the Western part of
China. I took a long bus ride yesterday and ended up showing the woman next to
me some of my pictures to amuse her during the ride. I got three rolls
developed while I was in Beijing and the beginning of one of the rolls was from
your birthday. The pictures ended up being passed around a number of people and
a guy sitting in the row behind me offered to pay ten yuan for a picture of you
pretending to eat your sandwich card. that's how much i payed for a hotel room
last night! so you're a popular girl out here. I told him no. It was fun to
show them the pictures and they seemed particularly interested in the pictures
from Japan.

Ah... I'm obviously living in the wrong country. I'm actually destined to be a star in China!

So- the mountain climbing rocked! (pun?) Thursday was rather cloudy, but it never rained. When we hit the open area where the lodge was, the clouds cleared and our 6 hours of hiking were rewarded with a most spectacular view of the Northern Alps. It was breathtaking (see my cell-photo page for the view in miniature). The hike itself really wasn't tough, especially since we took group breaks every twenty minutes... for almost twenty minutes. As all the students were in their blue gym uniforms with their white "outside" baseball hats on... I felt like I was hiking with the smurfs!! We hiked in a long continuous snake of students and teachers all the way up and down the mountain. I don't think I ever need to hike with 160 people ever again. The other hikers were certainly not thrilled, though they were patient about it.

After we reached the lodge, we dropped most of our stuff and hiked to the very top of Jonen, 2875m. From there we could see further into the Alps... although it was a bit too cloudy to see Mt. Fuji. It was a small area, so we rotated all the classes through and decsended. By the time we turned around to hike down the sky around the peak had really cleared so we were all a bit nervous watching the area arond the lodge about 1000m below us as we tried to stay on the path. If there is one thing I've learned its that 13 year old boys have NOT quite realized their own mortality! One student in front of me kept jumping from one spot to the next, even though the rocks were all lose and several times he "over-jumped" leaving him teetering over the edge with arms flailing for balance! Ahhh! It was nervewracking.

The sunset was beautiful, as was the gigantic half-moon that gracefully floated right behind Jonen's peak while I sat outside watching. Mars appeared early and very, very bright right above the clouds in the valley. It was so peaceful being so far above the rest of civilization. Looking back behind the lodge to the Alps at night was breathtaking... you could just feel their massive prescence... and there was only a single light in the far distance, marking the spot of another mountain lodge.

We woke up again at 4:30am for the sunrise... beautiful and cold! I took a zillion pictures with my new camera. After breakfast, we assembled to sing the school song for the lodge staff and then started back down to the bottom. It was totally clear and sunny (though cloudy further below) and it was painful to start down instead of head towards another mountain. I wanted them to leave me up there... but unfortunately I didn't even have the gear to stay as an escapee... so I had no choice. It was nice to be hiking with only a day pack, though. Without my huge pack and with all the breaks, I was barely sore at all. My kids were rather impressed. ;)

It was a fantastic trip and got me really psyched to go up again as soon as possible. I'm relieved after talking with a teacher who assured me I can continue hiking through October and start as early as May. Of course, this is a teacher who climbed Jonen this spring, in the snow, with skis strapped to his back and then skiied off the top. I'm not going to be joining him anytime soon. But I am very thankful that the season isn't over and Tom and I still have a chance to get out with our tent, yet.