Ooops.

So I realized that I kind of went MIA on this blog about my year in Thailand, but I do have the intention to finish it.  Throughout the next few months, I will work on finishing the blog, so that if anyone is still checking it out, they can see a bit more of my trip...even if it will have been finished 2 years later.

December 29th, 2010!

Wow.  It has been forever since I last posted in here....I'm actually pretty embarrassed by that fact.  Let's get on with it.  I left this blog still on my North-Eastern trip, so lets get to it.

Originally we were supposed to wake up at 4:00 in the morning to walk the 2 something kilometers to the point in which we could see the sunrise.  At 4:00am we woke up to P'Boy knocking on our door saying "Girls! Girls! We aren't going today! We think it would be better to go tomorrow." Thanks P'Boy, you could have just let us sleep.  After he had woken us, we came to a very unwanted conclusion...it was cold! Yes, I am admitting that I got cold in Thailand.  In my defense, I had gone from 27, 28, odd degrees to 0 degrees...yeah...it was very cold.  We all moaned and groaned, and realized that we really weren't prepared to be sleeping in the cold. 

We went back to sleep, all sleeping a little closer to each other in order to get some heat.  We woke up at 8:00 and headed off to breakfast.  Before heading off to breakfast we had cold...cold showers...like ice cold..not all that fun, but we washed the necessities...and that was it :)

After breakfast we headed out on our days adventures, which was a walk.  Now I don't mean like a little walk, I mean we were going to a very long walk, one that would take us all day.  We were going on a Waterfall hike, seeing some of the main waterfalls that are on this mountain.  Unluckily for us, we had come during the wrong season, so there wasn't much water flowing...okay so there was barely any water flowing.  It still made for a nice hike. 

Now enough pre-jabber, let's get on with some of these pictures.

Here is us starting out on our day.  It was actually still pretty cold, so we were all bundled up.  There was a lot of morning mist, so we took a picture with it, though it was into the sun so you can't really see the mist.  What we didn't know, was that it would heat up, and we would end up sweating to death in all of our warm clothes. 

This is a picture of all of the morning mist.  It was pretty weird.  There were times when we could see 10 feet in front of us, and then it was just fog.  Luckily the fog disappeared really quickly, and we were just left with some damp grass. 

Ninja!!

After breakfast, we had a few minutes to amuse ourselves, so we played a game called "Ninja".  This game has become our "exchangie" game for all of our trips...I could try to explain it, but you kind of have to witness it to understand it.  We had lots of fun playing this game, and we got a few weird looks from some of the other campers.  Eh, who cares, we were having a blast...they were just jealous. 

So after a few rounds of Ninja, we were well on our way.  We headed out on our walk (which took us a long time-all day) and we started tor ealize that it was much warmer than we originally thought.  We ended up walking something like 12 kilometers today, which was quite a long haul.  We saw lots of different waterfalls, but due to the fact that it was the wrong season, there wasn't much water flowing.

This was a sign that we came across that was quite interesting.  Sadly, we didn't get to see any of these wild elephants.  The most evidence that we saw of these wild elephants was a big pile of elephant poop.  We learned that these elephants have been eating a lot of garbage that the tourists have rudely discarded on the side of the trail.  I felt bad for the elephants, they were eating a lot of food that they really shouldn't. 

This is one of the areas that we stopped-it was our first "waterfall".  This technically isn't the waterfall, but instaed it has been the surrounding area because the waterfal wasn't all that impressive.  We sat on this log and took a few good pictures.  It was pretty fun :)

Here is us sitting on this log.  As you can tell, we are all dressed as if it was cold.  As the day progressed, we soon realized that it wasn't cold, and in fact it was actually quite warm.  I got the great pleasure of getting a very sunburnt face today, which wasn't all that fun.  I also burnt my arms and a bit of my legs.  Not all that fun.

December 28th, 2010!

We were up very, very early so that we could go climb the mountain.  We had spent last night packing, very lightly since we would be carrying it up the hill ourselves.  I packed a black duffel bag with my stuff, as well as my roommates stuff, and we headed down for breakfast.  Well, he headed to the little shop where we would be having breakfast.  We had Jok, which is pretty much rice soup, with ground up meat, and a few other things mixed in, and nasty coffee.  I'm sorry to say, I do not like their coffee here.  Its that instant stuff, "Just add Water" and its not good.  I can't wait to get a good cup of coffee when I return.

Anyways, on our way back to the room, I saw an awesome picture opportunity and took it. 

 The mist and morning sunrise creeping over a pond and its bridge.  Pictures honestly don't do the sight justice. 

A farther out look at the same picture, but this time with the reflection on the water.  I thought that it was a good picture. 

The morning was quite chilly, which wasn't all that fun, and we were all bundled up warmly.  We were told that as the day goes on, and the higher we climb, we will get hot, so to dress in layers.  After we loaded up all out stuff into the trucks, we headed off.  The same driver that hit the wall last night was driving, though this time he was suffering from a hangover.  It was good though, no accidents occured.  Apparently he has a restaurant (food stall is a better word).   He was going to hike up the mountain with us, and then give us a slight discount on the food.  Which was pretty nice since food is expensive up there, and you will see why, if you read more.

 This guy is getting ready to carry this load up the mountain.  These guys will carry 60-80 kilo's or pounds...I can't remember....how much does two propane tanks weigh?? Well they will carry a lot of weight up the mountain for very little pay.  This guy will be carrying food and water up the mountian. For the most part, each of these people will go up and down the mountain twice.  Thats a lot of work, for such little pay.  I almost didn't believe that they could carry the weight, because they all seemed to be scrawny little guys with not a lot of muscle.  But, I was wrong.  Very wrong. 

 Another load that will be going up the mountain.  You can see that that would probably be quite the heavy load.  Men and women alike carried these up the mountain. 

 So we ended up being lazy, and paid 15 baht per kilo (so earlier, I guess it was kilo's not pounds) to carry our bags up the hill.  My bag was only 8 kilos, which is decently light.  Some of the other girls need to learn how to pack, and theirs was ... heavier...like double the weight of mine.  This is one of the guys carrying the luggage up the mountain. 

 Bikes! At the top of the mountain, there were bikes that could be used (I'll talk about this a bit later on).  These guys would carry up the bikes (unassembled of course) and they would be assembled when the person got to the top. 

 Starting out.  You see these faces? These are the chipper faces of a bunch of teens who have absolutely no idea what is in front of us.  All we know is that it is going to be a 5.5 kilometer hike that climbs the southeaster flank of the mountain.  It will take us roughly....7 hours to do it, and thats if we are doing pretty good. 

 By the first stop, most of us were tired.  Not going to lie, I was out of breath.  The Brazillian (Fernanda) decided that we were trying to kill her by doing this labor.  I was pretty happy to hit the resting points.  This picture is of Kim trying to hold up one of the loads.  She was able to do it, but decidd that it was very heavy, and her climbing the mountain with this, would never happen. 

 Remo being the big, strong man he is attempted, and could do it with ease, but admitted that if he had to climb the rest of the mountain with it, he would probably fail. 

 And then there's me.  I have no idea if I would be able to climb the mountain with this on my back because I was too short to lift it off of its resting posts.  This caused for great laughter on my behalf, but I took it in stride.  I ended up lifting it with my arms, and decided that it was decently heavy, and I probably wouldn't make it 10 feet.  The red suitcase at the bottom of the stack nearest you (when looking at the picture) Thats our suitcase.  We decided that we had better hustle our butts up, because it would be pretty embarrasing if our luggage made it up before we did. 

 Here's a picture of some of the women carrying their loads up the hill.  I was impressed with their strength.  I definately could not do it. 

 Fernanda saw the chair and decided she had enough.  She was going to sit in the chair and we were going to carry her up the hill.  Not really, but it did prove to be a cool photo.  If you wanted, you could have four strong men carry you up the hill in this, but it would cost you money, and its kind of frowned upon.  It is mainly used if you get hurt at the top, and are being brought back down.  There are no roads, so no cars to help you, and they have a helicopter in case of a drastic problem.  For the most part, you are hiking. 

 This is Emi and I putting a stick against the rock to hold it in place.  It's some sort of tradition, but I'm not totally sure what I am doing with my face..kind of random.  Haha.

 A part of the hike.  We decided to bypass all of the luggage and food carriers, and the majority of the hikers by taking this route.  It was very steep, and hard to climb, but we didn't have to worry about a lot of people being in our way, or us being in their way.  We could take it at a slower pace (since some of us fatties, me included, were starting to feel the burn.)

 We were warned about wild elephants, if we see one, run like hell.  But sadly, or I guess luckily, we didn't see any.  The only trace of wild elephants that we saw was this.  A big pile of elephant poop.  And yes, I felt the need to take a photo of it.  According to P'Boy, it was quite fresh, a few hours old.  I'm not even going to ask how he figured it out. 

 The stairs of death.  Well, this was the last leg of the trip up, and these stairs were not all that pleasant to climb up.  My legs were burning, and I could only imagine what the people carrying all of this stuff were feeling. 

 An up close look at the guys carrying the luggage up the stairs.  I was scared to climb them with just my backpack on my back.  Climbing those stairs with 60+kilos on my back, would probably scare me to death. 

 Finally! We made it.  The eight of us conquered Phu kradung mountain.  The trip up was hard, but the feeling that we all got when we made it to the top, man, there's really no words to describe it.  It is a total feeling of accomplishment, and I was really proud of myself in all of my laziness to be able to make it.  And that is the sign.  The Youth Exchange Program District 3330 RI Sign.  We take this thing everywhere, take photos with it, but deep down, none of us like that sign. 

 The sign that proves that I made it.  If the pictures weren't enough, now you know.  Haha I conquered the Phu Kradueng mountain, climbing 5.5 km to get to a height of 4,318 feet above sea level.

Here is some information about the rest stops, cause I found it interesting and you can read a bit more, to get a bit more font into this blog.  The trip starts from the main park office in Amphoe Phu Kradueng, at an elevation of about 300 m.  There are a total of eight resting plateau's on the way up, and at each there are people selling food and drink.  The higher you got, the higher the prices.    These were the eight stops:

• Sam Haek (ซำแฮก) - This rest area is located approximately 1000 metres from the starting point, on an intermediate plateau immediately above a very steep section of the trail. Most Thai visitors believe the word haek (แฮก) means "to be out of breath", "to pant", because of its resemblance to the sound made when out of breath. However, the real meaning is sacred or holy object in the local dialect.
• Sam Bon (ซำบอน) - This rest area is approximately 700 metres from Sam Haek.
• Sam Kok Kork (ซำกกกอก) - This rest area is approximately 440 metres from Sam Bon.
• Sam Ko Sang (ซำกอซาง) - This rest area is approximately 200 metres from Sam Kok Kork.
• Sam Kok Wa (ซำกกหว้า) - This rest area is approximately 580 metres from Sam Ko Sang.
• Sam Kok Phai (ซำกกไผ่) - This rest area is approximately 460 metres from Sam Kok Wa.
• Sam Kok Don (ซำกกโดน) - This rest area is approximately 300 metres from Sam Kok Phai.
• Sam Khrae (ซำแคร่) - This rest area is approximately 450 metres from Sam Kok Don.

The last 1300 meters from Sam khrae to the top is the hardest and steepest part of the hike.  There are ladders and ramps at parts where it would otherwise be impossible to walk.  Once you reach the highest point of the trail, you are at the edge of the summit plateau. 

We still had a 3.6 kilometer walk over "flat" terrain" to the Wang Kwang visitor center and campsite, where the tents and lodging buildings were located.  We chose to bike, because it was faster, and none of us really wanted to walk much.  The bikes....well they were very uncomfortable, and by the end it felt like someone had beaten me with a stick on my butt.  Needless to say, I was sore. 

 We paused here, which is 2,500 meters from the top of the mountain, and then another 2,000 meters to the place.  We took a slight detour so that we could see this cliff.

 All of us resting at Mak Dook Cliff.  It was much needed, and much appreciated.  Haha.  The ground was much comfier to sit on then the bike seat was. 

 Fall has sprung...okay wrong saying, but you get the point.  It was really cool to see some of our "fall colors" even though I am so far away from home.  This is the maple tree that can be found here, more pictures at a later date. 

This is a 3D map of the mountain.  You can kind of see where we climbed and stuff.  We took about 7 and a half hours to climb the mountain, which was decent timing.  We were all hot, sweaty, and tired, but none of us really wanted to go to sleep.  Though exhaustion plagued us, we decided to walk around for a bit, trying to lessen the chance of being stiff tomorrow, as well as see the area.  We soon went and had dinner, moo ga tat, and headed back for showers. 

Showering was a unique experience.  I was brave and took the first shower.  Well, it wasn't really a shower, more of a garbage can of water, with a bucket you dumped over yourself.  We were warned it would be cold.  I didn't think much of it, and dumped the bucket on my head.  I was frozen.  It was like showering with ice.  I washed what needed to be washed, and then hurridly dried off.  I think my favorite comment was from Remo who said, "Does anyone else feel like their nipples are going to freeze off?" Akward Remo, very akward. 

We chatted until 10 o'clock when the power got shut off.  We were up a mountain, we weren't expecting much, and headed to bed.  Tomorrow we were going to be getting up early  (around 4:00) in order to see the sunrise.  I'm looking forward to that, but at the same time, not because its 4 in the morning. 

So that was my day climbing the mountain.  My time on the mountain had me doing a lot of excersize, not saying that it's a bad thing, but let's face it, I haven't been excersizing since I got here, so it was a shock to my system. 

December 27th, 2010

Today was a pretty chill day, we didn't really do all that much.  Our day started out by heading off to a temple to pray, nothing really special, but I'll put a few pictures up anyways.  I'm pretty sure that we were supposed to go out and do a bunch of other tours and stuff, but P'Boy realized that we really didn't want to see any more temples.  As lovely as they all were, we were tired of them.  So instead, we went bowling.  We headed to this GIGANTIC mall, and did some shopping, and bowled for a few hours.  It was amazing.  Truthfully, it was really nice to go out and do something that wasn't work, do you know what I mean? Like we could relax, laugh, and have a good time...without having to think too much. 

This particular wat that we went to had a few different "stations".  At this one, we knelt, prayed and burned three incense.  Then we headed off to the next station, where we did the same thing.  I don't have a picture of it, because its pretty much the same thing. 

A couple praying at the alter.  They don't know I took their picture.  I'll explain some proper Thai praying position to take up some space.  First of all, you remove your shoes, its extremely disrespectful to keep them on.  Second, there are two ways to sit, the male way and the female way, just like it is shown here, but girls will generally not curl their feet under, and will be sitting with their legs flat on the floor.  Imagine the mans bottom part of his legs where the woman's legs are...okay that's probably confusing. I hope you understand.

 There were five stations, and this is the fifth one.  In this complex, we walked around the center pillar three times, knelt for a prayer, and then hit a big gong for good luck.  It was fun.

Looking down at another section of the temple that we did not visit. 

 Bowling.  I had such a blast bowling, and there are so many stories I can tell.  I'll start with this one of Fernanda attempting to "granny bowl".  I quickly learned, that I was horrible at bowling, when trying to do it the normal way.  Everyone tried to teach me, but I just couldn't get the hang of it.  In the end, I settled for Granny Bowling, which everyone said was cheating.  I didn't win, but I tried.  No one else could seem to get the hang of granny bowling, which made it pretty funny.  I did get a few weird looks, but hey, I'm never going to see them again. 

 The conventional way of bowling, which I couldn't do.  It was fun to try though. 

 This is Fernanda bowling.  She is scary when she bowls, and we made sure none of us stood behind her, just in case the ball went the wrong way.  You can't really tell in this picture but she is on one leg, and there's momentum.  What happens?

 This happens.  We find Fernanda rolling on the ground, because the momentum propelled her forward and straight to the ground.  We all had a good laugh, but Fernanda later complained of a sore but.  It was hilarious though.  We told her that bowling wasn't her thing. 

This is the old man that showed us up.  He had to be like 70 years old, and bowled like a pro.  In the end, we asked him to bowl a turn for us, just so our scores could be a bit higher.  Cheating, I know, but it was pretty amazing to see this old man out bowl a bunch of teenagers. 

After this, we did a bit of food shopping before heading to the hotel.  We will be climbing a mountain tomorrow, and I'm not looking forward to it.  It will be quite the adventure.  We had dinner with the Phu Kra Doong Rotary club-moo ga tat, soo good.  But we had to eat a lot since we were still technically paying for it.  Haha.  The ride from the restaurant was...unique?  We piled into the back of two trucks and headed off, driving slowly so that we were all safe.  My driver was not drunk, the driver of the other car...well that's up for debate.  He claims he wasn't, and was okay to drive, so no one questioned it.  We soon realized that he was infact, slightly drunk.  Luckily no one got hurt, but they did hit a wall while trying to turn into the hotel parking lot.  The people in the car had a bit of a jolt forward....twice...as he hit it the first time, and then a second time while he attempted to correct his first mistake.  Luckily no one was hurt, but it did give us quite the story to tell. 

December 26th, 2010!

Boxing Day! Well, for all you people back in Canada and where ever else in the world you may be.  In Thailand, we don't celebrate it, and neither do the Laotian people.  How did I celebrate this day? Well, read on and I'll tell you.

We started out by going to....a temple!! Haha.  The temple that we went to was called HoPhraKeo, or Haw Pha Kaew.  Different spellings for different romanization.  Here's some history on the place.  It is a former temple in Vientiane, Laos.  It's interior is now a museum and a small shop.  Haw Phra Kaew was built between 1555 and 1556, on the orders of the king.  the temple housed the Emerald Buddha figurine, which the King had brought from Chiang Mai, then the capital of Lanna, to Luang Prabang.  When Vientiane was seized by Siam (now Thailand) in 1778, the figurine was taken to Thonburi and the temple was destroyed.  It was rebuilt by King Annouvong of Vientiane in the 19th century, and once again it was destroyed by Siamese forces when he rebelled against Siam to attempt to regain full independence of the kingdom.  The revered Buddha now resides in Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok.  The temple was rebuilt for a third time by the French in the 1920's during colonization of French Indochina, which is the former building that stands today. 

Here's some pictures!

 The entrance to the ex-wat/museum.  Sadly, we went early in the morning so the sun was at just the right angle to make it impossible to get a good picture of it.  Which somewhat sucks.  But that's the temple.  It was pretty interesting. 

 Outside the temple there were these things.  I'm not totally sure what they are, but my best guess is that they are old tombstones, that were brought here so they wouldn't be destroyed by weather, and other forces.  I couldn't read them, because they were in Laos (which is quite similar to Thai in writing, but still really hard for me to understand).  There were quite a few of these around, which was cool to look at. 

 A spectacular door.  This is one of the doors (that is no longer used).  It is carved with religious symbols, and was pretty awesome to look at.  The detail in everything they do is quite amazing.  Inside the museum, we weren't allowed to take photos since most of the things were quite old.  One of the interesting things to note, was that many people would stick baht, or kip (Laos money) on the statues or in the doors to bring good luck.  A few of us tried to put baht coins in creative places, which in most cases resulted in it falling off, and us having to try again.  One of the guys was very determined to stick a coin in the dragons mouth, and spent 10 minutes attempting to get it to stay.  It was hilarious to watch his face light up when he got it places, only for it to fall a few seconds later. 

 This supposedly held the rum.  Kept it cool.  I say "supposedly" because I'm not sure if the guide was being truthful, or if he was joking around since we were all teens.  Either way, apparently this was used to keep the rum cold for the French colonists.  I joked that you wouldn't be able to get the rum from the very bottom of the rock, and my friends joked back that, "If you were determined enough, you'd get to it".  Haha fun times.

 My attempt to block out the sun so you could actually see the temple, and unknowingly sticking my hand in the picture.  Oops.

A image I stole off of eTravelPhotos.com, so credit to whoever took the picture.  This is what the temple looks like, pretty cool.  Sorry, there's not much to say about these pictures. 

Our next stop was at another temple.  We really enjoy going to temple's. :)  The temple that we went to was called Wat Si Saket.  Here's a little history on this particular temple.   Wat Si Saket was built in 1818 on the orders of King Anouvong, and may be the oldest temple still standing in Vientiane.  It was built in the Siamese style of Buddhist architecture, with a surrounding terrace and an ornate five-tiered roof, rather than in the Lao style, which kept it safe from the armies of Siam that sacked Vientiane in 1827.  The French restored the temple in 1924 and again in 1930.  Wat Si Saket features a cloister wall with more than 2000 ceramic and silver Buddha images.  I was told over 2 million, but that number seems too big to be true, and 2000 seems more correct. 

The entrance gate into the temple.  I thought it was pretty, and it had the name of the temple written in the language of Laos, which was always a bonus. 

Heading into the actual wat complex, this is the entrance way.  The entire place was surrounded by two walls.  The walls that you can see here contain the cloister that holds all of the images, though you can't see it from this side. 

Since we were at a wat, we had to wear the skirts, though this time it wasn't too bad.  Just about all of us had to wear them, so it wasn't too bad.  The lady was nice enough to match them to our outfits, its that or it was just a really good coincidence that none of the colors really clashed.  We thought that it would be a cool picture, with all of our matching skirts in a temple. 

A side view down one of the walls.  As you can tell, there are a lot of Buddha statues.  Each one of the little notches in the wall held about two statues, and then there were a bunch of big statues situated along the walls.  The big statues are wearing the traditional "rain costume".  Okay, so that's not the correct terminology, so I'll explain it better.   

Most Buddha statues will be adorned with a seasonal costume, depending on the season.  This is because the Emerald Buddha is always dressed in a seasonal costume.  It is a significant ritual held at a temple (The Emerald Buddha, not the average Joe Buddhas).  In this ritual, dress of the Deity is changed three times a year to correspond to the seasons.  In summer, it is a pointed crown of gold and jewels, and a set of jewelled ornaments that adorns the image from the shoulders to the ankles.  in winter, a meshed dressing gown or drapery made of gold beads, which covered from the neck down like a poncho is used.  During the rainy months, a top-knot headdress studded with gold, enamel and sapphires; the gold attire in the rainy season is draped over the left shoulder of the deity, only with the right shoulder left bare while gold ornaments embellish the image up to the ankles. 

So this is the "Rainy Season" costume, though not as ornate as the one that adorns the Emerald Buddha, the significance is still there. 

A peek into the little holes to see the images.  As I said earlier, there are two Buddha statues located in each hole.  These go all around the temple.  It's somewhat overwhelming, the amount of Buddha statues that you see here. 

The Boat.  This is a small model of a dragon boat.  I'm not totally sure of the significance of it, so I can't really create a comment on it. 

The creepiest Buddha image I have ever seen.  Now, you may not be able to see it from this picture, if you can zoom in, you might be able to see it...but this Buddha has eyes, which is not commonly done.  For the most part, the Buddha images are of the Buddha in prayer position, with his eyes closed, therefore seeing it with eyes came as quite the shock.  It also made it a bit creepy, because the Buddha seemed to watch you.  Not saying that's a bad thing, but it was really weird. 

Some of the wooden detailing that could be seen amongst the temple.  Once again, with another Buddha image. 

After we had finished this temple we headed back across the border to get back into Thailand.  Our short time in Laos was now officially over.  We had the BEST meal ever, as our last meal in Laos.  What did we have? Well due to the French influences that were still around, we had a French baguette, with Laos food on it-chicken, sprouts, some unidentified meat...pretty much a really really really good sandwich.  We all chowed down on those.  We also had a chance to do a bit of shopping, which was really cheap.  Most people bought suitcases, or bags.  I bought Laos beer (I haven't drunk it, but I'm saving it till I get home), and a purse.  It was cheap :) Haha. 

We headed back into Nongkhai where we went to a little market place.  We wandered through, stopping to look at the stalls, until we found a store that apparently we shouldn't have gone to.  No, there was nothing bad about it.  It was a Thai toy shop.  We all bought a variety of things, lots of little toys that turned out to be harder to figure out than we originally thought.  The lady who owned the store went to England as an exchange way back in the day (her words, not mine!) So she knew what it was like to be an exchange student.  It was pretty cool.  We took a few pictures, and I bought a few postcards before we headed back to the bus to get on our way to the hotel. 

A group shot of us standing by the sign.  I can't remember what the sign says though, I'll get the translation in a second. 

 ท่าเสด็จ means his posture....
สุดเบตแดนที่เมืองหนองคเย: Better Border town Nong Ye

Okay, so the translation doesn't exactly make sense, but its hard to figure it out.  Google translate may have failed me.  It's pretty much

A picture of me and Emi sitting on a bench, with the old style bike, and post box.  I just put it into sepia colors cause I thought it looked older that way :)

The ride to the hotel was pretty uneventful, we watched a Thai horror film, which was much more funny than scary, but a few parts did make the other girls scream, which scared the crap out of P'Gop.  It was hilarious.  At the hotel, we chilled, swam, talked, and then had food.  We were starting to feel the chill as night fell, and I knew that it was good I had pants to wear, and not shorts.  Though, it was pretty surprising having to admit that we were cold.  

Thats it for today!