300901, 0050hr, illinois time.

the canoeing trip today was simply wonderful.

truth be told, the last canoeing trip, with the ssa last year was terrible, firstly because it was terribly cold, and secondly, because it caused the recurrence of an old arm ailment. so i was quite scared about the canoeing trip this time organised by kcsa. i packed a lot of warm clothes, a huge towel, in case i got wet. and was even thinking i should get myself prepared to take painkillers if my arms start hurting again. i was quite tempted to oversleep this morning, to chicken out of the trip.

but hey, it turned out to be a great trip!

of course, it could have been better. for one, i wish i got to know the other kcsa members better. and i wish i took pictures [didn't bring my camera because it wasn't working.] but otherwise, everything was perfect. we went down the river, about 9 miles, i heard. there was a very slow current, with plenty of greenery around, so the easiest thing to do was to just paddle lightly, and let the river carry us down, while admiring the natural beauty around us. the weather was perfect - warm sun rays, with a slightly chilly wind. the best balance for feeling warm without sweating like a pig. the water was clear, one can see little insects, fishes, and whatnot swimming just along. we [my junior liwei and i] were in such good spirits, we were singing half the time. hahaha... till i exhausted all the songs i knew the lyrics of. half the songs we were singing came from hwachong and rgs days, so we told the other curious canoe-rs that we were singing songs from our high school. till one girl couldn't take it anymore, and asked which high school we went to, how come there were so many songs. hahah..

at one point, because we arrived at the final destination a little early, we were just drifting around for a while. [we did a lot of drifting, because we were ahead of most of the rest, most of the time, didn't want to go too fast.] i leaned over, and i started scooping the water with my cupped hands. the water was cold, my fingers were quite sensitive to the cold, but it felt good, letting the water slip through my fingers.

i felt pretty happy today. really appreciate the peace and calm that came with drifting down a slow river. for once, i felt truly away from everything else. it was like another world there, my sole concern was to make sure we don't crash into the bank, get stuck in shallow waters/mud, or sing out of tune. haha...

like the water slipping through my fingers, i felt my melancholy slipping away too. gladly. indeed, no storm lasts forever. the sun was out today.