Before the school officially starts, the new international students arrive early to Hope College for their own “International Students Orientation.” This includes a lot of informative sessions about the life in America and at Hope College, but the climax of the orientation is the Explore Michigan Trip.
The new international crew left Hope College campus for the Explore Michigan Trip on Saturday, August 22, and we headed north, to the Lake Ann Camp which is almost four hours north of Holland. Due to my European perspective, I do not really like to use word “fun” or “it was fun” because I think in the United States these expressions are overused and not descriptive, but “fun” is the word to describe the Explore Michigan Trip. There was always something enjoyable to do. The camp itself is located right next to a lake named Lake Ann, where we found a giant slide to the water, water attractions, game room with pool, table tennis or table soccer. But during the days, we went to the couple exciting trips like the sun dunes, kayaking, low rope course or the final trip to Mackinac Island.
Since, I could be writing thousands of words about all the beautiful views, activities, funny moments and more, so I picked five pictures that I think captures the trip the best.
Smile, the best is yet to come
The beauty of Michigan
Sand, Sun, Satisfaction
A short ride with a lot of exciting waves
Bad weather? Keep calm and ride along
Personally, my most memorable moment from the trip was kayaking. I am not the biggest fan of the outdoor activities overall, but the water of the river where we kayaked was extremely vivid, nature was untouched by people and everywhere we could hear quietness and feel piece. It was truly spectacular. Even the fact that tremendous thunderstorm hit us about 30 minutes before we supposed to get off the water, did not made kayaking a bad experience. While hiding under the homologous three in totally soaked clothes, suddenly an older gentleman came to us and invaded us to his cabin. It was a nice gesture from him which tops my most memorable moment of the Explore Michigan Trip.