Hello from Karen!

Hey kids! After all this encouragement from Lee, I guess I'll step up and brighten your day with greetings and news of my "summer adventures"... so far, summer has been great. I am actually still in Richmond, and so this past weekend I went to Pocahontas State Park with 2 of my roommates for the summer, Emily Jaicks and Katy Einerson, and 2 other former Earth Lodge/Outdoor House kids, Geoff Cox and Marion Kruse. Pocahontas is actually a great park, with some fun hiking and bike trails, a lake, and lots of trees, and it's relatively close to campus- with the price of gas as high as it is these days, and the fact that we left at noon, we didn't feel like we could justify a 2-hour drive to the Blue Ridge mountains! So Pocahontas proved a great alternative, only about half an hour south of campus (150 south to rte 10 east, follow signs!).

So anyway, one of the things that I have been doing this summer, along with my roommate Katy, is learning to fence! Geoff used to fence in high school, and he's been giving us some backyard fencing lessons on weekends. This past weekend in Pocahontas was an opportunity to test out our new skills on some fresh terrain, so we had a few practice duels, including an epic match between Marion and Katy in front of the lake's dam (see pics!).

Other than that, summertime in Richmond has been a lot of fun. I'm working at a Mexican restaurant called "La Siesta," getting to practice my Spanish every day. When I'm not at work, I like to ride my bike all over town, or hang out in the backyard with our dog, Max.

I'm definitely looking forward to the Earth Lodge this fall! Hope youse guys are all doing well!

-Karen