Day 24 @ SSP Purdue – Lake Day at SSP

Creator: Kieran B.

7:00 AM: My infernal alarm has just sounded. Time to get ready for Indiana Dunes!

8:00 AM: We all run over to Lawson for a quick lecture by Dr. Das discussing Mechanisms of Action for different drugs. 40 minutes later, we are all feeling far more enlightened as we hightail it to the bus, ready to leave for our amazing day at the national park.

9:00 AM: We have just left campus and are settling in for our two hour bus ride.

My beloved teammate Sophia
Abby and Hugo awaiting the bus
Gaston, our resident Argentinian
Saketh, our forever photogenic model
Aberam, meditating calisthenics master
SSP team finally departing the bus

10:00 AM: We are all just now realizing that we crossed a time zone and that we have been driving for 2 hours, not 1.

10:40 AM: I just woke up from my nap to screaming. Fourteen members of SSP Biochem Purdue are missing limbs. It’s horrible. I’ve never seen this much pain in my life. I blacked out for a bit and woke up with a chainsaw in my hand and everyone is looking at me with fear in their eyes (joking. Everyone is fine, Sophia just stubbed her toe and is acting like she has lost limbs). However, we did get the chance to watch a fantastic movie about how there is a higher diversity of flowers per square mile than any other place in the country. There are also 43 different species of ants. The narrator was hilarious too, saying things like:

“And now, as the screen fades to black, the national park logo appears on screen”

“Two canoer’s canoes canoe down the lake”

“A man and a woman and two children look smiling upon the visitor’s center”

Sick flicks from the theater, taken by Nirbaan “Nirbeta” Maken

11:00: After dropping half of SSP off at the ER/morgue, we reached the dunes. Fortunately, this deadly incident had a lesser mortality rate than reading Day 13’s blog (Andrew considers himself a romantic poet). It was a slightly cold, but otherwise fantastic day. What could go wrong?

Walking towards the dunes is the most exercise we’ve gotten in ages.
Love at first sight…
Sophia when she sees another American National Park
Pointing towards freedom
The beautiful beach

12:00: After a long day at the beach (25 minutes in the frigid water), we all went back to our bags, only for me to realize that I had not packed a towel… the worst possible mistake when going to a cold beach in cold weather. Then the rain began. We had all been dreading the rain, as the weather had been foreshadowing an early end to our otherwise fantastic field trip. We found a little concrete overhang to put our stuff, hoping that the rain would subside for enough time to make a run for shelter. Unfortunately, it would not be.

1:30: We finally made it back to shelter. We are soaked, and someone was missing their phone for half an hour. Even with the amount of rain and cold, we are somehow all remaining upbeat and enthusiastic. We’ve got to make the best of our free day, right?

Me after an unfortunate mishap involving gatorade

2:00: We boarded the bus, and are now driving back. I’m tired and am going to take a nap. Hopefully this time I won’t wake up to the sound of screaming.

6:00: We are about to go to dinner. We got back at 5:00 and everyone immediately went to their beds and took a nap.

8:00: The day was surprisingly uneventful following the return home. Nothing much has happened. A couple of us went to the computer lab and got some work done. Luckily, Eric decided to conduct a fantastic musical performance for us!

Georgia, my other beloved group member, dutifully working
Eric and his violin and Austin the entranced audience member/TA

11:00: Not much more happened today. We all split up for a while. We played some spikeball and went for a walk, but we are all exhausted. Time to sleep…