Last summer, I went with the Scouts in Leon, Spain. This was a great group of friends that I knew. I stayed 15 days with them camping on a huge field. It was beautiful and you could see the mountains from were we were camping. In the middle of those two weeks, we had four days of completely walking through Leon only stopping to eat at the shade of a big tree, or stopping when the sunsets at a little village where we had to sleep outside under the roof of a little church. Before going to bed (actually sleeping bags), we had to cook our food that we had been caring all the way from the camp. It was great smelling the pasta melting with the warm water, while we were surrounded by cold breezes of air that froze our feet. At night, we took our sleeping bags, and bring them to the floor of the church, and as close as caned sardines, we sleep with a huge smile on our face proud of all the effort we had done and hugely happy to finally rest.

Next morning, all the scouts woke up with red noses just like Rudolf the reindeer from the cold of last night. Once we were completely awake by the sound of the bell the monitors rang, we changed on the sacs and made a circle to eat breakfast: Milk with some cookies, (we were lucky if we there was nutella inside them). Once we were ready, we took our bags, and stared walking through the green forests were the cold went in a flash leaving the sweat come by. It was great walking through all the places. Whether there were trees, rocks, green grass walking through a mountain, we would always see beautiful plants, flowers, trees and best of all, the views. Whenever there was a hill we had to climb, you couldn’t hear anything as long as it was the breath from all the kids. But when there was a descent, you could hear all the grateful kids singing songs along with the sound of nature.

The rest of the days that we walked, were as fun and awaesome as the first one, and not only because you learned the beauty of nature, because you learned so much from the other people while you walked, and learned what a true friendship was when you had to cheer up a friend that was left behind. You could also learn so many jokes and songs, that in only four days you would have learned 20 of them.

Even though this thing of the Scouts might seem hard because of walking so much while it was freezing and sleeping in a sleeping bag instead of sleeping in a confortable bed, this is a great experience that you should all try it. Because it changes the view of things, and it makes you feel so good when you are back at your home sweet home, that you get to apriciate all the things that you live with in the normal day.

Some of you might think: ‘Well, going with the Scouts doesn’t seem like that’s the best activity you can do in summer. You could so easily be on a swimming pool drinking a fresh lemonade, or being on a cozy sofa while watching your favorite TV show.’ Ok, but you might not get that much fun than if you go to the scouts. Because if you have never swim in a river, or sang songs while watching more interesting things than in TV, that’s the best place for you to go.

And if you are one of those grumpy persons who go to the Scouts and discover that you are having a hard time, here goes the secret of the Scouts to have a good time: Be POSITIVE 🙂

This an important event that happened to me some months ago, which I will never forget!! -Alicia Ramos