Hot Tang! 15 Takeaways from 30Cent's New Hampshire Adventure

This past weekend, all nine of us trekked up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. I believe I'll be posting several entries on some deeper discussions and spiritual metaphors from the experience, but I wanted to recount as much as I could for you readers as soon as possible. So I've rounded up a list of funny lessons, themes, quotes, and takeways from the weekend, listed in no particular order. Hope you enjoy. And roommates, thanks for your input. (Photo credits go to Alli.)

1. Spiders will terrorize both well-seasoned (Magen) and novice (moi) campers. The veteran campers are much more adept at doing crazy ninja moves out of the tent to escape the scary spiders, though. And guy roommates (Luke) are great to have around to squash the eight-legged intruders.
2. Todd says too many funny and weird things to even keep count of. And he has an uncanny ability to come up with quarky, oddball nicknames for his beautiful wife. An example? Pernis, which sounds like a disease. It all made us laugh, though.
3. Alli has a knack for locating the best music in New Hampshire's White Mountains, available on 94.9FM. It provided a lovely soundtrack of Bon Jovi and Journey mixed with late 90's bubble gum pop.
4. Jasmine didn't pack gum, because apparently it attracts bears. Luckily, the all-beef patties, sausage, hot dogs, and various snacks and breakfast treats we brought don't. Phew.
5. Bears do in fact like mystery flavor gum, Tara informed us in a delightful and uncharacteristic cartoon bear voice. She should moonlight for Nickelodeon.
6. Dan does not like most vegetables, but is fine mixing lemonade and coffee grounds, for a pre-hiking energy surge. He also consumes roughly three egg-and-cheese sandwiches before noon---one of them came immediately after a sandwich from Lincoln, NH's best roast beef joint. But hold the bacon, it's bad for you.
7. Oranges do not taste good if left in the heat for hours, Magen says. Dan disagrees. He loves HOT TANG, i.e. the children's orange drink heated up.
8. Speaking of funny words and phrases, roommates are excellent at helping you study GRE words. Ask Jasmine. We also managed to learn along the way. For example, bonhomie [bon-uh-mee] means a good-natured, cheerful manner. Everyone exhibited such bon-HOMIE during the trip (we preferred this pronunciation of the word.)
9. Campfires are easy to start, but hard to maintain. It all depends on the wood, kindling, and skill of the fire-starter.
10. It gets very cold at night, even in August. There are, however, several strategies for staying warm while sleeping. Craig suggests sleeping in as little clothing as possible, to allow your body heat to do all the work. Luke prefers to get up in the middle of the night to sleep in the back seat of a Jeep. Others resort to spooning.
11. McDonald's tastes better after hours of hiking, driving, or sleeping in the cold. And Todd is obsessed with $1 McChickens.
12. If you can't find Luke, don't fret. He's probably running 15 miles, or recovering with an icy river soak or a cute jug of chocolate milk. That is, when he's not going headfirst down rocky waterfalls.
13. Our ziplining tour guides have pretty cool jobs, especially when they get to make fun of scairdy cat customers like me. Also, ziplining gear will make a lanky, shortwaisted person look far more disproportionate than I could have ever thought was possible. I won't name that person, though.
14. Camping is fun, and you get used to the dirt.
15. My housemates are good for the soul.