rachy♥

JUNKO TABEI! (Japan) became the first woman to reach the summit of Everest on 5/16/75 via the South-East Ridge route.

She was born Fukushima Prefecture JAPAN - 1939, went to Showa Women's University and is married with 2 children. She says she was attracted to mountain climbing by the experience of climbing Mt. Nasu with a teacher when she was 10 years old. She began climbing around 1962 after graduating from Showa Women's University where she studied English literature.

She formed women's mountain climbing club "Ladies Climbing Club: JAPAN (LCC)" in 1969. Junko became the first woman to reach the Everest peak in 1975. Since then, she has climbed many mountains all over the world, and is the first woman to have achieved the summits of the highest peaks on all seven conitnents.

She still climbs at least 3-4 mountains per year. She currently is the director of Himalayan Adventure Trust of Japan (HAT-J), an organization dedicated to preserving the mountain environment.

I super heart JUNKO!

Thank you Sulin, Jiale, Jaslyn, Ying Xin, Alisa, Rachel Yo, Nurul, Insyirah, Shirlyn, Kay Yuen, Rashvin, Pamela, Maggie, Andrea and Nanthini for being such super awesome watchmates :D
And Faisal for being such an awesome instructor!!

I miss OBS already :(
It was so enormously fun, all the trekking, and kayaking (and peeing in the sea), it's really an unforgettable experience.

OBS memories:
1. Seeing the PRC scholars nude in the Camp 2 store block toilet (ack!!)
2. Kayaking with awesome Bernice (in buddy watch Livingstone) :D :D :D
3. Trekking for 9 hours with a approx. 20kg backpack (excluding quarry time)
4. Paddling the raft we built out into the middle of Kekek Quarry!
5. Peeing in Pulau Ubin waters
6. Mass peeing in a hole at shopping centre
7. Freaking out at the wild dog/boar (not sure whichever it was) at 2am
8. Rock climbing 11 m :D :D :D
9. Losing a flysheet and 18 tent pegs (whoops!)
10. Being SUPER JEALOUS of Camp 1
and their super large campus/ toilet bowls (not squatting pans)/ showers with proper doors (instead of far-too-small orange curtains)/ tiled floor/ hot liquid milo (rather than powder milo)/ CATERED FOOD
11. Wet wipe/ prickly heat powder bath!!!

I can't believe I escaped with only a sand gravel abrasion on my left ankle, a tiny blister and a super light tan! Which is really cool but also kind of sad. But I'm even sadder about my OBS tee WHY WHY WHY DIDN'T THEY HAVE MY GREY TEE IN XS???
It was such a nice design and I wanted it so badly but they didn't have the stock!!! I was so distressed/dejected that I refused to get anything else :( Which was probably a huge mistake but anyway I can just wear my sister's obs tees and pretend they're mine >:)
My toes still hurt from Thursday's 9 hours of trekking :( And I'm so tired I'm skipping ballet tonight and cheerleading tomorrow morning but oh well I need to badly get rid of my eyebags. But I'm quite pleased that I don't have a single sandfly bite :D Which means no awfully ugly scarring :)
I was so super happy when I reached home - hot food, a hot bath, but the best of all was ILJIMAE!!! I was so disappointed when I left for OBS because I thought the season finale would air when I was in Pulau Ubin, but tonight I found out that it ends on Tuesday :) Whoopee!!!

I feel so blessed and fresh and clean I shall now go and appreciate having a comfy mattress/ pillow/ bolster to sleep on/with.

Ahh!!!!

My mom just wrote an email threatening to complain against the school's LEAPS system to MOE.

Great.