After seeing the city of Columbia, I would have never guessed that a forest...yes, A REAL FOREST, is located only 10 minutes away from the campus!  This month's Service Saturday is all about the environment and the outdoors and is so aptly themed as "Enhancing the Great Outdoors."

A little blurb about the program of Service Saturday before I go on about my experience in the forest today... Service Saturday is just one of several volunteer programs of the Community Service Programs here at Carolina.  Once a month, a Saturday is chosen to serve a specific cause that the city of Columbia is in great need of volunteers.  The program starts with a check-in at about 10:45 am in the Russell House Patio.  Shortly thereafter, the day's schedule is announced, and the students are split up into their groups.  Buses transfer the students to the site where they will volunteer for half of the day.  A lunch is provided by the program, which is just one of the cool parts of Service Saturday by the way.  Of course, the great satisfaction of serving makes up the most of the "cool parts."  Many students from different groups, like University 101, sororities, fraternities, scholar groups, other organizations, participate in this program.  Up to 200 students usually show up, and it's just such a great way to serve others.

So...to today's forestry events!  I ended up in the Harbison State Forest just off of Broad River Road.  Our group worked with the "forest man" (I forgot his official title) and several members of the Friends of Harbison State Forest.  Our group was divided into three groups--one to hike a trail and pick up the trash along the way, another to hike to the creek and do some clearing and reinforcements, and the other to repair a main trail.  I was in the last group, where I found my little, itty bitty self hauling rocks the size of my head!  Yep, it was some back-breaking, manual labor out in the heat today!  But it was a lot of fun...sort of!  Hehehe!  I got to meet a lot of people and got to talk to them about their interests, their majors, their reasoning for volunteering, and about many other things.  I got to also get my work-out hours...something I've not done in about a year. Haha!  But in all seriousness, it was a great experience.  Volunteering always is!

In addition to that feeling of satisfaction from giving your time, it was just so nice to also get away from the city for a little bit and get back in touch with the outdoors.  It wasn't really the perfect day to be out there as it was so hot, but just being in the woods and in nature just really makes a lot of difference.

Well, as y'all can tell, I'm not really watching the game as I am blogging at the moment.  I was watching it, but I was starting to get annoyed.  My friends are still watching it in the room though, so I'm still hearing the play by play calls...just not watching it though...heh!  I still hope we can pull it through, but if not...I'm just hoping for a close game!

'Tis all for now folks!  Catch y'all later on the flipside, Gamecocks!