FIUTS: Lake Wenatchee Camping Trip

By: Tiffany Tang, FIUTS Facilitator

At the end of May our international students took a camping trip to Lake Wenatchee through FIUTS. Here's our facilitator, Tiffany's, reflection on the trip!

Where else other than a FIUTS camping trip would you get the opportunity to go camping with 19 new friends from over 10 different countries?  The best part about our weekend in Lake Wenatchee was that in the little time we spent together, we got to know each other and learn about everyone's respective countries.  On the car ride, everyone talked about their home countries and what they loved about it, what drew them to the University of Washington and FIUTS, and what their future plans are.  I was initially scared that things would be awkward and quiet on the drive over to Lake Wenatchee, but everyone was a great participant and our car conversations were so interesting.  When we finally got to Lake Wenatchee, we spent our first day together bonding through cooking meals together, renting a single stand-up paddle board an paddling around the lake in pairs, talking stories with each other around the campfire, and playing games in our tents late into the night.

The next day, we decided we had exhausted what Lake Wenatchee had to offer after our morning hike and lunch. Therefore, we all decided to take a trip to Leavenworth which was only about 20 minutes away and was somewhere many people had never visited before but had only heard about.  It was so worth it!  Most people had never gone because of how far it is from Seattle, but because we were already so close, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.  We traveled in large groups through the coffee shops, little souvenir stores, eateries, and their famous Nutcracker Museum. The friendships created during our short days together made it such that we even had fun sitting in traffic on the way back to campus!  Many of us have already connected and intend on hanging out together more in throughout the summer.