Jen Vs. the Volcano

So, despite the good work we did at the orphanage, all anyone wants to talk to me about is the volcano incident. I guess that's natural. So, here's the story, before I send out a mass email to everyone else:

We left the hotel at 5am and got to the volcano at 6:40. As a side note, the bathrooms weren't opened yet, so this was what we used when we decided to go before we went up the mountain. Notice the ultra-fancy door:

Then, we all hiked up the volcano. And by "all hiked" I mean that everyone else hiked and I jumped on a taxi (horse) to ride the way up. Best $10 I ever spent.

We got to the rim of the volcano, and it was very very very cold. It was actually very weird being this close to hot lava and freezing my everything off!

Then, we walked down into the sharp, black, dark, painfully sharp, and might I add unstable volcanic rock below:

Now you see my dilemma. Did you hear me mention the word unstable? and sharp?

Do you know how I function on regular, flat surfaces devoid of anything at all to trip on? Just think Bella from the Twilight series as a coordinational comparison to me. Or Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality. Those are two good examples of how I function when doing those oh-so-tricky things like walking on flat ground, much less sharp, unstable lava.

And so, it should be no surprise to anyone that I ate it pretty hard on the unstable and sharp lava rocks. My ankle rolled (which it so often does), and I went tail-over-teakettle into the black abyss below. Okay, so it wasn't that dramatic. I fell and chipped two teeth and got a lot of scrapes and bruises. But I eventually made it for the group picture and then back down. And later today, I'll be calling the dentist.

The fun part of it though, is hearing the teenagers retell it to each other. Because about fifteen minutes after the service yesterday when word got out, they were making it sound like I dove recklessly into the molten red lava laughing maniaclly the whole way down. That's why I love my teenagers!