far up in the hills of georgia stands old berry tried and true...

so this weekend, we loaded up the edge and headed up to sweet sweet berry. i loved by days at berry. they were full of learning, friends, outside, memories, coffee, and growth. 

each october, we return for mountain day- an age old tradition to pay homage to miss martha berry, the found of the college. its hard to believe that my first mountain day was 6 years ago....

christina, erin, and i our freshman year.

so how mountain day works  is that it is really a whole weekend. on friday, the dorms compete in an annual olympics. each dorm has a secret theme with tshirts and its just a blast. friendship (my dorm) always went way beyond just tshirts and did whole themes. freshman year, as can be seen above, we were girl scouts, complete with cookies that we gave out.

sophomore year, we were a baseball team, complete with jerseys and bags of popcorn.

me & erin

erin & lyd

our class :)

junior year, we were a naval fleet, aka the "friend ship" kind of lame, but we had fun.

and finally, senior year, we had some green recycling theme going on. kind of crazy.

 then, on saturday, everyone goes up to the mountain for a picnic and the grand march. a strange old tradition, we basically line up and march down a hill, giving our age in pennies to the president in a basket as a gift. we march down, then come down in pairs, then come down in fours, then eights, and finally 16 across. its a big deal to be a senior, because typically, there are only enough boys to hold hands with the senior girls, and everyone else ends up holding hands with girls. its a fun tradition, and once we get down to the bottom in 16, we sing the alma mater and the class president gives the president the pennies. and that's the grand march! its a lot of fun, as crazy as it sounds. oh, and one other thing you will see below, there's a dress code. well, more of a color code. underclassman women wear pink, underclassmen guys wear blue, senior girls wear blue, and senior guys wear white. here's some pics throughout the years:

sophomore year

me, christina, and our friend amory

one of our first pics together :)

me and christina- marching!

me and erin

junior year!

getting ready to march- me, lyd, christina, and erin

trying to keep up!

finally seniors!

check it out...boys!

the beginnings of the march

not sure if you can tell but i'm giving my pennies

we got to hold hands with  boy!

lydia never would march- but she took lots of pics!

lydia capturing the commotion

needless to say, it was always a good time. this year, we met up again to watch the march and enjoy remembering the glory days.

this year, me, christina, eli, nathan, and graham

christina, lydia, erin, and me

nathan and his friend adam

and here's our alma mater:

far up in the hills of georgia stands old berry tried and true
the shrine of many a memory of the silver and the blue
our loyalty and love we pledge
God keep thee without fail
behold the light
that shines for right
alma mater hail all hail!