Backpacking Trip

Pre-Trip Happenings:
Let me start by saying that i have been dreading taking backpacking since i entered the major...
Hiking is not my favorite outdoor activity, so hiking with a large pack on me in February isn't sounding so great. So, as the weekend of the trip approaches my teacher is saying that we will probably cross a few streams a couple times on the trip. Ok, that sucks, but he said just a few times, so it shouldn't be too awful. So, i get all packed; i didn't have hiking boots and i don't have money to buy new ones or time to break them in. So, i wore my tennis shoes and bought some croc knock offs for the river crossings. 
Friday:
Ok, so friday morning comes and i am exhausted.  The night before was long and i didn't get much sleep.  So anyway, we're meeting as a class at 8 am at school on friday morning.  My teacher asked me to take a test so that i could drive down as well as him. So, i get a camry and he gets a suburban.  We start driving and it all goes well. I have my friends in my car and we're enjoying ourselves.  So, we turn off on a road that is rocks and dirt. Later on down this road it gets very interesting....especially in a camry. We bottomed out quite a few times while holding our breath. At one point my teacher and i switched cars....that suburban was nice! So, we get to the start of our journey and we all have something to contribute to the group GORP(good old raisins and peanuts). So, everyone throws in stuff- our gorp contained: 4 different kinds of m&m's, marshmallows, dates, cashews, raisins, peanuts, froot loops, yummy covered peanuts, and...i'm sure there was something else... So we get our packs on and start. SAND. We were trudging through sand. Do you know how difficult that is? If i'm walking through sand i want to be on a beach and liking it! Not only that, but a change of plans: we were to cross the same river many, many, many times the next couple days. Joy. So, becuase we arrived in the afternoon, we only had a couple hours of daylight, so we didn't go too far before finding a camp.  So we get to our camp and start looking for a place to set up our tents.  Then we start on dinner (which was mashed potatoes and then cheese and summer sausage).  At about 7 pm we were all so freezing cold that we all got in our tents.  We weren't allowed to have fire's in this area, so...that kind of sucked. We also didn't put our tents very close together.  So, it's way too early in the evening to fall asleep, and we're all shivering. Each hour passes and everyone is still awake, but we can't really talk since we're so far apart. Let's make this short: it was the worst night of my entire life.  I was just praying for the sun to come up so we could get going again. Then randomly, we hear someone throwing up. Ew. Around 3 am my bladder had enough and wanted relief. Great. So, i get up and brave the cold. This will be tmi, but too bad. It was the longest pee of my life. So i get back to my tent and i was sure i had frostbite on my toes. It took hours to feel them again (and i know it was hours, because i was awake for the whole night). So, After sobbing about how miserable i was and trying not to die, i fall asleep....about half an hour before the sun comes up.
Saturday:
So, we wake up and grits is for breakfast. Seriously? Ew. So, all i had was hot chocolate.  We packed up and got ready to go for the day.  I was not feeling so great this day. I felt hot but cold and just...funny. So, we crossed the river....over and over and over and over and over and over...and over. My feet are soaked! We stopped at a place we thought would be great for staying the night and decided to day hike and then just go back to our stuff later.  So we dropped our stuff off, ate lunch, and started hiking without our packs.  A girl let me borrow her extra pair of tennis shoes so mine could start to dry out.  So we get to this part of the river and it's just deep. Like, gosh dangit deep.  This girl had already slipped on some ice and had fallen in, so she was wet and didn't want to get any more wet.  So, i was trying to pursuade her across the river, so we were behind.  She finally comes across and our teacher says that they want to go to a certain place but that it needs to be a fast trip.  Did we want to stay at this little island area or continue on  with them.  I wanted to continue, but the girl saw the next part of the river and it was deeper than before. So, she said she wanted to stay behind.  I offered to stay with her and so did a guy.  So, our teacher says he will be back at 5:15pm and we'll head back to our stuff for camp.  So, after about half an hour the sun is no longer shining on us and we get cold.  My feet were wet again from these new tennis shoes and 5:15 comes and still no teacher or other classmates.  I can no longer feel my toes and i'm just not feeling well.  6pm and my teacher and the rest of the class shows up.  I am numb and yucky.  So, they give me a granola bar to eat and i force it down.  My teacher carries me across the streams on the way back to camp knowing i couldn't feel my feet any more.  He's an amazing guy by the way. We're actually pretty close.  So, we get back to camp and it's dark, but luckily the hike back brought the feeling back and i got some nourishment and was feeling much much better!  This night was much warmer than the night before, and let me say, a couple degrees really does make a difference.  We ate dinner (rice a roni with sand... and hot chocolate). This time we were able to stay up a little later and play some games and chat.  We also set all our tents up right next to eachother.  So, we all talked for awhile in the tents and fell asleep.  Well, everyone else fell asleep.  I was shivering the whole night, but i was better than the night before.
Sunday:
 We wake up and everything is frosted over. Yuck. Breakfast time! We all pack up our stuff, put on our frozen, cold shoes and head back to the car.  We had about 8 miles to go.  We left our site at about 10:30 and made it to our first camp around 12pm.  We were at the point that our feet didn't matter.  We were crossin that river like it didn't matter (cuz it didn't).  So, we get back to the cars and sweet relief sets in.  The worst weekend of my life was finally over.  It was one of those experiences that sucked the entire time and you wished you were dead, but after it's over you can look back and say, yeah, that was fun.  I would do it again....as long as it wasn't still winter!!!! So, we drive home, and i have to say it was the best drive ever.  My car had so much fun talking, singing, quoting and laughing about things that happened on the trip. 
Talk about a long post....sheesh. Hope you wanted something to read...
I will post some pictures later. A girl is putting together a cd with everyone's pictures and i've heard there are some good ones that i want to share. 
Peace!!!