We set off around 10 A.M and was planning to come back at least by three in the afternoon. However, there was a little problem in our little group. We got lost on the way up the mountain for about twelve hours. We walked around on the mountain, trying to find at least a way back to the place we started off. Instead of going to the starting spot, we went in a log cabinet owned by a farmer and slept there. The next morning, we woke up surrounded by local police officers and search and rescue team. Fortunately we did not freeze to death but went back home safely.

 When I was going to high school in New Zealand, the school decided to take all the Form Fours, or grade 10s, which included me, to a mountain called Mt. Whanganui, which is located on the northern island of New Zealnd. It was winter and the mountain we went for hiking, was famous for ski courses- since there was no other on the island. When we got there, I could see the valleys of the mountain covered with whit powders which made them look like white sand hills. We all brought our skiis or snowboards so we can have fun after hiking. Some people left their skiis in the bus but me and my friends; Chad, Sam, Michael and Chris, figured that we would have a lot more time to ski if we take them with us.

 It was 10 A.M when we set off. Me and my friends started to regret for not leaving our skiis in the bus after an hour of hiking with skiis and snowboards. It was around 12 A.M when we had lunch on the snow. We were all tired, covered with our own sweat and most importantly, we had no energy left within us to carry on. From then, we, me and my friends and others who were stupid enough to bring their skiis like us, began falling behind from others. A teacher or two would wait for us to make sure we don’t get lost, leaving clear footsteps behind that leads the way. I thought this was ridiculous because there is no way we are going to get lost when there was nothing that was tall enough to block our sight to see others. But, I was wrong.

 It was 4 P.M when the darkness came. It’s when we realized that night comes early in the mountains especially when a group of clouds, containing snow, come. When the clouds blocked th sun, the temperature started cool down rapidly, the wind started to blow and snow began coming down. Strong winds carried snow which hit us like bullets. Those snow may not had been as lethal as real bullets they use in a war but it still hit us bad. By then, our face was red from cold and hitting of the snow and where ever the snow was on our body, they frosted and did not melt away. At some point then, we noticed that the wind had dug up the foot prints, snow had covered the traces and darkness forbaded our eye sights. We were lost.

 ”God damn it! I told you, I told you guys to just leave our damn skiis in the bus! I knew something like this was coming. What are we going to do now?” Chad, the loudest of us all, cursed and asked Sam what we should do. Sam was like our leader that time because of his confidence. “Don’t know. Maybe we should go back to that ranch we just saw about two hours ago and call the teachers from there.” So we started going back to where we came from. Well, at least we thought we were. However, three hours of walking, we still couldn’t see anything. What’s worse was that Chad was whining about how it’s a mistake that we brought our skiis, we were going to freeze to death and that we were going to the wrong direction. Once in a while we would yell at Chad, ”Shut up! Chad,” but Chad’s talkativity overwhelmed us. However, Chad was right about one thing. We were going to the wrong direction. We were supposed to head west but we were actually walking towards west, towards the mountain.

 By 10P.M we were so hungry that our stomach were screaming so we sat under a big tree which blocked the snowy wind for us and got fire going so we can have a cup of soup. We learnt that this was a bad idea. A minute later the snow on the branches were melting and soon after we noticed that, boom! Snow on the branches fell on us. There was snow everywhere, inside our socks, hoods, jackets and even in our under wears. To make it worse, the wind never let us to dry.

 Somehow we made our way to the old log cabinet with out freezing to death. When we knocked on the door, no one answered. We knocked couple of more times and there still was no answer. We found that the door was opened so we let ourselves in. There was a fire stove going on, which we dried our clothes and laid our feet on to thaw our frozen feet. Our feet were frozen so badly that we couldn’t feel the warmth of the fire until we burnt our socks. The pain of thawing proccess came later. It was about 4 A.M when we went to sleep in the cabinet.

 The next morning Chad woke me up. When I woke up I found that the local police officers and my school dean were surrounding us. They said that they had looked for us all night but couldn’t find us so the teachers called the local police station for search and rescue. It was the owner who had called the police because he saw eight men lying in his cabinet so he figured we were thieves. The police knew it was us, the eight students, because our school dean asked the police to find us.

 After that, me and my friends all got grounded- for what!?- for being stupid to carry the skiis while hiking I guess. I never went for another mountain hiking after that, but for sure, it is an unforgettable experience.

   In the short story, “The Painted Door,” the author, Sinclair Ross, created a mood of bitter cold and loneliness of the life on the farming country yards of Prairies. For the environmental means, the story sets in a winter time where a storm is about to struck the region. One can hardly see a living thing outside the window of a house for the houses are at least five miles away from each other. This physical setting of the environment is important because it affects the emotions of the characters and it also gives the readers hints to think about how the characters in the story would feel. Not only that, the environmental backgrounds can be used to bring out issues. The emotional or, mental settings of the characters are also important too. In this story, the mental setting of the main character, Anne, was nervous, fragile, bored, furious, and indifferent. These mental settings tell the readers that Anne is tired of her life and that her emotion is so fragile. Both of these physical and mental settings contribute to the climax and conclusion of the story. In the climax, Anne’s emotional status led her to cheat on her husband in which the husband sees her with another man. The husband therefore, was terribly hurt that he went out and got himself killed by freezing to death in the storm.  The repetition of Anne saying how bored; depressed and lonely her life gets to the readers and make readers think how awful it is to be her. These repetitions build up a mood of negativity Anne has towards her life.

   In the short story, “The Painted Door,” the author, Sinclair Ross, created a mood of bitter cold and loneliness of the life on the farming country yards of Prairies. For the environmental means, the story sets in a winter time where a storm is about to struck the region. One can hardly see a living thing outside the window of a house for the houses are at least five miles away from each other. This physical setting of the environment is important because it affects the emotions of the characters and it also gives the readers hints to think about how the characters in the story would feel. Not only that, the environmental backgrounds can be used to bring out issues. The emotional or, mental settings of the characters are also important too. In this story, the mental setting of the main character, Anne, was nervous, fragile, bored, furious, and indifferent. These mental settings tell the readers that Anne is tired of her life and that her emotion is so fragile. Both of these physical and mental settings contribute to the climax and conclusion of the story. In the climax, Anne’s emotional status led her to cheat on her husband in which the husband sees her with another man. The husband therefore, was terribly hurt that he went out and got himself killed by freezing to death in the storm.  The repetition of Anne saying how bored; depressed and lonely her life gets to the readers and make readers think how awful it is to be her. These repetitions build up a mood of negativity Anne has towards her life.