Tibetan monks visiting Morgantown!

Hello all!

Today we're in the office sorting through photos from the recent trips that have just been completed. Matt is about to head out for the week and leave us poor little interns to fend for ourselves on editing programs and tripod difficulties. We already discussed setting up a camera in the office while we make multiple mistakes and forget how to use the "Clone" tool on Photoshop and thankfully remember which hot key is "Undo" (It's Command + Z.... once you learn it, it's hard to forget it.).

Moving onto more exciting news!

Our calendar is still in the works, but is live and already filling up with interesting activities to do around the Morgantown area, a lot that I didn't even know about. Something I was very excited to hear about connected multiple events the entire week- Starting tonight!

Tibetan monks from the Drepung Gomang Monastery are visiting Morgantown and are holding multiple, intriguing events that are unlike the usual events in the area.



Tonight the visits take off with a Puja ceremony and potluck social. "Puja" is a Sanskrit word that means "offering." The monks will chant prayers and perform rituals specific to the type of prayer being offered. These prayers and rituals will be directed to the Mon River and Twin Spruce Marina.

The event is apart of a fundraising tour to help support the 2,000 exiled monks living in the Drepung Gomang Monastic University in southern India who are teaching Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and sciences and serving a community of 16,000 Tibetan exiles.

The event is held Twin Spruce Marina 48 Round Bottom Road in Morgantown, and the details for tonight are as follows:

5:00 - 6:00 pm

Gather. Arrive at the Marina, park, get set up, relax, socialize, swim, play music.

6:00 - 7:00 pm 

Puja Ceremony:

The Monks will introduce themselves, where they are from, discuss their tour and their monastery, followed by a Q&A. Then the Puja (chanting meditation), to bless the Monongahela River and the Twin Spruce Marina business endeavor. 

7:00 - 9:30 pm
Potluck and Social time, to include:
Drum Circle (led by Tim Terman)
Possible wood-carving demonstration (led by Mark Johnson)

If you can't make it tonight, the tour continues in Morgantown all day Wednesday. The events move to a local yoga studio BlissBlissBliss at 3101 About Town Place in Morgantown.

The day begins at 11:30 am with an event for children to color Tibetan designs. This workshop is offered at 5:30 if it's difficult for you to drag your young one out of the house. The workshop is all donation based to help the monks to fundraise the tour in support of the exiled monks.

Later in the day from 1-2pm, there will be another Puja event where the monks chant prayers and perform rituals specific to the type of prayer being offered. Prayers are addressed to Buddha’s, bodhisattvas and deities. Their primary purpose is to overcome negativities that may be obstacles in obtaining release from suffering and to promote spiritual, emotional, mental and physical well-being.

Merchandise from the Drepung Gomang Sacred Arts Tour will be available for purchase at all events. 100% of all proceeds go directly to support, educate, house, feed and clothe the nearly 2,000 refugee monks at Drepung Gomang Institute.

From 7pm-9pm the tour group leader, Geshe Lharampa Pobsang Dhondup is available to give talks on the main tenets of Buddhist philosophy and is happy to answer your questions about the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. His teachings will be given in Tibetan and translated into English by a translator. Geshe-la is a monk who has achieved the equivalent of a PhD.

The Four Noble Truths encompass the essence of the Buddha’s teachings. It was these four principles that the Buddha came to understand during his meditation under the bodhi tree.

1. The truth of suffering (Dukkha) 

2. The truth of the origin of suffering (Samudāya)
3. The truth of the cessation of suffering (Nirodha)
4. The truth of the path to the cessation of suffering (Magga)

Whether you're interested in the Buddhist culture and traditions or are looking for something new to do, these events are worth looking into! Don't let this unique opportunity to learn about a new culture or help those in need slip away!


Wishing everyone a wonderful week,
Natalie, Media Intern

Media department by office, media team by raft.

Hello all, Natalie here.

Being apart of the media department means a very different schedule every week and even by the day. Today is Tuesday in the office, but it feels very similar to a Monday. We were lucky enough to have our weekend feel extended by heading to Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania to go white water rafting with the very first Odyssey trip of the summer. Our job was to collect photos and footage of the participants by speeding by them, quickly setting up, quickly breaking down, speeding to the next checkpoint and attempting to stay in the raft as best as possible (I was the first one to fall in a rapid out of the entire trip. It was on the first rapid. Our patient director, Matthew Shreve, was kind enough to save me. Thanks Matthew Shreve.) 

On that note, we were very fortunate to have our director be so familiar with the river and guiding us because the three of us were, well, very inexperienced and maybe not the most graceful people. The day was a success in every way as far as we can tell. We saw trout, a black bear, bald eagle, four turkey vultures on one branch and a handful of ducks flowing through the rapids ahead of us. Every camera made it safely back home with no water damage (This was a big fear for the lesser graceful of us, meaning all of us but Matthew...). We took two GoPros, one on a monopod and one on a longer poll. This came in handy so we could stand in the rapids and get very close to the action or stand on a rock and extend the camera further than we could walk. We also had a Sony NEX-VG900 and a Nikon D7000 to capture more footage. We focused on collecting more footage than photos, but we did come out with a few just because. 

Picture left to right: Safety boater, Cody Holliday, Associate Director of Adventure Nathan Harlan with the monopod GoPro, Lane Horter with the other GoPro, Matthew Shreve with Sony NEX-VG9000 and me, in control of the case so it doesn't fall in the river. (I swear I did other things aside from being in charge of the camera case safety team.) Photo by Andrew Sealy. 

Odyssey 17 trip participants and leaders enjoying the beautiful day in Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania. 

After carrying the heavy raft up a hill to get shuttled back to our car, we indulged in pizza that Lane was thoughtful enough to pack. Right after we changed into dry clothes and packed up all the gear, thunder began to roll in. Apparently Morgantown was hit with a huge storm, but we missed it and had sunshine all day.

It's days like this where you go home and realize that you just "worked" all day. Today we are reminded that it's not all fun and games as we send out emails, design calendars, edit videos and photos and brainstorm the next steps in our projects. Regardless, how cool is our job?

Today we made our community calendar "TAP" live and are filling it in gradually while waiting to hear back from businesses and organizations with their submissions. Keep posted on our Facebook and our website to view the calendar and prepare to get involved this summer! If anyone has an event that they would like promoted, please fill out our submission form here. All emails will go to me directly, and I will be in touch in a timely manner to handle all submissions.


All of us seem to get a little anxious being in an office all day, so we're looking forward to be heading to the challenge course with the second Odyssey trip. Hopefully we don't get too bruised this time. Lane might need to pack his knee pads.


I hope everyone is enjoying the summer sun and staying cool in the water somewhere,
Natalie, Media Intern

TAP In:

In addition to starting our official Adventure blog, we are working on a guide to local events that will be more commonly known as the TAP. Until then, we will be updating our followers and readers about events in the area to keep everyone involved in our community.

Here you can read about our first installment for the calendar:

Summer Solstice Yoga class at 6pm at the Hazel Ruby McQuain Park and Amphitheater!! Class is by donation and all levels are welcome to join! Power Yoga Morgantown instructors Jared Callahan and Tara Cunningham are teaching with a guest appearance by Yogi Wade. Go celebrate and connect with these inspiring people!

Amanda Love of Power Yoga Morgantown at the Amphitheater.

Welcome to The Appalachian Pineapple, Adventure WV's guide to the outdoors. Here you can find local events, trip planners, and Adventure news. Check back as we launch TAP, Adventure WV's local events calendar to keep you involved with events in and around Morgantown and WVU. Until then, stay connected through our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

From left to right: Andrew Sealy, Natalie Snyder, Matthew Shreve, Lane Horter