Ticks

I would like to know who frightened the men in this world, so much so, that even the word "dance" results in locked knees, damp armpits, and that priceless look of terror/stubborn resolve, as the hands instantly clamp their seat like a vice-grip. --as if the chair is going somewhere.

Fear shmeer everyone. Weddings with dances should mean the men and women dance and be merry. It's a celebration! So you look a little silly-- does anybody really care?

On a different note- I picked off 7 ticks from my poor helpless skin- 2 of which I'm fairly certain were in my hair. EW. I can't even explain to you how nasty that is. Even as I sit here, I have a sneaking suspician there is a small regiment of ticks planning their next attack. They are probobly heading for my exposed toes. Shooot.
They befriended me on my walk with Rob and Trine through an open field. The grass is really tall now, so they (the girls) were hiding, and Sam and I were trying to track them. You'd think the girls rolling around in the meadow would be the easiest victims, but I suppose these things get some sort of twisted pleasure in challenging themselves. Somehow, the one bounding through the grass- (that ould be me) contracted a small colony, while Rob and Trine got off with one or two. Ticks are stupid- with claws of steel.

I am still disgusted. I feel like the kid in grade school that is singled out for having lice. How aweful was that. And everyone knew it was them, because they had to go home. The worst.

Anyways, the rest of the evening saw a brilliant red sky, a relaxing hang out with the girls- an effort to pin point where we will all be a year from now, and then a viscious scrub in the shower to rid myself of unwanted company.
Overall, life is pleasant.

Bloopers

If I could somehow arrange it, I'd attach a small videocamera to my left shoulder and make one sweet movie of Maple Leaf bloopers during the work day. Last week was a winner-- it would look something like this

- a golfcart careening down a steep hill- brakes already locked and proving useless- with Robyn and I smiling in the front seat, and a hysteric Katrina dangling off the back as the self proclaimed brakes in an effort to spare us from being dumped into the harbor.

- then our efforts to go back up- Robyn and I still smiling- this time because Katrina has decided to become the 'legs of the operation' and is ineffectively pushing a motorized vehicle up one very steep hill.

- then doing donuts on that very same golfcart, testing Trine's forearm strength as she stands on the back and clings on for dear life

- a Kayak race that involved one kayak and one Katrina. She had to race around the pond in the time I could turn around and race across it. Lesson #1. Don't try to turn a kayak too sharply
Lesson #2. Your kayak will tip. (note- that Robyn has not stopped smiling through all of this)

- Again- on the balance 'note' Trine and I were tagging some emerald cedars on a steel trailer, with her feet planted firmly on the stone driveway, and mine balanced on a teetering fibre pot on the raised end of the trailer. I place a fair amount of trust in my mongoose- like reflexes, which saw me casually chatting with Trine one second, and then flying through the air and landing on my back in the next. Trine found this particular incident fairly hilarious.

-Kristina's motivational speeches to get us to work through break so she can go home. They always fail- but they are quite funny to watch. I think I'd zoom in on her face the moment she sees us hop on the trailer to head in for coffee. Just priceless.

There are many more- but they are censored.

All in all, summer seems to be sprinkled with a fair bit of work and socializing, which, when blended, is the perfect combo. The other night was particularly enjoyable. Since Trine and Robyn live in Hamilton, I am able to snag rides every now and then to see one very goodlooking guy. James- don't worry, every one knows it :) We picked him up at the bus stop, then we all took a ride down to the grocery store, loaded up the car with goods and made an amazing stir fry dish to split between the five of us (Kirk was there too). After dinner, James and I picked up some Timmies for the group, and we just sat and talked around the kitchen table. Very nice. This was followed by a bit of scrubs, and then a comfy bed. Life really is good.

I'm finding my weekdays pretty packed these days- and I don't know if I initiate that, or if plans just have a way of stacking themselves up on their own. In any case, tonight will see Trine, Robyn, Vaness, myself, Hugo, Pablo, Ivan and Tina (our Mexican amigos) taking a trip down to Port to grab a coffee and walk the pier. Hopefully they are all still coming, but if not, I'm excited to just chill with the girls by the lake.

Tomorrow is already Friday, and I have no clue where the week just went.
Cheers to the crowd from both Redeemer and England. I miss you all!

Hoy

There are some days worth writing about. When these days come, one should write about them.
I woke up early this morning after a quality hottub night with Trine and Robyn, made myself and the girls some lunches, and rolled into work at 7:11. There is nothing particularly amazing about today, (I feel like I set you up with my opening sentence. It's called 'the grabber'.) I just think that it would be a shame not to mention some highlights of the day in general, because most of them had me laughing quite a lot.
For example, Katrina was talking to me today with her lips covered in permanent marker. She had no idea that the tags she was putting in her mouth were freshly written on, and I don't know why it took me so long to tell her. Funny.

Kristina in the tag room. It's like entereing the lair of a pack rat. Quote of the day "oooh, I wasn't expecting company!" But I can appreciate ordered chaos. It's kind of my thing.

Going with Trine and Robyn to get gas. Trine accidentally tripped out of her car and reefed the key out of the ignition. This then bent the key, and in trying to bend it back, snapped the key in half, leaving us stranded at the gas station at 5pm. The car then had to be raised, moved out of the way, and Trine had to try and get a new key cut. The only reason we left work in the first place was to get Vanessa to go home for her suprise wedding shower. We figured the only way to keep it a suprise was to fake that the orders were not actually going out in the morning, and then by driving away. This way, she would see us leave and go home, and we could then return to work. Having a snapped key made that last part a bit of a problem. Also, very funny.

Oy- There's a small sample of my day. I'd love to keep going, but I'm beat. 11 hours on the farm followed by a wedding shower can suck the life out of someone. But there shall be more blogs to come. I don't like this bad habit of blog droughts in the summer. There's your warning Redeemer folk. Take it or leave it.

Goodnight

The Motherland

Home. Sweet, glorious home.

I am happy to be back. I didn't realize while I was coasting through classes and catching coaches through the UK that the niggling feelings of missing something were in reality the sweet calls of my motherland, and more specifically, my mother. My home is largely so appealing because of mom. (But dad, I love you too :) I don't think anyone can walk through our front doors without feeling a giant sense of warmth and hospitality. This is not to say I did not feel at home in Charlbury (Beccy was a great hostess) but this is MY home. When I walked through the front doors, the love was there- in the form of friends, family, salads, and sausages.

It is so nice to be home.

But let me backtrack a bit, and give you all a brief sketch of what my past few weeks were like. After Heather and I caught our train to the right airport, we made it to Belfast, and proceeded to have 3 fantastic days in Northern Ireland. The highlight for me was our day trip to Derry, sitting front row in a coach bus listening to Josef, our Irish tour guide, go to town on the mike- filling us in on Irish facts, folklore, and using any spare minute to sing his heart out, which was quite obviously lodged in Ireland. My personal favorite was his selection of the Rankin Family "the girl from Belfast city". Brought me right back to my childhood, listening to mom rock out with the vacuum cleaner to that very song. Like I said- my mom is hip.

We had a few stops along the Irish coast which were just breathtaking. Jagged cliffs, bright blue water, and a crisp, fresh wind- possibly gale- that kept us on our toes. Neither of us wanted to have to be the ones to write home saying we fell off the Irish cliffs. The history of Ireland fascinated me. The protestant/Catholic divide is still so alive. You could actually feel it in the gales. Weird.

But, the time did come for us to pack our things and head east. This was done at 4 am, on the Loyalist streets of Belfast, where we had to catch a suspicious bus that we hoped would eventually arrive. We plunked down on the street, and waited for others to turn up, to ease our troubled minds. Well, we got what we wished for, in the form of a young drunken Irishman, who kept us very entertained with ridiculous Irish jokes. Bless his heart :) Then a taxi snagged him up, and our bus pulled in. Before we knew it (literally, the flight was about 30 minutes) we landed in Edinburgh, which in my opinion is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to. Who else can boast a castle on a hill in the center of their city? (I am sure some countries can, so don't actually answer that). We got to our hostel exhausted, but I was feeling especially dutch, and so I worked that morning from 11-1, stripping bed sheets and making beds, which earned me a total of 7.50 pounds, or (how I preferred to think about it) a free night of room and board. Hooray for a stubborn work ethic.

Then I saw James. To describe it in a word- wonderful. His flight landed right on time, I managed to find my way to the airport with relative ease (considering I have a brain that cannot turn itself into a map) and then I waited, which felt like an eternity, for him to pop out of the doors. Granted, I was facing the wrong set of doors, but I caught him out of the corner of my eye, and then actually caught him as he sprinted over. Nothing like a good bear hug.

The next week was a blur, which saw us touring the city, taking a highland tour, climbing the craigs, enjoying some nice pubs, enjoying some nice company, and taking the overnight bus to London. I must admit, I did not fully put myself into James' shoes, considering I was in full travel mode, and he was coming off of very little sleep after exams, had been travelling for ages, and lost 5 hours in the process. My brilliant idea of taking an overnight bus to save money on a hostel meant that James had to put up with 8 hours on a bus that didn't exactly like long legs and torsos, whereas I have this weird way of falling asleep practically anywhere. However, for his sake, I stayed awake and sang some tunes and told some stories. This was great until the bus driver actually pulled over and reamed me out for keeping everyone on the coach awake. Big exaggeration on his part, but I shut up.

At 6:30 am. we pulled into Victoria station, parked ourselves at a McDonalds and waited for Tim and his cousin Derek to meet us. James took that opportunity to change out of his pajamas in the nearest washroom. The only reason I mention such a trivial thing is that James' before and after face is branded into my mind- heading towards the 'loo' - happy anticipation. Being charged 20 pence and being under the watchful eye of a security guard whose sole pleasure in life is probably derived from rushing people off toilets- saw the reemergence of one angry James. I found this quite entertaining. He saw this as a great injustice, and resolved to get his revenge by stretching his bladder. We found free toilets after that.

Hanging out with Tim again was great. We sat for a few hours in St. James Park, watching crazy birds and catching up. We hit up all the main touristy things- of which St. Paul's Cathedral was a highlight. By the afternoon though, I was ready to get out of the city and set my feet back in my little town. Those few days flew by, and before we knew it we were flying by. I came home to a surprise welcome home party, which was fantastic. I stayed up till about 11:30pm (which is 3:30 am) went to bed still feeling quite awake, then woke up bright and early and headed to work for a good solid 9 hour day. It is now day two- which consisted of a fabulous day of work with my good friends Katrina, Robyn, Kristina, and Vaness, and I have yet to even feel a little bit sleepy. Jet lag is a myth people.

But anyways, it is wonderful to be home. I have high hopes for this summer, and I can't wait till the weather stops creating ice. Until then, I will wear gloves when I weed pots to save my cuticles.

Cheers to everyone from ABU and Redeemer, because I miss you all already! I hope to hear from you guys throughout the summer. It truly was an experience of a life time, and I will never forget you guys!

Scotland!

Travelling with Heather is like a walk in the park. She's a veteran. She knows what she's doing, she's been around the world, she could probobly do this in her sleep. I feel no need to check the map or double check airport locations, because I assume Heather has it under control. And there we have it. That little fatal word. Assume.

Since we took off to London Monday morning, things have been in our favor. Timot, Heather and I spent an incredible day in London, caught our bus no problem, made great time to Glasgow, and found Crystal's house with ease. The day was spent relaxing with Heather's cousin and her son Milo, exploring the sketchy areas of town, and then sitting back and having a pint/the best hot chocolate in the world on a cute little cobblestone road. We were home on time for a fantastic dinner of salmon, rice, and broccoli, then kicked back to watch a movie. I slept like a log.

We woke up on time, had some breakfast, and headed out the door right on schedule. You couldn't ask for a smoother transition from home to bus to airport. Once at the Glasgow airport, I thought I'd be extra safe and ask some lady which terminal Ryan Air flew out of. To which she responded with a very casual " Oh- Ryan Air doesn't fly from this airport".
Shit.

Who knew Glasgow had two airports?! From there things got interesting. We booked it to the nearest bus, caught that to the train station, waited 25 minutes for the train, than crossed our fingers and hoped like hell the train would get us there on time. It was a 40 minute train ride. ( Which we were given for FREE-- and we are still not sure why, but we figured we better not ask any questions). This entire time, Heather is finding the situation incredibly funny- and I am wondering why on earth the airport claims it is in Glasgow, when we were clearly not IN Glasgow. But, I am happy to say the train ride was beautiful, we made it there, and with time to spare. The best part is that the flight was only 20 minutes long! It took us longer to walk to the bus station that morning! Ridiculous.

But anyways, we are in Belfast, and it has been a fantastic day. We wandered all over the place for a solid 4 hours, made it back to our hostel by around 8, and cooked ourselves a mean chicken alfredo dish. We also met two very entertaining Canadians, who added a lot to the general hostel atmosphere. This hostel is fantastic.

Tomorrow we do a tour that takes us up into the hills. I can't wait! Heather is already in bed, but I was unaware of the time and had a coffee at about 10:30. Woops.

Travelling is fun.

Pip Pip

I was deleting some of the paper's saved on my computer that I don't ever want to read again, when I found this. I'm not sure when or why I wrote it, but it serves as a nice summary of how I felt and feel about this wonderful town.

It’s amazing how small town life can grow on you. At first you don’t know what to think. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible, it’s just different. Then you start to like the “different”, then you start to love the “different” until it’s not so different from what you like, and then there you have it- you’re hooked. Once your “like” turns into “crave”, you know it’s the real deal. That’s how I feel about this place. I’m not sure what it is, maybe the spring air that has brought every possible tree down my lane into full blossom, or maybe it’s the constant church bells, or the girl practicing piano across the paper thin wall, or perhaps the way the town comes alive on weekends. I just don’t know what it is, but my schedule here is consistent. I wake up, I jog around the town for 20 minutes ( believe me when I say this is a small town), I eat muesli, I go to class, and I look forward to getting off that train and re-entering my little home away from home. Tiger greets me every day, having established that we must play together for at least 5-10 minutes a day, I go to my room, I try to tidy it, I fail at that, and then I make myself a cup of coffee and see what the T.V. has to offer.

It just makes me really appreciate this kind of opportunity. I don’t think I’ll have it ever again. Ever. That’s a very long time. I am at home in a complete stranger’s home. I am living in England, with a very cool girl, with whom I just spent a good majority of my Friday evening with at the pub, joking with friends and drinking alcoholic Cider (which I haven’t had back home, and it’s a crying shame) School is not tough, although perhaps getting great grades is, and I am not worried in the least about making it through this course. I am happy. Better yet-I am content. I will miss this place.

Well everyone, I am pleased to announce that my work in Charlbury is done.

I am not quite sure that sentence is accurate. I'm not really sure if I'm "pleased", nor am I sure if it's been "work". Clearly-- I should have just avoided that sentence all together, because it has now been the cause of three more lines that only serve to outline vague uncertainty, and really tell you nothing. Make that four.

But what I'm trying to say is that today, roughly around the time I finished watching Scrubs, I ran down to the baptist church for my last meeting with the printer. I hate that printer. And that printer hates me. The stapler also was a bit moody- we all have our moments. But aside from these minor setbacks, the thing is done. Two things really, about twenty pages total, and with a poor works cited (that's always been my weak point). But the content is there, and unfortunately not here- so let me tell you what I've really been up to.

Yesterday I went into Oxford solely because there would be a free lunch, and because I didn't want to stay behind in Charlbury and let a paid train ticket go to waste. The train got in at 11, giving me roughly 2 hours to kill before lunch. (I'm going to get back to that sentence in a minute, because I think there is something fundamentally wrong with the mentality that one must "kill time") It really isn't too difficult to "kill" two hours in Oxford. The city has a lot to offer. So let me walk you through it.
I started off by cruising to the market square, where every Wednesday you can bargain for bananas, grab some vegetables, check out the souvenirs, or make a b-line for the candy table. Everything on this table is roughy one pound, and this table is what makes Wednesday a special day. Yesterday was special. A bag of chewy dinosaur candies for only 50 pence, found on the one pound table. You understand why this makes me smile.

From there, I made my way to "American Street". There is something about this street that just sucks you in- there's no avoiding it. Rain or shine, people perform. I've heard accordians, violins, guitars, harmonica's, and one harp. The harp was yesterday, and the man was there for roughly 10 hours. American Street has stamina. There is a constant stream of people, usually loitering around the McDonalds and KFC (why it's called American Street) and no cars allowed. People-watching is an excellent way to kill an afternoon. But, before I could let myself get sucked into the masses, I got distracted by a tiny mall with a visible escalator. I don't know why, but I had a sudden urge to let it take me somewhere. That somewhere was- no suprise- upstairs. But then I saw another escalator, and was curious what was on the 3rd floor. I couldn't stop there, however, because there was a 4th. Then a 5th. It's amazing how something that appears to be the size of a local mini-mart can turn into a 5 level mansion. And mom, I'd like to say that I was captivated by the latest fashions on display, and made a few trendy purchases.. but let's be real. I was only there to ride the escalators, and then the sunshine was calling my name.

So I was indeed sucked into American street, and spewed out the other end- the more affordable end. "Primark" exists for people with tight budgets, but who still like to look presentable in public. I bought a few shirts.

Then I found a book shop, and the time just flew. It was a good morning.

The group got together for a tasty lunch, and we decided to meet up at 4 to try the C.S. Lewis walk at Magdalene College. And this is where the phrase "killing time" cropped up again, and Tim and I decided it just had to go. Why this idea of "killing time"? Don't we hate to see it go? Does the constant anticipation of something else kind of kill our ability to enjoy the moment? While we chilled out in the botanical garden, under C.S. Lewis' favorite tree- a black pine for those who are interested- lying on our backs and staring at the blue/cloudy skies, I decided to try and eliminate that phrase from my vocabulary. I just don't like it. Now, saying that, I realize I've already used it about three times in this very blog. I'm learning..

After the walk, we met everyone at the Eagle and Child for one last pub meal in Oxford. Talk about feeling the need to reconnect with Clive Staples. The food was yum-the beer was yum, and splurging on a dessert was a great way to top things off. Yum, yum, yum. Clive would be dazzled by that display of intellect, I'm sure.

I'm not sure what happened to me, but after the meal, the walk to the train, the train ride, and the final walk home- I was beat. Beccy and I watched a bit of "tele", and then I was out cold. Gold.

Today was very relaxed. After another Oxford experience, I came home, got my paper's in, and then ran into Mad. I enjoy running into Mad, because she's always got something to say, and I find that very amusing. This time was a bit more strenuous however, involving not just my ears, but my need to convince her that she didn't need Mark and Tim to help her move the giant wooden beams out of her garden, because I was fully capable. Tim and I effectively pried, pulled, and dug out the wooden beams, kept firmly in place by years of gravity, and large spikes. So with shovels, crowbar and sledghammer, we had those beams up and out, and snugly arranged in the neighbour's garden in no time, and in no light. When the sun goes down, there's not much to go by, so hopefully Jillian wakes up and actually thinks her garden looks decent. We did our best, and I got a sense of what it is to work again. Excitement for summer is building.

By now it's past 9- and I realize I'm on lunch duty for tomorrow. So, I ran home and grabbed the money, then ran back to Jillian's, because Tim was there hanging out with Beth. Then we went up to the store, bought stuff, went back down to the church to store it, and then I could finally come home for dinner. Dinner consisted of cold pizza and sour milk at 10:15. Cold pizza- great. Sour milk. Not. Eating after 10? Goes straight to the hips.

It's 11:30 pm. I'm not sure how that happened, but I'm fully enjoying the moment.
Cheers everyone- I am done.