This weekend I enjoyed a wonderful time with my friend Lauren (one of the greatest girl counsellors at Sunnybrea this summer with me).
I left on Friday morning and made it to Westbank by 11 something-ish. We enjoyed a blustery walk along the lake, while we were also stopping to take pictures of almost everything with her new fancy Canon Rebel camera (which I think is named Ronald, but I can't remember for certain). Seriously, that thing can take pictures non stop; most fantastic! I'm sure we must have taken about a hundred pictures in a half-an-hour.
Afterward we ate some lunch and grabbed some flour and chocolate chips from the grocery store in order to have everything we needed for the banana muffins we wanted to make later. As it turns out, we needed sugar, not flour, for our muffins (see the rest of this story below at the *)
We spent a long time looking through Lauren's amazing photos from her trips to here and there, and then mine from Ireland. I then enjoyed watching a lovely Disney movie with her and we headed off to bed.
In the morning we made our delectable muffins. We thought we weren't going to have enough sugar to complete the batch, but no fear! Lauren's "Mummles" saved the day when she remembered that she had a box of sugar packets in her car (I guess that's what happens when you manage a coffee shop). So about a hundred sugar packets later, we had successfully created the sweet muffins.
Then we went to visit the giant new Walmart that Westbank has. Seriously, the thing is a mini mall; in some places it would actually be a big mall, but seriously, it's gigantic. After exploring the giant Walmart for a while, we then headed out to Subway for a lovely sub lunch. Taking our subs we headed over the movie theater and bought out tickets for High School Musical 3. Yes indeed I have watched all three now. I was feeling all bursting-into-song-like after that.
Later at the mall we poked around, but nether of us really wanted to shop. I guess we were basically killing time between our movie and when Lauren started work. There just doesn't seem to be anything that is interesting to me right now (actually, more like anything I can afford).
After being in Chapters for about an hour when Lauren started work, I headed back to her parents place and watched some movies and ate dinner.
When Lauren came home we hyperly enjoyed reading the strange ingredients that they put into cosmetics. Seriously "Lanalool," whats that? Or "Zazna...something a rather." Crazy!
Then this morning we scooted off to her church, Harvest Fellowship. Lauren twisted my arm and I sang on the worship team with her. Such an amazingly wonderful little church. Her dad is an amazing speaker!
Unfortunately that put an end to my time there and I had to jet back home.
So here I am, writing this long overdue blog and thinking about the fact that at 7:30 tomorrow morning I need to be in Pritchard watching little kids...
10.26.2008
9.20.2008
Happy Birthday Karen!
So I'm back here in the good old Loops, doing school, thinking about job options, hanging out with my roommate, sis and bro-in-law, but not with Jill because her schedule is much to busy for me :( *make sad face*
Today is Karen's 21st birthday. We've had some great fun indeed together. A lovely dinner at Kelly O'Brians started off our night. Such good food, mmmmm Potchos! Karen was even able to get that special birthday balloon from our waiter. Immediately after the balloon was slipped around her wrist, I insist, she became another person. Well actually, she was still Karen, just several years younger ;). After dinner we jetted over to the DQ to grab the lovely ice cream cake that makes any party complete. And then a quick stop to grab 21 from Video Mart (hopefully it's good, haven't watched it quite yet) before heading home.
So we're just enjoying letting the food in our stomachs settle while we wait for Brandon to get home and well crack open the cake and enjoy our movie!
Today is Karen's 21st birthday. We've had some great fun indeed together. A lovely dinner at Kelly O'Brians started off our night. Such good food, mmmmm Potchos! Karen was even able to get that special birthday balloon from our waiter. Immediately after the balloon was slipped around her wrist, I insist, she became another person. Well actually, she was still Karen, just several years younger ;). After dinner we jetted over to the DQ to grab the lovely ice cream cake that makes any party complete. And then a quick stop to grab 21 from Video Mart (hopefully it's good, haven't watched it quite yet) before heading home.
So we're just enjoying letting the food in our stomachs settle while we wait for Brandon to get home and well crack open the cake and enjoy our movie!
9.08.2008
I'm just not the blogger that I wish I was
I know, I know. It's been almost three months. If anyone actually is reading this anymore, a giant YIPPY because I've actually got something new up here. So since the last post was from when I was still in Ireland here's what happened a little bit after that.
I flew home on Thursday the 26th of June around 4 something and I arrived in Canada on Thursday the 26th of June around 5:30 something. My wonderful mother picked me up at the airport and we jumped into the car and drove straight up to Kamloops. After catching a few hours of sleep we ran around town getting the essentials for camp and then booked it out to Sunnybrae. It was really strange getting straight into stuff at camp without actually taking a second to readjust to life in Canada. Fortunately Mom and I arrived just in time for lunch where I was able to meet a few of the people I would be living with for the next two months. I was excited to be at camp but nervous about making a bad jet legged first impression on these people. Turns out that right after lunch we were heading off to do "Something so hard you wont know what it is until it kicks you in the face" challenge. Turns out that the challenge was to get into three groups. Wait, I know what your thinking, "how hard is it to get into three groups?" but really, it actually was. The rest of the challenge wasn't so hard after that.
We divided ourselves into three groups, one that was blindfolded, one that had no use of their arms, and another that couldn't talk. Then with one from each of the three groups we began our challenge. They also told us that if anyone in our group was caught doing what they weren't allowed to (like use their arms) then another "disability" would be added to them. First off we grabbed life jackets from the boat shed. Not hard at all you're thinking, but remember I'm lacking my arms here. And I'm trying to communicate with a team member I had never met before (my mute team member and I know each other from when my family used to live in Kamloops). So after getting life jackets we grabbed a canoe and started off on our way to Sunnybrae park. I don't know how long it took us to get there, but our blind person was in the back steering and I was trying to yell directions because our mute paddler couldn't. "Left, ooops, I mean right!" "Umm, we're kind of almost on shore maybe we should head ri..left some more." Gosh, who knew that the pressure would cause me to forget me Lefts and Rights?
Once we were up on the Sunnybrae beach the next part of our adventure began. We got to hike to the top of Sunnybrae cliffs. Once again, not too hard when you have all those things like sight, arms, a mouth to communicate with and the lack of jet leg. Actually we did not too bad at all. Our mute led the way with the blind close behind and me yelling "Rocks!", "Branch!", "LEFT!" and "Umm, don't step to the left, you'll fall to your death!" At the top we were freed of our disabilities where our leaders told us how proud they were of our efforts to work together and communicate with each other, despite our lack of communication tools.
It was at that time that we learned about the real challenge. You know, the whole time we were thinking the challenge would be to get everyone up to the top of the Sunnybrae cliffs in one piece, but instead it was for 25-35 people (not really sure of the exact number) to eat 200 hot dogs in half an hour. Yes, 200 hot dogs in half an hour. That means five to eight hot dogs each. I must admit that I did eat six and I regret that choice. However, my crazy girl Lauren wowed us all by downing eleven! That's more than the average boy there.
It was a great bonding time to be sure. It's not very often that you just meet someone and then have to watch them throw up two or three hot dogs.
(Sorry, got not pictures for ya)
I flew home on Thursday the 26th of June around 4 something and I arrived in Canada on Thursday the 26th of June around 5:30 something. My wonderful mother picked me up at the airport and we jumped into the car and drove straight up to Kamloops. After catching a few hours of sleep we ran around town getting the essentials for camp and then booked it out to Sunnybrae. It was really strange getting straight into stuff at camp without actually taking a second to readjust to life in Canada. Fortunately Mom and I arrived just in time for lunch where I was able to meet a few of the people I would be living with for the next two months. I was excited to be at camp but nervous about making a bad jet legged first impression on these people. Turns out that right after lunch we were heading off to do "Something so hard you wont know what it is until it kicks you in the face" challenge. Turns out that the challenge was to get into three groups. Wait, I know what your thinking, "how hard is it to get into three groups?" but really, it actually was. The rest of the challenge wasn't so hard after that.
We divided ourselves into three groups, one that was blindfolded, one that had no use of their arms, and another that couldn't talk. Then with one from each of the three groups we began our challenge. They also told us that if anyone in our group was caught doing what they weren't allowed to (like use their arms) then another "disability" would be added to them. First off we grabbed life jackets from the boat shed. Not hard at all you're thinking, but remember I'm lacking my arms here. And I'm trying to communicate with a team member I had never met before (my mute team member and I know each other from when my family used to live in Kamloops). So after getting life jackets we grabbed a canoe and started off on our way to Sunnybrae park. I don't know how long it took us to get there, but our blind person was in the back steering and I was trying to yell directions because our mute paddler couldn't. "Left, ooops, I mean right!" "Umm, we're kind of almost on shore maybe we should head ri..left some more." Gosh, who knew that the pressure would cause me to forget me Lefts and Rights?
Once we were up on the Sunnybrae beach the next part of our adventure began. We got to hike to the top of Sunnybrae cliffs. Once again, not too hard when you have all those things like sight, arms, a mouth to communicate with and the lack of jet leg. Actually we did not too bad at all. Our mute led the way with the blind close behind and me yelling "Rocks!", "Branch!", "LEFT!" and "Umm, don't step to the left, you'll fall to your death!" At the top we were freed of our disabilities where our leaders told us how proud they were of our efforts to work together and communicate with each other, despite our lack of communication tools.
It was at that time that we learned about the real challenge. You know, the whole time we were thinking the challenge would be to get everyone up to the top of the Sunnybrae cliffs in one piece, but instead it was for 25-35 people (not really sure of the exact number) to eat 200 hot dogs in half an hour. Yes, 200 hot dogs in half an hour. That means five to eight hot dogs each. I must admit that I did eat six and I regret that choice. However, my crazy girl Lauren wowed us all by downing eleven! That's more than the average boy there.
It was a great bonding time to be sure. It's not very often that you just meet someone and then have to watch them throw up two or three hot dogs.
(Sorry, got not pictures for ya)
6.19.2008
Irish
Here's a list of funny things I've experienced or seen since I've been here that are somewhat if not 100% Irish...
- Clocks are on 24 hour time, like the whole 14:30 thing, but no one actually ever says it like that.
- Light switches are upside down!
- Dinner actually means lunch
- It's "Post" not "Mail"
- You often see door knobs in the middle of the door, but you never really use them.
- It's "Toilet" never bathroom or washroom.
- If you ask for Lemonade you end up with a Sprite.
- People will paint their house crazy colors just to stand out from the rest, especially apartments that are all in a row together because they paint to a certain point on the wall an then it changes to the next apartments color.
- Wacky Wollies are these hilarious sheep that make me laugh every time I see them.
- You don't walk on the sidewalk, you walk on the foot path.
- Nothing (house-wise) is made of wood here...it's all either stone or brick or some kind of stucco thing.
- Instead of saying "It's five thirty" they say "It's half-five." (which I actually like better!)
Some more for ya...
Jill and I have survived one more whole week (at least) in Ireland together. Last time I left off we road a crazy bus to Galway (which I have mispronounced only a thousand times and sounded like a complete tourist to be sure). While in Galway, we stayed at this crazy big and busy hostel which have female dorms; very ducky :) Met some neat girls from Canada (Vancouver area) and enjoyed their company the first two nights.
We also took a tour of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher, which was somewhat wet, foggy and soggy. After our walking tour at the Burren Jill and I were so wet and squishy that we even took pictures of our feet to prove how wet it was. The landscape was truly stunning though.
This was a sign at the cliffs warning about the dangers of falling off the edge. Our bus driver said that they loose about 5-8 people every year, some by accident, some by the wind blowing them off and others for other unfortunate reasons.
Then we jetted off to the Aran Island of Inishmore where we viewed over 450 km of stone fences and a crazy old stone fort that is built on the side of a cliff (a.k.a. danger zone!) by bike. I must warn you however that not only are Jill and I not the safest, most experienced with those contraptions. It was quite an adventure! We were on a small Irish road which could classify as a death trap or something dangerous like that. Unfortunately there are no pictures to prove our cycling. We also spent a lot of time searching for something known as "The Worm Hole" but only came up empty (twice actually). We did however see a lot of amazing waves and cliffs along the way.
After that we skipped onto the Dingle Peninsula where we got to see Fungi, the resident dolphin. Jill and I took this gorgeous walk-about along the coast line and saw Fungi's "Fungalow Bungalow." The sites were simply stunning with the vibrant green of the hills and blue sky and water! That's all for now, even though there is plenty more to speak of, but I hope that you enjoyed the few pictures that I was able to put up.
Kriss
We also took a tour of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher, which was somewhat wet, foggy and soggy. After our walking tour at the Burren Jill and I were so wet and squishy that we even took pictures of our feet to prove how wet it was. The landscape was truly stunning though.
This was a sign at the cliffs warning about the dangers of falling off the edge. Our bus driver said that they loose about 5-8 people every year, some by accident, some by the wind blowing them off and others for other unfortunate reasons.
Then we jetted off to the Aran Island of Inishmore where we viewed over 450 km of stone fences and a crazy old stone fort that is built on the side of a cliff (a.k.a. danger zone!) by bike. I must warn you however that not only are Jill and I not the safest, most experienced with those contraptions. It was quite an adventure! We were on a small Irish road which could classify as a death trap or something dangerous like that. Unfortunately there are no pictures to prove our cycling. We also spent a lot of time searching for something known as "The Worm Hole" but only came up empty (twice actually). We did however see a lot of amazing waves and cliffs along the way.After that we skipped onto the Dingle Peninsula where we got to see Fungi, the resident dolphin. Jill and I took this gorgeous walk-about along the coast line and saw Fungi's "Fungalow Bungalow." The sites were simply stunning with the vibrant green of the hills and blue sky and water! That's all for now, even though there is plenty more to speak of, but I hope that you enjoyed the few pictures that I was able to put up.
Kriss
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)