i'm taking an unofficial sick day.

and so why not update the blog? it's also a friday and half the campus is off on a 56 kilometer walk around a lake. personally, i don't want to pay 40 bucks to walk around a lake and earn billions of blisters for no cause. but kudos to them who do. so we're preparing for our first regional day here ... the afro-caribs are in the spotlight this time. i got invited to the initial act auditions tonight to be a sort of show-advisor type of thinger. so i was fairly pumped about that. i think i'm going to do a nigerian hip-hop/club dance, a swazi dance and a dance from a musical about the apartheid (dang thats a hard word to spell!) in South Africa. so i'm pretty excited. but as a collective the second years decided to make national (this year renamed regional) days less stressful ... so its been a totally different atmosphere, but still completely fun and exciting. what else, what else? i've been waking up early this year. 7 o'clock. ain't that crazy! i never wake up that early! oh! and i've been working at my lab (i want to have it all done by sunday afternoon). it's great fun. but my goal is to go into the lab and do chemistry at midnight. how creepy would that be ... its the perfect image. claire the mad scientist with dreadlocks mixing chemicals at midnight in a dark lab lit only by the moon. sweet eh? so thats my goal for tonight. it was my goal for last night but i ended up going for a late night run instead. that was cool too, but it turns out there are no lights on pearson college drive. so going to the beach was not too bad (there were only two of us though) but coming back we couldn't even see the road! i don't know how it gets so dark that a whole road disappears, but disappear it did! the funny thing is we've been having problems with bears this year. i guess it was a bad summer so they're venturing into civilized grounds for food. we had a baby bear walk around the library at 5:30 in the morning a few days ago, and a full sized bear was seen on the bridge to the soccer field. so yeah ... i was slightly nervous to say the least. but i;ve joined a new activity called pearson raccoons whereby we go tree climbing and mud running and all types of madness at 5:30 in the morning on thursdays and 9:00 at night on tuesdays. im fairly pumped. 

we've also had a full week of activities at this point. i'm helping lead media activity due to my pc radio involvement (we're remaking the activity to include film and such ... mixed media of sorts. i'm more that slightly excited). then i'm in social justice (which we promptly renamed the justice league) on tuesday afternoons. its a discussion group mainly, but we're going to try and do some sort of activism as well. then on thursday afternoons im in the slightly more devoted group of musicians called singers. though we don't all sing by any means. but we are called upon to perform for charity events and when the sponsors come visit us in their fancy float planes and such. sorta neat. and then im doing yoga on friday afternoons. i had the first session of that today. definitely didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would. the poses are just plain uncomfortable. i have nothing wrong with discomfort, but they aren't particularly stretching either. so yeah ... i may drop that one ... we'll just have to wait and see. the major benefit i see from it is that it will build tonnes of muscle and sort of keep me limber ... sort of. and its relaxing and a great way to end the week. 

so ... on the music front things are very exciting. the new teacher is not as great as i had hoped, though he is definitely better. i'm taking standard level, which means i have to do analysis (everyone does) and then i get to choose either solo performance, group performance or composition. though i had originally planned to do composition, it turns out im going to do solo performance. the school has rented me a double bass with a bow and everything! so i'm going to be a real bass player!!! and i get lessons at the conservatory each week. they haven't started yet, but likely the week after next. perhaps this week, but im not holding my breath. its definitely going to be a challenge, but im really excited. time to buckle down and actually apply myself to something! its pretty exciting in my opinion. 

what else has been going on lately, im trying to think. my room has started to bond (finally). last night i was meant to go to bed but me, aiya and elena got chatting and ended up staying up till 1 o'clock. now i know thats not all too late, but im getting up at 7:00 each morning! thats a huge stretch for me guys. huge. you have no idea. 7:00! and next week i'm cleaning leader so i can't even slack off and sleep in at all. hoorah. 

earlier this week i was definitely having some trouble adjusting to having so many new people on campus, there just seemed to be that summer camp attitude, where first years do stupid things because they don't realize that they have to actually live with these people for one or two years and such things are hard forgotten. and the fact that at the end of last year there was such a sense of community and now i still have that with the second years, but its not there yet with the first years. i dunno, it was hard for a bit for certain, but things are starting to settle down. life is actually happening, deadlines are looming, activities are starting, responsibilities are piling up and so people are realizing that this is it. and as such, (i don't know if any of that made sense ... ) the first years are starting to fit in as a part of the community. its good stuff. 

anyways ... hmm ... i don't know what else to say. i've started the seemingly endless hunt for university. it sucks. right now i'm focusing on scholarship applications because surprisingly they're due first. apart from that life has just been life. and life is good. went to church on sunday for the first time. it was so good. turns out im in charge of the catholic van as well as the pentecostal one (surprise to me!) so i put up the sign up sheets, had 16 people sign up for the catholic church and 14 for the pentecostal! papa jim (our lovely driver) said thats the most he's ever had in all his six years of driving for pearson college. and christian fellowship had 21 people show up two weeks running. we're on fire this year. its good. god is good. but anyways, we went to church and it was just so good. our (being the pearson students in general) favourite worship leader was leading, the message was good and yeah ... i feel more freedom in that church this year. im not afraid to go to the back and dance, to express myself however i need. god is good. 

anyways, i think thats it for now ... theres so much to say and so little to say all at the same time. isn't life strange. anyways. later.