Posts for Sarah ... edition 1

So ... hmm ... not much to say yet. Flights were delayed everywhere. 

It's snowing!

I know I said there would be no more posts this year ... but it's snowing! For over 12 hours now :) (well ... not quite I guess ... but almost). We were having our house dinners last night and BAM! IT started snowing. So of course a whole bunch of people ran outside and started dancing around and screaming and stuff ... but the truth is that it wasn't really snowing. But then, after all the dishes were done it was really snowing. There was snow staying on the ground. People were making snowballs .... however the snow wasn't really all that sticky so they were more like handfuls of puffy snow. But the idea was nice! :) So Rhubs and I headed around campus in search of Sarah to fully celebrate her first snow (Rhubini's that is, not Sarah's!). Most peoples' first snow. However, not before I left the kitchen and found Rhubini hiding in her bed. She was excited when it was first "snowing" however when it got real she got cold and ran away to hide in her bed! Well ... that just wasn't acceptable! So of course, I found her, introduced her to the concept of ski pants, three sweaters, hats, ski gloves (which I still had from skiing last year) and other such important items of clothing. And one of the many many hills around here had been turned into a sledding hill. It was covered in ice because so many people had been walking up and down it as the snow fell in order to get their dishes into the cafeteria for washing. And Juan Pablo had the sledding cafeteria tray out. It's a passdown from when there were snows in past years. It has snowboarding stickers on it. Just an extra detail. So people were sliding down the hill and stuff. IT wasn't a very long route, but for some reason it was highly exciting, you sort of went down the hill and then it veered off sideways and you ended up outside the math room. However, after most of the people left, Juan Pa realized that if you started far enough to the left you could steer a tiny bit with your hands and not fall off the sidewalk, hence going much further. Of course, after the sidewalk, there was a drop-off. Basically, there was a thick tree stump (BC size trees ... not Manitoba size north-wind eaten babies) and then a grassy (now snowy) slope all the way down to the student common room. So when it was my turn to go down the lengthened route, I of course didn't manage to stop and ended up going around the stump haphazardly and all the way down the cliff. I use the word cliff lightly. Definitely more extreme than any MB sledding I've ever done, but for those of you who were there, you know it wasn't entirely a cliff! Anyways, I ended up going over the cliff.o the problem is, the first part is basically a drop off, which meant that the as soon as I passed the stump, the people at the top couldn't see me anymore. But it was so exciting! So that became the new game, achieve the precise steering required to go over the cliff. It was great fun. And then we woke up this morning (or okey, I woke up this morning, I think I may the one of the only one's awake!) and it's still snowing :) The trees are covered and the snow is almost a half a foot deep. The forecast says it is meant to stop snowing at lunchtime-ish, but the weather will stay below zero so the snow shouldn't be disappearing anytime soon. 

So yeah, that's my story. Just wanted to post it. But I promise, I'm not procrastinating. I'm actually working. Well ... sort of. I'm in the spanish room working the radio equipment for Dani's theatre project this afternoon. So you see, I'm just using time wisely. And now, I'm going to post this and then pull up my chemistry lab and work on it. While still working the radio equipment. Now what kind of multi-tasking is that ?! :) 

On another note, I'm concerned that we may not make it to church today. As of yet, Wayne and Peter haven't come out yet to plow the hill. Without that, I doubt the vans can make it either up or down the hill...

ps. I'm wearing shoes (sort of) ... what a tragedy. 

Happenings in the Life of Pi ... I mean Claire

Okey. Lame humour. I know. I haven't even read the book if that makes it any better. I dunno. You be the jugde. Anyways, here goes the last update before Christmas break. For several reasons. Reason One: During exams I shouldn't be procrastinating by doing things like writing blog posts. Reason Two: It's only seven days until I leave anyways. And I don't have a reason three. Because three is an overdone number. Waaay overdone.

So ... time for some funny stories from the life of Claire. I had a whole bunch yesterday and now I can't remember any of them. Oh! So yesterday, lunch hour. Location: caf. Meal: pizza day ... and about time too! It's been five weeks since our last pizza day! Rhubs, Chit and I sit down at a four person table. We start to eat out pizza. Sherdina joins us. I see a knife and fork on her tray, so I steal them to eat me pizza. She protests slightly but I signal that I'll give them back right away. Of course, I promptly forget that I told her I would give them back. A few minutes later I notice that Sherdina is using a knife and fork. But I'm holding a knife and fork. Following several confused glances, I realize she has stolen them from Chit's tray without her noticing. Nice. Lunch carries on. We really had a long lunch. Ten-ish minutes later (okey, maybe exaggerating slightly), I stick my hands in my pockety and realize that I have a knife and fork in my pocket that I took when I first got in the serving line and then forgot I had. I pull them out to show Sherdina and at the same time realize that Chit is using a knife and fork. By this point I am thoroughly confused. Funny thing is, I still am! Something abotu Rhubini giving Chit her cutlery and yeah ... well I guess that makes sense now. Anyways, it was a very entertaining lunch. Even apart from the cutlery episode.

So I was in a theatre project this week. Basically, some students take theatre as one of their courses here. It's a very intense course, jus tlike everything else here. One of the things they are assessed on is a play or IP (independent project) that they have to prepare, direct, make sets for, write in some cases. So I agreed to be in Chit's play because she wanted dancers. So Anouk and I agreed to help her out. The play itself was an interpretation of the lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody. It was all about judgement and stuff. Basically, Anouk and I played the role of the chorus and acted out what the main character was sayign through dance movements. Further, she wanted to project newspaper headlines and controvesial court comis onto us as we danced. In order to do this, we had to wear white. But not just white. Oh no, tight skin clinging white. And you know what, white is see-through under stage lights. Thankfully, we discovered this during rehearsal so I wore a bodysuit and tights under my so-called costume. On the brighter side, I had really cool make-up. So yeah, that was my theatre experience this week. Argh. It was funny, we would be wearing our costumes and clothes overtop, because it wasn't hard at all to fit clothes on top when you're practically just wearing another layer of skin!, and then we could get backstage and count down and have that dreadful moment when we would take off the layers and be in those terrible costumes. That was just one of those random things that sometimes happens here ...

Speaking of make-up and dressing up, last weekend the french teacher (for the lower levels and hence not my teacher thank goodness) organized a french event type thinger. For any of you who know Hotel Negresco, that's what it was. But basically, all the french students in his class had to prepare a skit of a movie or a song or poem or speech or whatever and perform it during the evening at this event that he had organized. Then afterwards, there was a movie, a "discotheque", the monopoly set in France and then they all slept in the Max Bell (our theatre) and woke up to a nice french breakfast ... how nice it really was remains a mystery to me. As higher level french students, we didn't have to participate, but our class decided it would be fun to go dressed as different french icons. So we were in class figuring out who everyone would be and were having a lot of trouble with me because of my hair. Finally, it was decided that I would be the Beast and Eve woudl be the Beauty. So Saturday night I got all dressed up and did my make-up and everything. I actually looked realistic! I was so proud. I walked all hunched over and had a rose and everything. It was fun. I took lots of photos, which I will show y'all when I get home. They may be on facebook somewhere already ... hmm ... whatever. Y'all can wait seven days. But man, I could go on broadway with a costume like that. It was so good if I do say so myself.

What else has been going on, oh! On the topic of dressing up, we had our last national day (not sure if I told y'all this already) a few weeks ago. I dressed up as a yodelled. I had the too-high shorts, the white shift, suspenders. High socks. I have to wear shoes in the cafeteria anyways, so I wore hiking boots to fit the character. And I had the funny had and the German beer mug. IT was great. Unfortunately the only thing I can say in a moderatley authentic german accent is "ya, is goud" ... as a result I had a very limited vocabulary for the night!

Ho hum, what else. My bass is going well. I'm playing a concert tonight (the choir Christmas concert). Somehow I got involved in waaay too many aspects of the show. I'm in charge of setting up the technology to record the whole thing, I'm playing bass to accompany the choir as well as singing in the choir, singing in the Thursday singer's group and playing bass to accompany them, singing in a random small ensemble that we pulled together to sing our own arrangement of Go Tell it On The Mountain (I'm so proud of how it turned out! I will definitely be bringing the recording home to show y'all ... it's trully gosepl choir style. The neat thing was that we had no music, we just created the harmonies and decorations and such ... well mostly Falorna did and told us what to do but yeah, its a whole new foray in music for me ... very exciting), and then I'm playing a duet the Elena, my crazy good piano playing roommate. She's playing piano, I'm playing bass. Woot! The new big one mind you. So that's been keeping me busy the past few days.

Last weekend, I had me EE deadline (which I didn't meet, but that's another story altogether). So Sarah and I decided on Saturday night that we needed to isolate ourselves and just work all night and have an EE party. So after the Hotel Negresco we went to our rooms, packed up our laptops and any food we had stored away and headed to the anthro room. It's a nice isolated room where we figured no one would find us. We were mostly right. The people who did find us were friends so it was a good study-break time. I slept two hours that night. I think Sarah slept the same. Basically all I achieved was a lot of eating the good food I had bought earlier that day. The food that was meant to get me through block week (exam week) which in fact isn't till Monday ... however the food is already gone. Wonder how that happened ... ?

Anyways, that is the happenings in the life of Claire for this past while. Not all the happenings clearly, but enough to have some good stories and such. See y'all on Saturday (apart from those who are off galivanting in Toronto! whom I shall see later!).