It's been a wild weekend.

But before that, I must share with you that even as I type this, I am lying on the grass (with ants crawling all over me) and sweating because the sun is SO hot. So far I have sunburnt my face, I think my shins are next. You have no idea. It's hot. Not warm, not nice, not "sunshiney", but hot. It's a nice change. I hope you all are enjoying the snow. 

Anyways, this weekend has been a whirlwind. I can probably think of ten exciting things this weekend alone. I don't know why I'm so fixated on this number ten. It's just nice. And feels like a lot of stuff to tell. Anyways ... load this page, grab a tea, go outside, and then run back inside because your toes will get frost-bit. Haha. Okey, I'm mean today. 

This weekend was the visit from the board of trustees. Which doesn't really mean much. Excpet that Friday lunch hour we ate in our advisee groups with on e of the members of the board. No great shakes. They didn't even give us good food. However, that night there was a fancy reception/BBQ dinner type thing. Just for the faculty and the board though. So all this good food got passed through the caf doors and went to the admin building where the "special people" could feast. They had melon, pineapple, endive, and other generally fancy (and expensive) stuff. 

So I've mentionned to a few of you one of my newest activities on campus. Compost diving. Similar to dumpster diving, and yet, not. You see, Sarah, Naomi and I all ahve compost duty. For some of us slackers (me) all it means is taking the compost out of the caf once a week. For others (the hardcores) it means that once a week, while Claire is in music class, they climb into the compost and play in it. They turn it and mix it and mulch it and such. And then they smell bad. In the process of fulfilling this duty to the campus, the hardcores recognized that there was a lot of edible stuff being thrown in our compost. So they started snacking. So on Friday, we recognized that iwth the board beign there, there would be some really great sutff in the compost. So we all trekked down teh hill after supper (all three of us that is) and started digging. Rinds off of melons, the insides of pineapples, watermelon, honeydew, cantaloupe. It was wonderous. We feasted. I was so full when we were done. 

Later that night was of course Friday night Christian Fellowship. Always a good time. We got there around 10:00 and left at about 12:30. Praying, singing, laughing, sharing, it was good. Always is. Definitely stayed up very late that night. 'Cause afterwards I ran into Sarah and Rhubs. So of course we got up to no good. 

Saturday I slept till about 12:00. We had a specialist on sleep, time management and study skills come to the college (I think it was in first term, but can't quite remember). Anyways, he told us that when we sleep in like that, it's a mild form of jet lag. Personally, I care not. I enjoyed every moment of that sleep. And its better than not getting it at all right? So I slept late, went to breakfast (I suppose it was lunch at that point) and then went back to the house to get ready for CALGARY HOME CAMPING TRIP! Yay. IT was fun. We all packed up, hiked to the beach and chilled out. There was a scavenger hunt, marshmallows, a bonfire, guitars, tents (duh), brownies, hot dogs for meat eaters, nasty cardboardesque veggie dogs for us veggies, etc. It was a nice night/day. We just hung out as a house. I ended up staying around the bonfire till about three I think. Then Sherdi and I found a lovely place to sleep right next to the cliffs. It was away from the tents, but such a nicer place. And of course, we're too hardcore for tents. Duh. 

Anyways, I think she and I were the last ones to wake up and pack up, by the time we had gotten out of our sleeping bags and gone back to the tents,  everyone had paced up and was started to hike out. So we did likewise. Got back in time for church. Went to church. It was wonderful. As always. We started a two part message called "The Economic Downturn Survival Guide". I think it probably impacted people with real money more than me, but there was some generally relevant stuff as well. And worship was amazing. You know those Sundays where it may be the same songs, but they hit you in such a different way. That was Sunday. It was good. 

When we got back to campus, it was time for the final rounds of the Golden Shoe. The Golden Shoe is a soccer tournament we have every year between the houses. All the houses show up dressed in their colour and we go at 'er. It's good fun. Calgary's colour is blue, so Marina and I went around the house and emptied all the recycling bins to use as drums. They're blue right? And of course, I had my lovely lovely tambourine. Unfortunately, it's red, but I love it too much to leave behind, and it makes lots of noise. Which is very important at the Golden Shoe. So anyways, we had already played the first round on Wednesday afternoon, so this was the semi-finals. Unfortunately, with five houses, only four can make it to the semi-finals. The other team gets to play the faculty. Calgary was the other team. We lost to the faculty. Again. Same thing happened last year. But it was darn fun. 

Upon getting back to campus, Sarah, Naomi and I set about getting ready for our big date. On Monday we had dropped an invitation of composted flowers and a hunk of cabbage on David Hawley's doorstep. It invited him to a dinner on Sunday evening under the whale skeleton (which may sound a tad creepy, but its really a lovely spot on the deck of the pool. with all the daffodils in bloom, it's magnificent). What David didn't now was that this was to be no normal dinner, but a dinner which comprised of completely compost. Yes sir, you heard it, we were feeding the director of the college compost. We were eating it too though! The meal consisted of: 

- baked yams (a rare find in the compost, but we had found them the previous Sunday) flavoured with garlic, also rescued from the compost

- sauteed mushrooms (also a lucky find ... I think they came not from the cafeteria, but from one of the houses on campus)

- broccoli with parsley (yes, the parsley was compost too)

- a wonderful salad with oranges, lemon, radishes, lettuce, cucumber, pineapple, fennel, endive, celery. I think thats it. 

- cauliflower with cheese (yes, we cheated a bit, the cheese was not from the compost)

- we had fennel tea (we found piles and piles of fennel in the compost. interesting, we did some research and discovered that it cures just about everything. from bowel pressure, to bedwetting to giddiness. yup, a true miracle herb)

- dessert: apple crisp. now clearly, we had to use oats and other non compost items for this, but it was really really good. the apples that people throw in the compost are sooo good. 

So that was our dinner. We dressed up all fancy and enjoyed. It was so good. Most people were totally grossed out by the idea. Wimps. There are certain people who actually turn around and run when we offer them compost. We've done it a few times since it's so funny. Watching them book it up the hill after we offer them some perfectly good scavenged melon rind. 

Anyways, then there was house meeting. It was fun. Relaxed. We ended it dancing. I think all important meetings should end that way. It's good stuff. Then Eve and I decided it was time to start reducing our excessively large closets. So we pulled out all the stuff we didn't want and were going to take it to the lost and found. But of course, you can't get rid of things without letting all your friends check them out first. SO we did. And then Rhubstar arrived, then Marina (well, it was her room after all), and then Sherdi. And we had a good ol' time trading clothes and dressing up ridiculously. You don't realize how much weight you've gained in two years until you go into your closet and try to put on those clothes you brought last August and realize you can't even get them over your shoulders. Sort of sad. But doing it with the Calgary ladies was lovely, because we just made fun of ourselves. And squeezed people into dresses they never should have gotten into. We definitely had some trouble extracting people from said dresses, but it was all worth it. Eventually our extended Calgary girls (aka Easties) showed up and the party got even better. Then we realized that we had two weeks till exams and we disappeared back into our solemn lives of history, economics, biology, chemistry and math respectively. 

Gah! I can't find the font I like. I hate ugly posts. This is very borderline. Blah. 

Updates on Claire's Life

Update One: 

I just finished writing a three hour exam. Of five essay questions. For this reason, my wrists are tired and my brain no longer wants to form complete sentences. Hence (see, that's exam lingo for you), I will occasionally be slipping into point form. Okey, maybe more than occasionally. Perhaps it will be more of a case of occasionally slipping into sentences. We'll see. 

Update Two: 

In case you hadn't already figured it out, it's mock exams week. What are mock exams? Last year's final exams so that we can practice and find out just how much we need to learn between now and the beginning of May. Personally, I know I'll need to study so I really have no drive whatsoever to study. At all. I definitely failed the math exam today. But really, it holds no weight anymore. So whatevs. 

Update Three: 

Instead of studying for the upcoming exams, I spent my whole weekend in the music room doing my IB exam recordings. Let me tell you, I knew the moment would arrive when I was kicking myself over not having practiced. And it did. I didn't do so well on the recordings (perhaps thats why it took me three days to complete them). But I'm not too worried about it anymore. I deserve whatever mark I get, I should have practiced more. But I had a lesson yesterday night, right after finishing all my recordings, and I got new music. Hallelujah. I was so excited. Further, I gave my first bass lesson tonight. Samuel, Eeva and Sherdina are all keen on either learning upright or electric, so from no till the end of the year I'm giving them lessons. It's fun. I so enjoy sharing things with people, be it music, sign language, whatever. 

Update Four: 

Since coming back from project week the menu in the cafeteria has been revamped. This has resulted in excellent and tasty new food. Healthy options, the whole bit. It's quite fantastic. Unfortunately, as Sarah and I have determined through polling the vegetarians, the new diet has too little iron (which has resulted in a nasty case of drowsiness for us and many veggie friends) and too much fibre (which has resulted in an unfortunate overuse of our scare water supply as we are using the "big flush" lever far more often). 

Update Five: 

Christian Fellowship came back from Project Week totally refreshed and ready to go. It's great. Our attendance has significantly increased and instead of just meeting on Wednesday nights for our usual worship, sharing, devotional and prayer, we have started meeting on Friday nights and Monday morning (I mean 6:00 morning) to pray. Wow. Guys, honestly, spend time in prayer. There is no better way to draw near to God than to actively seek his face. Friday night we started at 10:00 and at 12:30 we were still there, praying and singing. We even got the dancing started. True, the next morning I was hoarse, but my spirit felt alive and well. But all that aside, it's been so good. We had our "bring a friend to church" Sunday this week and we had 21 people! We needed two vans. And it was a great service. It was about how the older generation should invest younger generations. At the end of the service, Pastor Al asked everyone in the church who was under 20 to come forward to the front of the church. then, as he put it, he wanted some "grey hair" to come up behind us and pray with us. It was so good. So good. 

Update ... Six?:

Today is Ivy League ACceptance Day. Which means that second years kick the first years out of the computer lab and sit around waiting for the emails to start coming in. Okey, well not quite. But you do hear excited screams go up from the computer lab. Rather distracting if you're writing a math exam mind you. Anyways, guess who got into Harvard?!?! No, not me. That dream has long since ceased to exist. Sarah! We're so excited. Perhaps more excited than she is. Sherdina put it best I think. She said, "I'll never get to apply for Harvard, so I'll never get to be excited about being accepted. So this is my chance." We were happy dancing in the music room, screaming at the bottom of the Max Bell stairs, and jumping up and down like idiots on Pearson College Drive. Good times.

Update Seven: 

I got velcro-ed. I knew I shouldn't have gone to the gym with Sarah. I should have gone by myself, and brought my classical music and pointe shoes and just danced. But I went to the gym with Sarah. And got velcro-ed. Who even knew that was a verb. So Sarah was reviewing her gymnastics and seeing if she could still do a summersault, etc. (okey ... it was a tad more complex than that) and I decided I wanted to try. So there I am, on the mats, and of course I fall on my head. But to make matters worse, my hair gets stuck to the velcro. Now for most people, this causes a momentary messed up hairstyle, but not big deal. Try having dreadlocks. It was a slight ordeal. And I still bear the scars. Messy, fuzzy locks. Ugh. 

Update Eight: 

I'm running out of things to say. 

Update Nine: 

I know I'm forgetting something ... 

Update Ten: 

I knew it! The ballet. I went to the ballet on Thursday night. Royal Winnipeg Ballet's Peter Pan. It was wonderful. Absolutely magnificent. Besides, everything is better when it's cheap. That's right folks, students get $10 tickets to all dance performances in Victoria. Brilliant. I must say. So I took Yarin. Wouldn't say he's the biggest ballet connoisseur, but he was a good sport and managed to find us a ride off campus in order to get to the ballet! 

So, I think that's all for now. I've reached the magic number of ten. Sleep well folks, I'm going to a Harvard acceptance PARTY. That's right, any excuse for brownies and music. :)

So the tent didn't leak

... but honestly that would have been the least of our problems. 

Hello and welcome back to Right Now. The sporadic blog detailing the significant and not so significant happenings in Claire's life. Our episode tonight brings you tales of great adventure and courage. The story of five young girls alone in a tent during their March project week. Sit back and enjoy the show. Perhaps turn on the kettle, this could be a long one folks. (ps. who knew sporadic had a d rather than a t ... not I)

The week starts off with the culmination of the One World show ... now but a whisper at the beginning of this long journey. After dancing/ singing/ speaking/ presenting/ playing/ setting/ calling an excellent show, 200 (ish) weary Pearson students pile into three buses that take them on a direct route back to the college. There, they pile out of the buses, thoroughly exhausted. But still looking glam due to the inordinate and copious quantities of make-up on their faces. This weary performer struggles up the hill and flops in her room. Not sure what to do next or when she will next get to sleep. Why? Because early the next day she must be packed and ready to head off on an adventure called: Six Islands in Six Days. Okey ... so that wasn't the original title of the project, but it seems appropriate now. The night is spent cleaning the room, visiting with Etta, packing and trying to find time to clean the laundry room (not to be mistaken with doing laundry!). The weary student drops into bed around two in the morning. Which apparently was actually three in the morning because of the nasty/mean/downright cruel time change. 

The morning comes bright and early. I slip out of bed and stumble my way to the cafeteria. Only to find the most wonderful meal has been prepared for those of us still on campus. Cinnamon buns. Fresh melon. Cheese. Yogurt. Crackers. Cereal. After pocketing cereal for the week ahead, I head to my room to grab my pack and then skidaddle down the buses. 

When I reach the buses, I realize that I am in fact not late as I had thought. Oh well. 

Okey. It's going to take a very long time to tell the story if I continue at this rate. Erm ... so for those of you who don't know, my project week was spent in the Gulf Islands. They're a couple of really really beautiful islands off the South Eastern tip of Vancouver island. Really beautiful. So anyways, Eve took responsibility for renting us all a house to stay in. On Sunday afternoon we got there. It was MAGNIFICENT! Very small and very isolated, but beautiful. There were 11 of us staying in it on the busiest night (some of us came late, and a few of us went camping in the middle). The house was just two floors and honestly shouldn't have been able to hold 11 people! The downstairs had a decent sized kitchen (think two meters wide including counters and fridge, and three meters long?) a big bathroom (relative to the rest of the house) a bedroom, a living room/eating area. Then there was this lovely wrap around deck. But we'll get there. There was a treacherously steep staircase that led to a loft upstairs. The loft had one wall made entirely of windows. It was wonderful. There was not much else there. A small closet that you couldn't stand up in that was likely meant only for suitcase storage, but Sarah, Marina and I slept in there on the nights we spent at the house. So the first night we had a glorious meal (yay for friends who can cook), fresh cookies, a nice little fire in the corner of the living room. Then, when the sun went down Yarin, Tawab and I headed out to the deck. Why? Because there was a hot tub. Yup. So we lounged for quite awhile. And then Sarah came to join us. Twas lovely as I'm sure you've guessed. Eventually I went to bed in my closet. The plan was to leave the next morning on our camping trip. But, lo and behold when we woke up the next morning there was a layer of snow covering the ground and more falling. Now usually a little snow wouldn't phase me, but we really weren't equipped to camp in the snow. So we stuck around the house for another day. Tear (quote: Becky). 

Of course, I ended up falling asleep again almost as soon as we decided we couldn't camp. I woke up around noon. Those who hadn't planned on going camping had gone out for a walk, those who had planned on camping were relaxing around the house. At about one o'clock we switched. The would-be campers bundled up and wen t out to scale some rock faces, play in the snow and explore the "city" of Mayne. (oh yes, by the way, we were on Mayne island). So we did that, found a nice little beach close to the house, walked into the main area of the island and back. It was nice. Then there was another wonderful meal. Followed by Sarah and Sherdina's Baked Alaska. Not sure if the ice cream was meant to melt, but it tasted great anyways. Nothing like all my favourite desserts in one bowl (brownies, ice cream and meringue ... not sure if thats how you spell the dessert, definitely how you spell the dance though ... hmm ... ). That night a few foolish people went skinny dipping in the ocean and then came back to the hot tub. Needless to say, I was not amongst them! 

The next morning, though there was still snow on the ground, the campers set off. We first caught the ferry to Salt Spring Island. Our ferry ended up on the northern tip of the island, our camp site was located on the bottom tip. So we caught a bus, hiked a bit, hitch hiked, hiked again and then set up camp. In the middle, we encountered a biffy surrounded by turkeys. Had quite a bit of fun with them. Here's a run down of our camping group: Kandra, Marina, Sherdina, Sarah and I. It was nice. The first night we set abotu cooking and realized that our camp stove was worthless. Wouldn't light. Great. So we had to make a fire. With all the snow-covered/wet wood. Took some time, but we got it going well enough to have the most amazing macaroni and cheese ever. Here's the trick. Buy the white cheese stuff. Then, instead of using milk and butter, just throw in a chunk of cream cheese along with the package of cheese they give you. Magnifico! So we slept well that night. Woke up in the morning, managed to get the fire going again for oatmeal and toasted bagels. Then we packed up and started the long hike north to the ferry terminal again. Of course, we got picked up by some kindly drivers, but we did have to walk for at least an hour. We rode the ferry to Galiano island and unfortunately got there quite close to dark. 

The whole island seemed miserable. We stopped at the ferry terminal's ticket booth to ask about camping sites since that was the only person we could find and she seemed downright concerned for us. So we meandered through "downtown Galiano" (22 km long island, population 900). However, we hadn't even reached the island till about five o'clock at night so  not only were all the stores and places we could access fresh water closed, but the sun was about to go down. Finally we set off hiking for the only camp site that was accessible. A mere 8 km down the monstrously hilly round. Some angel picked us up about halfway through our venture. And thank goodness because apparently we hadn't reached the worst of the hills yet. We got there just in time to see the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen (rivals Simonhouse my friends, it was that nice). There were ducks swimming and the mountains and a driftwood beach and sun and ocean. Just lovely. Then we set about making camp. Of course, this island had also gotten snow (some of which was still at the site) so making a fire was again a challenge. We were much later to bed that night. We had climbed into the tent and were sharing stories when Sarah says "guys, shhh. I hear something outside." We all shut up and sure enough, there's a clatter from our picnic table. It was some distance from the tent, but we were so tired we had left the pots and bowls out there. No food or anything, but the dishes were apparently dirty enough to attract unwanted visitors. As we're listening, a growl comes from outside the left corner of the tent. Oh dear. That's not a raccoon. Not only that, but there's two of whatever it is since there are still sounds coming from the picnic table. Honestly, there is no one else I would have rather had in the tent. All five of us kept our heads. No one went into hysterics. Sarah our wilderness expert thinks it may be a bear and what do you do to get rid of them? Make lots and lots of noise. And don't leave the tent. Especially since there are two of them. One bear the five of us could take on in a worst case scenario. But not two. Fresh out of hibernation. Nope. So we set about singing at the top of our lungs. We made quite a racket. But apparently, not enough to scare off our visitor. Then we realized that all of us so loud and singing so low likely sounded something like a growl or at least a challenge. So we moved waaaay up in pitch. Think ... erm ... well high. After about an hour of this with frequent checks to see if our friend is still there, Sarah and I decide it may be a cougar. We had not heard another growl, but thanks to the crisp snow we could still hear the considerably heavy footsteps and the breathing. A bear should have left after all that noise. But cougars stalk. And "the thing" had been circling our tent. Not constantly, but enough to be worrisome. So we start making plans of what to do if this unwanted visitor comes through the walls of our tent. So we prep the others in our very high voices (apparently I get a Maltese accent when I speak that high). We all have hard things to use as weapons, Sarah and I have pocket knives. Personally, I don't want to get close enough to use the knife, but hey, we are sort of sitting ducks in the middle of nowhere. So we go on making noise. We keep checking, the visitor is still around. The initial scare happened at 10:30. It's now one in the morning and it's still hanging about. This is not good. Our voices are starting to go, so I take my water bottle and start banging my pocket knife on it. It makes a fairly loud noise and relieves at least a few voices of singing duty. At abotu 2:30 the singing peters out, the bottle banging gets considerably less violent. And all of a sudden the footsteps get VERY close to the tent. Sarah and I shake the others awake (they had drifted off) and we start making a racket again. The pots on the table get thrown to the ground. We know. We can hear it. 

To make a long story short, we stayed awake all night. Bottle banging and singing. The thing never left. The sun came up again around 6:00 in the morning. At that point we checked to see if the thing was still there. It was. But it left at 6:30. Around then we were formulating our escape plan. The thing is, we were still so unsure of just what "the thing" was. Bear? Cougar? Those were the only two options we could think of. Couldn't be deer, the footsteps were too heavy. Same for raccoons. 

So the escape plan. The initial plan had been to peek out the door, but the ten cover unzipped in such a way that it wasn't possible to discreetly check. So the final plan was this: burst out of the tent in ranks of two, with our packs on our fronts. As soon as we were out of the tent we would all pee. Because goodness knows our bladders had been killing us all night. Then, three people would stand watch while the other two took down and packed the tent. We would then move out of the clearing and over to the picnic table to clear off the rummaged through pots and bowls. Then, we would grab the thicker bits of wood from around the fire to use as weapons. You see, we weren't home free as soon as we were packed up. No siree. We still had a mile hike through the woods to get out of the park. So we got our weapons and then marched in a straight line out the park, singing all the way. It was extreme. But we made it. When we got out of the tent we also took a moment to check out the footprints that had been left in the snow. There were tonnes. Clearly, we weren't imagining things when we thought it was walking around all night. It actually was. They were too small to be bear. But cougar was possible. Seemed more like coyote size though. 

So we hiked out of the campsite. Stopped a ways out of the park for a breakfast of granola bars. We basically just wanted to be off Galiano island at that point. Miserable place. No one would pick us up hitch hiking either. Come on, we'd gotten no sleep all night. Well, not quite. Most people grabbed at least a half hour of sleep. I was the only one who got none. I must talk too much, because apparently my vocals chords are the strongest, they didn't give out as soon as everyone else's. We finally got to a general store. When we asked the locals about any creatures on the island they happily informed us that there were no predators on the island. Ha! I don't believe that for a moment. Anyways, we finally got to the harbour, payed for our ferry ticket and rode away to Pender island. It stopped at Mayne island on the way and Kandra got off to head back to the house. Fair enough. It was one heck of a scary night. 

When we got to Pender, the atmosphere was completely different. A lovely British woman picked us up as we were hitch hiking, though not before we visited with the horse farmer. She took us to the only camp site in town, right behind the local bar/cafe. But a lovely spot. And hey, it meant we had access to toilets. A girl deserves a little luxury after a night like the prior. We had arrived on the island relatively early, so we sat in the sun, wandered around the beach, read our books. Had a great time. Night came, we made a fire, had more pasta. We were a tad tired of pasta at that point. Sherdina and I snuck to the bar/cafe to go to the bathroom. When we were there the waitress offered us a free tea/coffee. Sucha  change from Galiano island. We welcomed it. We went back to the tent with a few nice trails to hike the next day. We slept a long time that night. Despite the cold air coming in off the ocean. The next afternoon (thats what time it was by the time we were done breakfast/ taking down camp/ waking up and getting out of bed) we set off in search of the local fire hall to take a picture (it's a long story, better not to ask. it has to do with obsessed Pearson College fire fighters. a strange bunch if you ask me). We were a good ways down the road when we realized that perhaps we had mistaken our ferry time. We pulled out the schedule and guess what? We had. Quite severely. In fact, it seemed we had no way to get off the island. After much deliberation and flipping of pages in the ferry schedule we determined that we had an hour to get to the ferry. So we promptly turned around. And yet again were picked up by a lovely person. This woman was actually the sister of a Pearson College year ten graduate (to put things in perspective, I'm year 34). She drove us all the way to the terminal which meant not only did we not miss the ferry, we were early. We headed down to the dockside cafe thinger where the lady gave us all the expired chip bags since we were taking such a long time to decide what we wanted. Much later that night, we finally turned up at Mayne Island again. Think 9:30 ish. It was dark. So of course, what better thing to do than crawl under the deck at the house and freak out those who were not hardcore enough to go camping with us? Duh. So we did. 

It was nice to sleep in a proper bed again. The next day, just Sarah and I caught the ferry to Saturna island in order to achieve our goal of six islands in six days (seeing as which the next day we would return to Vancouver island). We just went for a day trip. It was nice. We climbed the most gorgeous hill/mountain thing. And I lived out a childhood dream: stand in a cloud. It was a great day. Very stress free/ go with the flow/ refreshing. That night we got back to the house for our last night night all together. All eleven of us. It was good. We had barbeque and lots of fresh vegetables. Music, reading, good pearsonesque discussion. In the morning we packed up and headed back to Victoria. 

And that, was project week. 

Interesting side story/economic crisis update. So the first day as we caught the ferry to Mayne Island, there was a strange cargo ship just sitting in the water. Then, when Sarah and I went to Mayne, it was still there. So we asked one of the locals what it was. Apparently, it was a shipment of Nissan cars that had come all the way from Japan but there was no market for. So the ship had simply been sitting in the waterways in the gulf islands for two months. I mean, I knew we were in a recession and that there was extra production somewhere, but I definitely did not imagine it in the form of a cargo ship full of cars nestled in amongst the Gulf islands. It was crazy. 

So yes, that has been life. Hope you enjoyed. 

Sound of Claire clearing her throat.

1. Economics portfolio

check

2. Get camp shed gear

check

3. University of Toronto Interview

check

4. Hepatitis A needle (yes, needle)

check

5. Wash dreadlocks (which have begun to smell)

check

6. Mail IHOP application

check

7. Collect money for Project Week house rental

check

8. Live the Difference Youth conference at the church

check

9. One World (and all that it entails)

check

10. Disappear for a week off campus with no contact to the outside world, but surrounded by lovely people and a tent that (hopefully) won't leak

just about to happen. 

A usual Claire post

Usual because (as usual) I don't have time to be doing this and should really be off somewhere working hard like a good student. Instead, I am celebrating having finished my last oral exam. Done. It was french, so I wasn't too worried, then again maybe I should have been since it didn't go as well as I would have hoped. Ah well. The important part is that it's over. So, new in Claire's life this week-ish.

I am turning into more and more of a hippy. This week's venture? Homemade toilettries. That's right folks. After spending a few hours on the internet, Naomi and I are experimenting with homemade tothpaste, deodorant and shampoo (not me!). Unfortunately, over the past three days we have noticed a serious problem with our toothpaste so tomorrow we will be refining our recipe and heading to town to buy some real concoction supplies (no more stolen cafeteria ingredients!). We hope to use some of the seaweed that's laying all over the place. So far my only concern with the deodorant is that after shaving, it burns your armpits. But for the rest of the time it's fine. No one has complained of any odor yet, and believe me, I have police posted to make sure I don't start to stink.

On to other news, I have started dancing again. I don't know where I find the time. I don't actually think I have the time. But every other day I head to the gym and do some barre, some centre, some stretching. I'm hoping to get back on the pointes by the end of the month. We'll see how that goes.

So the two words no one wants to hear ... One World ... We are so far behind. The show is in less than ten days and costumes are still not finished, a few of the dances still need finished and not a single person is smiling. (well maybe the smiles is a bit of an exaggeration, but there sure aren't a lot of them!). On top of that, most everyone is sick, morale is low and people are not attending their practices. Ack! Yesterday we ran a que to que, took from 2.30 til 6 o'clock. It was long. I have been attending about five rehearsals a night, despite being only in one dance. I'm really having fun with this choreography business, but it's sure taking a lot of time!

Hmm ... what else. The church is holding their youth conference this weekend. I hope to be able to attend a few sessions, though I may be stuck here in rehearsals (which would suck). Oh! So two weeks ago I guess it was, a few of us prepared a number and played it at church during the offering. It was good to play in church again. Rather than play my bass (which I brought) the tech guy suggested that it would be easier to simply play the bass that was plugged in for the worship team. Fair enough. Unfortunately it was a really really long strap that couldn't be adjusted. So there I am, balancing on one foot so that I can be resting the bass in the crook of my leg so that it's not hanging by my knees. All in all an unfortunate affair. But the song went well and people seemed to appreciate it.

I think that is all.

Nope, it's not. I finished my university application. And my IHOP application was just thrown in the mailbox, and I am in contact with an organization about working in Ghana next year.

An update on Claire's Life

ONE WORLD

:)

Strange and random things that Claire is going to tell you instead of writing a full post ('cause folks, One World auditions were today and then the selection process and well ... Claire is just too plumb tuckered out to even imagine writing a full post. Let alone her chemistry lab which is due tomorrow at 10 am and not a moment later!)

1. Israeli dance was cut from the show. It's sad, since Claire was leading it, but it's alright because now she will not have that extra stress. 

2. I bought a new red notebook today. Red notebooks are special. I've now filled three officially. Five unofficially. I'm excited to see what the new red notebook will be filled with. It's sort of symbolic I suppose. 

3. I finally washed my sheets today. Yes, Mum, I finally did it. For the rest of the world, I haven't washed my duvet cover since last Christmas (as in, 2007), so I finally washed it tonight. 

4. I'm currently in hiding. The lists of acts that got into the One World show was just posted, and for the three students who were on the selection committee, the safest place right now is somewhere where they can not be found. So that's what I'm doing. 

5. My desk has degenerated into a big mess. I was doing really really well with the tidiness thing after Christmas, but somehow in the last week it just got out of hand. I can't use it at the moment, that's how bad it has gotten. Ugh. 

6. I taught someone how to skate yesterday. Actually, a few someones. Ironic, since I can hardly skate myself. And I still can't stop. After all these years. 

7. I had my screen debut tonight. Unfortunately, I missed my premiere since I was still deep in discussion about which acts to keep in the show and which to cut. I was "the one". Yup, that is the inspiring name that was given to my character. I'm going to assume the movie was bad. I just can't act. 

8. I've discovered the greatest way to get around many obstacles in the cafeteria. It's called: rice salad. Yup, you heard it. When they're serving gross meals (point in case, dinner tonight which was jambalaya), I just take the rice (assuming it's being offered, which is a more and more frequent occurrence) and then add lettuce, sesame seeds, parley flakes and cucumber. That way, I don't even have to take any of the gross salad dressing. Oh my. Life is so easy somedays. 

9. My room failed the recent fire inspection. It may have been because we have a decomposing tree on the extra bed. And two steps made out of random logs from the bush. Oh, and how could I forget, a monstrous garbage bag filled with pine cones that my lovely roommates assure me will be used on a certain someone's upcoming birthday. Personally, I don't think those pine cones are ever going to disappear. 

10. I was told (yet again) that I should seriously consider being a teacher. This is becoming a scary trend. I don't know how to handle it. I keep telling myself that teacher does not mean teacher in the conventional elementary school sense of the word. Nonetheless, I DON'T LIKE TEACHING. I like sharing things I know. It's different. I feel awkward when I'm told to teach people things. Ack! Life! 

This is an Experiment

1. There is No One Like You - David Crowder Band

I'm getting better and better at this update business.

So today I'm taking a day for myself. I spent yesterday (again) buried in chemistry. The rest of the week will be devoted to math. But today. Today is just for me. And Rhubini. 'Cause its her birthday. Aisulu Sanat (my roomie) is organizing a spice girls act for the birthday party tonight. Lucky lucky me gets to be Ginger spice. Oh dear. What have I gotten myself into. 

The past week has been relatively excellent. After last weekend's EE marathon, I more or less took the week off. Probably not the best of plans, but I definitely feel refreshed and ready to go this week. This morning consisted of church, lunch, my first ever rugby scrimmage, a nice tea and conversation with Pippa in the cafeteria and now a quick catch up with correspondence. 

I really don't have too much to say these days. And so I will stop using (note: not wasting, I'm all about the positive, hehe) your precious time and simply wish you all a wonderful week of refreshment and relaxation. But also productivity. Because as I've been discovered, if you have enough time to actually apply yourself and do a good job, learning can be mucho interestingo. As it is once again becoming for me. Thank you guys for all your prayers, this has been one of those weeks where I know there is an army of angels standing behind me. It really makes life a lot easier. And more enjoyable. Love you all. 

Updates on Claire's Life

Claire's EE is done.

Claire slept two hours last night.

Claire is wearing shorts.

The sun is shining on Claire's back.

Claire can't see a single cloud in the sky.

Claire has a bass lesson tonight.

Claire has not practiced.

Claire is learning Israeli dance tonight.

Claire is teaching Israeli dance tomorrow.

Claire is happy with life.

Claire is finishing her IHOP application.

Claire is re-evaluating her choice to apply to University this year.

Claire is keeping her head above the water.

Claire feels very comfortable in her skin today.

Claire just ate the most wonderful, sweet, apple. Organic to boot.

Claire loves working with microphones.

Claire will get to work with many microphones in the coming week.

Claire is part of a team filming a documentary.

Claire is in charge of the sound aspect of this endeavour.

Claire's laptop does not recognizing the Canadian spelling of endeavour.

Claire is excited for the week ahead.

Claire hopes you are all having a good week too.

All in all, Claire's life is wonderful.

ps. Claire's top right wisdom tooth is coming in . And it HURTS!

I am ridiculously calm ...

... considering my EE is due Monday am. So early that it may as well be Sunday night. But calm I am. And not for no reason. I'm just not worried. I'm working hard and am focussed and it's going moderately well. So we shall digress from that topic and discuss much more pressing and interesting issues. Such as ... well ... okey I don't really know. The reason I'm here (apart from wanting to update all y'alls) is because my laptop died a few days ago. Well, not really died. But the internal speakers went kaput. Needless to say, I was slightly distressed. I went to see the tech guy and he couldn't fix it, so then I came up here to do some internet support stuff. And ended up having to load some updates. So the updates take about an hour to load. So I move closer to the wall to plug in and my headphones get unplugged (the sound still worked through the headphones) and guess what? The speakers start working again. Weird eh. But nonetheless, now my computer is being updated and I have little else to do (NOT!). But I thought this would be a good break. I'm not even procrastinating guys. Seriously, I'm very relaxed. I've worked hard the past two days. 

So I got back to campus on Sunday night. It was good to see everyone. There is always a big affair when the vans pull in at the beginning of the year and at Christmas. It's strange to think that I'll never see people for the "first time" again. But let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. So I got back on Sunday night. Saw my roomies, which was good. Marina had already borrowed Yarin's SET cards and was playing with anyone who would join her. Seems that isn't an addiction I'm going to kick =) Monday morning it was back to classes. But the english teacher has been quite sick this week, so on top of my regular free blocks I got some extras. And the music teacher was sick. Gosh, I've had it easy eh? But it's given me time to get things (cough, EE) under control. Monday night I apparently had a fever. Don't really remember it. I was sleeping. Went to bed at 8:30. Slept until 8:00 the next morning. And then everyone kept asking me if I was feeling alright. Which confused me since I wasn't aware of having had a fever. Just one of those things I suppose. 

So tonight we're having a room dinner. Just the four of us and food. Should be good and relaxing. And everyone known how I feel about relaxing! In other news, though One World mania has not quite started, it is about to. Okey, just a quick tangent. I'm sitting in the music room and two of the walls are made of glass. So I'm sitting here typing and I keep seeing the red sweater run past down the stairs, and then a few moments later, its coming back in the other direction. This has happened a few times. Apparently Kandra is running stairs. However, it is quite distracting. Arck! There she goes again. How many times can she make it up those stairs. That is hardcore. Believe me, if you saw these stairs! I can run them about seven times (that is a totally random guess by the way, I have no idea how many times I can run them), but apparently she can run them for upwards of twenty minutes! Wow. Anyways, where was I? One World. Right. So the madness hasn't quite started but I forgot that I had agreed to lead a dance with Yarin. Apparently I am now the leader of Israeli Dance. Exciting eh? Too bad I don't know how to "Israeli Dance"!!! I guess I'll learn. It actually looks really cool. Much like ballet but with much more relaxed technique. Maybe when I'm old and can't focus long enough to do classical ballet I'll do Israeli folk dancing. It's neat. 

Hmm ... what else is happening in the world of me. We had Christian Fellowship on Wednesday. It was wonderful. Absolutely the best Christian Fellowship I've been to in a loooong while. Good stuff is going on here. Really. Along those lines, I have almost finished my application for IHOP next summer. Well, sort of. Let's say I'm making good progress. Not so on my regular University applications, but maybe I'll start on some of that next week when the EE is out of the way. 

That's basically all I have to say. Life is good. I'm much happier to be here this semester. Hopefully I'll be able to "balance" (man, I hate that word) things better than last term when the bulk of the work starts coming down, but so far so good. And One World on the horizon. Yeehaw. Buckle in folks, it's going to be another crazy Pearson semester. And rightly so!