Brock Week 2 - Family Travels

Woke up bright and early Sunday morning in Quebec city (I must admit that it took me quite a while to get up from parents nagging). We went to the old part of town which was amazingly pretty! Old French cobblestone streets and buildings with flowers and painters and trees. It’s exactly what I imagine France to be like, not that I have actually been there. Walked around the fort ruins and walls, down the alleys with shops and musicians, down to the docks where we caught a ferry across the Lawrence river. Had lunch at a French restaurant on the terrace.

After that we drove around the point to the Montmorency falls, which was so big and majestic. After walking around the waterfall, we drove over a huge bridge to Isle de Orleans island where we drove around and looked at the cottages and countryside. Stopped at a chocolatier shop for some tasty chocolate dipped icecream before heading back to the hotel for the night.

Monday morning saw us driving from Quebec City into Fredericton in the state of New Brunswick. On the drive I went through a combination of sleeping and watching laptop movies…a great relax to spend the time.

In Fredericton we walked the streets of the lovely small country town. Had dinner at a fancy restaurant. That night we stayed for the first time ever in a bed and breakfast. I have a new favourite! They are so cool! They are just like a big home where you rent a room for the night. The one in Fredericton was a big old mansion with everything decorated very old. We even had our own bathroom. Breakfast was in a dining room with a big dining table where we sat and ate meals with other tourists staying at the house.

On Tuesday morning we hired bicycles and rode around the beautiful riding tracks about the town and university of Fredericton. We then left and drove for Prince Edward Island through St Martins and St Johns. It is a very big island 3 hrs east to west. It was also very pretty as all the houses are very spread out and are all the same quaint old style. Very much a stereotypical farmhouse style.

At St Johns, there was supposed to be very strong tides that make a big wave at the mouth of the river. We went to investigate and found it to be quite a big let down, no impressive rapids haha. The town was quite nice, right along the coast with beautiful shorelines.

We arrived in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island and stayed in another bed and breakfast, this time a little bit smaller but still very nice and homy. The next day we did the touristy thing again, looking at all the old buildings and walking the streets of the town (by this time I was getting a bit sick of all the old buildings, bridges, and lighthouses). Then we did something that was definitely the highlight of my week…. While mum went on an Anne of Green Gables tour to visit her house, dad and I played golf right over the yard of Anne of Green gables house. So not only did we get to see her old house but we got to play an incredible game of golf on an incredible course. Good times!

That night we relaxed after eating dinner at a Vietnamese teahouse very much like the beloved Magic Wok back home (RIP magic wok). It served a full vegetarian menu with an array of meat substitutes at very affordable prices! I know, I should be their marketer. Haha.

On Thursday we drove around the southern edge of P.E.I visiting some old forts and lighthouses (Yay). After driving back over the Confederation Bridge (longest bridge over ice covered waters – 13km long), we drove to Halifax in the state of Nova Scotia. We spent some time trying to find a place to stay as there was no rooms at any inns! Eventually good old Best Western gave us a room. We met up with Louise, a friend of mine from Muskoka woods who is studying in Halifax. It was good to see her. She showed us around the riverside, then we went to a tasty Mongolian Stir Fry restaurant. That night I had to sleep on the floor as our room only had one queen bed, and I wasn’t in the mood to get cosy with mum and dad. Long night.

On Friday dad and I got up super early to watch the Roosters beat the Titans in the semi final. Then we went into town, had brunch, visited the Halifax citadel fort (more historic buildings). They did a really cool canon demonstration where they fired a blank from one of those big canons. The boom was huge and I had a small rock hit my leg! After that we went through the beautiful botanic gardens before driving to Peggy Cove fishing village.

The landscape on the drive out there was very similar to muskoka woods, as it was very rocky with tonnes of beautiful untouched lakes surrounded by woods. Peggy’s cove was amazingly picturesque. The lighthouse there was the most beautiful lighthouse I have ever seen, right out on the point. And all the old fishing buildings were just so quaint. We had a late lunch there and just soaked up the Peggy atmosphere until night. We were exhausted from a big week so we came back home and relaxed in the room to finish off the night. In the morning (Saturday) I will fly very early from Halifax back to Toronto, while mum and dad continue travelling into the states.

I must mention that we have enjoyed many many Tim Hortons trips over the last week, Dad has become especially attached to this mega chain. I also taught them the rich list game and we have played many rounds of that over the week. Its been a fantastic week travelling and seeing the beautiful country of Canada with my two favourite parents haha! It’s a shame my little sister Talyse didn’t come, she was too cool for us.

Brock week 1

On Saturday afternoon, Doug, Pete, and Dylan came and picked me up from uni and we went to subway for dinner, before driving to Amanda’s farm. There we relaxed for a while, played ‘things in a box’, ate cookies and icecream, lit fireworks and just had a good old yarn with each other. Then since a few of the crew were feeling adventurous, we went to the wainfleet much music video dance party. It was put on by the volunteer firefighters. It was a good laugh and an interesting experience being in the little town arena dancing to kesha with all the drunken oldies. The highlight of my night was driving the manual car home from the arena! It was really trippy reaching to change gears with my right hand rather than my left.

When we got back at 130, the others still weren’t tired so we played hide and go seek in the dark, scary barn which was a bit of fun. Then I was exhausted so hit the hay around 3am. We slept in until about 10am and had a delicious breakfast of lovely pastries.

After bumming around for a while, we drove back to Brock and I showed the crew around my room (a pretty quick tour I must say!). I said my goodbyes and they left me to join my floor at the res summer games comp. We competed against other residency floors in different games such as water balloon toss, bball shootout, and Sudoku. Our team did pretty well and won more events than we lost which was good.

Went to dinner in the marketplace which was packed because on weekends it is the only place open for food so everyone was there. That night I hung out with friends on my floor chatting and watching summer heights high which is always great!

Monday morning I had to wake up bright and early for my first ever Canadian lecture. 8 am – 11am what a marathon! Walking into the lecture theatre I knew noone so decided to put myself out there and find someone. So I asked a guy if I could sit next to him….no these seats are taken….oh ok…. Ask a girl the same question….same answer (she was lying…maybe I looked a bit seedy haha). So I admitted defeat and sat by myself. The lecture was pretty easy to be honest which I certainly am not complaining about. My next class was after lunch and I enjoyed this one thoroughly, a much smaller and more interesting class and thankfully only went for 2 hours.

After class, Tyler and I caught two buses into town to find the legendary value village op shop store. I found myself a few good bargains and we had a good time. When I got back I walked over to the back field to check out the rugby team training. They had a massive squad! The coach, once knowing that I was Australian, instantly wanted me in his lineup without ever even seeing me play. He was keen to have me, I would have been keen but they have to train every day during the week and play their games every Saturday. So I had to turn the coach down. I told him I might come along to some training sessions just for fun/fitness and help out with technical stuff.

On Tuesday, after a long sleep in, I had a visit from Pete, Dylan, and Doug. We hung out at university and met up with a few other camp people. Shared some good laughs. Pete and Dylan annoyed my neighbor by doing their vocal warm ups at the top of their lungs. After lunch they left and I went to my class which was also pretty easy (maybe because the lecture went for half the time it was supposed to). After class, I went out with Doug, Dylan and Pete again to a fire at Doug’s friend Ben’s house. We made wax bombs which produced huge mushroom cloud fireballs. It was the first time I had witnessed them and I must say I was very impressed!

After Ben’s bonfire, we had a Jacuzzi at Doug’s place (Another cross off my bucket list) before crashing at Doug’s. I was woken up in the morning by the sound of my phone ringing with mum on the other line saying that her and dad were on their way to Brock! Woohoo!

So Doug dropped me home soon after breakfast, and I prepared for the arrival of my parents around lunchtime! It was so good to see them after such a long time – the longest I’ve ever been away from them! So I showed them around my campus and we had lunch in the café. After that we drove in the jeep that they hired for their 3 weeks here to the wondrous Niagara falls. It was great to share all the stories that I had built up over the 3 months here.

We walked along the edge of the cliff near Niagara falls took many a photo, and then went on the world famous Maid of the Mist up the river and right to the foot of the falls, getting a little bit wet from the spray. Luckily we had our dorky blue plastic ponchos along with everyone else on the boat.

After Niagara falls, we went back to pick up some stuff we forgot at Brock, did some shopping at the Pen Centre for groceries, and then drove into Missassauga where we stayed at the Holiday Inn (Thanks Jason) after dinner at Kelsey’s (great steak).

The next day we caught the bus into Toronto where we wandered around the underground shopping centre, which stretched over 20 kilometres. They have some great food outlets here, especially vegetarian. We caught the subway to the ROM – Royal Ontario Museum. This was a really interesting museum with fantastic Eskimo, Indian, animal and DINOSAUR exhibits!

From there we went to the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), where we met up with Jon from camp. It was great to catch up with him since being at camp. There were plenty of strange pieces of art as well. After wandering the city we stopped in a foodcourt for some fantastic vegetarian food and I showed dad some of my photos while mum went shopping.

Caught the train back to the hotel and then relaxed, watched some Big Bang Theory and showed parents some photos before crashing.

On Friday, we woke up early and began driving to Kingston which was a beautiful little town with an incredible university – Queens – filled with old stone Edwardian buildings. It was a very big campus as well. We went on a tram tour around the city seeing different sights namely the Kingston Penitentiary (most notorious prison in Canada) and the Military school. We visited Wolfe Island which was covered in giant windmills just like Holland – now I don’t need to visit Holland.

The drive from Kingston to Ottawa was very scenic, cruising through the thousand island region (home of thousand island dressing), with maple trees and winding roads. That night in the beautiful town of Ottawa, I dropped over to Jennah’s flat in town where I had a great time catching up with Zach and Jennah. Then we went bowling with a bunch of their friends, including Zach’s brother and Matt Barlow who were both at muskoka woods. Bowling was good, I played terribly, representing Australia badly. But I tried poutine! It’s very popular in the French part of Canada. Basically it is chips with gravy and cheese chunks. Very tasty!

After that around midnight we went to a local Lebanese shawarma restaurant where I had to try these ‘world famous’ shawarmas (kebabs). It was actually really nice! My Aussiness got me out of a fight as well! I was lagging behind the group in our walk to the kebab shop and a ‘street gangster’ hard looking guy comes up to me real angry looking like he wanted a fight and said “Where you from!” So I said to him in my most friendly Australian accent “I’m from Australia mate!” haha…he was so taken aback by my response that he was just like ‘oh ok, cool, what are you doing here in Ottawa?’…so I made a new street friend haha.

The next morning we travelled around town in Ottawa, checking out the parliament buildings and rivers which were very picturesque. We stopped at a really nice breakfast restaurant for brunch…full of fresh fruit smoothies/juices and other healthy stuff which is a good change.

That afternoon we drove to Montreal where we met up with Genevieve (camp friend) in the old historic part of town. It was good catching up with her, she was our French tour guide through town which was helpful. There was something going on that day we were there because there was thousands of people crowding the docks where there were a few old boats, and we saw about 20 weddings all in this area. Not sure why there was so many this particular day.

After a starbucks stop we left Genevieve and drove to Quebec city. For dinner we went to a French restaurant – naturally. And I was determined to get into the French culture, soo I ordered some snails for my entrée. Tasty!...not really but they weren’t too bad….a lot like mushrooms. Dad got to relearn and practice his French skills which was quite entertaining to me and mum.

Frosh Week

So after relaxing and showering on Saturday afternoon, having some fantastic skype catch-ups with friends and family back home. That night Amanda’s family were hosting a huge pigroast for pretty much everyone in the community. Funny thing was, Amanda had to go to a wedding so Cindy and I were left to fend for ourselves, meeting all of Amanda’s friends and family without Amanda around. I’m not gonna lie, it was pretty awkward, and Cindy and I were both exhausted so retired to the den pretty early.

The next day after a decent sleep in we decided to go to the local county vintage fair. It was really cool! They had everyone dressed up in really vintage stuff with people as blacksmiths, carpenters, and different stalls including pig on bread, lemonade, apple cider, and maple syrup….very Canadian. There was a marching band, wood chopping, barbershop bands, vintage cars, and horse and wagon rides.

After that we went to Amanda’s friends house which had its own dirt bike track, where they were hosting a redneck party. Heaps of people and their kids were there with motorbikes and snowmobiles and quad bikes hooning around with a beer in one hand and doing crazy stuff just like rednecks. It was quite entertaining to watch. After that we went back to Amanda’s and called it a night. My body was exhausted and fevery after such a hectic camp. I felt disgusting. I guess it was because of all the lack of sleep.

Sleep in on Monday then drove to Brock University after farewelling the lovely Newhouse family. Brock was very nice, clean and green when I first arrived. There were hundreds of volunteers helping people unload their carfuls of gear. I obviously didn’t need any help unloading I only had two bags and a few other tidbits haha, big difference to everyone else here.

Found my room, and was very pleasantly surprised at the size of it. Very clean, nice and I have my own desk and 3 lots of drawers. So after unloading and saying goodbye to Cindy and Amanda, I wandered around university like a lost sheep. Found a great food court. Got my id card and got lost for about half an hour trying to find my way back to residence. I went and bought some much needed supplies that I have never bought…eg Ethernet cable, laundry detergent, toilet paper, drugs (legal of course), and of course a keg of beer for my room. Just kidding, I am staying on a non alcoholic floor which is great! So far the noisiest person on the floor has probably been me….thats good I think, because im not very noisy.

That night they had a welcome party which was alright. I got a free stress ball (Martin), Frisbee and …. Wait for it…. A fly swatter!?? Random! After that they had a burn; where they build two fake rooms in wooden containers, bed, posters, lights and all, and then set them on fire.

There was a tower party on that night but I forgot money so couldn’t get in. I was still sick so had an early night. The next morning I went to breakfast with a couple of friends I had made on my floor. Then we went to the vendor fair where there was all the signups. We waited for just under an hour to get our bus pass, then wandered around the stalls. I bumped into Josh Trinder from camp which was a very pleasant surprise. He introduced me to the BCF (not boating camping fishing) brock christian fellowship group, who were very friendly and gave me a free tshirt! That afternoon I went and played basketball with those people, then went to the wine and cheese reception for international students, a little bit too fancy pants for me and I was still sick (well that’s my excuse anyway) so left a little early to go and have a nap.

That night I went to worship on the roof with BCF team and met up with Shauna, who was the sister of one of my camp friends Justin. It was cool getting to know her and have a worship with a big group of people.

After that Shauna and I went to the Hush Hush party where there was jumping castles, gladiators (where I won a free tshirt). Had a great chat to the red frogs people who are in their second year of service in canada, still relatively new. The hush hush party was opened by two of the trailer park boys who are just two dirty old men who were not funny at all. Glad I have never watched that show. The hush hush was pretty cool because everyone had their own set of headphones and listened to a choice of two dj’s. So everyone is dancing in silence with their headphones on. After about half an hour of that we went to McDonalds across the road for some midnight snack and then came back to my room and a bunch of us on my floor watched some summer heights high till 1 in the morning. A good day at college!

Wednesday I had a 10 – 12 international orientation – boring. Then I went for an investigationate around the uni to find the rooms my classes are in. Bought a gym pass – very nice gym. Watched some more summer heights high with floormates. And then at 4 went to play some gridiron and soccer with the BCF crew again! Wednesday night there was an alexis on fire concert. I went to check it out from the hill outside the gate but they are a screamo band so I only stayed for one song. A big group of people on our floor then watched dirty dancing in our lounge.

Thursday morning I slept in, then went with Lachie into town to the shopping centre where I had a big shopping spree and bought a new snowboard jacket, a bunch of winter stuff, a new phone and some new shoes. Taco bell for lunch was a good change from McDonalds.

That afternoon I went and checked out the gymnasium, which was very nice but absolutely packed so I probably wont go again for a week or two when all the wannabe gymmers give up.

On Thursday night I went along with some of the people on my floor to a condom casino night in the bball gymnasium. Paid 3 dollars for a bag of 20 condoms. They had blackjack, roulette, the whole kit and kaboodle set up. Won a few condoms on roulette. Then they had a big poker tournament. About 500 people participated in round one. I wasn’t expecting to do very well, I was just there for a bit of fun. But I came second so proceeded to the next round. 3 rounds later after playing ridiculous, careless poker, I find myself in the grand final with 8 other ‘high rollers’. It was hilarious! Everyone was taking it so seriously….except me! I thought it was the biggest joke and treated it that way. Always calling people on their all ins and beating them…everything was going my way. Not that I wanted it to…what was I supposed to do with 300 condoms?

I ended up coming third, being the top boy out of all the people which is pretty hilarious. I just wanted it to end because it was getting late, so I was going all in pretty much every round. Hahaha. So now I have about 250 condoms lying around.

The next morning I got up early to watch the titans vs warriors game. Then went back to sleep for a few hours. Friday was a lazy day. I did some washing, watched a movie, worked on my summer camp movie, ate. In the afternoon I visited the ‘beach’ at port delhousie with all the internationals. Met some cool people. I wanted to get back in time for the BCF pizza party social. I missed the bus by 5 minutes. Waited an hour for the next bus which filled up so left without me, then waited another 40 minutes for the next bus. Very frustrating. So I didn’t get back until late. Hung out with Kristen, Annie, and Tyler from MWoods and we watched a movie.

Saturday early morning to watch the footy, then went and volunteered with heaps of people at the Shinorama carwash raising money for Cystic Fibrosis Research. It was great fun waving signs on the side of the road and washing the masses of cars that came in. The afternoon was great for napping, relaxing and catching up on some much needed bible reading.

An interesting week, but good nonetheless. Met plenty of great people, had some good laughs. Missing the homecooked meals. The cafeterias are just like supermarkets, with packaged everything…and foodcourts with oily fatty foods like pizza. Good for a while but definitely get sick of them. So that’s my first week at College!

CLASSIC!

So classic started off with a bang! We had a big banquet where everyone dressed up to the 9’s just because it was my birthday. Had some delicious eggplant parmigiana for lunch. After lunch we had a baptism down at the beach where 32 staff were baptised. It was very lovely. We said goodbye to Coombs and Mark who were leaving for school (listen to me adjusting to this Canadian culture – I mean university!) It was sad to say goodbye after developing such good friendships.

After GRSing the kids for the last time we headed up to the opening day show which Jon and I put our hands up for to help with. We painted ourselves completely orange and had to be statues that changed poses throughout a song. It was fun! Then we had to dance (yeah you heard it – I danced!) in the opening song which was quite awkward and funny.

The great thing about classic is that everyone is senior high, and everyone – instructors, hospitality, councillors all are involved in the night activity! So since everyone is there it is always epic! After skyping my family on my birthday and missing out on some of the activity, I headed over to the game that night – Kamati! It is such an epic game, I cannot wait to play it at home! It involves tackling so very much a boyish game. So courts were set up on the swim beach with grandstands around and music…then down the road was a massive carnival with games and food. It was incredible and very entertaining. Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to play Kamati for myself. After cleaning up this game the boys hung out in our trailer being boys…which as you can imagine is always a good laugh.

Sunday – my assignments for the week – Split wake with Steve in the mornings and GP loop in the afternoon. Since we were low on staff the last week, I had to drive most periods in the GP loop which was pretty full on. Luckily I had Julie Rains there and we laughed the time away paying each other out constantly. Many a good memories made.

Our morning boat was really cool as well. A great bunch of boys that we got to ride with. Steve and I both got multiple chances to ride throughout the week as well. Unfortunately when I tried one trick I landed bad and pulled a deep muscle in my shoulder. So now I have two sore shoulders. The fall will be a good time for recovery.

The night games were the highlight of camp, with a different blockbuster game on each night:

On Sunday night the game organised was Lost! – My favourite television show. They started off with an opening show which involved a sea plane flying overhead very low and then a big explosion on the beach. All the characters looked so much like the real lost characters as well! For the game it was like a big station game where teams were a character and had to follow the journey of that character and fulfil different life tasks. I was at one of Charlies station and we were a karaoke band so had fun with that. For snack that night the girls had made especially wrapped Dharma initiative (Lost) drink bottles and chocolates.

Monday nights games were boys night/girls night. The girls did some boring stuff while the boys had a billy cart race…it was epic with pit lanes, a proper track, everyone dressed as hillbillies, commentators, lights…the whole kit and kaboozle! I was on track maintenance so we raced around in a golf ‘safety’ cart and cleaned up the track in between races.

Tuesday night was avatar! This was like a giant game of capture the flag where the staff were the humans and the kids were avatars against each other. It was fun dressing up and going against the kids. I nearly got knocked out when I got a shoulder to the jaw – myself and another staff member were both chasing a kid from different directions. Luckily no serious injury ensued, because one easily could have. Unfortunately one girl broke her tibia (shin) in that game and had to be taken to hospital. After the game they had a closing show which involved a manship, an avatar on a dragon, a zipline from high ropes, and some pyrotechnics which was pretty extravagant.

Wednesday night was Wet n Wild which involved painting up – completely, water balloon fights and challenges, a giant slip and slide with obstacles and projectiles, and a big foam party at the tennis courts. Unfortunately I missed out on most of it because I had sound check for impact which was on after Wet and Wild. I played piano in a Jonny Cash song and was also a merchant in the drama skit. The theme for impact was the prodigal son…they did it really well having it performed in three different ways.

Thursday night was the last night. After skills all the remaining staff took a boat and we drove them back to the mariner that we hired them from for the summer. It was definitely a highlight of the summer cruising in formation with all of the nautiques. We weaved amongst each other, and did the flying V. It was really cool.

The game that night was a post war paris game. We were all given a character – I was a soldier. And we basically all had different parts of the city to live in and different stories. The kids had to find us as we were missing persons from the war. It was pretty fun. After that, there was a massive dance party in the hangar which was pretty wild. Then there was the awards for the week. A big bonfire (I mean big) and fireworks was the finale to the night and the week. I didn’t go to sleep until 3 in the morning.

The next morning we woke up and took 2 hours to clean up our cabin. After that we did work projects down in the boathouse…finishing cleaning up. We then had all the sad goodbyes to all our camp friends. Everyone scooted off pretty quickly. The remainder of us decided to celebrate end of contract by heading to the pub for dinner and (of course) drinks at Windermere. It was interesting seeing how some of the people changed so quickly once off contract. We stayed there till about midnight. Since I was not drinking I got to drive amanda’s car home – a manual…it was thrilling! Took a bit to get used to driving with the gearstick on my right.

When we got back to camp, the remaining boys got up to some shenanigans before hitting the hay around 2. The next morning I woke up at 7 and drove with Amanda and Cindy (fellow Aussie) to Amanda’s house on a farm in Niagara for a weekend of relaxation.

A dozen random summer facts:

1. I have only watched one movie

2. I have only clipped my nails once

3. I never ate any pumpkin, black olives, or spinach

4. I have some seriously cracked heels from wearing shoes only 5 times in the whole summer

5. Wore 2 pairs of boardshorts 90% of the time, they were only washed once

6. Ate pork for the first time

7. Went in the water EVERY day this summer.

8. Regressed in my trampolining abilities but progressed in wakeboarding

9. Stopped to read a book once

10. Nearly died

11. Slept more than 8 hours only 5 nights this summer

12. Gained 93 facebook friends