A McTavish Christmas

On Tuesday morning Jon drove down for Missisauga to pick me up from my now empty residence. It was sad to leave what has been my home for the past 4 months, knowing that I would never again walk those hallways. We drove to Jon’s house, did some shopping for Christmas presents that Jon still had to get. Then we just hung out at his house. Mark arrived for a visit and we played some guitar hero, watched snowboarding movies to get in the mood for the upcoming season. Then we decided that we would go snowboarding the next day. No biggie, the hill was only 2 hours away and on the way to the cottage. Brilliant!

Later that night, we played street hockey with all of Jon’s friends from the street. It was great! We played for nearly 2 hours it was so much fun. That finished up around 1230. And we crashed straight away. We woke up early to go boarding at Mt St Louis/Moonstone. The snow was fantastic! The hill wasn’t huge but it had a phenomenal terrain park which we went on most of the time. Mark and Jon were hitting the 45 foot jump which was insane, the 25 foot jump was plenty scary enough for me! I did a few rails as well. Didn’t have the balls to try a 360 on the 25 footer though. Perhaps next time….im working up to it!

We finished up boarding around 3, unfortunately my boa lacing wire snapped somehow so now I need to get my boot fixed before I can go out again. Jon went to the hospital with his family to visit his grandma, so Mark and I chilled for about an hour in the local Tim Hortons. The boys loved teasing me about putting on the freshman fifteen (pounds). I don’t feel fatter though…

So after that we drove to the McTavish cottage in Haliburton. We relaxed that evening and I went to bed early because I was pretty tired. The next morning was spent relaxing at the cottage, cleaning up the driveway and snowskating down the driveway. In the afternoon we all piled into the car to go Christmas tree hunting. We were wandering around the snowy woods for about an hour before we found a good tree. Jon climbed up and cut it down, we tied it to the roof and then headed back to the cottage. That evening I successfully cooked dinner – mum’s special pumpkin pasta, which was quite a hit (I think). At the least I enjoyed it and got a reminder of home tastes. Mum would be particularly proud of me doing some cooking for a change.

After dinner, we put up the tree. It was huge!!! About 12 feet tall. It looked fabulous! I felt a bit feverish after dinner so went to bed early. That night was one of the longest nights of my life. I woke up about 10 times, had some very weird dreams, and constantly had the shivers. Very unpleasant. I woke up on Christmas eve not feeling much better. I spent the most of Christmas Eve day inside, napping and taking it easy. At night we went to their neighbours cottage which was beautiful. They had 4 children who were very entertaining, especially the little girl Avery who made me help her compile Santa’s naughty/nice list. We also played some mini stick hockey in their basement. The meal was very good, but I didn’t eat much because of my sickness.

When we got back, I skyped the family who were celebrating Christmas lunch since they are 15 hours ahead. It was bittersweet seeing them all there having a great time. I was exhausted afterwards so went to bed. That night I only woke up once which was an improvement from the night before. In the morning I felt a bit better. We waited for everyone to wake up then opened the plethora of gifts under the tree. I was spoilt, I got a huge amount of treats in my Canadian stocking, a great snowboarding bandana, a Canada hoody, Canadian mug, Canada Hockey Jersey, and a sweet painting that Jon did. I’m probably gonna have to send a package home with all these goodies because they wont fit in my bag.

In the afternoon, I had a nap, a bath (first one this year) and watched a Christmas movie – Miracle on 34^th street. Played Rummy with Bec and Dylan. We had a very nice dinner, but since I was still a bit sick my appetite was not very large. After dinner, I helped Kathy for a little bit with her puzzle, and played darts before heading to bed because I was exhausted again.

Didn’t wake up at all that night, but still woke up feeling a bit sick. Boxing day was spent relaxing in the cottage, watching some movies, eating some food, emailing, and reading. At night after a good enchilada dinner we played scattegories. It was really fun. I won in the end, thanks to all my Australian answers that they didn’t know haha.

On Monday after a beautiful sleepin, Jon and I packed up our gear and presents, and the family plus myself headed off to Rob’s brothers house where there was a big group of the McTavish Clan. We hung out at their house for a few hours, eating and being merry. Then we played the present game which was a bit different to how we normally play it back home, but I would say better. I ended up with a gift basket full of goodies. After that, Jon and I drove back to their home in Missisauga. This ends my Christmas time at the McTavish Cottage. It was a wonderful experience having a white Christmas at the beauty of the winter at the cottage. It was however a bit dulled by my bad health keeping me inside most of the days. All in all a great time!

Last week at Brock

So I decided to start off my exam study with seeing how I am sitting with my cumulative grade as it was. Turns out for the exam I had on Tuesday I was already on 50% so didn’t even need to sit the exam to pass. Since my grades only show up as pass or fail with my exchange program, I threw studying out the window. Instead I hung out with Carly and Josh and Andrew. Josh stayed over on Sunday night in my room.

A lot of this week was spent saying goodbyes to all the great friends I have made here. It turned out to be much tougher than I originally anticipated it would be. Just as I start to develop really great friendships and find a home away from home I have to say goodbye.

I gave myself a new challenge this week. Pity I didn’t think of it earlier. To walk down the length of the hallway… on my hands. I have made it nearly half way but the end of the hallway seems far far off. Have had fun trying though.

On Monday night, I went over with Sofia and Lachie to visit Helen at her place. We played Pictionary telephone, ate popcorn, wedges and KD and hung out which was fun. Later that night I went back and chilled with Josh and Carly again.

On Tuesday I had my first exam, which was in the huge auditorium filled with about 1000 seats and desks. I managed to get lucky and get a rickety uneven desk. Lucky my grades weren’t riding on this exam. Mulit choice exam - I was out in an hour. Hit up the gym which luckily was pretty empty. On Tuesday night I went out with about 15 people from our floor to Kelsey’s for all you can eat wings. I took the football along and we had fun throwing that around in the carpark. Every time I threw it pretty much the ball ended up under a car and Andrew had to crawl on the cold wet snowy ground to get it. Haha. The waitress was named Dusty.

After dinner, Andrew, Andrew, John, Carly and I went to the cinemas to watch the Tourist with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. The movie was alright. Andrew and Carly hated it so much that they walked out with half an hour to go haha.

So after my first exam I went on to study for the next exam. But I found out for this exam I was sitting on 60% so didn’t need to do this exam either.

Wednesday I had my job interview on the phone for next summer as either a Wake X or Ski/Wake instructor. On Wednesday night, I went to Boston Pizza with Taylor and Jasmine. Gave them a couple of gifts, which was a laugh. I had a hair in my soup and for a change I told the waitress, she snapped up the dish went out back. Then the manager came and apologised profusely, gave me a new soup for free, and a voucher to a free pizza. Very good service!

After dinner I went shopping with them to get some gifts to take home. So hard to shop because I don’t wanna buy tacky souvenirs. After arriving back, I went over with Adam to hang out at Lisa and Jess’. We played some cards and had a jolly old time. We tried beating a few impossibilities, like eating a dry piece of bread in under a minute, and eating a spoonful of cinnamon. Lachie got the piece of bread in 30 seconds which was impressive.

On Thursday I had my exam. It was so weird going into an exam and knowing barely anything, not having studied at all! I knew a few questions though, and will probably get about 30-40% on the exam anyway. On Thursday night, I hung out with Jasmine and Taylor again, then went to Lisa’s 21^st for a couple of hours. After that I went back to res and hung out with Taylor and Jasmine, Andrew and Carly and we watched August Rush. Taylor and Jasmine gave me a shirt that belonged to Taylor as well as some Maple Leaf undies haha.

Then on Friday, at 3pm, Charlene and Shaphan picked me up from uni with my snowboard and we headed off with Charlene’s little brothers to Horseshoe valley for some night snowboarding. We only got 2 hours in, but it was so great to have the first run of my new board. Not 100% sure about the new equal stance of my feet. When we stopped for dinner at Tim hortons down the road, my phone dropped out of the car. I didn’t realise till we arrived at the mountain. So we checked back at the carpark on the way home 3 hours later. To be honest my hopes weren’t very high, but it turns out that it was still working in the freezing wet snow and in one piece. What a miracle!!! Arrived back in residence

On Saturday I played squash for a couple of hours with Lachie and Ben. Then I went back to res to do some relaxing and chatted to Lisa and Eric. Said goodbye to a bunch of people on my floor and hung out with them. Early that night I watched Jingle all the way, then had dinner, watched the leafs game – they lost. Then later on I went to a party with the internationals at the Village – it was a girls birthday who I didn’t even know. But I was there. A true gatecrasher. Stayed there till fairly late, then walked back to res. On the way I bumped into Tyler and Kristen on their way back from a late night mcdonalds run. So chatted to them until my toes got numb so I ran back and jumped into my cosy bed.

On Sunday morning I went to church at the Pen which was great. Said a bunch more goodbyes. Jaime bought me the Central CD as a going away gift which was very generous of him. After church I went for a drive with Lisa, Jess, Ariel (Jasmine) and Elly to Niagara falls. We took some photos in the snow then went to a place called nightmares. Which was like a haunted house. It was a walk through thing and was pitch black. Then things would jump out at us. Even though the girls made me go in the front I didn’t get the full scare and arms grabbing me which was lucky. I did drop to the floor in fright at one point. There was a freaky part where we had to get down and crawl and then a guy jumped out with a electric handsaw and made sparks fly out in front of us. Somehow my pants stayed pretty dry for that occasion.

Later on, Taylor Gillard from camp picked me up from Brock and we drove to the MW Xmas get together. It was pretty much just a room and we all just caught up and chatted whilst eating snacks. It was really great seeing everyone though! After that, a bunch of us went back to Coombs’ house for Hilary’s birthday. We ate a bit more, then just chatted. It was great to hear some of Craig, Justin and Steve’s Europe stories.

Taylor picked me up from Coombs’ house and then we drove back to St Catharines. In the morning I got into some study for my 2pm exam. Said goodbye to Taylor who gave me his hockey jersey as a departing gift which was very generous.

So I did my final exam of my degree. It was pretty hard, but I would have gotten enough marks to get me a pass so im a happy chappy. The rest of the night was spent packing my bags – very tightly, and saying goodbyes to all the great friends I had made here.

That night, the buffalo crew – Andrew, RMD, Becca and myself went out for another adventure, this time to Niagara, to see the falls, the beautiful xmas lights, and then wander around the city. They dressed me up as a Scottsman for our outing and they had to wear my Australian hats. We went into an arcade and played some games, with my last token I decided to use it to try and get some tickets. I wanted to go big or go home so found the machine that offered the most tickets. It was a jackpot game where you could win 641 tickets if you stopped the light on the right spot. I got it!!! We were all so bewildered! Spent the prize tickets to get a few dodgy little gifts worth only a couple of dollars, but it was good fun and brought back some childhood memories. On the way home we stopped at a UFO restaurant, and got some late night Pizza Pizza.

So this chapter of my life is coming to an end but its been a phenomenal experience and God has blessed me with so many amazing experiences, memories and most of all friendships that I will certainly never forget.

Brock Week 13

So on Saturday I spent the day catching up with family, doing some reading, song writing and emailing. On Saturday night, we had planned to go to the casino, but that was cancelled so Andrew, Sophia and I watched a couple of Christmas movies which got us into the Christmas spirit.

Sunday morning I went with Josh to central church. It was a Christmas theme which was really cool. Then I hung out at Josh’ for the day, did some reading, guitaring and indoor golfing. Josh, I found out ran the Vancouver 2010 Olympic torch through Thorold, a local area, which is so cool. So I put on his tracksuit and ran the torch around the neighbourhood. That evening, we went to a Christmas concert downtown put on by central church. It was fantastic! The Christmas songs were great, and then the main act was New World Son, which is a reggae gospel type band. Great music! Every guy in the band was a phenomenal musician. Was there with Josh, Emily, Carly, Lisa, Lyndall and Sophia. We also met a couple of the power view boys there too.

After the concert everyone peaced so we hung around and wanted to get a photo with the band. It wasn’t very hard at all. We ended up chatting to the band for about half an hour. They were really nice and friendly. I even exchanged emails with the guitarist as he is coming to Gold Coast and wanted a connection. After the concert, Josh Emily and Shannon came back to Josh’ house and we hung out, played guitar etc.

So this week it snowed! I think it was Tuesday. I spent the whole day outside in the snow having snowball fights on three separate occasions. Hung out at Lisa and Jess’ apartment playing cards. I even got to have a go down a small hill on a skateboard/snowboard.

On Tuesday night, our MW group had snacks at Vanessa’s house and then went bowling. I played terribly – only got a 64. It was great seeing them all. Some of them for the last time unfortunately. I had to say goodbyes to a few people this week which was sad. Amanda came and hung out for a while and we said goodbye, same with Shauna.

Our floor had their secret santa on Tuesday – I had Kaitlyn and Akhash had me. I got some Canadian mittens. Our floor also booked the swimming pool on Wednesday night so that was fun jumping off the boards and mucking around. I also went swimming on a couple of occasions this week.

I got back into my gym routine, watched a season of the Office. Everyone was studying so most of the week was spent by myself. Because of this I got homesick and it sucked a bit. Got to skype them a couple of times though.

Thursday I hung out for a while at Emily’s house, she was writing a song and so I went along and ‘helped’ with some of it. Not really. We spent a lot of the time just talking but had a good time on the piano and guitar as well. That night I went out for the final social of our C4C group. We had dinner at the London Arms pub – great food – especially garlic bread! Then we went glow in the dark mini putting. That was fun.

On Friday night, I went to the movies to watch the new Narnia with Sophia, Aarne, Clare, Holly, Ethan and Jason. It was a fantastic film. After that I hung out with Aarne, Sophia and Emily. We had a snowball fight, hung out in the café (Grace gave us a free waffle!) and then made an epic snowman.

On Saturday I spent the morning reading and in meditation. Then I met up with Nikki and some of the girls who took us to Nikki’s house for a Christmas day. It was definitely the highlight of my week! We did a huge amount of Christmas cooking – Chocolate pretzels, Christmas bark, shortbread, made a gingerbread house. Candy cane chocolate. So good! We decorated their Christmas (real) tree. Their family (the bakkers) is so wonderful, accommodating and just make you feel at home there. Lovely lovely people.

Played Settler of Catan finally! Oh how I have missed that game! Hadn’t lost my touch – ended up winning haha. We had a wonderful dinner, played a sweet game of Pictionary telephone which was ridiculously hilarious! That night we spent a few hours in the piano room with 8 guitars, a piano, mandolin, tamborines, bass guitar, rattlers and shakers and had an awesome sing along music time. Amazing.

After that I went back to Josh’ house for the night. We chatted until 3am before going to sleep. Woke up at 12. Had Anne, Kristen, Kristyn, Brendon, Josh and I over for a ‘goodbye’ lunch for me at Josh’. We had burgers and played the water game. Shared some good stories and good laughs to finish off the weekend before getting into some solid study for exams this upcoming week.

Nearly finished my degree!

Brock week 12

I apologise for the lengthiness of the last entry. It was a hectic week. Arriving back late on Sunday night from New York, we hit the sack pretty quickly. We had to get up early at 630 to prepare for my lecture and Mark still had a 6 hour drive home to Nipissing. Once I had completed my test in my lecture I couldn’t stay awake so wagged and took a lovely nap. After that I finished off the remainder of my classes for my undergraduate degree! Found out I got an A in my assignment…stoked about that because I certainly wasn’t expecting a good grade.

The rest of the week was filled with sleep, gym, study, shopping, television and eating – not so much anymore because I realised that my meal card can only afford 10 dollars a day for the rest of the year!

On Monday night Taylor and I went out to Boston Pizza for dinner with Kayla and Cait. We shared some great laughs there. Taylor accepted a dare to go up to a table across the room where to people were eating, and just stand there and look at their food until they did or said something. It was hilarious! After dinner we played cards in Kayla’s room and Taylor and I interrogated her roommate Erin which was quite entertaining.

Tuesday night I went with the Don’s to the Brock wind Orchestra concert. The concert was great – quite inspiring musically, even if it went for two and a half hours!

The mustache got shaved! Young innocent Rhys is back. Elle left Brock to go home, and so I hung out with her for a little while, and she gave me a Christmas gift which certainly made my day, and also a lovely card!

Wednesday night we had the international Christmas banquet. Everyone dressed up and we went to a local club for the formal dinner. The food was pretty good, company was great. Japanese santa even made an appearance! Then the 40 year old dj busted some tunes and the dancefloor lit up. After the dinner, most people went to the local bar but I went back to Brock with 5 of the girls. They came up to hang out in my room for a bit. It was hilarious walking past the study room where a bunch of the boys were studying – Just Rhys and 5 hot girls with him. Their jaws literally dropped haha. They had many a question for me the following day. But don’t worry all you back home who might be thinking I have been corrupted with promiscuity and polygamy, the girls and I just played cards.

Thursday night after doing some grocery shopping some of the people from our small group went to the Village residences and cooked pancakes and cleaned the units with Roy from Red Frogs. It was great fun. After that, I went over to visit Lisa, Jess, and Ariel at their apartment. I had quite a feminine night with them, watching a chick flick, playing cards and sharing head scratches.

On Friday we had our final campus for Christ boys group bible study. It was fantastic getting to know those guys, and sharing life with them. Friday afternoon I went back to Lisa and Jess’ apartment to do some cooking for the bcf Christmas banquet. I made a chip dip with sour cream, beans, salsa, cheese and capsicum. I put a lot of effort into it. And at the banquet that night, no one ate my dip (okay maybe a couple of people). The banquet was great! They had a bunch of games, heaps and heaps of food, some great musical items. Once everything was packed up, they had a service type thing with singing, and some Christmas carols!! The band was fantastic!

After the banquet, I went to Emily and Shannon’s house with Josh and we played some music and hung out until 2 in the morning. She had 3 guitars, a violin, harmonica and keyboard. It was a great end to the week!