so i've survived phase 2 of getting to camp. Get to airport. check. catch plane. check. meet up with cool SA roomie. check. now to figure out how to get back to keats. Ahh. the dilema.
On the upside, the wedding this weekend was fantastic and as fun as promised. A big highlight for me (apart from the cute soppy "i do's" of course) was the fire bowl, followed closely by the hour of dancing before shut down. It was good times. And now we have 2 Mrs Cole's at Emmanuel :)
I sure didn't get enough sleep this weekend however. I am so not a weepy girl, but my dad dropping me off at the airport today just about did me in. In fact i still look a little like a racoon - nice mascara smudges under my eyes making me look more like a stoner than usual.
Anyway, i've reached the point of ramble, so i'm going to make friends with my 2 new South African aquaintances. yippee!! They've just fed me a "chomp"! I haven't seen one of those in 5 years!
till next time!
carie
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
BC EXPERIENCED
WOW, Thursday came and went way sooner than i thought it would... but i survived my trip to BC!
i arrived in edmonton after 7 hours on the bus (it felt WAY longer when i wrote this.. uggg! then i hit the next 19!) but it really wasn't that bad of an experience all in all. The aircon in the bus wasn't working on the way to Ed, so it was pretty warm in there. On the plus side, i made 2 new friends. One guy i met was travelling to Lloyd (from Winnipeg!!) to work and meet up with friends he hasn't seen in 3 years, so it was interesting talking him through feeling scared and nervous about seeing and living with them for the summer. He is a criminal justice somthing or other, 30 years old with 2 kids. The other friend i made was a girl named Marissa who is 21, has 2 little kids and works as a driver for the rigs. What's funny is that
she's 5.4" in heels, which means she has to sit on a phone book in her truck. She's married to (in her words) an Eskimo man and her kids have names something to the effect of Konnah and Teigha.
The rest of the drive to BC was mostly in the dark, which was sorta dissapointing to me, as i couldn't see the mountains as we came upon them. I met several other interesting characters tho'. One was a stripper from Victoria who travels around to the rigs and the other one was a guy who (by some means i'm not going into right here)was carrying around about $10K in cash and who bought most of the bus lottery tickets. He also had a suitcase full of alcohol and pot which he was liberally sharing with the bus. He informed me of the bus ettiqite: if you sit beyond a certain point you're in with the crew and if you get busted, destroy all evidence and deny everything. Just so you know the next time you decide to travel accross the country on a Greyhound. The catch of course is that all these things are banned, and if you get an anal bus driver like today's who ranted about calling the cops on the whole bus - then you might be in bigger trouble. Nevertheless. I survived the whole bus ride seemingly intact and out of jail.
Life at Keats is going pretty well (apart from the lack of internet access... i admit it... i really am a geek!) The island is BEAUTIFUL. i really wish you could see it. Its so much bigger than i thought - i'm not sure of the exact size, but it takes whole day hikes to reach the other side. we're sort of on the edge of it so we're surrounded on 3 sides by sea and one side by forest. Its funny - i don't think i thought too much about it, but i was really supprised to find that its actually a tropical forest. so we have ferns, moss and little deer everywhere. Its really cute. Since we're on the ocean, the whole camp has this nautical theme, and everything is named accordingly. I'm a captain (program person) under the commodore, and i live in the OQ (officer's quarters) - if that gives you any idea of the insanity! hehe. but its fun once you figure out the lingo.
These two weeks are "pre-camp" which is pretty much a set up/ staff training period. The camp has over 250 campers who arrive every monday as the other 250 odd are shipped out. (and by shipped out i quite literally mean that they have a 2 hour ship ride to the Vancouver Harbour on a big boat.) We have this big dance and drama thing set up, so programming is quite an intense experience. Its amazing - for such a complex program - there are wakeboard and mnt bike camps also happening and the organizing of 80+ staff per week, there sure doesn't seem like there are any grown ups around! The director is 23 as are most of the staff - which seems old, given my Quest experience, but really we're too young to be absolutely in charge! it really is way more complex and organized than i could ever explain. When everything (including how to get food/ garbage/ staff on and off the island requires a really large boat), life gets complicated pretty quickly. For the common person who doesn't get a big boat ride to the island, getting there is fairly time intensive. I arrived in the N-Van Greyhound terminal and had to find the sky train terminal, then Granville St to catch a city bus to Horseshoe bay Ferry Terminal. i was actually REALLY proud of myself for figuring this all out by myself !! [FYI - if you need to know something, ask an old lady. Chances are they'll feel sorry for you AND they've been around long enought to know a lot of stuff.] Once you get to the terminal, the ferry wait is about an hour if you missed one, and about another hour and a half at the next island for a small walk on ferry to Keats. The big ferry takes a whole stack of cars and feels sorta like you're getting on the Titanic. (esp when you jump into the little piddly one later on!) All in all, it took me 6 hours to get from N - Van to Keats. Meh! I don't think i'll be visiting Van very often. Just too much work! Fortunately, right accross from Keats is a small town which is technically "main land' but actually not really accessable except by ferry. Its only about a 10 min boat ride, and its where the camp picks up supplies and drops off garbage, etc, so we do a run there every morning at 8am. So i think i'll be spending some time there on my days off. The bonus being that the ensign (the person in charge of running around and getting things) is my roomie, so i'm sucking up nicely! I'm just kidding - she's great. AND!!! She's South African. What more could you want in a roomie?
Its kinda funny - coming back for anna's wedding is like coming back from another country. I really like living in that othere country, its just going to take a little while to feel comfortable again with all the funny little differences. I'm excited about getting to know the staff better and pumped about the summer out there tho'. Its cool to feel God moving even before the campers arrive.
anyway, i've been given strick instructions by anna to get some sleep if i want to be at all useful (which i do!) so i'll pack this in i guess.
but so many exciting things! call me to chat, or drop me an email.
love!
carie
i arrived in edmonton after 7 hours on the bus (it felt WAY longer when i wrote this.. uggg! then i hit the next 19!) but it really wasn't that bad of an experience all in all. The aircon in the bus wasn't working on the way to Ed, so it was pretty warm in there. On the plus side, i made 2 new friends. One guy i met was travelling to Lloyd (from Winnipeg!!) to work and meet up with friends he hasn't seen in 3 years, so it was interesting talking him through feeling scared and nervous about seeing and living with them for the summer. He is a criminal justice somthing or other, 30 years old with 2 kids. The other friend i made was a girl named Marissa who is 21, has 2 little kids and works as a driver for the rigs. What's funny is that
she's 5.4" in heels, which means she has to sit on a phone book in her truck. She's married to (in her words) an Eskimo man and her kids have names something to the effect of Konnah and Teigha.
The rest of the drive to BC was mostly in the dark, which was sorta dissapointing to me, as i couldn't see the mountains as we came upon them. I met several other interesting characters tho'. One was a stripper from Victoria who travels around to the rigs and the other one was a guy who (by some means i'm not going into right here)was carrying around about $10K in cash and who bought most of the bus lottery tickets. He also had a suitcase full of alcohol and pot which he was liberally sharing with the bus. He informed me of the bus ettiqite: if you sit beyond a certain point you're in with the crew and if you get busted, destroy all evidence and deny everything. Just so you know the next time you decide to travel accross the country on a Greyhound. The catch of course is that all these things are banned, and if you get an anal bus driver like today's who ranted about calling the cops on the whole bus - then you might be in bigger trouble. Nevertheless. I survived the whole bus ride seemingly intact and out of jail.
Life at Keats is going pretty well (apart from the lack of internet access... i admit it... i really am a geek!) The island is BEAUTIFUL. i really wish you could see it. Its so much bigger than i thought - i'm not sure of the exact size, but it takes whole day hikes to reach the other side. we're sort of on the edge of it so we're surrounded on 3 sides by sea and one side by forest. Its funny - i don't think i thought too much about it, but i was really supprised to find that its actually a tropical forest. so we have ferns, moss and little deer everywhere. Its really cute. Since we're on the ocean, the whole camp has this nautical theme, and everything is named accordingly. I'm a captain (program person) under the commodore, and i live in the OQ (officer's quarters) - if that gives you any idea of the insanity! hehe. but its fun once you figure out the lingo.
These two weeks are "pre-camp" which is pretty much a set up/ staff training period. The camp has over 250 campers who arrive every monday as the other 250 odd are shipped out. (and by shipped out i quite literally mean that they have a 2 hour ship ride to the Vancouver Harbour on a big boat.) We have this big dance and drama thing set up, so programming is quite an intense experience. Its amazing - for such a complex program - there are wakeboard and mnt bike camps also happening and the organizing of 80+ staff per week, there sure doesn't seem like there are any grown ups around! The director is 23 as are most of the staff - which seems old, given my Quest experience, but really we're too young to be absolutely in charge! it really is way more complex and organized than i could ever explain. When everything (including how to get food/ garbage/ staff on and off the island requires a really large boat), life gets complicated pretty quickly. For the common person who doesn't get a big boat ride to the island, getting there is fairly time intensive. I arrived in the N-Van Greyhound terminal and had to find the sky train terminal, then Granville St to catch a city bus to Horseshoe bay Ferry Terminal. i was actually REALLY proud of myself for figuring this all out by myself !! [FYI - if you need to know something, ask an old lady. Chances are they'll feel sorry for you AND they've been around long enought to know a lot of stuff.] Once you get to the terminal, the ferry wait is about an hour if you missed one, and about another hour and a half at the next island for a small walk on ferry to Keats. The big ferry takes a whole stack of cars and feels sorta like you're getting on the Titanic. (esp when you jump into the little piddly one later on!) All in all, it took me 6 hours to get from N - Van to Keats. Meh! I don't think i'll be visiting Van very often. Just too much work! Fortunately, right accross from Keats is a small town which is technically "main land' but actually not really accessable except by ferry. Its only about a 10 min boat ride, and its where the camp picks up supplies and drops off garbage, etc, so we do a run there every morning at 8am. So i think i'll be spending some time there on my days off. The bonus being that the ensign (the person in charge of running around and getting things) is my roomie, so i'm sucking up nicely! I'm just kidding - she's great. AND!!! She's South African. What more could you want in a roomie?
Its kinda funny - coming back for anna's wedding is like coming back from another country. I really like living in that othere country, its just going to take a little while to feel comfortable again with all the funny little differences. I'm excited about getting to know the staff better and pumped about the summer out there tho'. Its cool to feel God moving even before the campers arrive.
anyway, i've been given strick instructions by anna to get some sleep if i want to be at all useful (which i do!) so i'll pack this in i guess.
but so many exciting things! call me to chat, or drop me an email.
love!
carie
Sunday, June 12, 2005
ONE FROOD SHOW
just saw HHGTTG.... FANTASTIC! Best idea ever Dave! I'm all hyped up and ready to re-read the book. But i forgot that it would end at Milliways... how can it end before they reach the resturant at the end of the universe?
Anyhoo... i should attempt to sleep before i tackle my enormous "to do" list tomorrow. UGGG. on the plus side +++++ i'll see the ocean again before the end of the week !! YAY!
till later,
carie
Anyhoo... i should attempt to sleep before i tackle my enormous "to do" list tomorrow. UGGG. on the plus side +++++ i'll see the ocean again before the end of the week !! YAY!
till later,
carie
Camp address
Well, hard to believe, but i'm leaving for camp in less than 4 days!!!!!!!! EEK! i have so much to do before i go. i was going to email my camp address out to everybody, but it seems that people have had enough hang ups with my real address, so i thought i might not confuse the situation, and just post it here instead.
SO with no further ado:
Keats camps,
Box 284
Gibsons
BC
VON 1V0
Canada.
i'll blog a little more in the next 3 days before i'm cut off for 2 months (SOB)
loves!
carie
SO with no further ado:
Keats camps,
Box 284
Gibsons
BC
VON 1V0
Canada.
i'll blog a little more in the next 3 days before i'm cut off for 2 months (SOB)
loves!
carie
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
random ramblings
WOW... i can't believe it. Anna and Evan, Mike and Sarah and Eric and Alicia are almost all grown ups. In less than 3 weeks they will all be married. Isn't that crazy? i helped anna move into her new place today, which is just accross the road! so now we can have some decent street parties :) I had to miss out on going to watch HHGTTG (due to moving) AND!!! due to the fact that its somehow already left the theatres! Hard to believe huh? Damn star wars. (sorry Anna).
<--- how could this be anything but excellent? I ask you.
Any ways, i booked my bus rides to and from keats (for anna's wedding... bah! *$3#!%(^ Stupid 25 hour ride... meh. i guess i'll get to sleep, so it might not be all bad. its just that the concept of 50 hours in less than a week may kill me. oh well. On the upside, i said 'bye to the Dub. (or officially at least... i have to stick it out until the 10th.) So no more 6ams for me!! I wish i'd hear back from the Uni to tell me what i'm doing with my life. I somehow neglected to tell them that i have moved, so i have no idea where my letter is.... hopefully it will eventually be forwarded to my parent's new addy. some random ussu jerk keeps tormenting me in the mean while. good thing i'm not political 'eh?
Well, i should get to bed i guess... we're heading out to Sarah's wedding this weekend, fingers crossed for nice weather... its an outdoors wedding, so hopefully we'll get to enjoy the outdoors. Apart from that i get to see Miller, which should be an exciting adventure, not to mention the WHOLE! town of Pambrin. I don't know if i can contain myself :)
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