A Claustrophobic Birthday

                     Long time no blog. Here we are again, I'm currently sitting in Green Tortoise Hostel in Seattle! I love Seattle, it is similar to Vancouver for me, but I like Seattle a lot better. I don't know, I didn't like Vancouver as much. I also think it's our location in Seattle that is great, it's right beside the Seattle Public Market and within walking distance of almost everything. Perfect :) I spent a little bit too much money...which I really didn't plan on...but I couldn't help myself (which is still no excuse,haha.) Also...there are about a trillion Starbucks here, there are three in one small mall...that's just stupid. Delicious but stupid.    
                   We have done quite a bit in the last few weeks I must say...I'll start at the beginning then. So just after we left Twin Creeks we went to Camp Kawakwa, and spent a week there. It's quite nice we get wifi! They don't really like us there that much though, a few unfortunate events happened that included breaking a couch and pushing one up against a radiator thus...burn holes. Awkward. So to apologize we are having a work day for them when we return for a week after we leave Seattle tomorrow. Within that week at Kawakwa we had a few birthdays! Including MINE! I'm finally 18, it's about time gee wiz. Anyways it just so happened that that day we had a special activity planned, we were going Caving! Exploring caves...which is super cool, and scary. I'm sorta claustrophobic...and it was cold and wet and scary...Haha. It wasn't what I expected, I expected big caves and just roaming through them. They were tiny little things that you somehow all managed to get into and you pretty much just explored the caves that were created from huge rocks falling on one another. So, I did end up leaving a bit earlier with some of the other claustrophobic people. But, it was a really cool experience...and who else can say they went caving on their birthday!
                   After that we went to Camp Squeah only about 30 minutes from Camp Kawkawa, for the all sites conference. So all the sites except French Africa ( because it's only a one semester program for them, and they are currently in Eastern Africa) got together for about 4 days. Something super special about this week was that since the beginning of the program we had been planning to do a Flash Mob at the conference! I was the choreographer, and we had been working on it for weeks and weeks. Somehow, (let's not talk about the reasons why...) but word got out the other sites. Site 2 thought it would be funny to do one too....and do it on the first night we got there. Obviously...this made me all mixtures of heartbroken and angry. That dance is like my baby, and they just stole all of it's thunder. Anyways after a while I forgive their site, a lot of people in our site really disliked site 2. And I wanted to find a way to mend that relationship ( to he honest, site 2 brought the dislike for them on themselves) so we decided to do our Flash Mob at the last moment possible and have a big dance party at the end will all the sites! So that's what we did, it was really awesome, and site 2 did a great job...but ours was admittingly better. :)
              Also at all sites we had different activities, along with sessions and worship. We had an absolutely awesome speaker, his name is Bruxy Cavey and he pastors a church near Toronto. He described himself but saying "Some people say I have a face like Jesus, and a body like Buddha". He spoke on stuff that I could really connect with, he taught about "NO RELIGION, KNOW GOD", pretty much just all about the relationship, no religion. I love that, because that has been my philosophy for years, everything he said make me think and made me laugh. He was beyond funny, and I ended up sitting in the "hot seat" every session, right in the middle right in front of him. So whenever he needed someone for an analogy it would be me! It was SO FUNNY. One time it was about being a stalker. He explained this elaborate story about stalking me, and how he thought we were close and how he took pictures of me and my house and sat in the bushes and sometimes call my phone just to hear me say hello. Haha, super creepy, and funny. Then he alluded to God, and that God has stalkers, people who read their bibles, know everything about him, and think they know him. But God doesn't know them, God will and does have stalkers. A real relationship is needed. It's a simple as that.
                  And now we are here in Seattle at the end of our weekend, we volunteered at different out-reach centers, I went to a food bank and helped people carry out their items. It was actually a really interesting concept for a food bank, it was more like a grocery store type set up. There aren't pre-made hampers but rather boxes of food and people stationed with them, clients come in a choose what they want. It was a lot more personalized and I'm sure gave the clients more dignity. We went to visit two different churches in the matter of 24 hours, they were SO different. We went to Mar Hill downtown, and it was so trendy with crazy jazz music and a really young crowd. Then the next morning we went to a conservative Mennonite church, we sang out of old hymnals and the congregation is vastly older people. Super cool cultural experience. Today was a free day and I went to the EMP, or the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame.Check er out baby! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experience_Music_Project_and_Science_Fiction_Museum_and_Hall_of_Fame
 This is getting long! So I digress...but guess what? There is only 17 days left in semester one! Crazy!

       

What A Big Pencil :)

More Caving...Looking smokin.

First Starbucks Ever! 

Space Needle!

   

Free Prayer Anyone?

  Part Two!
SO what did we actually do? On the first day we did a scavenger hunt type situation once again. Which was lovely, it was slightly less programmed at set up then the last one, we just went around the rough and rich part of Vancouver.  Answered a few questions, we had to share our lunch with someone as well. It just so happens that the poorest and the richest parts of town are right beside each other. Thus making for an interesting day for sure. I was paired up with two other people and we roamed the streets, we were asked to not bring any valuables, like wallets or other such things. One of our later “challenges” was to find dinner for free. We were suggested to go to a soup kitchen, and feel what it’s like to not be able to eat that night. My group decided that we didn’t want to go to a soup kitchen, to take a meal from someone else who could use it more. We sat in McD’s after asking tons of restaurants if they had any extra food they didn’t need or could give to us for some work in return. It didn’t work exactly, so we asked the manager at McDonald’s she told us that we should go to the protest down at the Vancouver Art Gallery (affectionately nicknames the Vag. Cute…) They were handing out food for the protesters there, there is a tent city set up with like tons of hippies. They had prepared soup and bread, thankfully we asked them if we could have some soup and they said if we could do something in return. We gladly washed their dishes and swept their floors, and had some super spicy soup! It was a really interesting way to eat dinner for sure. It was also beyond humbling to have no money and no way of feeding ourselves that night. Feeling completely helpless really opened up our eyes. Millions of people feel that every day, and we never knew what that felt like until now.

The next day I went onto the streets with a few people and offered free prayer! We stood on a street corner all day ( we switched shifts) holding up a sign saying “FREE PRAYER”. It was really interesting, we got some happy people willing to pray with us, for their families, for the world. We also had some unhappy people, scoffing us, swearing, not pleased with us being there. Overall, great day.

Then the next day we did a temple visit day, we went to three temples, Muslim, Sikh and a Buddhist temple. We had to be very conservative, I mean VERY. All the girls wore long skirts to the floor, a collared shirt, and a scarf on our heads. It was….informative for sure. We need to educate ourselves in all other faiths and religions to get a good grasp on our own. And we did, I find however that Christianity seems to be the most simple and less traditional of all the faiths. There are so many traditions and customs, to remember. It’s all so complicated, and I was quite overwhelmed by each temple. By the end of the day I was SO looking forward to taking that dang skirt off, I mean I love dressing up….but long skirts make my body unhappy.

The last day we got the choice to go to Union Gospel Mission (Soup Kitchen) or to do Impact Vancouver, which is just like doing anything to impact the city in a good way. I chose to go to UGM, and I had a great day handing out food and talking with people. Julie got proposed to by a lovely man from Sudan (haha), and we met the cutest baby named Dylan! Next, we made our way out to the paradise of Twin Creeks Retreat Center, where you find gourmet food, amazing people, and the most beautiful facilities that I’ve ever seen. From staying in sketchy hotels, that little bugs crawl out of your suitcase or off of your toothbrush to a beautiful, huge, chalet near Abbotsford. They have tons of movies, and stunning rooms, we are spent a couple days here, pretty much doing nothing. Just relaxing and taking some time off from all the hussle and bussle.  It’s almost like heaven here, I love it.            

We Got Some Really Great Soup One Night.  It's called Pho!

Well At Least Some Homeless Woman Will Be Nicely Dressed.

Vancouver proved to be not as bad as I let on for sure. I had a feeling something would go wrong however, and indeed it did. I have had a great week…. bare that in mind. First of all, I left my purse at the hotel by accident when I spent the weekend with Kaityln ( I didn’t mention this before) so we went back to get it. Whilst at the aquarium I tried to take pictures of the fish, there was this mysterious giant black box in my pictures. I obviously got worried….but then we took it to the mall to a Blacks. I tired to use it before we went in, and it wouldn’t take a picture at all. We are talking an expensive SLR camera here, not no crappy point and shoot. After a while we determined that my mirror was broken inside, it wasn’t smashed…I mean it wasn’t moving properly. So it might not be covered by the warranty if my camera was dropped and it got this way. I determined in my brain that it couldn’t have dropped in the last 24 hours because for more than half it as sitting on a table in my purse. Also the woman said that I would remember the drop; it would have been that big that I would definitely remember it. The next task was to figure out how to get it fixed, I would need to send it to a Blacks then it would be sent to Nikon, and then they would determine the cause and possibly fix it. This will take 4 to 5 weeks, I will not be in the same place for a very long time. So we determined after a stressed crying phone call to my mom that Kaitlyn would ship it home to Stonewall then they would take it to the Blacks where we purchased it then off to Nikon. Hopefully I will have my camera back in time for my trip to London that I have just planned in mid December to visit my friend Jessie. Oye Vey. So for the next few blog posts I will probably have some low quality pictures and/or other people’s pictures!
            Next downer, (gee this is getting pretty negative….don’t worry it’ll get better). When we got to our second hotel were we were staying for the Urban Plunge, we unloaded our trailer and the leaders then told us of a bit of a luggage fiasco that had happened 2 nights prior. Basically our trailer’s locks had been cut, and possibly things had been stolen out of the back. We had all priority packed so that we had one bag for about 6 days. So everything we didn’t need for this week was inside the trailer. After looking around and not finding my 65 liter backpack, 13 other people and I gathered and determined our things had been stolen. To say the least thousands of dollars of things had been stolen, pants, winter jackets, cameras, a passport, you name it. People were quite bummed, but everyone had a really good attitude and carried on through the day doing outreach. At first it was hard to go onto the streets and reach out to people who had done this to us….I understand they weren’t the exact same people…but you get it. THEN, the miraculous part comes in! (for me anyways…) We had been praying a lot about this situation and then after our day of outreach we met back together….and we heard a crazy story (which involved me jumping for joy). Turns out one group of people from our site were walking down the street and saw a man selling things, some of the books he was selling looked awfully familiar. They were actually all the books we are studying this year…RED FLAG. Also they recognized some of my things, so they called one of our leaders who contacted the police. Then two undercover police officers came and arrested the seller. Crazy crazy stuff!! So I got back all of my shoes inside of my backpack, (all of which were new or newish…like my runners, hiking boots, and some more fashionable boots) my rain jacket, and my boots. AWESOME. They were found in dumpster, and this man found them and begun to sell them. They all smelt like garbage…but at least I have them!!
I feel as if the update on the actual Urban Plunge will have to be a separate post….too much random crap