Busy Week!

Wow, has it ever been a busy week! I feel like things just keep happening, and I barely have a chance to breathe.

Monday afternoon I went for a hike with EJ. We decided to go visit a caved-in mine that she'd been to before. We decided to explore on the way and bush-wack rather than following the paths. We ended up going in circles a few times but finally ended up at the mine with about 20 minutes to explore before we needed to turn around and head back.

An old lean-to we discovered on the way to the mine.

We went on top of the mine where it had caved in before we went to entrance. My breath kept fogging up the pictures.

Here's the cave-in without my breath in the way :)

Here's the entrance we used. What looks like leaf-strewn ground is actually a large puddle.
We walked through freezing water up to our  knees until we got to the cave-in.

Another tunnel set high in the cave wall. 

We climbed up to it, only to discover it was a dead end.

Looking out into the forest from the mine entrance.

After we explored we started to head back. EJ figured it would take us about 40 minutes to go back through the forest. Unfortunately, we ended up looping back to the road. We knew we could get home on the road in about an hour, and since we weren't sure exactly how to get how through the forest, we opted for the road. We ended up getting home at around 6:20pm, having missed dinner, but the exploring was worth it!

Wednesday afternoon a few girls and I baked some pies! We made apple, blueberry, and chocolate pie and a marble cake. Part of the way through I had to leave to play in the intramural soccer finals. It was an intense game, but unfortunately, we lost. After evening lecture, we had Dorm Life. The girls dorm got together and talked about how we felt we were doing at meeting the goals we set at the last Dorm Life meeting: Relational (being respectful, not forming cliques, etc.), Spiritual (encouraging each other, asking honest questions, etc.), and Academically (not pulling people away from studying, discussing lectures, etc.). The time EJ also challenged us to set individual Physical goals since it's going to start getting colder and darker and we're not going to feel like being as active and going for as many walks and being outside. After that we got to eat the pies we had made and sit around and talk, give and receive massages, paint nails, and put on face masks.

4am Thursday morning, the girls' dorm was awakened to the song "Friday" blaring through the dining room p.a. system. Some of the boys had also stapled together plastic cups and filled them with water and covered the bottom half of the stairs. Upon hearing the music, EJ grabbed her coat, bolted down the first half of the stair, slid down the railing and had the music off within about 20 seconds! I heard the music but didn't actually get out of bed. I half wondered if it was someone having a really late party (which would have been breaking quiet hour) or the boys pulling a prank (because talk of pranks has been circulating quite a bit recently), but I didn't think to get up and see. The girls who got up spent the next hour cleaning up. The boys had also set up a video camera, but luckily EJ found it and the girls took the video and erased it off the camera. In the video, the boys identified themselves so the girls stuck all the cups into their mailboxes. The boys involved got "campus minutes" (time they have to do chores) as punishment for breaking curfew and for breaking into the building (but not for the actual prank itself).

Thursday was our 40th day at Holsby and also Prayer day. The staff set up stations in the forest and we travelled from station to station in groups of seven or eight. Each station would have some focus to think about, and we could choose to process individually or as a group. To get to the stations, each group was given a compass and a bearing and distance from the last station and we had to follow the bearing and count our steps to get there. We ended up walking through some pretty thick bush and over some steep hills. We brought sack lunches and were in the forest from 10am to 4pm.

Friday was work day. Two other girls and I got to clean the girls' dorm. I cleaned toilets and sinks and also mopped the floor. In the afternoon the Discovery team went to a lake to practice kayak rescues - flipping the kayaks, flipping them back over with a minimum amount of water inside, and getting back into them - because our next trip is going to be four days of kayaking in the Baltic Sea! The lake was so cold! Now that we know how to rescue someone else whose kayak has tipped, the goal is not to have anyone tip!

Well, those are the highlights from my week! I hope next week is not quite so busy, but it's hard to say no to fun activities!