Escape

I know it's been forever since I've posted, and I apologize. I really need to keep up with the things I start. I was going to post with Jennifer on Friday night before Rally Day, but our mothers were hogging the computer, so we read The Awakening instead.

Anyways I have a bazillion things to update you on... but where to start...

Turns out, what I really needed was a four day weekend, time away from it all. I can tell you now, it was short lived. It lasted all of Monday. It couldn't carry over into Tuesday. But we have Physics to thank for destroying that. But it's Friday now, and I can breath a little easier as the long weekend begins.

Well, I might as well start at the beginning. Thursday - Science Olympics at the University of Guelph.

Now, I love Science Olympics but Guelph's focus is Biology. Which, as most of you probably know by now, I hate with a passion. So I was kinda scared that my day would be ruined by the TWO biology events I was stuck in. Turns out, I just generally sucked at everything. We failed the Circuits event miserably. I was preparing for black boxes (literally black boxes with light bulbs in them, in which you twist on and off light bulbs to figure out the circuit and draw a diagram), only to be faced with Digital Circuits (what the hell?) and math to discover the resistance of resistors. Yeah it was a fail.

My next event was called Micro Biology. I was more or less useless in this, unable to label the sex organs of a plant, let alone able to recall Latin virus names upon looking at their pictures. I was good at writing with carbon paper though, and I helped with the logical-ness of narrowing down the diseases this hypothetical man had once the guys procured some ideas and symptoms. I found it rather amusing however, and I want to note that our hypothetical man decided that he was going to continue eating the food at his Aunt's picnic once he became pretty sure his Uncle cleaned the salad lettuce in pond water. The hypothetical man is an idiot, let's put it that way. I was kind of sad though when we had to scratch out E. Coli as one of the man's possible diseases, probably because I actually recognized it. :P Anyways, this was probably the best event of the day and as sad as it sounds, Ian's stick man drawing for the answer to the last question should have won us first place.

The last event was Green Thing Sleuthing. Which is more or less look at this plant and tell me what it is. And the resource book we were allowed was even more pointless because it went by genus name (more Latin) and required you to have some general idea what the plant was. Let's just put it this way. I mistook a dandelion for a thistle. I sucked major. But over-all it was an amazing day. And when it comes down to it, I got a free t-shirt, which is pretty epic. I still wish we could have built a Rube Goldberg machine for the Western Olympics though... The theme was Hitchhiker's Guide for crying out loud!

Anyways, Friday was UN... and me and Jenn's travels up to Toronto for Rally Day. UN was fun (I was Croatia) and I have to admit, it was much better than Physics class because it actually made me think, and realize some of the problems with our world. And when I say problems, I don't mean terrorism, or lack of food and water, or bullying. I mean how idiotic some countries are, and the reason why nothing ever gets done/happens. For those of you new to United Nations, it's a roleplay of an actual United Nations meeting, with each person representing a specific country, not their own personal views. One of the discussions in my group was the Water Crisis. We spent easily 5 hours discussing who should control the world's water, why developing countries have no water, how we can get them water... blah blah blah blah blah...

What we should have been discussing, as I tried to point out a few times was if we don't have WATER MANAGEMENT to ensure that we HAVE WATER that's actually sanitary enough to use, then no one can CONTROL the water, or get any water. Let's deal with the fact that my neighbour next to me, China, is dumping toxic waste into their main rivers. Then we'll make sure there's enough to go around.

Of course, you probs want to hear about Rally Day now. Well Friday was the hike up to the hotel since me and Jenn had to be at Ontario Place for 7 AM, and we didn't feel like driving at three in the morning. So we went up the night before. There's one thing somewhat eventful from the ride up that I want to document, and that was me and Jenn applying Myoflex to our sore joints in the back of the car half way there, then leaning up to our mothers in the front and saying, "You know your kids are falling apart when they're applying Myoflex in the backseat."

Anyways, it was up bright and early (5 AM) Saturday morning, and trucking it down to Ontario Place to get our stuff ready at the stations we were volunteering at. Jenn's was a game, I was at face painting. But let me tell you, it was so worth it. I don't know if you've ever been a part of something you're passioned about that's a lot bigger than it seems. Here in little Woodstock, we have a few Guiding units, one of each branch. The community is small, but makes a big impact. Well, on me anyways. Now imagine how it feels to be sitting in the pit at the very front of the Molson Amphitheater, thousands of your fellow Girl Guides cheering behind you. We all had blue pom poms and were cheering and screaming whenever we got the chance. This was the most amazing birthday party I've ever been to. This is just the start too. We're doing thousands of things for the 100th Anniversary of Guiding in Canada. This was just the big event. And it was INCREDIBLE! Sadly, because I was volunteering, I didn't get to go around to all the exhibits. But I was just happy to say that I had been a part of it, I had a role. I was there. The vibe just radiating from everyone made it a memorable day. Thank you Guiding for everything you've done for me, and happy 100th birthday!

Now, I couldn't write about Rally Day, and not show you a few pictures. So I've going to eat up some of my free Blogger "space" to post a couple.

Who me and Jenn shared front row center with. Hello Brownies!

The Camping Race with my new Ranger friend, Jeanette (sp?). We lost to my mother and Jenn's little sister.

I can't not post this picture.

So that was Rally Day! Hope you like the pics, I know they're not great. But it's something.

One more thing before I go... for all my Guiding Friends, check out Flat Brownie's blog for the 100th Anniversary in Britian. Here: http://tfbadventures.blogspot.com/

Flat Brownie and her Teddy friend are travelling random places around England. Neat, eh? Even if you're not in Guiding, check it out guys. Just, in Guiding spirit, keep any comments appropriate please. Thanks guys.

Anyways, got a lot going this weekend, including a trip up to the beach. Gotta get going!

Maybe a post from the beach? ;)

Have a great long weekend guys!

Sweet Dreams! May Nightmare spare you, and Ford Prefect never get a hold of your wallet. :)

Amanda Out.