Seriously

We're all healthy, I'll update soon, I promise.

The Joys of Community Living

Sorry no post for a while, but the dorm is sick. Including staff we had half of our dorm (19 out of 41 people) sick. I am not quite sick yet, but that might change. I'll keep you posted.

Tubular (Ooh, an 80s reference!)

So I am starting to become aclimatised! Yesterday I had to open a jar of mayonnaise, and as I did so, I thought to myself silly Germans, putting their mayonnaise in jars. What will they think of next. And then it hit me, that is how it is done in Canada. Over here they put all of their condiments in tubes. Mayonnaise, mustard, tomato paste, and just many things are in tubes. I am so used to it that I found the jar a bit weird.
And then I went to the train station to pick someone up and bring them back to the dorm, and promptly got lost. Not on the way there, that was easy. I was even early. It was the way home that I could not figure out. We tried four different ways to get home and suddenly found ourselves randomly in a town in Germany (did I mention the train station is actually in Switzerland) and I could get home from there. But I don't actually know how I got there. Fun times!

I tried a beet casserole yesterday. Sigh.

Life here is funny. I have only been here for four months, but it feels like longer, much, much longer. It is an intense work environment. At the same time, I have been on Christmas vacation for three weeks, and I almost forget what it is like to have the guys around the dorm. Monday is going to be a bit of a shock to the system I think.
I'm ready for them to get back, though. I have a better sense of what is going on now and am more comfortable here, and I think it will be a good semester. I'm looking forward to this upcoming year, it should be a good one. I am also thinking of making some changes to my BLOG, but we will see how that all goes. I'll keep you updated as things develop.
Ciao

2007 year in review

The year started out slowly. Very slowly. I learned how to slow down time so that it passed by at a crawl while I continued at the normal pace. Of course, being the responsible person I am, I used this power for good. And wedgies.
The power faded after some time, however, and I was left in a precarious position, having to free climb the Cliffs of Dover in a desperate race to save the world from an evil plot that was doomed due to its complexity. I keep telling the villains to keep it simple, but they just insist on having layers upon layers of traps and schemes and plans that just confuses everyone and really wastes much of my time and theirs. This one had something to do with tachyon particles, geraniums and a chimp named Gerry. I didn’t spend the time figuring it all out, I just cut through everything and got straight to the part where I was captured and left in a devious death machine which of course ran out of power at the last second. He had too many machines plugged into a single outlet and blew a breaker. Kind of embarrassing for him, really. But he’s in jail now and will be for some time.
I decided to take it easy for a while and I spent some time working at a regular job, kind of. Fixing up that basement was anything but regular as we dug pits and buried lines and destroyed walls and dragged things behind cars and started fires. Come to think of it, I got pretty distracted and I don’t think we ever did finish.
Somewhere in there I was involved in a monkey fight. Don’t ask.
On a whim, I decided that I wanted to live in Europe, so I flew to Germany and infiltrated a school there. I worked under cover...actually, under covers. I slept a lot, especially at first. I was tired. And then I spent time getting to know these guys who attend this school, hanging out with them and corrupting their minds, teaching them things like respect and honour. I know, I have a nefarious streak, I don’t deny it.
Much of November was spent fighting sharks that had learned how to walk on land. They managed to sneak past France’s security, despite the warnings I had given them when I first became aware of the possibility. Turns out the French border guards, transportation companies, postal workers, government workers, factory workers, auto workers, teachers, and gynecologists were all on strike at the same time. Nun-chuks are illegal in Germany, so I had to fight them using a knife, a bag of marlbes, and forty-seven black beans. There was plenty of carnage to go around, but I emerged victorious. The sharks agreed to return to the ocean and never to come back on land again, but I have my informants keeping an eye out. Sharks aren’t known for keeping their word. "Sure, you can swim here. I won’t eat you." CHOMP. "What was that?" "Nothing."
The kids went home and I have been resting for a while now, getting my strength back for the busy year ahead. It already started with a bang as a small war broke out, but thankfully it was fought by factions with very lousy aim and besides a few scares there were no injuries to report. Ted, the town’s street cleaner, has a very busy day ahead of him. Go Ted!
And that was 2007. Good luck to all in 2008!