Birthdays

So there have been three birthdays this week, two of my friends, Fiona and Nicole, and then a little girl who lives with one of the families here.  Fiona turned 18 and Nicole turned 19.  Birthdays are very special here.. the whole day people have to do nice things for the birthday person and the staff performed a song for them as well.  (Me, Evanne, and Emily made cupcakes).  Their table in the dining room is dressed up nicely with a table cloth and glitter and candles, and then a card from everyone, and a special  chair.  They both had multiple cakes too.  The best part though is what they do after/during lunch.  The staff takes them and throws them up in the air (body surfing style) and  the number of times is equivalent to the age they are turning.  (they of course had to shorten it by saying 1, 2, 15, 16, 17, 18, etc.) because we are getting to old and their body strength can't keep up with the number of throws necessary.  So birthdays are entertaining for both the birthday person and the rest of us.  We will be on outreach for mine so I'm not sure what to expect, and I'm surprisingly the only May birthday.

     I'm helping to lead worship at the church I go to on Sundays and once in a while here at the school.  We also started our community service that we do once a week; I'm working at the nursing home with a few of the other girls every Wednesday afternoon.  Then I am babysitting Eloise and Caleb every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for a few hours, and helping out with Hospitality on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  So, we are kept pretty busy around here but it's a lot of fun.  It seems like I've been here way  longer than just nearly 2 weeks.  Tonight we're going to the Pub around the corner for "Accendo" which is where the speaker for the week tells us stories for a couple hours while we enjoy some drinks and snacks.

Just a couple pictures out of the hundreds...

 Home :)

Me, Emily (Montreal), Fiona (Scotland), and Kimberley (New Zealand)
... Etienne is creeping in the background. He is a staff who pretty much only speaks French but he's hilarious and always smiling.

Friday!

So we went bowling the other night... not normal bowling though.  We used little balls and pins... I was miraculously good at it.  I got the nickname "Striker" for the night.  Oh and it also wasn't normal because of the way we dressed...  Very fun.  I felt bad for the professional league that was going on next to us though.. Oh well.  We went ice skating last night at the rink that is literally 5 minutes away walking.  Of course it was "hockey night" so we had to have sticks on the ice and pretend we were playing... you don't want to get in the way of Canadian hockey players... it's scary.  Today we started out by getting in our groups for cleaning the house! At 8:00 am we did that, and then at 8:30 our lecture started.  It was a short one today, woo! We have a snack each morning at 10:45 which usually consists of muffins (fresh baked, yum) and fruit.  Then we finish our lecture/announcements for the day.  Today we found out the theme of the school: "Holy Circus".  You're probably thinking what have those 2 words got to do with each other... well, actually quite a bit.  We did some word association games to get our minds going and then we got into groups to talk about it.  We decided that Circus performers have to concentrate and practice constantly to get good at what they do, just as Christians have to do to achieve a better relationship with God.  They are also constantly watched, and people are attracted to them and their performances.  Once again, just like Christians.  Our actions show other people what we have been practicing and concentrating on (God mostly) and His light which shines through us attracts them.  There were a lot more explanations but I think those were a couple of the best.  We also were informed of our "house projects", community service opportunities, and what churches are available to us.  My house project is babysitting! There's a lot of cute kids running around this huge house all the time.  We will do community service once a week for a couple of hours in the community and go to church each Sunday.  So the first week is almost over! I can't believe how close all of us are already.  It's like living with a huge, loving family.

Walmart

We are going on a little shopping trip at 3:30 to Walmart! It's in Cowansville which is about 15 minutes away, but we better get there quick since I believe it  closes at 5 o'clock.... very different from the U.S.

Arrival!

I made it to Dunham! After waiting 2 hours in the train station last night, then a couple more at the airport, then a 2 hour drive through the unplowed highways/streets of Montreal in a van where we could only get in the driver's door and out the passenger's door; neither of the sliding doors opened. Good fun packing 6 of us in, each with about 3 large bags each.  So we got in around midnight. We've basically had free time here today, I played guitar with a few of the guys who came from the Cayman Islands.. they're awesome, one plays bass, one plays drums, and the other plays guitar and keyboard.  We had lunch, which the French actually call dinner, and dinner is called supper or supe.  Some of the staff only speak French, but most are fluent in both French and English.  They're all very interesting though.  The students are from all over.. the Cayman Islands as I mentioned, Switzerland, Germany, France, Vancouver, Scotland (two of my roommates are Scottish) then there are some girls from Michigan, Indiana, and Maryland so we've got a pretty good variety.  Tonight we are having a welcome "supper" which I guess is called "the love feast", can't wait!

Canada

I left at around 6am this morning to drive to Toronto, and now I've been on the train for about an hour... On my way to Dorval, the stop right before Montreal.  It's my first experience traveling on a train and traveling alone so it's interesting.  Hopefully I can carry everything when I get there. Packing for 6 months results in many bags. I'll be getting picked up by someone from the school at the train station in a few hours.. probably around 5 pm and from there we are going to pick up more students from the airport - can't wait to meet them.