Paradox

The 3rd day is always the least eventful, and involves a lot of travelling. We walked to Timmies early this morning, and then got on the bus to head to Fort Rodd Hill. We spent close to two hours at Fort Rodd before heading to the ferry to get back to the mainland. The best part of these trips (especially Connections trips) is sitting up near the front and listening to the teachers talk. This is how one learns interesting things, such as the taste-saturating abilities of ketchup.

Overall, the trip was great, and I had a lot of fun again :D

Woke up early this morning (although not quite as early as yesterday) in preparation to head out to visit Frances Kelsey, the only other self-directed school in the province. Stopped at Timmies for breakfast (<3) and went to FKSS. Got a tour by some of their leadership students, played a bit of capture the flag, and then ate pizza with their grade 12 cooking students. I was also introduced as an “invaluable and crucial developer of [my school]’s website” and gave my name to some teachers at FKSS who were hoping to start their own website using the Moodle Project. FKSS is very different from our school, and yet so similar. They have two blocked classes for every subject, and then fewer “flex” times. While our school has a number of very large work areas, FKSS has many smaller work areas, and many more seminar rooms (interesting politics behind that… very interesting politics, that I often see mirrored at our school). We headed back to downtown Victoria afterward, and the grade 11s started the Amazing Race. Jessica, Maggie, and I walked up to Craigdarroch Castle and spent about an hour touring it. Still as wonderful as ever, and still where I one day dream of setting up my residence ;). Then we caught a bus up to UVIC. Not just any bus… a double decker bus! It was amazing to feel so high and superior to all of the other cars on the road, while actually using public transit. Jessica loved the bunnies at UVIC, and she spent 10 minutes or so futilely trying to pick one up in hopes of taking it home. We caught the bus back downtown and grabbed a snack before meeting Godfrey in Bastion Square. Ah, the annual “Food Eating Contest” where each team tries to find something absolutely disgusting and eat it. One team this year had gone to a market in Chinatown to buy their foods, and misheard the cashier say “semen fungus” in place of “persimmon fruit”. I swear Godfrey was howling with laughter for almost half an hour. After the contest, which was filled with its own surprises (btw, congrats Mallika for eating her own, and everybody else’s concoctions). We went to Earl’s for dinner, which was good food, but rather slow service. Then Mallika, Maggie, and I went to take more photos in HDR :D. Came back to the hotel and had a small, short-lived game of football, before heading in for the night.

Woke up at an entirely unreasonable hour (4:30) today to be at school for the bus. Trip to the ferry was rather uneventful, although filled with delicious candy. Ferry trip itself was a bit boring, a number of us were hoping for wireless Internet on the boat, but unfortunately there was none to be found. A few of us played cheat for a while after heading up on the deck. Arrived in Victoria and had some free time for lunch (food court of course! :D) and then a tour of the legislature buildings. The tour this year was much better than last, and I learnt a few things that I hadn’t known before. Then we headed back to check into the hotel, and get things organized. We went out for the group dinner, which unfortunately was to a Chinese buffet-style restaurant. I, alas, am not a big Chinese-food eater. We then walked around downtown for a bit, where Mallika and I took some of the most amazing photographs with Mr. Biggar’s D300 camera. HDR is so definitely FTW! Ghost tour started soon after, and was much like the tour last year, although slightly less exciting IMO. Got back to the hotel, and did a quick Timmies run before bed.

Random fact time: There is only one flavour of ketchup, because ketchup reaches all of the taste areas of the tongue, and in fact saturates them entirely. Ketchup cannot be more “ketchupy” because it’s already overloading the taste sensors in your mouth. This is also why ketchup is so perfect for disguising foods that you don’t like.

Headed back home today, fairly uneventful trip back. Didn’t get stuck on any turns with the bus this time :P. Stopped in the old mining town of Hedley to wander around for a bit. I personally love the little town, although it’s mostly dead. Lots of cool things and crazy people. Someone built a domed roof out of car windshields, which is a pretty cool thing to see. Stopped in Princeton again for lunch, and then drove pretty much all the way home without stopping. It was a very fun trip, lots to see and do, but I am glad to be home where I can sit down and have a cup of tea in an actual cup (as opposed to a bowl or mixing container).

Woke up today and decided we’d head out snowshoeing at 13:00, so we spent most of the morning in the hostel. Cooked up our pasta for lunch and then headed out for snowshoeing. It was a lot of fun, and we went quite a ways. No major incidents for me, although one girl broke her collarbone and had to take an ambulance back to Pentiction to get it set. Went skating on the outdoor loop for a while, then headed out for dinner at the local restaurant. Came back to skate a bit again and then headed in. Really nice weather today, lots of sun and lots of nice snow.

Started our exciting trip up to Apex today, actually a bit more exciting than intended. Started snowing just outside of Abbotsford, so the road conditions were fairly messy until we got onto the Hope-Princeton. Missed a number of good sights due to the weather :(. Ate in Princeton, then drove up for a tour of an open-pit mine. Again, weather made it fairly miserable, and hid most of the sights, but it wasn’t too bad overall. Didn’t get to Hedley until late, so we skipped it entirely; stopped in Penticton for groceries. Started the 40-minute or so drive up to Apex. The road uses switchbacks, and tends to be rather tight… first corner we go around, we got stuck. Spent over an hour stuck inside the bus trying to get chains onto the wheels (don’t ask why they weren’t on in the first place. We even pointed that out to the bus driver long before the turn…). We finally got the chains on, and got ourselves out, but everyone was pretty tired and miserable when we got to the hostel. Ate a bit of dinner, didn’t really feel like cooking everything that we had planned. Internet here is functional, but requires a password, and at this point the desk attendant is gone so we can’t get the password. This entry is backdated to match the actual date.