Hi Everyone,
Because my board of education is annoying and uses a proxy that filters URLs at all the schools I:m in (blogger, gmail sometimes, facebook, twitter, etc), I:m temporarily posting my random thoughts and experiences at a friend:s blog.
Here:s the url
http://www.freepantsonline.com
Go! Go now!
Catch you on the flipside.
Cheers
Monday, September 14, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Time to disappear for a while
Hi All,
In less than 3 hours, I'll be leaving Tokyo to my host city Hokota in Ibaraki. Of course, that means no Interwebs for a while. I hope I can get a phone with a data plan so I can continue to broggu away but who knows! And I may have to cave in and get a Facebook account. But I'll resist until the very end... lol
Anyway, I have tonnes of stories from Tokyo Orientation (mostly good ones) that I would love to share with everyone but unfortunately, I don't have the time (or patience) to do it just yet. For those that are dying to find out about my life in Japan, be a bit patient. It's going to be a while before I get Internet at my new place. For those that aren't, well screw you!
In the meantime, please enjoy a panoramic view of the 47th floor of Keio Hotel.
Reminder to myself: I seriously need to get a new camera...
Ciao!
In less than 3 hours, I'll be leaving Tokyo to my host city Hokota in Ibaraki. Of course, that means no Interwebs for a while. I hope I can get a phone with a data plan so I can continue to broggu away but who knows! And I may have to cave in and get a Facebook account. But I'll resist until the very end... lol
Anyway, I have tonnes of stories from Tokyo Orientation (mostly good ones) that I would love to share with everyone but unfortunately, I don't have the time (or patience) to do it just yet. For those that are dying to find out about my life in Japan, be a bit patient. It's going to be a while before I get Internet at my new place. For those that aren't, well screw you!
In the meantime, please enjoy a panoramic view of the 47th floor of Keio Hotel.
Reminder to myself: I seriously need to get a new camera...Ciao!
Monday, August 3, 2009
Combini!!
Hi All,
It's 4am and I'm still jet lagged. I've never had jet lag quite like this. Anyway, I just want to say how awesome conbini's are. Yes, at 4am in the morning.
Well, I want to say they're awesome because I just came back from one, food in hand (ramen and onigiri to be exact) cause I was damn hungry. I didn't eat much at the reception last night.
So, what is a combini? It's a convenience store, duh! Can't you tell by the butchered Engrish that's katakana? I guess not. Well, here's my a haul from Lawson's, the combini I went to.
Bonus: Look closely at the bottle of water! :)
It's 4am and I'm still jet lagged. I've never had jet lag quite like this. Anyway, I just want to say how awesome conbini's are. Yes, at 4am in the morning.
Well, I want to say they're awesome because I just came back from one, food in hand (ramen and onigiri to be exact) cause I was damn hungry. I didn't eat much at the reception last night.
So, what is a combini? It's a convenience store, duh! Can't you tell by the butchered Engrish that's katakana? I guess not. Well, here's my a haul from Lawson's, the combini I went to.
Bonus: Look closely at the bottle of water! :)
The Miserable Flight and Tokyo Orientation Night 1
Hi All,
In my last post, I mentioned some in-flight shenanigans. Well, lots of shenanigans but probably not the same shenanigans that you're thinking about.
First thing in the morning was check-in at the airport. There, I met some JET volunteers and my interviewer Otsuka-san, who's a high ranking Japan Education official. I was very surprised when he approached me and told me he remembered interviewing me back in February. I thought that was pretty cool. What wasn't cool was that I wasn't able to use the quick check-in machine for my e-ticket. I suppose it didn't matter much as I needed to go to the counter to check in my baggage and get my miles. Meh...
After checking in, it was off to customs and the metal scanner. I passed through without any problems but I managed to rip and lose a part of my belt and one plastic in-ear piece for my IEMs. I found out about my belt and earphones much later. Slightly upsetting but not really terrible.
Around noonish, the airport announced that our flight was delayed and we won't be boarding until 2. I found Lora (a girl I met at the Toronto JET orientation) and there were lots of other JETs so it was pretty lively at the gate waiting area. Again, slightly upsetting but not really terrible.
Here's a picture of Lora, Han (my seat partner) and 2 other JETs whose names I can't seem to recall at the moment.
After boarding the plane at 2, we all got seated and moments later, the pilot announced over the PA system, there was a problem with the oxygen on the plane and some weird electrical problem. At this point, I was a bit irritated but stuff like this happens. And to be honest, I'd rather wait for the flight crew to fix the problems while the plane was grounded than to have the crew find out about the problems when we're 30000m above ground.
So, another hour and a half passed and only the oxygen problem was fixed. The plane still had an electrical problem. Because of the time it took to fix these problems exceeded the pilots' legal flight hour limit, they had to be switched out. Ugh... Seriously... Of course, they couldn't be switched out right away. That would have been too easy. We had to wait for the pilots from another flight to replace our pilots. And our pilots had the balls to tell us they're going to fly to Frankfurt to have sausages and beer while we're stuffed in a stuffy plane cabin. What jerks. Another hour and a half later, we got the electrical problems fixed and our crew replaced. Finally out of Pearson and off to Tokyo.
...
My seat partner, Han and I were fortunate enough to have an empty seat next to us so we got a bit more leg and storage room. Han moved over to the window seat so the middle seat was empty and we both put our crap there. Seating arrangements were optimal and Han wasn't the type to get up every 10 minutes. Woot! In fact, he only got up 5 times the entire flight.
...
I had a game plan for the 13 hour flight. The plan was to get pissed off my rocker and pass out on the plane to pass the time. The plan was sound and I proceeded with inebriation. It worked for the most part and I did pass out after watching Star Trek (highly recommended!!). However, this was the beginning of something really, really bad. REALLY BAD.
I think I had passed out for about 30 minutes before my stomach started churning. I ignored it thinking it was indigestion. I mean, the in-flight meal that was served sucked ass. I continued with my game plan and went back to sleep. I passed out for another 30 minutes or so and woke up with a really bad "hangover"(?). I reached out for my glasses and put them on. Big mistake... Very big mistake... My body reacted to this in the worse possible way. I put my glasses on and my vision was completely blurred. My head was spinning and I felt super nauseous. Within 10 seconds of putting on my glasses, the blanket I had covering me and a part of my sleeve was completely covered with a mix of chicken, rice and alcohol. I was extremely lucky I had that blanket covering me else I would have been completely covered with Nasties. I spent the next half hour in the toilet cleaning my shirt with hand soap and water. After cleaning myself up, I went back to my seat but there was still the aftermath that needed to be taken care of and ended up "discarding the evidence" in the bathroom. The entirety of the flight I will be forever known as Hangover Hell.
...
We finally touched down at Narita at 6:30pm local time. I didn't sleep a wink and still felt like shit. (I still feel like shit now as I'm typing). I quickly grabbed my luggage and proceeded through customs. It was so quick and painless. The customs guy was so nice. He asked me if I was part of the JET programme. I replied, smiled and he let me through without checking my luggage (not that I was smuggling any illegal contraband into the country).
All the JETs were greeted by JET volunteers. The JET volunteers were wearing bright purple t-shirts and they all made a line that pointed towards the bus to Keio hotel. I wish I had taken a picture of some of them. They were really cool people. I was going to become part of this community and that made me really happy that I made the decision to become a JET.
Along the way to the bus to Keio Hotel, there was a JET that made sure we use the bathroom before getting on the bus. She had told us that we were only to bring 1 carry-on and 1 personal article on the bus and the rest were to be shipped away. That completely contradicted what was said during our Toronto orientation. We were told that we were allowed to take an extra luggage on top of the carry-on and personal article. Ugh... I had to do some repacking as I packed away my suit and shirts in one of my big luggages. Of course, the worst possible thing happened. I couldn't find my keys to the locks of my luggages! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck with a capital Q. After I found out about my key situation, I told the bus directing girl. She turned to another Japanese speaking girl and they proceeded to make phone calls to help me out. After a few phone calls, the Japanese girl told me to proceed to the bus and told me the volunteers along the way to the bus can help me out. At this point, I had to trust her so I proceeded to the bus.
On my way to the bus, I bumped into a volunteer coordinator and he asked me what the issue was. After giving him a quick summary of what had happened, he let me use his phone to make a call back home to check if I had left my keys there. I woke my parents up and asked them to check if I had left the keys at home. No dice. They said the keys weren't there. Ugh... The coordinator person asked me to check my luggage again and low and behold I found my keys! They were hidden deep in my carry-on. One disaster adverted. Whew.
When I got to the bus, I was greeted by more purple volunteers. I swear to god, they looked and acted like a bunch of Barney's all genki and everything. I wasn't really in the genki mood after that insane flight. Anyway, I was directed to repack my luggage. It sucked because I pretty much made the bus full of people wait for me as I repacked.
After repacking, I got on the bus and sat down took the front seat. I took the seat but it was for the bus MC (another purple shirt) so I ended up sitting next to Jessica, another girl I had met at the Toronto orientation. The MC gave out water and snacks and I spilled a bit of water on Jessica. More ugh... I could see she wasn't too happy about the spill even though I only spilled a few drops on her. I apologized but I could see she was irritated. I didn't say much else during the bus ride, plus she put on her headphones so there was no way to chat with her.
The bus ride from Narita to Keio Hotel was surprisingly fast. It only took about 75 minutes! Not bad considering it was supposed to take 90+ minutes. Sweet. On the way to the hotel, my headache got worse and worse. I asked the MC about medicine and she told me to go to the Hospitality room right after the bus ride. As soon as the bus door opened, I grabbed my backpack and went straight for the Hospitality room. Of course, I had forgotten my ... LAPTOP bag afterward. I went back to the bus to look for my laptop bag and ran into the MC girl. She told me she gave it to another person and she didn't have it anymore. She reassured me I'll get my laptop back. And she was right! I went up to the Hospitality room to some headache medicine and my laptop was there! OMG!!! Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy... I took the medicine and laptop and checked into my room.
After a quick shower, my roommates and I went out for dinner outside the hotel. On our walk around the hotel, we met up with some other Toronto JETs in a rice/ramen fast food place. I ate some curry rice with bacon and egg. It wasn't that good. The food was a bit cold and the egg didn't cook on the food properly. Everybody there had a good time. Most of us walked around some more and even went to an arcade! I played the Big Taiko Drum game for 200yen with another JET. Here are a couple of JETs (I have to remember names better) having an awesome time with the Taiko drum sticks.
After the arcade, the remaining 5 (me, Tim, Andrew, Ylisa, Shannon) of us walked around looking for a bar to go drinking. The search was very unsuccessful. We then bumped to Chris and Satoshi, another 2 Toronto JETs. The 7 of us ended up going to a conbini, bought beer there and drank on the street. It was awesome. We drank and walked around Shinjuku drinking and taking pictures until 2am. Here's Chris, Andrew and Satoshi chilling outside Shinjuku Station.
Ylisa, Shannon and I went back to the hotel soon after. The other guys went out to Kabuki-cho but ended up back at the hotel soon after us.
Night 1 in Tokyo, end...
Edit: Added pics!
In my last post, I mentioned some in-flight shenanigans. Well, lots of shenanigans but probably not the same shenanigans that you're thinking about.
First thing in the morning was check-in at the airport. There, I met some JET volunteers and my interviewer Otsuka-san, who's a high ranking Japan Education official. I was very surprised when he approached me and told me he remembered interviewing me back in February. I thought that was pretty cool. What wasn't cool was that I wasn't able to use the quick check-in machine for my e-ticket. I suppose it didn't matter much as I needed to go to the counter to check in my baggage and get my miles. Meh...
After checking in, it was off to customs and the metal scanner. I passed through without any problems but I managed to rip and lose a part of my belt and one plastic in-ear piece for my IEMs. I found out about my belt and earphones much later. Slightly upsetting but not really terrible.
Around noonish, the airport announced that our flight was delayed and we won't be boarding until 2. I found Lora (a girl I met at the Toronto JET orientation) and there were lots of other JETs so it was pretty lively at the gate waiting area. Again, slightly upsetting but not really terrible.
Here's a picture of Lora, Han (my seat partner) and 2 other JETs whose names I can't seem to recall at the moment.
After boarding the plane at 2, we all got seated and moments later, the pilot announced over the PA system, there was a problem with the oxygen on the plane and some weird electrical problem. At this point, I was a bit irritated but stuff like this happens. And to be honest, I'd rather wait for the flight crew to fix the problems while the plane was grounded than to have the crew find out about the problems when we're 30000m above ground.So, another hour and a half passed and only the oxygen problem was fixed. The plane still had an electrical problem. Because of the time it took to fix these problems exceeded the pilots' legal flight hour limit, they had to be switched out. Ugh... Seriously... Of course, they couldn't be switched out right away. That would have been too easy. We had to wait for the pilots from another flight to replace our pilots. And our pilots had the balls to tell us they're going to fly to Frankfurt to have sausages and beer while we're stuffed in a stuffy plane cabin. What jerks. Another hour and a half later, we got the electrical problems fixed and our crew replaced. Finally out of Pearson and off to Tokyo.
...
My seat partner, Han and I were fortunate enough to have an empty seat next to us so we got a bit more leg and storage room. Han moved over to the window seat so the middle seat was empty and we both put our crap there. Seating arrangements were optimal and Han wasn't the type to get up every 10 minutes. Woot! In fact, he only got up 5 times the entire flight.
...
I had a game plan for the 13 hour flight. The plan was to get pissed off my rocker and pass out on the plane to pass the time. The plan was sound and I proceeded with inebriation. It worked for the most part and I did pass out after watching Star Trek (highly recommended!!). However, this was the beginning of something really, really bad. REALLY BAD.
I think I had passed out for about 30 minutes before my stomach started churning. I ignored it thinking it was indigestion. I mean, the in-flight meal that was served sucked ass. I continued with my game plan and went back to sleep. I passed out for another 30 minutes or so and woke up with a really bad "hangover"(?). I reached out for my glasses and put them on. Big mistake... Very big mistake... My body reacted to this in the worse possible way. I put my glasses on and my vision was completely blurred. My head was spinning and I felt super nauseous. Within 10 seconds of putting on my glasses, the blanket I had covering me and a part of my sleeve was completely covered with a mix of chicken, rice and alcohol. I was extremely lucky I had that blanket covering me else I would have been completely covered with Nasties. I spent the next half hour in the toilet cleaning my shirt with hand soap and water. After cleaning myself up, I went back to my seat but there was still the aftermath that needed to be taken care of and ended up "discarding the evidence" in the bathroom. The entirety of the flight I will be forever known as Hangover Hell.
...
We finally touched down at Narita at 6:30pm local time. I didn't sleep a wink and still felt like shit. (I still feel like shit now as I'm typing). I quickly grabbed my luggage and proceeded through customs. It was so quick and painless. The customs guy was so nice. He asked me if I was part of the JET programme. I replied, smiled and he let me through without checking my luggage (not that I was smuggling any illegal contraband into the country).
All the JETs were greeted by JET volunteers. The JET volunteers were wearing bright purple t-shirts and they all made a line that pointed towards the bus to Keio hotel. I wish I had taken a picture of some of them. They were really cool people. I was going to become part of this community and that made me really happy that I made the decision to become a JET.
Along the way to the bus to Keio Hotel, there was a JET that made sure we use the bathroom before getting on the bus. She had told us that we were only to bring 1 carry-on and 1 personal article on the bus and the rest were to be shipped away. That completely contradicted what was said during our Toronto orientation. We were told that we were allowed to take an extra luggage on top of the carry-on and personal article. Ugh... I had to do some repacking as I packed away my suit and shirts in one of my big luggages. Of course, the worst possible thing happened. I couldn't find my keys to the locks of my luggages! Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck with a capital Q. After I found out about my key situation, I told the bus directing girl. She turned to another Japanese speaking girl and they proceeded to make phone calls to help me out. After a few phone calls, the Japanese girl told me to proceed to the bus and told me the volunteers along the way to the bus can help me out. At this point, I had to trust her so I proceeded to the bus.
On my way to the bus, I bumped into a volunteer coordinator and he asked me what the issue was. After giving him a quick summary of what had happened, he let me use his phone to make a call back home to check if I had left my keys there. I woke my parents up and asked them to check if I had left the keys at home. No dice. They said the keys weren't there. Ugh... The coordinator person asked me to check my luggage again and low and behold I found my keys! They were hidden deep in my carry-on. One disaster adverted. Whew.
When I got to the bus, I was greeted by more purple volunteers. I swear to god, they looked and acted like a bunch of Barney's all genki and everything. I wasn't really in the genki mood after that insane flight. Anyway, I was directed to repack my luggage. It sucked because I pretty much made the bus full of people wait for me as I repacked.
After repacking, I got on the bus and sat down took the front seat. I took the seat but it was for the bus MC (another purple shirt) so I ended up sitting next to Jessica, another girl I had met at the Toronto orientation. The MC gave out water and snacks and I spilled a bit of water on Jessica. More ugh... I could see she wasn't too happy about the spill even though I only spilled a few drops on her. I apologized but I could see she was irritated. I didn't say much else during the bus ride, plus she put on her headphones so there was no way to chat with her.
The bus ride from Narita to Keio Hotel was surprisingly fast. It only took about 75 minutes! Not bad considering it was supposed to take 90+ minutes. Sweet. On the way to the hotel, my headache got worse and worse. I asked the MC about medicine and she told me to go to the Hospitality room right after the bus ride. As soon as the bus door opened, I grabbed my backpack and went straight for the Hospitality room. Of course, I had forgotten my ... LAPTOP bag afterward. I went back to the bus to look for my laptop bag and ran into the MC girl. She told me she gave it to another person and she didn't have it anymore. She reassured me I'll get my laptop back. And she was right! I went up to the Hospitality room to some headache medicine and my laptop was there! OMG!!! Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy... I took the medicine and laptop and checked into my room.
After a quick shower, my roommates and I went out for dinner outside the hotel. On our walk around the hotel, we met up with some other Toronto JETs in a rice/ramen fast food place. I ate some curry rice with bacon and egg. It wasn't that good. The food was a bit cold and the egg didn't cook on the food properly. Everybody there had a good time. Most of us walked around some more and even went to an arcade! I played the Big Taiko Drum game for 200yen with another JET. Here are a couple of JETs (I have to remember names better) having an awesome time with the Taiko drum sticks.
After the arcade, the remaining 5 (me, Tim, Andrew, Ylisa, Shannon) of us walked around looking for a bar to go drinking. The search was very unsuccessful. We then bumped to Chris and Satoshi, another 2 Toronto JETs. The 7 of us ended up going to a conbini, bought beer there and drank on the street. It was awesome. We drank and walked around Shinjuku drinking and taking pictures until 2am. Here's Chris, Andrew and Satoshi chilling outside Shinjuku Station.
Ylisa, Shannon and I went back to the hotel soon after. The other guys went out to Kabuki-cho but ended up back at the hotel soon after us.Night 1 in Tokyo, end...
Edit: Added pics!
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Alive in Tokyo!!
Hi All,
I'm alive in Tokyo! Woot! 17 hours and 182739121 miles later, the plane touched down! Let the insanity ensue! Ok, there's no insanity but I'll think it. And there was definitely insanity on the plane. I'll get to that in my next post but first, let me show everyone the view outside my room (Room 1365) at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku at 6am in the morning.
As you can see, it's pretty bleck outside. Overcast skies a bit of rain. There's really nothing to see out there. And there's nothing to really see in here either except sleeping roommates. lol
Alright, gotta go and get ready for breakfast and a whole day of "orientation" again. Be back later with some stories of my in-flight shenanigans.
I'm alive in Tokyo! Woot! 17 hours and 182739121 miles later, the plane touched down! Let the insanity ensue! Ok, there's no insanity but I'll think it. And there was definitely insanity on the plane. I'll get to that in my next post but first, let me show everyone the view outside my room (Room 1365) at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku at 6am in the morning.
As you can see, it's pretty bleck outside. Overcast skies a bit of rain. There's really nothing to see out there. And there's nothing to really see in here either except sleeping roommates. lol
Alright, gotta go and get ready for breakfast and a whole day of "orientation" again. Be back later with some stories of my in-flight shenanigans.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Horseshoe Valley Weekend
Hi All,
It's been a few days since I wrote anything on my blog. I've been swamped with school work and this "leaving for Japan" business so I haven't really had much time to write anything lately.
Where to begin...
Two weekends ago, I went up with Susan and her friends to Horseshoe Valley and did some Treetop Trekking. What the heck is that you ask? Well, Treetop Trekking is where you climb up really, really tall trees and "trek" from tree to tree on thin wires and unstable, wooden bridges! What fun!! No sarcasm here. It actually was pretty fun (and intense).
Those that know me are familiar with my intense fear of heights. I mean, I get sweats thinking about roller coasters for god sakes! But here I am, doing what's thought to have been improbable and actually enjoying it! Oh how I've grown. Oh how I've grown...
Anyway, here's me on a zip line going from treetop to treetop.
This zip line was like 50 meters tall, hooked up between HUGE Redwoods. What's that over there? A flying squirrel?? OMG!! Ok, I lied. It's actually about 3 feet off the ground but it was scary nonetheless. This was the precursor zip line to all the big, tall zip lines that I'll be going on later that day.
After graduating from the beginner courses, it was off to the crazier (and more dangerous) advanced courses, where the bridges are higher off the ground and much more unstable. Here's an example...
This bridge was completely fubar. The wooden planks twisted on every step and the knots that crisscrossed the wires made the bridge impossible to keep flat. I had a pretty hard time getting across.
As you can see, I got completely pwned by this bridge. Ow, my ass... Thank goodness for my harness, else I would have been declared "dead by stupidity". Anyway, a few scratches and a sore ass later, I made it across. Whew...
That same night, the girls decided to go swimming at the pool. I was reluctant at first because I needed to mark some tests but was "convinced" otherwise. Well, I ended up playing chess with this hardcore chess guy instead of doing what any normal, sane guy would do (aka, hang out with girls in swimwear). Seriously, what the hell was I thinking... Someone hit me over the head with something hard next time you see me.
After spending the night at Horseshoe Valley, the bunch of us were off to Wasaga Beach. I haven't stepped foot on a beach in X^120893712 years. Nothing terribly exciting happened though we had an interesting run-in with a Nestle taste-test patrol group. They were giving away free samples of their new flavoured water but was eventually shoe-ed away by The Man. Damn the Man. Damn the Man... Before they left, we were given free bottles of water because we (me and Joel) were awesome.
On our way out of Wasaga, we saw a Go-Kart track that claimed to have a track that was over a mile long! We simply had to go on that. You can't deny pure, unadulterated outdoor Go-Kart racing on a warm, sunny day. As an added bonus, they had batting cages! Here's Susan smoking a ball to right-center.
I took the pleasure of taking a few hacks at some slower pitches too. I swung too hard on a pitch and my helmet popped off. lol
Oops... Screw the helmet! It was going to pop off again anyway. I continued to take some hefty swings at slow pitches. Swinging a bat and crushing some balls made my day.
After the batting cages, it was off to the tarmac! Surprisingly, it was Wendy's first time being behind the wheel. I was shocked! Well, at least I can now say I was part of Wendy's first time... Go-Karting. lol! We only went on the Go-Kart track once as it was super expensive but meh. It didn't matter much to me as I was driving the van anyway.
On our way back to Toronto, we stopped off for lunch at this small fry shop called The Fry Guy. Their slogan was "Small to Honkin' Buckets" as you can see...
Let me tell you. THERE WERE NO HONKIN' BUCKETS!! THEY ARE BIG, FAT LIARS!! AND THEIR FRIES AREN'T EVEN THAT GOOD! Their "buckets" were the big, styrofoam take-out containers and the "and more" were hot dogs, burgers and chicken fingers. Sheesh... Here's me with a fry and a chicken finger. Please ignore my wickedly, stuck up hair...
At this point, hunger overruled the brain and any logical thinking so we bought stuff from there and ate it. It was "ok" but I expected better from a place called The Fry Guy. At least the view from the gazebo was nice.
Well, that's pretty much the trip in a nutshell. Next time I make an entry to my blog, I should be in Japan sucking up sake and eating sushi off a naked chick! (minus the naked chick part).
Adios.
Edit: Blogger is stupid and screwed up my post... ugh. Stupid blogger
It's been a few days since I wrote anything on my blog. I've been swamped with school work and this "leaving for Japan" business so I haven't really had much time to write anything lately.
Where to begin...
Two weekends ago, I went up with Susan and her friends to Horseshoe Valley and did some Treetop Trekking. What the heck is that you ask? Well, Treetop Trekking is where you climb up really, really tall trees and "trek" from tree to tree on thin wires and unstable, wooden bridges! What fun!! No sarcasm here. It actually was pretty fun (and intense).
Those that know me are familiar with my intense fear of heights. I mean, I get sweats thinking about roller coasters for god sakes! But here I am, doing what's thought to have been improbable and actually enjoying it! Oh how I've grown. Oh how I've grown...
Anyway, here's me on a zip line going from treetop to treetop.
This zip line was like 50 meters tall, hooked up between HUGE Redwoods. What's that over there? A flying squirrel?? OMG!! Ok, I lied. It's actually about 3 feet off the ground but it was scary nonetheless. This was the precursor zip line to all the big, tall zip lines that I'll be going on later that day.
After graduating from the beginner courses, it was off to the crazier (and more dangerous) advanced courses, where the bridges are higher off the ground and much more unstable. Here's an example...
This bridge was completely fubar. The wooden planks twisted on every step and the knots that crisscrossed the wires made the bridge impossible to keep flat. I had a pretty hard time getting across.
As you can see, I got completely pwned by this bridge. Ow, my ass... Thank goodness for my harness, else I would have been declared "dead by stupidity". Anyway, a few scratches and a sore ass later, I made it across. Whew...
That same night, the girls decided to go swimming at the pool. I was reluctant at first because I needed to mark some tests but was "convinced" otherwise. Well, I ended up playing chess with this hardcore chess guy instead of doing what any normal, sane guy would do (aka, hang out with girls in swimwear). Seriously, what the hell was I thinking... Someone hit me over the head with something hard next time you see me.
After spending the night at Horseshoe Valley, the bunch of us were off to Wasaga Beach. I haven't stepped foot on a beach in X^120893712 years. Nothing terribly exciting happened though we had an interesting run-in with a Nestle taste-test patrol group. They were giving away free samples of their new flavoured water but was eventually shoe-ed away by The Man. Damn the Man. Damn the Man... Before they left, we were given free bottles of water because we (me and Joel) were awesome.
On our way out of Wasaga, we saw a Go-Kart track that claimed to have a track that was over a mile long! We simply had to go on that. You can't deny pure, unadulterated outdoor Go-Kart racing on a warm, sunny day. As an added bonus, they had batting cages! Here's Susan smoking a ball to right-center.
I took the pleasure of taking a few hacks at some slower pitches too. I swung too hard on a pitch and my helmet popped off. lol
Oops... Screw the helmet! It was going to pop off again anyway. I continued to take some hefty swings at slow pitches. Swinging a bat and crushing some balls made my day.After the batting cages, it was off to the tarmac! Surprisingly, it was Wendy's first time being behind the wheel. I was shocked! Well, at least I can now say I was part of Wendy's first time... Go-Karting. lol! We only went on the Go-Kart track once as it was super expensive but meh. It didn't matter much to me as I was driving the van anyway.
On our way back to Toronto, we stopped off for lunch at this small fry shop called The Fry Guy. Their slogan was "Small to Honkin' Buckets" as you can see...
Let me tell you. THERE WERE NO HONKIN' BUCKETS!! THEY ARE BIG, FAT LIARS!! AND THEIR FRIES AREN'T EVEN THAT GOOD! Their "buckets" were the big, styrofoam take-out containers and the "and more" were hot dogs, burgers and chicken fingers. Sheesh... Here's me with a fry and a chicken finger. Please ignore my wickedly, stuck up hair...
At this point, hunger overruled the brain and any logical thinking so we bought stuff from there and ate it. It was "ok" but I expected better from a place called The Fry Guy. At least the view from the gazebo was nice.
Well, that's pretty much the trip in a nutshell. Next time I make an entry to my blog, I should be in Japan sucking up sake and eating sushi off a naked chick! (minus the naked chick part).
Adios.
Edit: Blogger is stupid and screwed up my post... ugh. Stupid blogger
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The awesomeness of Nappy Time
Hi All,
Another productive day at school today. I'm really getting to know the class and the class is really getting to know me. It's generally a good thing. At times, however, I needed to quell the inmates and show my students who's boss. I'm going to see about making them slightly uncomfortable again. Maybe I'll put on an angry face tomorrow and pretend to be miserable so I won't have to put up with some of the stuff that happened today. That's completely opposite from what my real personality is so we'll see about that.
Anyway, what I wanted to reflect on today is the awesomeness of Nappy Time. Yes, you heard me right, Nappy Time.
Remember in kindergarten when teachers made us take naps in the afternoon? I remember! It was great! That mid-afternoon nap was the second most wonderful thing in the world back then. (Recess was the best) Teachers would say "IT'S NAP TIME!" and we as little kids... take a nap! I mean, you can't not NOT listen to your teacher when you were little. They were like parents and you can't disobey them, right? Oh how naive we were as children...
Anyway, as a teacher, I have to practice an early to bed, early to rise philosophy against my will and I can't sleep as much as I would like. However, because teachers leave "work" earlier than normal folk, we get time to do things in the afternoon. Things like shop, go to the bank, mark homework (ugh) and ... TAKE A NAP! YEAH!! Bliss.
You see, I love sleep. Sleep is my 1A. It's not that I'm lazy (or maybe I am and I'm in denial). It's that my body NEEDS sleep to function properly. Me lacking sleep is generally a bad thing. I mean... If I don't get enough sleep, I can't focus and think properly and in extreme cases, I start walking into walls and poles. Don't laugh at me because it happens to me a lot. Basically, I'm a brain dead vegetable when I don't get enough sleep.
Ok, going back to Nappy Time. I <3 Nappy Time. I took a nap today and it was wonderful. I highly recommend practicing the art of Nappy Time whether it be at home, at work or in the park. Take a nap in the afternoon! Book a meeting room and lock yourself in it for an hour. Go out to your favorite park and doze off underneath a tree. Read a book and put the book over your face and rest! You'll thank me for your Nappy Time when you wake up.
Another productive day at school today. I'm really getting to know the class and the class is really getting to know me. It's generally a good thing. At times, however, I needed to quell the inmates and show my students who's boss. I'm going to see about making them slightly uncomfortable again. Maybe I'll put on an angry face tomorrow and pretend to be miserable so I won't have to put up with some of the stuff that happened today. That's completely opposite from what my real personality is so we'll see about that.
Anyway, what I wanted to reflect on today is the awesomeness of Nappy Time. Yes, you heard me right, Nappy Time.
Remember in kindergarten when teachers made us take naps in the afternoon? I remember! It was great! That mid-afternoon nap was the second most wonderful thing in the world back then. (Recess was the best) Teachers would say "IT'S NAP TIME!" and we as little kids... take a nap! I mean, you can't not NOT listen to your teacher when you were little. They were like parents and you can't disobey them, right? Oh how naive we were as children...
Anyway, as a teacher, I have to practice an early to bed, early to rise philosophy against my will and I can't sleep as much as I would like. However, because teachers leave "work" earlier than normal folk, we get time to do things in the afternoon. Things like shop, go to the bank, mark homework (ugh) and ... TAKE A NAP! YEAH!! Bliss.
You see, I love sleep. Sleep is my 1A. It's not that I'm lazy (or maybe I am and I'm in denial). It's that my body NEEDS sleep to function properly. Me lacking sleep is generally a bad thing. I mean... If I don't get enough sleep, I can't focus and think properly and in extreme cases, I start walking into walls and poles. Don't laugh at me because it happens to me a lot. Basically, I'm a brain dead vegetable when I don't get enough sleep.
Ok, going back to Nappy Time. I <3 Nappy Time. I took a nap today and it was wonderful. I highly recommend practicing the art of Nappy Time whether it be at home, at work or in the park. Take a nap in the afternoon! Book a meeting room and lock yourself in it for an hour. Go out to your favorite park and doze off underneath a tree. Read a book and put the book over your face and rest! You'll thank me for your Nappy Time when you wake up.
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