Baby, Its Cold Outside..

Yea. Its July. 9 degrees is not acceptable in the morning. But this is Austria people! It is normal? I actually have no idea. It is snowing in the mountains in the middle of summer, even the Austrians think it is weird. But while it has been raining it has been good to just sit and hang out with people who would otherwise be off doing adventurous things that you can't go with them on because you are working when they leave for the day. For instance, we watched The Emperor's New Groove - a movie that I have not viewed since I was a wee little thing - and Catch Me If You Can, which is just a very interesting movie that I have only seen once where Leonardo once again plays some mastermind smart guy. I also attempted to play this game called.. Catan something? Yea.. note the word 'attempted'. I sewed on buttons onto shorts of those unfortunate Upward Bound students who never learned how to sew, drank a lot of coffee to stay warm and awake, made many trips to Spar, painted nails and most people know that I like clouds so yea..
The UB student's tenting tour got shoved back 2 days because we know how much not fun it is to tent in the rain. So whilst they were supposed to leave on monday they instead left yesterday, on wednesday. So on monday and tuesday they got split into two groups, one going on a hike and the other doing a klettersteig.
Conveniently my day off is on tuesdays so I got to go do the klettersteig with them! It was very cool. This is how I have described my experience to those who asked me, I enjoyed myself but I didn't think it was fun.. I perhaps may have enjoyed myself more if I had had on climbing shoes rather than hiking boots because it was pretty much rock climbing. But just getting to go out and see Austria is just such a blessing. So while I am freaking out and taking pictures of like a hill, the UB students are like 'What hill?' Cause they spend their entire experience here in the mountains and surrounded by complete beauty so when I get to go out and see God's creation I am just blown away! But for reals people. This was by a water fall that was just incredible and down the valley had high snow capped mountains in the distance. I was in scenery heaven.
One of my proudest moments occurred while on that kletterstieg. Heli (the ultimate mountain guide) told me that I was a 'strong girl'. Cause there was this one difficult part and he was asking me if I needed help and I said that I should be okay so I got to the top and he asked if I still had energy and I was like 'Yea!' and he goes, "Wow, you are such a strong girl." All shocked like. It was amazing. I became a woman in that moment.
So I just finished watching Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers in German. I figured I had seen it so much in English that I should change it up a little bit. I enjoyed the different voices that they had for the characters. My favourite was Gollum's voice. It sounded like an old lady voice..
Yesterday we were cleaning in the kitchen and the girls decided to draw a smiley face on my nose. So I go chill by the bench then decide to go to Spar. They had an amazing sale on chocolate so that was great and of course I needed some coke and I get back and Kerstin and Anna just start laughing at me. So the pen was still on my nose. But I think the weirdest thing was that no one really stared at me strangely.. which is something that concerns me. Is it normal to have pen on your face in Austria?
Setting tables is so quiet when the students are gone. It is like an event while they are here. The best part of meals is the setting the tables afterwards when Brett puts on some music while chewing on a toothpick, I teach people about spoons, Luke and Philip wrestle and throw honey and containers to each other, Nat is learning German in the kitchen from Lothar and Kristi seems to always be folding napkins. Then there is the seemingly traditional towel wipping (when you twist the towel and snap it and injure people) at the end when we are all done. It is a rather exciting kitchen after meals. :D
The other night we actually had a bit of a nail painting party. So the UB people were at their team meetings and I was kicking back in the foyer painting my nails and waiting for Taylor to try and call me when the meetings finish and so people start coming through the door, so I politely offer/ask if they want their nails painted neon orange or bright blue and to my surprise four guys (Flo, Ben x2 and Ian) accepted the offer and are rocking colorful nails! I was pretty excited while others thought it was just straight up weird. I say that they are just jealous that they aren't confident enough to rock the awesome nails :D 
Well it is raining now and I can only hope that the UB students managed to set up their tents before it started pouring buckets. But it is time to go help make dinner! All the guests and students are gone tonight so it is just staff and two of the students that didn't go on the tour, Flo dislocated his shoulder on a playground after doing the Klettersteig safely... and Alex has the flu! Kerstin, Anna and I are making Thai and Kendra is making cookies for dessert. Should be a tasty night! I bid you, adieu. 

Holy Crap.

Holy crap! Today was the day when MacKenzie went Canyoning and had the time of her life. I am not sure if many of you know this.. but I am slightly scared of heights. Just looking down and knowing that you could potentially fall off this high thing just really freaks me out. But for those of you who don't know, Canyoning is like you go into a canyon.. that has a river... and jump off high stuff... Well the sudden cliffs and water falls. You will just casually be walking along and its like "Oh, hey there cliff. I guess I have to jump off you now into the water below." 
The day started off just so beautifully. We had staff prayer, then breakfast where I burnt my wrist on the toaster, then I watched people set the tables while I drank some coffee and was glad that I didn't have to on my day off, then it was wet suit time (I guess you aren't supposed to be able to move in them or something...) and then it was car ride time! I was one of the fortunate few who got to sit in the lovely Audi car while everyone else was crammed in huge vans. We sang oldies songs and talked about the Pope. So we get there, most people find a good bush to pee in then it is wetsuit time again! You feel a little bit like Spiderman in this crazy skin tight item of clothing that you walk like a penguin in. And they gave us these gloves that were just so huge and thick that if you were to slap someone it would probably be fatal. 
So now we approach this steep mountain side that we have go down and we go boy, girl, boy, girl so that the guys can catch the girls when they fall. We get inside the canyon and it is SO beautiful. Like holy crap, gorgeousness everywhere you look, and I start freaking out a bit in my head like holy crap. How high are these things going to be? But Nat encouraged me and made me super pumped up :D Go Nat. And we started! 
It was so incredible. The first jump was maybe like... 2 metres? So not too high but still. The next jump was like.... 6 metres? And there was just whirl pool made from the water moving and I got caught in it and went around this pool like 8 times. It was so fun. I tried to get out like 3 times maybe? Failing each time. And in between these jumps there was like deep stream that you swam or floated in and these little natural water slides! Then the biggest jump was.. about 8 metres! I had to surprise myself to jump off of it. Think about something else and then your body just pushes yourself off the cliff. It is a trick that I have trained my body to do. :D Then we swam for ages and almost died from hypothermia but still having fun and singing and dancing whenever we could stand in order to keep the blood moving! We had to go under a rather large water fall that we had to follow a rope under. At one point it felt like we were in Jurassic Park and that at any moment a t-rex was going to come around the corner and eat you or squish you. So that was fun. And at the end there was even this bridge that you could climb up to jump off and I did it twice :D I consider myself a jumping junkie now. I am still a little high on adrenaline.. if you can't tell. 
So we got out and ran back cause 3 of us stayed behind to jump off the bridge, and of course in order to make the running epic we sang the Chariots of Fire song. So everyone is getting changed. The guys behind the van while the girls just you know, casually on the side of the road get changed. But Caroline and I used our brains and went under a bridge. :D We of course stopped at McDonalds on the way back and I enjoyed some glorious curly fries while I was super pumped on adrenaline and coffee and everyone else was like dying all tired like. Good stuff. I spend 10 minutes trying to decide what drink to buy.. Lauren laughing at me. And I think the girl behind the counter was rather amused as well. Driving home time! I was still pretty pumped and talking... a lot... and Martin goes, "MacKenzie never gets tired does she?" then 10 minutes later I crashed a little and was like falling asleep looking out the window. I just had to show them all that I was human too. Such a Holy Crap perfect awesome mind-blowing radical fantastic incredible amazing day. Best Day #2. 

15 Bruises and 4 Scratches Later..

This past week has been completely glorious. Complete with incredible highs and slight lows, the lows are mainly from exhaustion from the incredible highs... :D The students have been here for almost two weeks and they are awesome. There is just so much life at Taurenhof and people live it up!
We have had many adventures so far... for instance a couple of nights ago we played Fugitive around the town of Schladming. For those of you who don’t know what this is it is pretty much Mission Impossible type game where you have like a base that you are trying to get to, then you walk away from the base (the fugitives) while the sheriff type people try to find you and stop you from getting back. It is played in the dark and the sheriffs stop you by shining their flash lights on you and shouting your name. It is brilliant and guess who was one of only two people to get back to the base!?  Yours truly of course. :D But I have to admit I was in a group who had like the most ninja person and we all made it back to the base, which was the lecture hall... but there was a part where you had to sprint so I am last, then Kendra, Kenton and Daniel. Daniel makes it but Kristi (my beloved room mate/instructor) caught Kendra and Kenton. So I freak out and hide behind a tree. Then Kenton brilliantly starts talking to Kristi to distract her and they walk down the path and I ninja around the tree and Daniel is like waving ‘come come!!’ and I bolt and I make it! And Kristi didn’t even realise until Daniel and I were celebrating with high fives and shouts :D
There has also been quite a lot of slack lining going on. I still can only get about half way until I fall off. But they have been putting it over the river lately I haven’t tried it there yet but I sure am going to try! Oh I also showed a couple of them the ‘flexibility test’, you drama students will know what I am talking about. The ninja-as one with like a broom stick. So that was incredibly entertaining. The other day I was ‘on breakfast’ so I had to stay in the kitchen rather than going and sitting down and eating with them, so they all have to make a pack lunch for their day trip and as each one comes to the counter I made conversation with them as you do. I think it was my Muffin Break training coming out a little.. but Kathrin was in the kitchen too and just started laughing at me and saying “ you are so funny” It was great. :D
Oh and this part is for you mom, there is this photo week here where they go on all these hikes and then take photos and every time I see them I am just thinking, Mom would LOVE this! We went to a slide show tonight of a local famous photographer and his photos were just stunning. It is so beautiful here and there are so many places to go!
Okay so now to the AMAZING PART that you have all been waiting for. So on Monday I am cleaning away as I do and lunch comes around and it goes around and we are cleaning up lunch and Julia (the house keeper) comes to Kerstin and I and says, “You guys can go up to the hut where the UB students are and stay there for the night and go rock climbing with them tomorrow.” Kerstin and I are just like, WHAT. No way!!! You are kidding me. That is so amazing!! She went and asked Hans-Peter (the director of Tauernhof) and organised it all for us! It was so amazing. So the rest of the afternoon was spend being super hyper and excited for the treat that we get to experience. Kerstin making fun of me and I making fun of her because she was taking this HUGE like backpack backpack, like the size of the one I brought all my stuff in to Austria and I was bringing my little tiny like day pack backpack. Philip assisted us with collecting our climbing gear, we stayed for dinner and then we headed out! Simon and some of the construction guys were going there just to go there and so we got a lift with them.
Simon is a crazy driver. He drives as though he is on a roller coaster. It is quite entertaining. So we get to the this parking lot in the middle of nowhere and hike up to Hoffburglhutte. It was about a 45 minute hike and it was pretty steep... So it was Kerstin and I and then like 10 minutes ahead of us the guys, including Hans-Peter’s son who bounds up the mountain chatting away. But Kerstin and I had a good time, taking our time and taking pictures! We get there and of course, we had to pee so we do so and go to the dining room that where the UB students are. We walked in, in the middle of Hans-Peter’s lecture and apparently, according to Kendra we (well I really..) made a very loud entrance... but I just can’t help myself. My body doesn’t understand being quite while moving. So it was so great because the students had no idea we were coming and got excited to see us :D (go us!) So the evening was spending chilling, playing cards and taking pictures. OH! And so the room we slept in was so cool. It was pretty much one big room with one huge bed, don’t worry one room for guys and one for girls. :D
Then! The best day ever. So we got so nicely woken up by Brett and Luke saying, “Good morning Ladies, rise and shine! It is a beautiful day and perfect for rock climbing!” if it was me, I probably would have gone.. “OI wake up time.” So a great start to the day. Then I proceeded to get ready and headed outside to take some pictures of the amazingness surrounding me before breakfast, thus leading me to bring my camera to breakfast. Where I suspect I left it... As I do not recall bringing it back from breakfast as I was too excited about getting more coffee... Blasted coffee. We got all our junk and then I freaked out a bit because I realised I didn’t have my camera and I was planning on taking about 500 photos of the best day ever. But as we were hiking the 5 minute hike to the climbing garden I learned a lesson from the absence of my camera. I learned that I should just enjoy the moment and take mental images, even though they fade quickly rather than stopping doing something awesome only to take a photo, and then continue, but rather do it in one continuous awesomeness. 
Oh my word. So Martin (the head instructor guy) tells us, those of you who haven’t climbed much before (even though I have done a fair bit of climbing I haven’t outside so I included myself in this..) come with him and they were going to do the Kledishtike (no idea how to spell it.. Some German word..) which isn’t really climbing.. but not really hiking. It’s like such steep hiking that you have to clip into this steel robe that had bolts and you clip in to each bolt sorta... but the scary thing is there can be quite large gaps between bolts.. So if you fall you will sorta swing out, hit the rock and slide down to where the bolt is... Yea. Way to make the noobs so first. It was crazy. There were about two places where I just started shaking because of the height and the situation (as some of you know I can not be so good with heights..) oh man. And then at the top Heli (the other head instructor guy) got you to go across this rope bridge where you have one robe for your feet and the other above head for your hands. You are completely stretched out. At this point I freaked out a bit more.. then after you get across this you take a zip line down a bit and then you are done!! It was incredible. I was sooooo scared at some points but I was soooo enjoying myself as well. Later in the day Caroline described it as, “Well MacKenzie was crazy, she was saying I AM SO SCARED RIGHT NOW then laughed!” It was much better in person. But I love that description.
So then it was just top rope climbing! I discovered that I have a bit of a knack for climbing. Some of the instructors were like woah! I didn’t know kitchen girls could climb! For those of you who understand this rock climbing language the hardest one I did was a 5 on the French scale I believe... yea. I skinned a bit off my finger during that one on some sharp rock. But it was worth it! I also did this 4 where I had to like wedge myself in this crack. It was amazing. “You’ve gotta rock the Crack!” “I am freaking rocking the Crack!” (said in a frustrated tone as I was wedged in between two rocks) I attempted a 7... I got about half way then hung there for about 10 minutes, swinging and failing but still being awesome. In UB they make everyone take their watch off so you don’t know what time it is but we climbed from pretty much an hour after breakfast til 3pm. It was honestly the best day I have had. I cannot think of a day in the past year that was better than this day. And not to worry mother, I told Nat and Kristi that my camera was missing so they took lots of pictures and I stole/borrowed Kristi’s camera for a large majority of the day.
Then it was pretty much packing up, hiking back, chilling/sleeping (or in my case looking for my camera for half an hour..) til dinner time which was dumplings and sour crout.. Which was interesting... and the juice tasted like the orangeade that you get from McDonalds! Mmmmmm. Then Hans-Peter did a lecture and then it was time to leave! It was such a beautiful day in such a beautiful place with such beautiful people! So Hans-Peter (now going to be referred to as HP) tells Kerstin and I to get started and he leaves like 15 minutes after us but still gets to the bottom at the same time. That ninja man. He made like a level 5 rock wall look like a piece of cake! He just casual-as floats up it without a rope. You know.
So I collapsed in my bed and it was great. 15 bruises and 4 scratches later. Today was extremely difficult. I felt like a zombie. I had a nap after working in the morning and two hours later I woke up and it felt like it should have been morning and that the whole morning I spent cleaning was like a dream. It was so strange! So today would have been another awesome day to join UB but so hard.. They woke up early, hiked for 6 hours, then met Martin who gave them all their caving equipment then they hiked for 1 ½ hours longer to the cave and then it took them about 2 hours to get to the point in the cave where they will be SLEEPING!!! As difficult as it sounds I think it would just be such an amazing experience. I love caves. But I am so grateful for what I did get to do yesterday which was mind-blowing and I am hoping that in the future we will get to join them for a whole tour and not just on our days off. Thus concludes I believe my longest blog to date but the most exciting one. Hope you once again enjoyed it! Word. :D

P.s... I wrote this on wednesday... it is now saturday.. Just so you know. My internet wasn't working for a while there. :D

The Story Of My Life..

5.20am. The alarm goes off. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEEEEEEEEEPBEEEEEEEEPBEEEEEEEP. My thoughts, ugh can whoevers alarm that is please make it stop? Then it starts doing its freaking out heart attack beep. Like belelbpepepebpepbpepbepbepeb!!!! And my thoughts go, THATS MINE. Groaning I roll over to turn it off and reluctantly I get out of bed to get ready. 5.45am; in the kitchen. Say "Morgen" to Lothar and proceed to scoop jam, pour cereal, plop yogurt, dump the juice into pitchers, prepare the bread and all that jazz. 6.30am I open the door to unleash the students into the dining room. They eat. I refill the sandwiche meat b.c they are like animals and go through meat like its nothing. Then they leave. We clean. Next group! The Foto Woche group has its breakfast. Everyone leaves the kitchen but I must stay in case someone wants to refill anything. So I'm chilling with my pretzel, coffee and peanut butter and nutella. MMMM. They leave. We clean. We have our daily Hand Cream party. Then we split up into two groups, two people stay behind to work in the kitchen with Lothar and two others go to clean their designated floors. So today was my turn to clean my floors. So I am the resident cleaner of the top floor and ground floor of the Main House. The top floor consists of pretty much all the male staff members, one room of six male students and one room of four female students. Those poor, poor girls. I clean the sinks, wipe the mirrors, scrub the toilet, collect the garbage then I get to the shower... this is probably the strangest shower I have ever encountered. It is pretty much a closet in the wall. You open the door and there is the shower. So you have to actually hang your towel in the hall way then when you are done showering you somehow manage to grab your towel and get it around you with the door open in the hallway. Like I said, poor girls. I continue to clean the shower, I get inside of it so that I can wipe the inside of the glass door causing my shoes to get rather soapy and wet. I try to avoid getting the actually cloth part of my shoe wet so I stand on the sorta... ridge of the shower.. I slip.. I fall out of the shower... land on my bucket full of soapy water.. spill it all over my back and the ground.. I start laughing my face off. It was actually the highlight of my day. So I dry everything off then vacuum and mop the floors. Ground floor! So I must clean the boys toilet downstairs which contains a Urinal.. so that is always an adventure to clean. I vacuum, Kerstin mops and we are done! Wooo!! Lunch time. Yay. I make faces at the adorable like 4 month old baby and he smiles. SOOO cute. Then nap outside on the couch, talk to a couple of students, go to town with Anna and Kendra to buy Katerine some flowers and back here!! I hope you enjoyed the story of my life. Thus concludes the average day of MacKenzie. :) 

Happy Independence Day?

As most people know, yesterday was the 4th of July. A day that is held in a special place for Americans and Canadians alike. Sure, they may be differnet places in their hearts.... for Americans it is in that place where they are way to patriotic and proud of their country regardless of all the dumb stuff it does and symbolizes (i.e. many, many wars, Hollywood...) I would say that it is held at the top of their heart. Above their family and loved ones. Above their pets and belongings. Above food and water. If they lived in isolation in a concrete cell that had no ceiling (therefore being affected by all the seasons) with no food or water but they were in America, they would be as happy as a duck in a pond. Now for Canadians on the other hand, the 4th of July means something completely different. It is the day when we look at the Americans and laugh because we realize just how much more awesome Canada is than America. With our Canadian pride freshly refreshed from Canada Day (July 1st) it only makes us happier that we are indeed Canadian. If anything it is like a second Canada Day. Thank you America. If you were a really brave Canadian you might go to America on the 4th of July just to try to crash some Independence Day party. Maybe you blast O Canada on a stereo. Maybe you through red paint, maple syrup and bacon. Its up to you really. So you see, having been raised under the assumption that Canadians dislike Americans yesterday I went about saying that today was a rather silly day. Then the Americans questioned me and broke down those walls I had built making me think that America was dumb and made me realise that, while mocking them is fun... they are still human, even if it doesn't seem like it at times. I was also heavily out numbered and had to find another Canadian to help me.
All the students are hear now, they got here throughout the day on sunday. It was a great day that day. I sat outside just at the picnic table by the front entrance from 12pm til 5.30pm. It was crazy! There were just so many people and potential best friends to be made! The first person I saw come in was this girl with a Canadian flag on her backpack so I got all excited and ran out to her and she is from Kelowna! And she keeps wearing this KCS sweater and so I asked her if she knew Mr. Hildebrandt (aka Uncle B) And she said that she did! She never had him as a teacher but she knew of him.
I have told the story of why we have moved to New Zealand about 500 times. I feel bad for the staff members around me b.c there always seems to be one around when I get asked the question so they could probably tell it for me. :D
It is such a great group of people, honestly! It is pretty small, 34 students so I feel like I actually have a general idea of who most of them are.. or at least their names. We don't see them in the day but in the evening we can go and mingle and it is so much fun. Last night (seeing as it was the 4th of July and all the Americans couldn't let it go unnoticed and uncelebrated) we went to the river and made a bon fire. So here is another interesting, 'holy crap the world is so small' moment for you.....
I was walking with the Canadian and we were bonding about being Canadian and not being American and how great it is and he mentions that his sister went to Capernwray in NZ last year. So I'm all thinking trying to remember if Danae went last year or the year before and it was the year before. And we were all bummed cause that would have been some crazy awesome weird connection. But then I say, well my sister's friend from Canada went there last year. He's all, what's his name? I'm all.... Ummmm Zack Trigg? He's all NO WAY!! Holy crap. That is my sister's boyfriend. They met last year at Capernwray. So then there was a spazzing moment and even the group of people ahead of us who were just casual as listening to our convo are like "No way!" So that was pretty awesome. Gotta love those moments.
Anyway we bonfired. Ate glorious smores. Talked to strangers and made them friends. This is where the Americans had like an intervention with me asking me about my wall of refusing to see America as a real place. Just a fake place, you know.
OH! B the w, yesterday I also went on this killer bike ride. Like KILLER. It killed me then brought me back to life only so that it could kill me again... We went up to... Birnberg I believe it is called.. then through Oberhaus, Haus (which just means house.. so there is a town called House. How amazing??) and Lehen and back to Schladming. It was amazing and SO gorgeous. I felt so dumb b.c I forgot to bring my camera with me. I know!! But there will always be more bike rides and hikes.. maybe not up that hill though... :D
So this morning I woke up at 7.10am only to discover that my snooze button doesn't work. Yup. I set the alarm for 6.50am so I can hit snooze and wake up at 7am (yes I am one of those people..) but no. I woke up b.c the person on the bunk bed above me moved and squeaked. And I had to meet Maja at 7.30 to go get my Visa cause I am here longer than 3 months. So we get in the car, drive there about a 20 minute drive we get there and the other guy who was with us went first and they ask him for his Visa photo. I'm like... what Visa photo?! Yea.. So I was supposed to go get a photo taken and bring it with me.. But I forgot. So pretty much I sat there and watched him get his done. Then we went back. Maja laughing at me. But Maja has to go pick up the other guys one so I'll go with her then. Oh yea, and today was my day off... SOO instead of sleeping in I went for a joy ride. :D It was fun though I suppose. Okay well I've gotta go practice my slack lining and become a professional. Until next time! Adieu.


Oh and did I mention at some point that both of my roommates are American? And like to talk about their history a lot? Yea.. I leave the room..

Proud To Be Canadian, EH

To My Glorious Homeland.

I would just like to say thank you, first of all. Thank you for being as amazing and beautiful as you are. For producing such an awesome people and their great accents. Thank you for all the wild life you allow to live on top of you, eating your grass hairs and drinking from your sweaty spots. All those giant pimples along your west coast are just so gorgeous. I love the snow, rain, hail, storm, sun, hot, wet, cold, dry, and everything else that you produce.

You are the second biggest country in the world (props man!) and you hold such a wide variety of activities and adventures to be had. From coast to coast, through British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec (ew), Newfoundland & Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. through the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut your power reigns.

You sheltered me for 14 years and for that I am eternally grateful. Sadly 4 ½ years ago I had to leave your shores to go on to a new country. But you will remain forever in my heart, mind and soul as the Motherland. The land where I took my first steps. Saw my first bear. Ate all that Maple Syrup. Grew up from 0 to 14. All my family lives. A land that made me love Hockey. Made me talk the way I do. Made me proud to wear red and white. Made me enjoy jumping up and down on a couch when Canada won against the USA in the winter Olympics. Made me say, “Eh”.

Dear, sweet, glorious, wondrous, fabulous, gobsmacking, flabbergasting, fantastical Canada. I love you and I miss you.  

Soo I bet you are all wondering, 'WHAT DID MACKENZIE DO FOR CANADA DAY IN AUSTRIA!??!!' and if you aren't wondering, you should be wondering. So at the moment in Tauernhof, there is only the staff here. And amongst the staff there is only one other Canadian named Ben. So yesterday I say, "Hey Ben, we need to do something really fantastic and mind blowing for Canada Day tomorrow. We have to show up all the 5 Americans that are here that Canadians know how to be proud too!" So we continued to conspire.. many ideas running through our fantastic Canadian minds, like we should paint everything red. We should wake everyone up by singing the national anthem in a megafone. We should buy some firecrackers. We should run around town saying GO CANADA WOOOOO!! I know. These were all such amazing ideas. But then we realised, that a lot of people don't know that July 1st is Canada Day everyone just knows about July 4th. (but really, what a dumb day eh) So we decided to play it a bit simple.

Later on when a couple of us were picking cherries and having a competition to see how many could fit in our mouths without dying (I got 20.. :D) I thought... Woah! So one of the girls who just left, left a bunch of clothes right? And in those clothes were 2 white t-shirts. One bigger than the other.. Cherries... Red... White t-shirt... We could totally stain the t-shirts red with cherries!! And I also found some black paint in the lost and found so we could use that too!! So we proceed to attempt to do so.. The cherries at first look so cool! It turns out purple instead of red but oh well! Cherry tye dye man! But then it started going brown.. and chunks of cherry started staining.. I sorta just chucked mine one and continued on to paint an amazingly well done maple leaf, a moose and 'OH CANADA'. Meanwhile, Susan (one of the kitchen girls) decides to try and make a maple leaf out of cherry juice on Ben's shirt.. it ends up looking like either a chicken, a space ship, or... like something died on it. But what do we care! Its Canada Day!! So we wore our AWESOME shirts all day (even when we went into town at night.. Well I did). Had a very mini photoshoot. Sang the anthem amongst the camp at the top of our lungs. I listened to a little Hedley while I cleaned. Fought with an American about how Canada is better. You know, the usual :D Thus concludes my Canada Day. I hope it was as epic for you as it was for me.