Super-quick update

Hi!  Sorry it's been a while since my last post.  It was a crazy week last week with 4-5 hour rehearsals most days!  The good news is that The Laramie Project was a success, and hopefully had a positive impact on this community.  Being part of theatre is such a wonderful part of my time at Pearson, it has really grown to be a tight-knit family.  

I have a lot of homework tonight so here's a quick check-in:
- Still have no idea what I am going to go next year
- It's February tomorrow!!!
- I'm on kitchen duty this week (will tell you about that some time)
- Jack Matthews personal challenge day was epic...with some people swimming from Racerocks to campus, others biking over 100 km, others spending 12 hours in the forest -some of that time without clothes, others building a hot tub, building a rocket, and of course there was Chris and Ramiro trying to fly. 
I was supposed to cook french food with the lovely Kenta from Japan, except I woke up kind of sick and ended up trying to make a walking on water device with a bunch of people (it failed to say the least).

Hmm not much else I don't think.
I'll do a post about The Laramie Project (and will include some photos) soon!

Lots of love,
Emmy

Dance

Just got back from a lovely belly dance rehearsal for One World led by the talented duo Makyla and Emma.  I must say that belly dance makes me feel a lot better about myself than tango does.  Dance is taken pretty seriously at Pearson: whether it's Ukranian, Bollywood, or Salsa.  I think dance is such a cultural art form, it really allows our bodies to speak.  I think it is wonderful!  Dance in the rain, dance in your pjs, dance in the sunshine, dance with a partner, dance by yourself,  twirl and swirl and shimmy!

Dance the night away dear readers!

BANG!

I don't think I have ever mentioned before that Pearson is very close to the Department of National Defense.  In fact, we are on DND land quite often.   Now and then they decide it would be fun to blow up some old ammunition.  So for the last couple days it has been feeling like a war zone with all these deafening explosions!  The trails near the spiritual center have been blocked off because of unexploded remnants of war - that's right there are landmines (or something of the sort)!  Now before you get freaked out, we are also in close proximity to a minimum security jail. :P

Completely unrelated topic, I received some WONDERFUL NEWS yesterday that someone in my family is expecting a baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Babies make me so joyously happy.

Number 96

This is my 96th post.  Wow.  The scope of this blog continually amazes me.  I am rejoicing in all the e-mails and questions and comments so please keep them coming.  I am in awe of the fact that people from all corners of the globe can be connected through the internet.  Can you remember a time before that?  My dear friend Vicente from  Brazil has this amazing screen saver of facebook friends and the lines are friends connecting with each other and the white is the amount of facebook users.  So incredible.

Unfortunately I am kind of losing my voice.  Last year I went silent for 24 hours and it was such a crazy experience. I really felt powerless. It's amazing what a voice can do.  Yesterday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US and it memory of a truly amazing man, here is a monumental moment in history....

I am still looking into universities and am now intrigued in UBC Okanagan and Quest.  Both are smaller undergrad focussed places.

I am having a great conversation with the amazing Sidingo from South Africa so I shall leave you now!

Hugs and kisses,
Emmy

Surreality

Sometimes learning at Pearson seems surreal.  Like today I woke up and watched a male elephant seal attempting to rape a pregnant female elephant seal.  Writing this blog from the picturesque location of RaceRocks - an ecological reserve a short boat ride away from campus - is amazing.  Despite having been here many times for marine science, etc.  I am always taken aback by its pristine beauty.  During the year it is the home of many stellar sea lions, elephant seals, whales, and just a multitude of wildlife.

I am here with my advisor group and it is just lovely. The wonderful and incredible Seb (history teacher) and Natasha (Spanish teacher) are here with us along with the ecological guardians: Ryan and Raissa, both Pearson alumni.  Yesterday we had a great dinner and watched the Shawshank Redemption (great movie, btw!)  And today we made breakfast, did some chores around the island, did a beach clean up, and observed elephant seals chasing each other. 

What is also surreal that in less than two weeks I have received e-mails from Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Egypt, and Portugal.  I am blown away!  It brings me such delight to hear from all of you! Please e-mail: emmyatpearsoncollege@gmail.com  Also what is with the lack of comments recently?  Leaving a comment seriously makes my year :D

Tomorrow we have a big rehearsal for our upcoming second year production, The Laramie Project.  I might also mention that my parents are not going to come (see Mom, public humiliation!), much to my dismay.  However, the play is an incredible piece, based on the tragic beating and murder of a university homosexual man in Wyoming in 1998, Matthew Shepard.  It is derived from 100s of interviews with people in the town of the murder and is just an awesome play.  Look up Matthew Shepard of The Laramie Project for more information.  If anyone is in the Victoria area you are free to attend, it is being performed Jan 29 or 30 I believe.  E-mail for details.

Anyways, wishing you a wonderful weekend.

All my love,
Em

Swimming

Swimming is meditative.  Don't you think so?

We have some great facilities for staying fit at Pearson...a pool, tennis court, basketball, a soccer field, a gym, a climbing wall, and miles and miles of woods.  However, it has become expected that attending Pearson, well, it makes you fat.  I don't really know if I gained weight, but mostly likely I did.  I guess people just get so sleep deprived and stresse out about school that exercise becomes less of a priority....but the ironic thing is that exercising helps with so much.  I'm sure you're all already familiar with that but here's a great initative CBC has started up: http://www.cbc.ca/liverightnow/

One World 2011

Saturday, March 19, 2011



2pm and 8pm, Royal Theatre


Tickets available at McPherson box office and usual outlets, charge by phone at (250) 386-6121 or toll free 1-888-717-6121, or www.rmts.bc.ca


Adults $23
Seniors & Students $18
Children $15

We're All Connected

Reunions at Pearson are touching to watch.  People flying into each other's arms (or slamming, depending on the relationship).  I'm always in awe of the connections between people, sometimes unlikely as they may be.  Everyone here is entangled in a web of friendships and love that it is hard to distinguish who is connected to who. I guess we're all connected,  in life too.  You never know if that stranger is just a friend you haven't met yet.  Often when I'm sitting in a skytrain I think about where everyone else is going and what they're thinking and how we probably have something in common.  A shared humanity.

The EE deadline is tonight at midnight and BREAK OUT THE CHAM---I MEAN SPARKLING APPLE JUICE! I'm FINISHED!  It feels great.  4000 words may not sound like that much (it kind of does) but for a first time, it was a feat. 

In other news, activities and classes have started up.  Despite hearing strange noises sleeping in my Pearson  bed last night, I had a pretty good day.  Two free blocks....built my first route on the climbing wall (or rather got all the guys to climb and screw in the holds....)...played with Mina....it was good times.  It's just nice to be back, I didn't realize how much I had missed.

On the dawn of my last term I vow to make this term a time of fulfilling dreams I have always had like running through this beautiful field towards the ocean, in Metchosin. Nevermind someone else owns it.  I am going to run through that field!  There's this really cool thing called Flying Wish Paper that when you write your wishes on it and light it, it flies!  So beautiful; and my housefellows let me try one...

May all your wishes come true, dear reader!

Love,
E


credit: Dennis Hallinan

For Here or To Go?

It is the eve of my departure and while there are a million things to do, here I am.

Today as I (reluctantly) purchased a hot chocolate from Starbucks I wonder how much a difference it would make if baristas assumed that all drinks for "for here."  Did you even know that Starbucks serves coffee in mugs if you ask?  How much of an impact would it make on the environment, if any?  And what would it say about our crazy society if one only assumed people had enough time to sit down and enjoy their drink instead of scuttling off onto the road gulping it down between breaths?

Sunlight

One of my all time favorite things is closing my eyes with my face toward the sun.  There is nothing like feeling sunshine seeping in through your eyelids.  Especially when you just wake up....








In other news, I cut my hair kind of short! While this is controversial (I'll talk more about that in another post) I feel like I'm not drowning in hair....

Got a blog? Applying to UWC?

For New Year's wishes and a wishy post - see below.

I realized that I really need to follow some more blogs, so if you have one, just leave a comment and I'd love to read it!

Also, if you are planning on applying to UWC I would love to help however I can. I now have an e-mail account dedicated to that very purpose:  emmyatpearsoncollege@gmail.com
I'll try my best to answer any questions about the application process and life at Pearson.
It is my last term at this wonderful place, so if I cannot answer your question I'll redirect you to someone who can.

Love,
Em

The Good Kind of Crazy

I know it's about 5 days late, but HAPPY NEW YEAR!  *Blowing one of those cool noise-maker things*

As I sit here laughing hysterically watching early morning home music videos made by my current homies, Danya, Abhinav, and Esmail, I am grateful.  Not only for the laughs and the company, but for the difficult trying times in the past year.  I still struggle with accepting everything that happened, but all in all, I guess I've learned and grown.  At least I hope I have.  Last year, one of my great second years, Amber from New Zealand mentioned she really liked it when she saw me let loose and go a little crazy - good crazy I hope.  I'm pretty sure I scared a lot of people this past year with the bad crazy (I apologize profusely for that).  So since life is bound to be a bit crazy, let's aim for the good kind of crazy!

Failing my driving test, going skating with Arabs, watching certain people sleep in until 3pm, going to financial seminars with my mom, eating shwarma, attending appointments, meeting my wonderful co-year Allison from the Adriatic at a UBC tour, and just hanging, the beginning of this year has been quite good crazy indeed.


If I could sum up 2010 in a few words it would be:

Sudden tears and inexplicable sorrow
Sheer excitement at the thought of tomorrow
2010 games take over the city
Not a topic of pity
Then comes One World
weekend of joy
And the troubles of a boy
Then comes spring and exams and sun
Terror and grief when Pearson is done
Horrible goodbyes and mourning begins
Life begins to take a positive spin
Then boarding a plane, intuition looms
A vacation certain for dooms
Swirling cyclones and scary times
I'd rather forget and just think of rhymes
Trying to screw my head back on,
Meditating to a new song
Running and running and running
The beat changes and everything is in the air
Good friends, old friends, police cars and
Sad ends, (ones I hope to fix one day)
But alas I don't know what to say
School begins again, 80 new friends
Faces so bright, full of light
As home beckons on a driveway night
Academics and study. Study and books
No time for outdoors or new looks
Just work. universities crook.
Regional days pass us by
We savour them with a sigh
and Christmas arrives
Family and friends
basement full to no ends
love love love
stability returns, back on my feet
This year has been quite the feat.

I looked up some prayers and wishes for you, my dear reader.  Every time I read a new comment (shout out to the wonderful Mohammed from Egypt) about someone thinking of applying it lifts my heart.  I'll try to write more on here as the new term starts.

Recipe for a Happy New Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous


Take twelve fine, full-grown months; see that these are thoroughly free from old memories of bitterness, rancor and hate, cleanse them completely from every clinging spite; pick off all specks of pettiness and littleness; in short, see that these months are freed from all the past—have them fresh and clean as when they first came from the great storehouse of Time. Cut these months into thirty or thirty-one equal parts. Do not attempt to make up the whole batch at one time (so many persons spoil the entire lot this way) but prepare one day at a time.


Into each day put equal parts of faith, patience, courage, work (some people omit this ingredient and so spoil the flavor of the rest), hope, fidelity, liberality, kindness, rest (leaving this out is like leaving the oil out of the salad dressing— don’t do it), prayer, meditation, and one well-selected resolution. Put in about one teaspoonful of good spirits, a dash of fun, a pinch of folly, a sprinkling of play, and a heaping cupful of good humor.

A New Year’s Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous
Dear Lord, please give me…


A few friends who understand me and remain my friends;
A work to do which has real value,
without which the world would be the poorer;
A mind unafraid to travel, even though the trail be not blazed;
An understanding heart;
A sense of humor;
Time for quiet, silent meditation;
A feeling of the presence of God;
The patience to wait for the coming of these things,
With the wisdom to recognize them when they come. Amen.


A New Year. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Arthur Ward

Another fresh new year is here …
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest …
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

A New Year’s Prayer



May the Universe make your year a happy one!
Not by shielding you from all sorrows and pain,
But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;
Not by making your path easy,
But by making you sturdy to travel any path;
Not by taking hardships from you,
But by taking fear from your heart;
Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,
But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;
Not by making your life always pleasant,
But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,
and by making you anxious to be there to help.
Love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.



With that my dear reader, I wish you all the best.  A life of happiness, peace, and laughter, and challenges too.

Yours always,
Emmy