Reflections

Today is my second day back in civilization after a week of camping at a remote and gorgeous lake called Spanish. This is a place Mark's family (and extended family) go every year and this year, it was my turn to be introduced to the tradition. It was a week of complete relaxation, where most mornings we all gathered for the morning coffee and didn't start breakfast until 11:30 at the earliest. Quite the change for a girl who generally calls sleeping until 9:00 "sleeping in" and always has breakfast as soon as she gets up! But, there were honey nut cheerios and muffins available to hold me over, and I adjusted quite well. Of course, I was still up between 8 and 9 every morning, but it gave me a chance to sit by the lake with a book and enjoy the quiet peacefulness. Here are a few pictures to attempt to convey the beauty:










And the sunsets were breathtaking...










We spent our time reading and playing Rook onshore and canoeing and fishing out on the water. For me, this was quite the feat, as I have this deep fear of water and generally cannot feel comfortable in small boats. For some reason - even though my head can know that it's perfectly safe and we won't tip, and in the rare event that we do, it's not like I would drown since we're wearing life jackets and we would be rescued in minutes - my body just can't process that information. But, Mark did get me out on the water in a canoe a number of times (only when the water was really calm) and he got me to try fishing, even though I also don't like fish. A couple of evenings we went out chasing beavers, which was a huge highlight since I can't remember ever seeing beavers in their natural environment. And there is something enchanting about being out on the water in the evenings.

But now, it's back to reality yet again. I have now finished just over a year of work with TWU and A Rocha Canada, and I'm looking forward to my second year. It'll be really nice once everyone is back from their holidays and the students arrive again. Things have been relatively quiet around campus lately.

Oh, and if you haven't already noticed, I've put in links on the side to various photo albums. Feel free to browse through them if you want to see more of what I've been doing lately.

Now it's back to work. Figuring out how the whole inserting-picture-thing took up my whole lunch break.