Hello readers (I've always wanted to say that)! I hope that all is well, unlike here where it seems everyone is falling sick with the stomach flu! Jocelyn has been in bed for two days now and more and more people seem to be following her lead. Luckily, it hasn't found me yet (knock on wood) and I am hoping things will stay that way. One thing about residence - when one person is sick, everyone is sick!
On a more positive note, my countdown to Reading Week has begun! Whereas all of my friends from home are on their reading weeks now, mine is not for another 9 days! Back in January, I convinced myself that I wouldn't need to go back to Ancaster for Reading Week and that I would be fine until the end of April however, I changed my mind about a week ago when I was talking to my aunt. She has 99% confirmed that she will be coming out here to ski next week and she offered to drive me home afterwards, which is super awesome of her! Hopefully, we will be going skiing together next Friday (my bio prof cancelled my lab!) and then driving to Ancaster on the Saturday. I am also going to bring my friend Hannah along, as she lives out east and will not be flying home for the break. I have already starting preparing a detailed itinerary for our break so I hope she is prepared for all that Ancaster has to offer!
In other news, it was another exciting week and weekend here in Lennoxville. Last Wednesday, I was unfortunately unable to donate blood as the donation centre closed 2 minutes before I got there. It was also Mental Health Awareness Week, so I went to a few of the presentations and on Friday, Jocelyn and I went to a zumba class. For Valentine`s Day, we had a card making party in Abbott basement the night before and made cards for each other and on the actual day, there was a Newside Valentine`s cookie eating party, which I obviously attended. We then spent the rest of the night playing the French version of Mafia, but it is more intense and comes with instruction cards.
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| Newside cookie party! |
On Friday night, my friend Vicki invited me to my very first Jewish Shabbat, a dinner put on by the Jewish Faith Club. I thought it would be neat, so I brought Hannah and Jocelyn along with me. From what I understand, Friday evening is the start of the Jewish religion`s day of rest and the shabbat is the dinner they would come home to after going to the temple. Lennoxville does not have a temple so they did some of their prayers at the dinner which was followed by a traditional Jewish meal. This was a really neat experience for me because I am currently taking an Ethics and Religion class so I got to actually take part in a religious tradition that I am learning about in school. (Unfortunately, I could not take a picture because electronics are not permitted during the resting period)
On Saturday, Hannah had a friend come all the way from Newfoundland to visit her, which was very exciting. For her first event here, we took her to be a part of the Bishop's Harlem Shake. For those of you who have seen the Harlem Shake videos, you will know what I am talking about when I say that on Saturday, we recorded our own version of the dance. We had originally planned to do it in the Quad but the location was changed to inside the SUB to more effectively fill the space. It was so much fun to dress up in silly costumes and record the dance. Our friend Elizabeth had to go home for the weekend, so I printed out a picture of her and brought it to the Harlem Shake. Unfortunately, someone incredibly rude decided to wave an offensive flag in the video so it had to be edited to get rid of this person`s ignorance. But the crisis was averted and you will find the Bishop`s Harlem Shake video below!
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| Jenika, Jocelyn, myself, "Elizabeth" and Hannah at the Harlem Shake! |
Saturday night, there was a Girl`s Night in Abbott basement complete with chocolate fondue and a chick flick. We watched 10 Things I Hate About You, which I had never seen before and I quite enjoyed. After that, my friends and I had a party for Jocelyn`s birthday which was on Sunday. She was turning 19, so I made her a necklace with a shot glass on it that said "Pour me a birthday shot." I am happy to report that she wore it and used it all night. At around 3am, I realized I had not yet made her a card so my friends and I had a secret card making party in the basement. On Sunday, we had a birthday breakfast for her, complete with waffles, fruit and melted ice cream, and we learned that Jocelyn's freezer is not very effective at keeping ice cream frozen. That night, we celebrated the Chinese New Year, which actually happened last week, by watching Mulan and ordering pizza (as there is no local place that delivers). Happy Year of the Snake everyone!
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| I didn't want Elizabeth to miss out on the fondue! |
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| Jocelyn's Birthday Party! |
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| Jocelyn opening her presents! |
On Monday, it was time to get back to reality as midterms are still in full swing. After a not very productive day for myself, I was up late doing homework when I started talking to my friend from Victoria, BC on Facebook. I met him when I went to a Rotary event in Ottawa in grade 11 and we have been in and out of touch ever since. At around midnight my time, we decided to Skype and ended up chatting for about two hours. Needless to say, the next day I was very tired and ended up falling asleep in the library and in Dewies, where luckily my RA came and woke me up.
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| Almost 3 years ago, Lance and I met in Ottawa! |
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| Interestingly enough, this is us at the Governor General's House! (see below)) |
Finally, tonight, we had a visit from the Right and Honourable Michaelle Jean, former Governor General of Canada. She was giving a lecture as a part of the Donald Lecture Series. She talked a lot about her life growing up, her volunteer work and her passion for making positive change. She is very involved with work in Haiti, which is her country of origin but she has done some amazing things for Canada and for the world. She even gave a part of her speech in French, and (giving myself a pat on the back), I was able to understand it!
So tonight I am going to head to bed early, as I am still catching up from Monday night and I have a major French presentation tomorrow. This weekend coming up I have lots to look forward to as on Friday, the Leadership Floor is having a "Snack and Speaker event," Saturday night is the School of Education's Annual Gala and Sunday night is the REC's Oscar's Night in Dewies. So with that, I want to wish you all a wonderful week and I will hopefully see some of you very soon when I am back in Ancaster!
All my love, Erica xoxoxoxoxoxoxo
PS I am also sending the BEST OF LUCK to all the Nexxice teams who are currently in Calgary competing at the synchro nationals! I am super jealous that Nationals has finally moved out of Ontario but I hope that they all bring home the gold at the end of the weekend! Good luck my lovely ladies (and Lee)! I will be watching the live stream 24/7!
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