Last weekend (I cannot believe it has already been a WEEK since this happened) I had a blast at a retreat with my fellow Asia goers. We began Friday after school by hanging out at City Centre Church and doing some crazy fun team building activities, including a "trust fall" (classic team building aaandd it makes people cry every time out of fear... or I guess lack of trust?). It was so much fun (maybe I am a freak because I like team building things)! We all went out to my favorite Thai restaurant to practice our spicy eating. We ended the night with a speaker and a viewing of a documentary about Jim Elliott (a famous missionary and martyr). 

Saturday we experienced more speaker-listening-fun and then went on a scavenger hunt around China Town (a SCAVENGER HUNT! So fun. Not to mention the pure cuteness of China Town, also where my home church is located). I met so many cute Chinese people and got to chat with them about their culture etc (tasks required by the scavenger hunt). After a long period of making friends and buying weird food from Asian markets we all met up to have Dim Sum (I love Dim Sum, I could basically eat Asian food for every meal and be content). We made the first years eat tripe and chickens feet, a classic missions (my program) initiation. We ended the day by eating said weird food purchased at said Asian markets. For some reason in the missions program at Vanguard we really love making people do weird and dangerous things (may I take this moment to mention that I climbed a nearly vertical cliff full of giant loose rocks to make it into the highest cave on the mountain while on my October retreat with these crazies (some people cried)). So we ate weird foods for extra points for our scavenger hunt teams. Some of the food included: raw quail eggs, mystery vietnamese dessert that looked sort of like sea anemones in liquid, dried (into giant blocks) seaweed, fish flavored chips complete with an oil dipping sauce, and last but not least a ROTTEN pickled AND salted duck egg. I just happened to end up with the rotten duck egg. No one else on my team would eat it but I knew it was my duty as a champion future missionary to stomach the mess. I wasn't sure if it had a shell so I proceeded to squeeze it, causing the contents to bust all over my hand (which doesn't mean I didn't have to eat said contents). The yolk was runny (even though it was supposed to be boiled?) and had weird red oil in it, not to mention the CHUNKS and the putrid smell. There might have been a baby duck in there for all I know. I swallowed the yolk whole because I could not bear to spread that junk around my mouth. All the boys were yelling "SHE'S ACTUALLY EATING IT!" While everyone was crowding around me. The pressure was ON. My program director (PA) was yelling "NOW THAT IS A GOOD LEADER!! You just went up so many points in my book!" Which, lets just be honest, (for all you fellow missions people reading this) we live to impress PA (AND Jesus of course..). The egg had started at being worth 4 points. Then when I busted it in my hand and they saw the contents, it went to 9. Finally in the end I think it had reached the area of 15 extra points for my team. We ended up getting second place and winning a bag of white rabbits (a Chinese candy that we are all obsessed with). Later, a peer asked me "so was eating that egg worth the white rabbits?" I told her "it was worth the glory." 

Here is a little treatsy from Andrew's chiropractor office... The guy's actual grad pic. 

I died, so hilarious. 

The bus trip overall was a good one time experience... ONE TIME. And probably never again. I saw the beautiful scenery of Ontario, trees and hills, and then I saw how terrible the prairie (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) of Canada really is-- endless nothing. 

Three cramped nights in bus seats and two days of looking out the window. At least I got The Great Gatsby read in time for the movie to come out. We stopped a lot, people smoked and came on the bus reaking of smoke. We stopped at 1 AM and had to unload the bus for them to fill up, in turn disrupting whatever sleep we got.  

Perhaps the only redeeming qualities about the trip was spending time with Andrew and observing people along the way. 

There was a girl on her way to Vancouver to catch a plane to go to China for a year with no plan at all of where to stay or what she was doing. We met a hispanic family with two small kids who were adorable. Then there were two small African girls who really enjoyed our dried apricots so much that they took our baggie of them, I was obviously fine with this because of their extreme cuteness. There was also a man that loved to make fun of how tall Andrew was (when he stood in the bus his head was pressed against the ceiling).

Pretty much a bus full of characters. 

Over all, the bus trip was worth doing. Now that I have done it I think I will stick to planes, especially because the bus really took a toll on my freshly chiropractored neck. 

One of the most fun parts about visiting Andrew's family in Ontario was exploring in the woods. 

Andrew grew up on a farm so there was plenty of exploration to be done in the fields and forests surrounding his house. 

I have just returned to school after a wonderful trip to Ontario. 

While in Ontario we explored, ate, played sardines with Andrew's family (about thirty people.. wow), and visited friends. Here are some pictures from our New Year's Eve/New Year's Day adventures in Owen Sound with one of my best friends, LeeAnna. 

We brought in the New Year with my second viewing of Les Miserable and some great snacks, courtesy of LeeAnna's mom.