Water and more water

Alright, new week and new things to say. The last few days have had a share of adventures, both of which involving water.

At our last student meeting I was awarded, by default, with the ownership of a powerful water gun in order to keep my room-mate, Charles, in line. The cause of this stemmed from one time when he, being the "feeler, in the moment" kind-of-person that he is, forgot he was only wearing boxer shorts with his t-shirt as he went to convey an important message to one of the girls on second floor. Word got around about the incident and I was designated as the one to remind him, by application of pressurized water, to watch how far he goes wearing such a small amount of material. Anyway, clothing aside, I now had a water gun in my hand... which only added more ammunition to an earlier idea Charles and I had: dropping water balloon bombs from our third story window.

Well, the idea was followed through. The next day, after Charles made the supply run to purchase our arms parts, we commenced the bombing tirade with only two rules in mind: 1) do not directly hit the intended target (for good reason, these were good sized party balloons we were using, Charles found a good "arms" dealer. Also, keep in mind we were dropping them from third floor) and 2) do not target any guys, only girls were to feel the wrath of our aqueous barrage. Not only did we use our party balloons in our water assault, but my water pressured award was put into quick action as well.

In all our effort we made one mistake. We did not foresee any of the proceeding outcomes caused by our actions because we were so caught up in the moment. From our intelligence we understand that the very dealer that my pump-action water launcher had been purchased from had sold two other such weapons that same day (we now know that the owners of these had carefully kept them hidden to use most likely in some sick attack of their own, had we not initiated first assault). So what ensued was a war of water; balloon vs blonde, weapon against weapon, the epic battle of boy vs. girl. By the time our full scale attack had begun I had already fell victim to another enemy, homework. Totally incapacitated with my own responsibility I was unable to support my brothers in their fight. This was made all the more difficult when I learned that the enemy had made a counterattack, pushing back our forces and causing casualties on our side, one of them my own room-mate and good friend. From what I know it lasted a grueling 15 minutes.

Though I was not involved in the battle, I have seen its devastating effects... water shrapnel spread over the school parking lot, even into the school's billiard room from which the main thrust of the boys attack stemmed from, countless bodies the victim of its cold, wet dampness. How it fell, popped, splashed, and sprayed without mercy.

The war is not over. Small battles are still being fought and, I believe, will continue to be fought with no resolve but to satisfy each parties own desire to use water to instill fear as a means of control. The conflict will go on.

The other water event that took place this weekend, was a canoe trip me and Charles and my good friend Dave went on. Saturday we left for a 5 hr voyage down the historic St. Croix River, encountering some small rapids and beautiful scenery. On the map there was a point on the river called "little falls", which we anticipated with some anxiety and excitement. It was little, but falls none-the-less. We pulled up to the bank a little way upstream and with the help of some more a experienced canoer scouted out the best route to go. We chose to hit the bulk of the falls, in the part experiencing the most drop and flow. It was GREAT! And we survived! It was actually easier than we had thought, but all that is said after the fact and had anyone else with the same experience level we had looked at the falls before going off I'm sure would have at least had a portion of the fear we experienced. Anyway, the whole experience was great and rewarding: seeing a couple eagles, enjoying the beauty of creation around us, emerging victorious from the falls, and bonding with the boys.

Now that all my fun is done, I have to catch up on all the homework and reading that I deferred to be able to have such an experience :) I'll drop a couple pictures for you to enjoy. (top pic of me and my buddy Dave a little while back)

St. Stephen's University

I thought it would be good to give a bit more information about the school I'm studying at... some interesting facts, some insights and maybe I'll even got to some personal opinion.

We'll start with some insight into the school...
-Called St. Stephen's University (SSU), located in the small town of St. Stephen, New Brunswick
-Established in the early seventies
-Offers a Bachelor of Arts program and also a Master's in Ministry
-Also offers a One year diploma in worship leadership (which looks really cool by the way)
-Seeks to reach more than the academic and vocational needs by their want to build and equip individuals with "feeling minds and thinking hearts"

Some interesting facts...
-SSU sits overlooking the St. Croix river, which just further down-river was the landing site of some of the earliest settlers to north America at the turn of the 17th century
-Park Hall, the main building of SSU, was built in 1866, a year before Canada's Confederation
-When first purchased for use of a university in the 1970s Park Hall was condemned, on the vurge of destruction, but has since been (and continues to be) slowly and carefully restored
-Other buildings of SSU are built in the same age and style as Park Hall, Todd Hall looks very much like the house you would expect the Adam's Family to take up residence
-St. Stephen is a border-town, right across the river is Calais, Maine and from the campus it takes about five minutes to find oneself on the US side checking out shops

First weekend experience in NB

hey all,
I'm pretty well settled out here in New Brunswick and starting to get into classes now. I thought it would be neat to try this blog thing out and write one interesting thing each week and, therefore, let you know some of what's happening in my life.

I'll start with my weekend. This last weekend a bunch of students from the University out here went to an island in NB called Campebella Island. It's interesting for a couple reasons. First, in order to get there by car you have to drive through Maine. It's so close to Maine that you can actually drive across a bridge onto the island (and then promptly have a border crossing, which is funny for an island so small), but it takes about an hour and a half of driving just to get there! Second, this island is where Franklin D. Roosevelt and his family went to stay during the summer months at their summer cottage. It is still there, furniture, pictures, cups, silverware and all, and it is open to the public to take a walk through.

We also visited an old lighthouse, only accessable after a short scramble over rocks and boulders during lowtide. A few of the students saw a whale and a few more of us saw a sea lion. Pretty cool. The scenery and company was just great, taking it all in and enjoying the adventure of getting to meet new people and do new things. The area that we were in would be considered part of the Bay of Funday, and we could see some islands and mainland in the distance. The picture posted is of the lighthouse on the island.

Well, thats it for now. I need to get some reading done for my classes. I'll try to give more of an inside scoop on the school and classes the next chance I have some time.