Chock Full 'O Activities!

(Karen and I are the in way back.)

This week was pretty fun. On Wednesday, we had a shortened day in order to have the Interhouse Cross Country Day -- where three teams within the school compete. My team is the Eagles, which I personally think is way cooler than a Merlin (whatever that is) and better looking than a Condor. It's like in Harry Potter, you get points for your "house", and try to win the house cup at the end. This was probably the closest competition in history, where all three houses had the same score until the last race. Anyhow, I participated with my awesome students in the 11th & 12th grade girls' race, which was about 5k. The problem with this 5k was that it was almost all up or down, and at 6500' altitude. The strategy was to jog and not walk, which earned me 7th place! My friend Karen took a skip and a trot and almost broke the school record by a few seconds. For the 11th & 12th grade boys' races, I would say the top eight except the champion, were all teachers! Brains over brawn.

Here's Emily's account , Jackie's account, Chris' account , and Nate's account of the day.

So, this weekend was jam packed with activities. First on Saturday morning, Sarah and I headed down to the dorms to run a Women's Self Defense clinic for the middle school girls. We had seven enthusiastic girls who at the end, were able to get out of some basic grabs and scream their lungs out.

(This is the "up yours!" move.)

Next, the Mt. Hermanians or Mt. Hermanites or whatever we are called, helped out with Casey's mad idea of the "Amazing Race" for high schoolers, who would follow challenges and riddles around the Woodstock campus. Anna, Kelsey, and I were in charge of the challenge at the Hanifl Center, which was to assemble and deassemble tents. We waited and waited for the students to arrive, but it took soooooo long. We were sooooo bored.

(self timer picture initiated by boredom)

(Anna's butt)

(Kelsey auditioning for the Monsoon 2007 Umbrella Spokesmodel contest)

(Kyle's mom, this one's for you -- he has gone over to the dark side.)

So I began my day-project of taking pictures of as many different colored dahlias as possible. The dahlias populate the hillside, but seem to be purposefully planted too, so I'm not sure how "native" they are.

Finally, the kids arrived!

(intensely pitching tents)

(this is what happens when you fit 6 boys into a tent)

After the "Amazing Race", 13 of us headed for dinner in the bazaar. This time, they gave us bowls with hot water and a slice of lime in it. Here is a picture of Jared having a good time.

(Jared exhibiting signs of silent humor)

Today, Sunday, a number of us headed out to Top Tibba for a hike. Chris, Karen, and I have to colead this hike next week for some middle schoolers. We got lost twice and the hike probaby took a good four hours to find the top, which according to some website, is 2615 meters elevation.

(Motley crew)

(Sarah's mom, this one's for you -- Sarah always makes friends with the plants.)

(Fellow Canadians, this one's for you -- go Maple Leafs (or whatever! spelling on purpose)!)
(the rolling hills of Top Tibba)

It was so much fun!!!!! Every day is amazing with some kind of nature abounding. To see the complete set of dahlia pictures (pretty cool, if I must say so myself), more kids pitching tents, or more hiking pictures, CLICK HERE and scroll down a bit. This is a link to the ongoing September 2007 photo set.