Beginning to prepare for school...and a funny story!

So, this week I've spent my time at Wilfrid Laurier University attending a music course that is run by the Kodaly Society of Canada. It is a week long course that provides a great method for teaching music! It is fun and will be very applicable so it is a great use of my time. I also realized that I really enjoy being on a campus again. I loved university! Stressful at times, yes, but very stimulating! (Although there were days at university that I certainly was not smarter then when I started...and maybe even dumber!) It kind of makes me think that I might want to do a course sometime to finish my honours degree. We'll see if that can fit in sometime! This coming school year promises to be busy and challenging.

Last night, Ivan and I remembered a funny story from when we were in Munich. We took the public transit - subway, buses, railcars - from our campsites to the town centres in most places. That was the best way to travel, but it was sometimes confusing figuring out the individual subway systems. The basic system was the same, but purchasing tickets, signs, and the organization of platforms were different in each. In Rome for example, you could go on and off the subway without ever sliding your ticket through entry and exit machines. In Paris though, you couldn't even access or exit the system unless you swiped your ticket. Well. After experiencing many different subway systems, we needed to get into Munich. Most campgrounds sold day tickets for public transit, but not in Munich. The camp ranger told us that we needed to buy tickets on the bus. We got on the bus, but we couldn't figure out the ticket machine. (We don't read German that well :P) So we rode the bus for free, feeling slightly guilty, until we got to the subway station. Again, at the subway station we couldn't even find a ticket machine, so remembering that in Rome and Venice and someother cities, you could ride the transit system without ever having a ticket (although we always had tickets there), we again, feeling somewhat guilty, decided to ride the subway for free. Let me make it clear: We wanted to buy tickets we just couldn't figure it out! Much to our dismay, after being on the subway for about 15 seconds, we noticed that two policeofficers were going up and down the rows asking people to show their tickets. We listened as one woman was reprimanded, fined and was told she would be escorted off at the next stop, and became very nervous as the police officers made their way closer and closer to us. By some odd turn of events, neither officer asked Ivan or I to show our tickets although every single person around us had to show theirs. We looked at each other in relief, but not wanting to push our luck stood up to get off at the next stop. The next 60 seconds were quite tense. I was certain that we would be asked at any second to show our tickets. When we got out of the car, a police officer was also checking tickets as people exited...again we missed being checked by sneaking behind someone else and walking the other way. When we thought the coast was clear, we turned around, hightailed it into the main station, and finally figured out how to buy a subway ticket. PHEW! A near police confrontation in a foreign language, avoided!

Camping in Algonquin

I went camping with my family last week at Algonquin. We had a wonderful time! We went canoeing, fishing, kayaking, swimming, did a few portages, played some games, cooked over the campfire, and camped overnight at a paddle-in site. Ivan had to work, but he came on Friday evening with his kayak to spend the night and Saturday with us. It is amazing to see God's hand in creation in Algonquin. Whenever I am there I always marvel at the beauty of the lakes, the trees, the rocks, the wildlife...the sunrises over the water, the moon and stars reflecting like diamonds on the lake's surface. We also experienced a raging storm one evening. We were spared the worst of the storm, in the sense that although it was windy, and thunder and lightening were flashing overhead for a long time, we didn't experience any danger. We did hear a tree crash down in the distance but nothing came near us. After the storm, we learned that much of the area had been hit very hard with strong winds and a tornado. We are thankful that we were spared this experience! Other than that storm we had beautiful, sunny, warm weather and enjoyed every minute we spent outdoors!