If you are a member of the Candian INS, the following is entirely a work of fiction...

So, again, if you are in anyway reqired to report this to the police, or immigration services, please don't read any further. Otherwise, I figured out a way to come up with some pizza money...If you know me, you've probably already guessed this one, but I just spent the last hour playing Irish/Celtic Music with this scary Death Metal looking guy on a five string acoustic violin. Busking pays well too, actually, I mean, we made $40 apiece in an hour over lunch hour. It was good times though, he likes to play really fast, and really loud, so we can be heard overh the street. So, anyways, that was how I spent my past two lunch hours. We met at a jam session on Tuesday, and again yesterday, so we started playing, and we've got a gig tonight at a local cafe, so we're playing a lot together. He's really good though, so it's good for me. In other news, everyone showed up last night, so where there was just me and noah, now there are like eight people in here, and another five upstairs, so this place is packed, and only one shower, between the all of us... In about fifteen minutes the Lisa (the music teacher) is going to pick us up and we're going to head over the the music superstore, Long and McQuade. I just got up and left for 10 minutes, so I have to go, but have fun, don't do anything I wouldn't do...

Nathan

In Victoria right now, interesting place...

So, I'm sitting in a coffe shop in Downtown Vic right now, waiting on Krystal, who is going to be showing up any second now, I hope, because the proprieters are giving me bad looks because we've been here for a little while now, and even though the place isn't busy, (direct quote from signs up everywhere) they "Are in the Coffe selling business, not the internet access business!". Anyways, we went to this really interesting production of A Midsummer's Night's Dream last night, that was fun. It was done by allums of the Canadian College of Performing Arts, who are trying to get started as pros, so they formed "Company C" and are putting on a show a month for eight months. If they're all this good, I'll be impressed. This is the place that want's me an Noah to be tech crew, and play in the Pit as well. They are doing "We will never forget", something they wrote about "Those who fought for Canada's Freedom", which is a big musical with 60 some odd performers, and the three of us for stage crew. Um...Also, this seems like one of the worst things to make a musical about. I mean, come on! Why in the world would you make a musical about Canadian freedom fighters? What's next? Ugandan bakers? This seems like one of the most obscure things you could find, but maybe that's because I'm Americ-oops, I'm not supposed to say that here, I get dirty looks. Last night I walked in on the World series (I missed the end, who won?) and there were three guys America-bashing, not Bush-bashing, but just getting pissed at America in General. They kept up on this for a while, then one left, then the other, and finally, it was just this little guy, in the TV room, going on and on about how America was destroying everything that good people held in the highest of respect. And so, me, being me, left it at nothing, and let him go on, and finally he asked me where I was from. I'm thinking, I'm going to be like "I'm 6'4", 200 pounds,by god, I'm 100% American. You're maybe 5'3", pushing 125, keep going and see how long you last." This is my big idea, right? But then the other two guys walk back in..."Me? No hablo ingles!"

Anyways, now that I've impressed upon everyone my self control, I finally did tell these guys I was American, and we argued until I was late to my show, and I took off. That was fairly interesting. I dunno...I mean, everytime someone starts Bush-bashing here, it's brutal as hell, and I'm always like "Yes, I agree, but come on! This is all I've heard for like nine and a half weeks! Move on! We aren't all like that!" I agree completely, but even my patience is wearing thin after almost two and a half months! I stopped going to the International disscussions we have here, after I went to the first three and they became so inflamed that it almost came to blows. (Not me, I stay out of shit like that, but I was involved in the disscussions leading up to that) It really is true, and it's just now hitting me, that everyone does hate us. This is not an intentionally inflammatory statement, just a true one. I mean, not everyone hates us personally, but many people do, just because we're American, and everyone hates Bush, and acceptable and appreciable sentiment, but with the amoun of venom put into it, I almost feel sorry for the guy. Anyways, that's been building up for a while, and last night It got a little out of hand. Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything stupid, but it's getting old. I need to get home and recharge, but I can't so I'll just stay out of the way for a while.

So, I'm thinking that Sharon, from Uganda, might be coming home with me. She can't afford to fly home to Africa, and how boring to spend Christmas in Victoria with a Host family, so I may have another random person running around with me over Break. Just a head's up, may not even happen, but that's what I"m trying for right now. As it were...The waitress is giving me a really dirty look (dirty as in "I'm leaving right now, I swear", not "Allright!" dirty) so I should probably wrap this up. Oh yeah, just to give my parents a hear attack right before I sign off for the day, I spent almost $200 on clothing yesterday.

Bye

Nathan

Got my project week form done!

So, apologies to all for not posting in a long time, I've been fairly busy with National Day and Project Week, which I am about to tell you about. So, myself and Noah have been planning to do project week together for a long time, like since the first week, and we were thinking, and I don't know where this came from, that we would like to go into a big city, and hang out with Street Musicians. So, we didn't really have much more of an idea than that, so we put that down on our proposal and said, "eh, we'l work out the details later". Eileen, the teacher in charge of projects, vetoed it, but didn't tell us untill the day after proposals were due, so we thought we had missed our chance to do a project this week, and would have to do it next February, when Noah already has tickets booked home. So, we begged her, and she gave us 24 hours to come up with something new, so I stayed up untill 2:30 last night, emailing every private and public school, and every charitable organization in about a twenty mile radius (actually, as far as the buses run), saying something along the lines of "Dear God, we're in trouble, help!", and have gotten replies from about 14 so far, along the lines of "Sure, we can use you!". So, now we're kind of "Who do we go with?" right? So we're looking through them, and we find one from the Greater Victoria Youth Orchestra, who are performing their big end of term concert the 30th, and need a lot of help with publicity and suchlike, and who are also a block and a half from where we're staying. So...We're going to go there, and we pulled this thing off, and I'll come back and finish this later, because my freeblock is ending rapidly, and I have to go to Theory of Knowledge, and ****! I had homework,

Be Right Back

Nathan

All right, so I'm here again, and it's pretty cool that I don't have to be stressing out about how I'm going to find somewhere to go, I'm just going to have to choose between the 22 offers I have right now. Anyways, I'm going to go do that now, but, you should all respond, so that I can get some more contact with home, because I'm feeling slightly depressed right now.

Nathan

Happy North American National Day!

So, I go to bed at two in the morning, last night, after typing up the workshop lists for everybody who signed up for a workshop. Then, I wake up atSeven, to go wake everyone else up. It turns out that the wakeup committe had decidwed that a really fun way to wake everyone on campus up would be to get as big of amps as we could find, take them around to each house, and blast them awake with loud rock music, ever so courteously provided by your truely, along with another really good guitarist, Taylor, from Ontario. But wait, thatwon'tbe neough,that'sboringby itself, lets add more. I know, we have enoughpeople, lets bring a drum kitalong too! OK, sounds good to me. So we ended up with a bass, two guitars and a kit, beating away in each house at seven in the morning, with people running into everyroom, waking people up, all dressed in black, and up here it's dark until right when classes startat eight, so pitchblack, loud music, people running around...itwas a lot of fun. anyways, after that, myself and the drummer decided that we needto wake ourself up as well, so we went for an 8k run, in 30 minutes, cross country, which left us just enough time to get back, shower, and make to our workshops. He was teaching Soapstone Carving, and I taught Bluegrass Guitar. Anyways, we took off, up the road, turned off on a trail, kept following smaller and smaller trails, untill, we got completely lost, and ended up using that compass that Dad gave me to aim ourselves towards the lake, whereuponriving we sprinted the rest of the way back, but for a good half hour we were completely and utterly lost, a very unusual situation, because heis an Eagle as well, or rather a Queen's Scout, and heis also thesecond year known as the adventurer, so we must have been really, really far off campus. I have to rush, because I only have like two minutes left before the internet shuts off. Anyways, after that, we had a show, wher I played piano for "Summer Lovin", making it up on the spot, Piano for some Quebec-Cois Song, haviong heard the song once before, and guitar for the Irish Dancers, which was fun, because I got to follow that incredible Violinist I keep talking about. Mushc fun, and then the costume party, but I can't go into that right now, because I have to post this or else it won't make it on untill morning. Adios,

Nathan

Happy birthday to you

Hey everybody, it's my little brother Thorin's Birthday today! He's one year old, and I'm missing it. Anyways, much love to him and all back home. Now, on to the fun stuff...Like sewing. Yup, I ended up hemming this girl's (Chelsea) dress for her, for national day, which is Friday, so I was up untill 1 last night, doing it by hand, making it look really good, Grandmom would have been proud of me. Thats the big fuss on campus right now, National Day. We're gearing up right now, with the show (I'm in five of the eleven acts), the dinner, and the dance afterwards (costume of course, with Halloween so close). I'm taking Loren, the second year from Australia, who is Hunter's (USA) girlfriend, so she's one of the three safe people. People I can take and get away with taking and not get all the "Oh, does he like her?" sh-stuff. Anyways, because Hunter is cooking all that good American food, she was looking for someone, and asknig random people, and I was the first guy to say yes. Anyways...oh yeah, I ran 18k on Monday, and we're going out again tommorrow to finish the Marathon. Damn, that's crazt, but fun, because you're running alongside the bay for most of the way, on this little gravel rails-to-trails trail, so that was cool. I went with Tessa, who, as you might recall, was the same person I was running with when I beat myself up, so...But she's a marathoner, and wants me to do the Seattle Marathon with her, because I'm the only one here, aside from Stuart, (erstwhile director), who she can train up to it in a month and a half. but hey, whatever works. I have to go write and English essay now. Ironically enough, the only classes I am having trouble in and really don't like are my two languages. I really like the rest of my courses, but English and Spanish I detest. I have never actually hated a class before, but English is giving it a run for the money. I don't know why, I think its mostly just the teacher. I'm sure he's a fine teacher, and a capable instructor, in fact, I'm positive, if he's here, but I don't see it anywhere. We're still doing the cutesy little cardboard and marker posters in class, as projects, and when we do do analysis, he doesn't really say anything worth saying. I don't want to hate on him, but he doesn't really have anything to add to the conversation. Anyways, I have to finish this essay I'm writing for him, have fun, much love to all, esp Short Stuff, I'm gone

Nathan

So, there are about twelve of us on campus right now, and it's all the americans...

Apparently this weekend is canadian Thanksgiving, so everyone has either gone home, in the case of the canadians, or has headed into vancouver or victoria, becaue we have a threeday weekend. So, all of the americans are still here, but no one else is. So basically, we have nothing to do, so we watch football. I caught probably four games yesterday, after I woke up. *interuppted train of thought* So, I woke up at 1, and thought I was doing pretty well. My roommate, Waleed...Woke up at five, got up at six, and missed supper, we slept so long. I bow in humble amazement. *train goes the other direction* I watched the Matrix last night. Very impressive. My philosophy teacher recommended it, and I hadn't seen it before, so we watched it with about fifteen opther people, crammed around a laptop screen. Good movie. Anyways, it's too early to be coherent, so I'm going back to bed for about another four or five hours. I think that we're becoming nocturnal...

So, I'm avoiding actually doing any homework right now...

So, I should be doing my spanish, but by doing this instead, I have a psuedo legitimate excuse not to. We had a fire alarm last night, at 2:30 AM, a short in the wiring in the alarm system set them all off, so every building had the "Fire in this building, get out now" alarm, as opposed to the "There's a fire somewhere, but not here" alarm. So we all sprinted outside, so that the firefighters could check every house, and then the real firefighters checked too, once they got here forty five minutes later, and the whole time we're standing there in groups of about four or five, huddling together, trying to keep warm, because none of us, with the exception of yours truely, had grabbed a jacket on the way out, and the girls were all in these really cool looking things *NOTE TO READERS* (My mother commented on this, and so I feel that I should address it. 'Cool', as in, "It's not quite fifty degrees, cool", not "Wow, that's hot" cool. As it were...), and anyways, we were all piled on top of each other trying to stay warm, from about 2:15 to 3:30, this morning. And then we got the all clear, and I went back to bed, to wake up in two and a half hours, to go running. Anyways, I relly need to do my spanish, so, I'm gone,

Nathan

Much pain right now...but by god I feel manly

So, I figured that I should let everyone else know what's up right now. I took a nasty fall running today. I made it 8k, no problem. But then, two thirds done, I crash. The whole way over, I've been right behind Tessa, from Ontario. She's not taking off too fast, she's got short legs, so I'm not moving too fast either, but coming down a hill, she took off all of the sudden, so I followed, but I tripped over a root, so the whole way down, I'm stumbling and knowing I'm going to fall as soon as I hit the bottom, so I'm like shouting at her to get out of the way, and she missed it, so, to avoid flattening her, I end up tossing myself into the rocks on the side of the path, and taking the skid in the hip. I got back up, eventually, and I picked up some nice wounds. I have a full knee abrasion on both knees, double elbow scrapes, left hand gravel gouges, right upper chest full scrape, and best for last, about six inches of gouges along my ribs, down to my left hip, which hurts to move. I went into the Nurse when I got back and she kept me for about a half an hour, to make sure I was ok, and to clean out all of these nice scrapes. So right now I've been in bed for the past four hours, alternating between sleeping in the one position that doesn't hurt, on the right side, curled up, and waking up to my roommate and his girlfriend fighting. Joy. But, and this is the manly, chivalrous part, Tessa didn't even get touched. And so, I'll have some good new scars when I come home, chicks dig those. I'm going back to bed.

Nathan

Interview with Stacey Manning, from the KY Standard

So basically, this is a lazy post, i.e. I already put all this time into this thing, and I didn't want to spend more time writing about things covered here, so, here en toto, (is that a phrase?) is my 'interview' with Stacey Manning, from the KY Standard, I'm going to go eat lunch.


How did you get involved in the National Merit program?

Any highschool student who takes the PSAT, which is the basically the practice SAT, automatically applies to the National Merit Program, and I believe, but I am not sure, that there is a statewide cutoff rate, for high scores to be awarded semi-finalist. So, in summary, I took the PSAT and did decently on it and they invited me to join.

When did you find out you were a National Merit semifinalist?

When my parents emailed me and said, "Hey, I saw in the paper, you got National Merit semi-finalist! Good job!" So, the first notification was when they read about it in the paper.
What does it mean to be a National Merit semifinalist (what do you get,etc.)?

Again, I'm not sure, but the semifinalist is just another thing to put on your college resume. I think that the awards and suchlike start at the Finalist level, so I first have to make it past this next hurdle, but then the National Merit Board has, I think, about a thousand scholarships, and there are others available as well, plus more awards and fun things, but again, this is all trying to remember from when I took that test two years ago.
What happens next?

Actually, because I am in Canada, and not technically a Highschool senior, we're not really sure. I know that I do have to take the new SAT sometime soon, and make sure that I do very well on that, and then also, and this is what the counselor here said that they'd had to do in the past, is that I may very well have to take the PSAT again, and re-establish my eligibility. So, that is an ongoing situation, I do know that the latest I can take the new SAT for National Merit is in December, so I will have to finish this up, very quickly.
What did you think when you heard you were one of the semifinalists?

Allright, some more help with college. That and, "Arrgh, now I have to take the SAT this year." Because usually, first years at Pearson don't have to take any standardized tests, just the Second years.
How hopeful are you that you will make it to the next round?

Well, I test very well, and I have taken some practice exams and made the same level as my PSAT scores, so I do think that if, hopefully when, we get this eligibilty thing resolved, I will be able to go all the way.
How would being a National Merit finalist help you academically and whatwould it mean to you personally?

It is a great thing to put on those College applications, but more importantly, it means, "Hey, I'm in the same room with really smart people. I can do the same stuff they can" Probably 90% of it is ego booster.
Ok, now on the fun stuff Š Canada.When did you leave Bardstown for Canada?

I drove up to Chicago on August 29th, my Train left August 30th, and I got here September 2nd.
Tell me a little bit about your first impressions of the program/Canada whenyou arrived?

Well, actually, I ended up staying the night in Victoria, which is the closest 'big' city, with about 300,000 people, at a youth hostel, and the next morning, the day I was supposed to be at school, I called the school, and said, allright, I'm here come get me, and they replied "We don't have anymore space on the busses, you'll have to find you're own way here." So I ended up taking my luggage on a city bus, all the way out, as far as the bus driver would take me, and he even made about a 5 mile detour, and they dropped me off on this deserted road, and said "The schools only about three miles up the road, you'll be fine" So I was there, walking up this windy, twisty, backroad, with more vertical climbs in a mile and a half than we have in the entire state back home, and I get about halfway there, and Mellissa's [a first year from Prince Edward Island] parents drive by and say, "you want a lift?". So I only had to walk about a mile and a half, but I had all of my luggage for a year, so...Anyways, this isn't relevent. Yes it is, because on the way up there, I got to see these incredible views, and this massive old growth forest, and all the wildlife, and...The program is located in one of the most picturesque spots imaginable. If I can get some photos, I'll fire thoses off to you as well, but we are about 100 ft above the bay, with massive forestation all around us, and on a clear day, you can look out of the mouth, down the bay, across the water and see Washington State, abuot 50-70 miles.
Tell me a little bit about the interesting people you¹ve met there.

Wow. I don't think I can. I mean, I could start with the guy I ate dinner with two nights ago, who is a friend of the director's, Eric Phillips, you may have heard of him, the first guy to cross all of the earth's major Icemasses. He is also an Everest guide, and actually won three emmy's for various films that he has made about his travels. I mean, this guy hosted a reality show. And I ate dinner with him! Anyways, that was cool, but I could start with my roommates. There are four of us to a room, about 25' by 20', and ten rooms to a house, and usually the roomates are half Second year, half first year, but I got one of the, I think, four rooms that has three second years, so that's interesting. One, Petr, is from the Czech republic, very cool guy, good drummer, crazy Iceclimber, he was on his country's national team for a couple of years. The other European is from Holland, Adriann, he's actually only like four months older than I am ( I turned 17 while I was here ), and I had a hard time believing that he wasn't from Chicago. He has this perfect accent, and looks and dresses like he's from a big city. My third roommate, and the most interesting, is Waleed, from Iraq. He is actually the oldest person on campus, I think he's 21, because the admissions make exceptions for students who have had their education interuppted by war, and actually, he served in the Iraqi army for a couple of years before coming here. We get along well, we talk politics and war, we agree on some things (We shouldn't be in Iraq) and disagree on others (Israel has a right to exist), That's actually one of the most fun people here. He is also an accomplished singer, and musician, very good, very interesting, and he's teaching me Arabic. The other people here are also very, very cool. The other guy from the US, Noah, is from Vermont, he's very cool. Also the student population is 25% Canadian, so they are always around. I like listening to the inter province bickering, it's so great to hear these put-downs, that are cliches in Canada and everyone understands them, and myself and Noah are like" What? How is this relevent? He has mountains and praire in the same state? so?" Anyways, probably the most fun guy I've met her has to be Kip-Korrir. He is from Kenya, and he is Masai, so he actually lived with a nomadic tribe for most of his life. He herded cattle for years, and so, when we go running, this man can run me into the ground. I ran 22k with him, trailrunning, and I made it, barely, but he's still sprinting. He's also quite the singer, and...You see what I mean? I could go all day about these various people. There are so many fantastic people her, it's easy to see why they got picked to come here.
What types of things are you studying?

I have Mathematics, Higher Level, Physics, Advanced Spanish, English A1 (My teacher is Geoffery, from South Africa), Philosphy, Music, and Theory of Knowledge, the Study of how we learn and know things.
Are you involved in other projects/extra curricular activities?

Yes. Every student must take at least four activites while they are here, one from each Group: Creative ARts, Outdoor Leadership,
How is the learning environment you¹re in now, different from school back inKentucky?

I just typed this, tried to save it and lost it, so this will be a rehash for me, but...The learning environment here is like the loosest, freest, most laid back college you can think of. But even more so than that. Nothing here is ever locked, classrooms, the main theatre, the library, so if you wake up in the middle of the night, and realize you forgot to do your chem lab, ok. Just turn the lights out when you leave. They start with the assumption that everyone here is mature enough not to do stupid stuff, and go from there. The teachers here are all phenonmenally well educated, I mean, even the Bus driver (Nicole) is working on her Masters. The classes are tiny, the biggest one that I have, which is known as the "Monster Class" around campus, is 16 students. The smallest, which is still considered about average, is 8.
What do you think about the experience so far?

Words cannot say. I cannot describe the experience, the people, the location, any of it. I still wake up in the mornings and go "Wow, I'm in Canada" But I don't think that the location or the classes are what makes this place so incredible. I think that it's the people, the students and the teacher from everywhere, who are what makes this phenomenal. It wouldn't matter where this is, or what the classes were like, if the same people were here. I cannot say how much of a "Wow" moment it is to spend the entire night watching movies in strange languages with the people whose cultures create things like that. Or what it's like to spend the entire night talking about things happening in the world, and what we can do to change them. And then waking up the next day and seeing people actually doing them. The people here have more drive, more enthusiam, more energy than anywhere else I have ever been, even more than ( to bring a back home comparison) a Baptist Revival. This place, this last month, it's been the greatest time of my life. I feel truely honored and priveledged to spend it with these people.
Are you glad you made the decision to be a part of this program?

See above
Do you feel anything about the program or the people you¹ve met has changedyou so far? If so, how?

Back home, I always tried to be a mellow person, to just go with it, and not to get too involved in anything not worth getting involved in. i.e. to pick and choose my fights. But here, there are so many things happening, and all of them major crisises in their resepctive points of origin, that it is difficult to do that. You have got to be able to see both sides, or rather, all the sides, for there are often many, many sides of an disscussion, and then you have to know when to back away and say, "I cannot possible understand this, there are too many cultural and national references involved for me to get this" and when to say "Guys, I know I'm an outsider and new to this problem, but why not do this? Does this make sense?" You have to know when, even more than choosing fights, choosing influences, if that makes sense.
You have only been there a short time, but how has the experience affected the way you see the world?

The world just became about 90% smaller. How many times can you say I ate lunch with someone from each inhabited continent today? I do it at least three or four times a week. How often can you say, that of the group of people that you hang out with, at least three quarters of them don't speak english as theire first language, and live more than ten thousand miles from where you do? I thought that I had a long distance to travel, all the way across the continent, but these guys, coming from Israel and Zimbabwe?
What are you most looking forward to as you stay in Canada and go throughthis program?

Actually, what I am most looking forwards to is after this, not coming home, though I do miss everybody back home, but my 'secret' ambition is to spend a couple of years traveling before I go off to college, and visit as many of these people here as I can. How great would that be, not only to spend time with them here, but to spend time with them on their own turf?
Anything else?

Actually, if you wanted to, you could check out my blog, at www.canadarambles.blogspot.com , I've been posting pretty faithfully there since I got here, so there's a lot more stuff there as well that you should feel free to use. Also, if you wanted to print that address, so that everybody else back home could check it out if they wanted to, I know that some of my family looks at it, but if anyone else is interested, they are more than welcome to peruse. Actually, I think that I am going to drop this on there later tonight, as a lazy post, instead of having to come up with two things to talk about on the same day. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, I may get back to you quickly, it may take a while, depending on how much homework I have, among other things, but I always enjoy talking to people back home.

Slainte-


Nathan