Harrison hot springs trip
After weeks and weeks of planning and tearing my hair out, we FINALLY
go on our trip, and it was fantastic! I spent the last two days
catching up on sleep and being lazy, but I finally got prodded into
uploading the pictures today to share with everyone. So here you go!
Warning: It's a very long post with lots of jokes that you had to be
there to understand.
And here are the pictures from the other people too if you haven't had enough, they're on imagestation though so you'd have to sign in to look at them. Sign up is free though!:
Alice: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123932751
Rosanna: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123939793
Connie: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123934921
Sibil: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123934676
Wednesday night: We'd spent the past few weeks asking everyone (EVERYONE! I even asked people I met volunteering at summer camp last year) if they wanted to come, sometimes even three times, but it was always work, school, money or parents. We had our moments of despair and sniping at each other in frustration, but we finally got enough people to satisfy Rosanna's parents. But then two more people dropped out in the afternoon because they got into a fight with their parents. I got called about it at the bank when I was withdrawing money and cashing in cheques for the trip and in all the fluster, I deposited $70 more than I should've and didn't find out until the next day. We spent the afternoon running around like headless chickens until 11 PM that night, Rosanna finally convinced her parents to let her go. So it was now down to the Superb Seven: Jenn, Jenkens, Rosanna, Alice, Safia, Connie and Sibil. My parents' only comment was "Lucky Jenkens..."
Thursday: Woke up at 5:30 AM to catch the greyhound to Chilliwack and then transfer to Harrison Hot springs. Amazingly, I got the schedule right and we made it there in one piece. We got laughed at by the locals for being the "Suburbz" (sibbie's joke) and calling Chilliwack "quaint."
We checked in at about 11 AM to a beautiful condo suite that came with 2 bedrooms with adjoining bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, laundry room, and living room with TV/DVD/VCR/CD player. It was very modern and spiffy, although the locks on the bathrooms were weird so Jenkens kept walking in on Sibil showering. The curtain was drawn though thank god. As soon as everything was unpacked, we hit the beach! It was gorgeous outside and our pad was right across the street from the lake.
We spent the whole day there building Sandra the Sandwoman, re-enacting the Joey the Sand-merman scene from Friends, boating in a somewhat leaky boat, having a picnic, napping on the beach, playing frisbee and beachball and swimming in the water. Then we headed back to start making dinner, or rather have Rosanna make dinner while we got in her way with our helping. We discovered that Connie is very good at mixing Iced tea powder with water, and that Safia is addicted to the stuff. Alice and I walked over to a farm about 20 minute away to pick up some fresh produce. We bought lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, an onion, cherries, strawberries, milk, eggs and juice for just $6.40. Yay for being Asian with a good help-the-poor-lost-city-girl face!
Pasta, Garlic Bread and Iced TeaWe took a midnight walk around the lake while singing oldies and Jenn-waltzing in the sand. The view was breathtaking and we spent a good hour just watching the tide come in while the moon peeked over the mountains. I wish I had a picture but it was too dark, and the shutter sounds would've ruined the atmosphere anyways. We also took a walk around town, trying to get into a pub to play pool and into the ballroom to dance (Entirely Sibil's idea!) Then we played on the swings until we were nauseous and headed back in to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp is even hotter at 2 AM! Eventually we all passed out I was sharing a bed with Alice, and she had allergies. I must say, it was very different trying to sleep in a double bed with someone who took all the covers and whistled when she snored as her nose was congested. Very charming.
Friday: It started raining today, which was sad, but we found lots of things to do anyways. We'd promised ourselves we'd wake up at 7:30 to enjoy the entire day. Guess what time we got ready to leave? 10:30. Rofl, so much for willpower. We had a nice breakfast of pancakes, waffles, and toast though.
Eventually we all got enough caffeine inside of us and we headed out for a stroll in the rain. We decided to go take a looksee at the Hot Springs, and somehow along the way we decided to have conversations in French. Safia and Rosanna were up front and you could hear them having an entire dialogue with full sentences, subjonctifs and all. So the rest of us tried to drown them out by practicing our vocab. "What's shoes?" "Pieds!" "What's socks?" "Pieds!" "Then what's feet?!" "Pieds!"
You're all probably tired of hearing about food now, so let's just skip that and say that Rosanna is an awesome cook/babysitter and without her we probably would've starved. Instead we all gained 10 lbs each! We spent the afternoon lazing around playing "King" and gossiping while watching talk shows on TV. And even though we wanted to go soak in some hot water, the public hot springs was really disgusting since it was basically hot chlorinated mineral water with a bunch of old wrinkly people sitting in it stewing. So we decided to be picky and use the free jacuzzi in our condo instead. Bwa! It was kinda nice just hanging around with friends all day and not have to think about anything else. Safia said it best when she mentioned it felt like we were all at university and sharing an apartment. Considering by then our lunch was at 4 PM and dinner at 9 PM, and we didn't sleep until around 3 or 4 AM, I'm not sure it would've been a good idea for us to live together for school. At least with Safia and Rosanna around, we weren't drinking ourselves stupid.
Saturday: Spent the morning doing clean-up, which was kinda disgusting. We were mostly using our suite to hang out in, since Safia, Sibil and Jenken's was smaller and less bright. But it was still disgusting holding up socks and going "Whose are these?" We found out that Jenkens had left his socks, underwear and trunks here. And we also had to try and finish as much food as we could, and sat around eating lettuce and cheese by the fistfuls. Rofl, table manners, what table manners? Anyways, got back to Coquitlam at around 2 PM and spent the next few days sleeping in my nice big bed. And there you go! Our trip, yay!
And here are the pictures from the other people too if you haven't had enough, they're on imagestation though so you'd have to sign in to look at them. Sign up is free though!:
Alice: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123932751
Rosanna: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123939793
Connie: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123934921
Sibil: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2123934676
Wednesday night: We'd spent the past few weeks asking everyone (EVERYONE! I even asked people I met volunteering at summer camp last year) if they wanted to come, sometimes even three times, but it was always work, school, money or parents. We had our moments of despair and sniping at each other in frustration, but we finally got enough people to satisfy Rosanna's parents. But then two more people dropped out in the afternoon because they got into a fight with their parents. I got called about it at the bank when I was withdrawing money and cashing in cheques for the trip and in all the fluster, I deposited $70 more than I should've and didn't find out until the next day. We spent the afternoon running around like headless chickens until 11 PM that night, Rosanna finally convinced her parents to let her go. So it was now down to the Superb Seven: Jenn, Jenkens, Rosanna, Alice, Safia, Connie and Sibil. My parents' only comment was "Lucky Jenkens..."
Thursday: Woke up at 5:30 AM to catch the greyhound to Chilliwack and then transfer to Harrison Hot springs. Amazingly, I got the schedule right and we made it there in one piece. We got laughed at by the locals for being the "Suburbz" (sibbie's joke) and calling Chilliwack "quaint."
We checked in at about 11 AM to a beautiful condo suite that came with 2 bedrooms with adjoining bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, laundry room, and living room with TV/DVD/VCR/CD player. It was very modern and spiffy, although the locks on the bathrooms were weird so Jenkens kept walking in on Sibil showering. The curtain was drawn though thank god. As soon as everything was unpacked, we hit the beach! It was gorgeous outside and our pad was right across the street from the lake.
We spent the whole day there building Sandra the Sandwoman, re-enacting the Joey the Sand-merman scene from Friends, boating in a somewhat leaky boat, having a picnic, napping on the beach, playing frisbee and beachball and swimming in the water. Then we headed back to start making dinner, or rather have Rosanna make dinner while we got in her way with our helping. We discovered that Connie is very good at mixing Iced tea powder with water, and that Safia is addicted to the stuff. Alice and I walked over to a farm about 20 minute away to pick up some fresh produce. We bought lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, an onion, cherries, strawberries, milk, eggs and juice for just $6.40. Yay for being Asian with a good help-the-poor-lost-city-girl face!
Pasta, Garlic Bread and Iced TeaWe took a midnight walk around the lake while singing oldies and Jenn-waltzing in the sand. The view was breathtaking and we spent a good hour just watching the tide come in while the moon peeked over the mountains. I wish I had a picture but it was too dark, and the shutter sounds would've ruined the atmosphere anyways. We also took a walk around town, trying to get into a pub to play pool and into the ballroom to dance (Entirely Sibil's idea!) Then we played on the swings until we were nauseous and headed back in to watch Pirates of the Caribbean. Johnny Depp is even hotter at 2 AM! Eventually we all passed out I was sharing a bed with Alice, and she had allergies. I must say, it was very different trying to sleep in a double bed with someone who took all the covers and whistled when she snored as her nose was congested. Very charming.
Friday: It started raining today, which was sad, but we found lots of things to do anyways. We'd promised ourselves we'd wake up at 7:30 to enjoy the entire day. Guess what time we got ready to leave? 10:30. Rofl, so much for willpower. We had a nice breakfast of pancakes, waffles, and toast though.
Eventually we all got enough caffeine inside of us and we headed out for a stroll in the rain. We decided to go take a looksee at the Hot Springs, and somehow along the way we decided to have conversations in French. Safia and Rosanna were up front and you could hear them having an entire dialogue with full sentences, subjonctifs and all. So the rest of us tried to drown them out by practicing our vocab. "What's shoes?" "Pieds!" "What's socks?" "Pieds!" "Then what's feet?!" "Pieds!"
You're all probably tired of hearing about food now, so let's just skip that and say that Rosanna is an awesome cook/babysitter and without her we probably would've starved. Instead we all gained 10 lbs each! We spent the afternoon lazing around playing "King" and gossiping while watching talk shows on TV. And even though we wanted to go soak in some hot water, the public hot springs was really disgusting since it was basically hot chlorinated mineral water with a bunch of old wrinkly people sitting in it stewing. So we decided to be picky and use the free jacuzzi in our condo instead. Bwa! It was kinda nice just hanging around with friends all day and not have to think about anything else. Safia said it best when she mentioned it felt like we were all at university and sharing an apartment. Considering by then our lunch was at 4 PM and dinner at 9 PM, and we didn't sleep until around 3 or 4 AM, I'm not sure it would've been a good idea for us to live together for school. At least with Safia and Rosanna around, we weren't drinking ourselves stupid.
Saturday: Spent the morning doing clean-up, which was kinda disgusting. We were mostly using our suite to hang out in, since Safia, Sibil and Jenken's was smaller and less bright. But it was still disgusting holding up socks and going "Whose are these?" We found out that Jenkens had left his socks, underwear and trunks here. And we also had to try and finish as much food as we could, and sat around eating lettuce and cheese by the fistfuls. Rofl, table manners, what table manners? Anyways, got back to Coquitlam at around 2 PM and spent the next few days sleeping in my nice big bed. And there you go! Our trip, yay!