Golf carts, Paintballing & the favourite

Well folks Ive been here a month very hard to believe. All is still well although I honestly believe that If I'm going to seriously injure myself here it will be on a golf cart... On wed night Lindsey and I were taking a youth group up at B3 our skate park that is on top of a hill in a forest. When it came to come back down the kids pilled in to cars and we got into the golf cart to discover we had one with no lights. We could barely see the steering wheel it was that dark let alone the path. It took us a very long time to get ourselves and the golf cart in one piece back down I should also mention this all happened in the middle of a thunder and lighting storm! Next as a passenger I was in a golf cart that nearly toppled as it hit a tree stump, then today as I was driving I didn't realise/forgot that different sides of the roads still exist on camp and with golf carts as I nearly had a head on collision with a ranger truck! We got full electricty on Thursday night the school that was meant to come in Mon-Wed cancelled so we got a fun few days filled with giant swing, zip line and paintballing! - So much fun especially when I didnt get shot once and picked off so many of the other team of course there was Irish terrorist jokes on my behalf for the rest of the night!!
Got to go to church this am which was cool but was no Ballynahinch Baptist, hopefully be able to go back there next week or try a few more places. Went to an animal rescue santuary this afternoon saw raccoons, herons, otters, beavers, lions, wolves and bears most the animals were either hit on the road or people had bought as pets and then realised having a wild animal as a pet was not really the best idea in the world! Went to a wiener roast tonight which entailed cooking hotdogs over a bon fire. Here's to being the favourite, Boredom fighting matches/Biggest bruise contests, being known as the one that always smells good, back firing pranks and having my first smore.

Black out

I woke up on Saturday night/Sunday morning to a massive bang and the house shaking! After a few seconds of waiting for the trumpet call, I realised that Jesus had not in fact returned and started to consider a bomb had gone off. I looked out the window to discover a number of trees had come down and one was one fire!! So the fire brigade were called and Canada's version of NIE to sort out the problem by Sunday lunchtime Muskoka Woods and the entire area of approx 50 mile radius still had no electricity. After a pretty boring day it started to get dark and by dark I mean so dark that you can't see anything an inch from your face! So we decided to go over to the music hall and play sardines [One person hides and everyone individually has to find them once found you hide with them until the last person finds everybody] in the dark. We all dressed in black [the boys came back dressed as ninjas-very funny!] Esp when Mike tried to bust a ninja move and fell flat on his back! One of the games we were all on top of the lockers and another everyone was under the stage it was great craic you literally couldn't see anything, I fell out a window one of the games but thankfully it was a ground floor window and one was not seriously injured! Later we played a massive game of would you rather followed by a late night feast and bed by candle light! A school was meant to come today but canceled because as of this morning we didn't have any electricity, now half the camp has power sadly the half I live on still doesn't! Sucks to be me. So we spent most of the day driving around in pick up trucks picking up fallen branches. Apparently there is to be another storm tonight so we could be in for a fun couple of days!
Heres to living in a freezing house, discovering I am in no way equipped properly for a Canadian winter- I have some serious shopping to do, the sound of trees falling, pulling pranks and pile ons!!

Goodbye Tom & The ESBMLM Award

Its all very sad. Tom had to go home the stupid idiot left it too late to reapply for his work visa. He had gone on holiday for a week to Toronto and last night right in the middle of the seaosn premeir of Greys anatomy he arrived at the door annnoucing that he was flying home tonight! Basically he has been illegal for the past 3 weeks! So im losing my partner in crime ill miss stealing things with him! Also this week I won the ESBMLM Award [Everyone should be more like me!] Yeah I rule and was the best staff member this week! Check out my award even has my name on it! Ive also been asked to help run a local youth group every wednesday night which im very very excited about. Here's to climbing up to see what was in our attic due to late night boredom, to Terri getting stuck in the attic, finally being able to open a bank account, to new staff and nearly killing myself on a golf cart- NO JOKE!

Colours

The past couple of days have been good cant believe Ive only been here 2 & a half weeks, continuing to get to know people better and good friends are being made. Was instructing golf, zipline and high ropes yesterday and today managed to get lost taking kids hiking I just told them I liked going off the beaten track but I however was slightly concerned at one point and thought search and rescue may have been needed but thankfully I found the path soon enough. I love taken kids hiking the trees are so beautiful so many colours- pink, red, green, orange, yellow even purple espically at the top over looking the lake at each side the trees seem to go on forever. Ive to take another group in about 10 mins so hopefully the same thing wont happen again! I had my best moment at Muskoka woods so far yesterday when we were able to send a wheel chair bound disabled kid down the zipline. He was here with his school and wasn't able to take part in very many activities so we worked out a way to pull him up to the zipline tower and send him down it. His entire school came to watch and played drums and cheered him on, his mum and several teachers were in tears and he said it was like he was flying over the grand canon. He had the biggest smile on his face the rest of the day it was class! Lindsey and I have managed to watch 24 episodes of Greys anatomy since starting on Monday sneaking an episode here and there before the new season starts on Tonight we need to fit 3 more episodes in somewhere! Here's to my dad getting a ticket to the Ryder Cup!! Its been his dream to go for years and now he gets to go to the first one in Ireland! and to much much laughter!

Hot tailing it!

So im in this shop looking about when my friend terri spots a pipe and asks the lady if they have anymore as she would like to buy one for her dad. The woman says sure follow me she takes us to the back of the shop and pushes back a stand to reveal a secret room, I thought thats weird but innocently walked in behind terri it took me a second to realise what kinda room i was standing in, it was full of mara wanna pipes and other stuff that looked very much illegal!! Needless to say terri and i hot tailed it out of there leaving the woman standing in the room wondering what just happened! Here's to the half dead mouse, to the now dead mouse, to free t-shirts, going canoing, more seconds off my minute mile time, scoring a free pair of puma shoes from the lost and found, and to very late night chats!

Visuals

Thought Id give you all some visuals: Top left as you can clearly see is me on a golf cart, right of it is my house, below left is the ropes course and zip line, right of it is Lorna, me, Terri & Mike, below left is the entrance sign and then we have Tom and Lorna in Dairy Queen. I have more pictures on my bebo if you can find it or if the link works. Ive tried to make it public but it doesnt seem to be working. Heres to a mini donut and apple fight, being on call, trying not to laugh during the air band contest last night and to getting my social security number so I can get paid!!

Raccoons, Mc Flurrys & "My bad"

The past few days have been good, I have to say I love my job and can't believe they are paying me for it! Plus have been told im good at it – which is always good to know, I feel. All Ive done this week is take kids mountain biking, golfing, on the zip line, high ariel ropes and climbing wall and play team building games. Tonight believe it or not i'm doing music at an air bands contest and then hopefully building a camp fire. I volunteered to work in the shop twice a week turns out if you work in the shop you don't have to do dishes and you get staff discount in the shop – SCORE!
We nearly killed a raccoon on the way home from Walmart last night was the first time Id ever seen one so glad we didn't hit it my main reason for going to Walmart was to feed my Oreo Mc Flurry addiction. Also i'm starting a new series on boxset Smallville was on special offer so I went with it. It then turned out a lot of the staff are Smallville fans so we're planning a Smallville marathon.
When I got back from Walmart Tom called me over to meet a girl Northern Ireland who is here on retreat with Urban Promise. Turns out she went to friends and has been to church- you can imagine we were both very excited at the randomness of it all. Even though its only been 2 weeks it was nice to hear the old N.Irish accent again and discuss our time in Canada so far.
I'm going tomorrow to get a social security number so that I can actually get my pay and to attempt to open a bank account hopefully ill find somewhere that will want to take my money. Here's to finally finding out what “my bad” means, to finding out Dan works at the Puma outlet store and gets discount (love their shoes!), to getting sworn at in Spanish when I wouldn't let a couple of kids down the zipline for not belaying properly or paying attention– I have to be strict sometimes! And to loosing half my kids mountain biking today!!

Ropes

What a weekend... For the past 3 days I have been training to be a high and low ropes instructor. I had myself all worked up about doing it. The first morning after being told what was needed to be done to pass I actually vomited!(No Joke!) -That has never happened to me before I Just felt so much pressure and expectation to pass as well as most people already knowing it all and have alot of experience in climbing. We had to be able to tie 8 different knots, belay climbers, set up ropes for climbers, back up belay, climb and set up work stations and be able to communicate all these activities. The first day was spent on the climbing wall and belay and climbing on different high rope team activities, the second day I didn't vomit but I did cry! It was spent again on the climbing wall and then we had to set up our on work stations this was the main thing we had to do to pass! I had to climb up 45 feet and attach myself with a harness, and attach a pully to the wire and put a sheer reduction device through the pully and put a rope through, then unclip myself and climb/belay back down! Mike D went first, then Tom got half way up and chickened out. Was then my turn I climbed up and with great coaching from Mike at the bottom was able to do it and was about to come down when the instructor said that because Tom didn't do it and wasnt going to try it again the station had to come back down my immediate words were- 'TOM ARE YOU SERIOUS!!” But then realised I could do it and it would build up my confidence by the time I was coming down my leg was shaking so bad I didn't think Id be able to climb back down- I was so proud of myself after I did it! Then today we had more classroom style learning and then had to set up the stations again for the second time to pass, Mike belayed me again with Tom on back up and I managed to do it in a third of the time it took me yesterday- again very proud of myself! Although I did cut the entire side of my hand when I was up there. At night we had to practise our knots etc last night it left like one of those movie situations when someone/a team are not very good at something and in the film they play a song and show the person practising and by the next scene they were amazing at it well that was me last night with my knots while everyone else watched a movie I practiced and practiced (my song was Snow Patrol Eyes Open if you needed to know the sound effects!) So all in all I vomited and cried but I am now a fully certified level 1 ropes instructor!! and even better was that not everyone passed! The weekend on the ropes course I felt was good for us as a group as it really brought us closer and built trust up. Check out the climbing at- Muskoka woods.
Apart from ropes on Thursday night one of our groups had a disco and we asked if we could go so Steph, Tom, the 2 Mikes and I danced the night away it was great fun and felt like I was in Saved by the bell!. Here's to cutting my minute mile time by 40 seconds, hitting a seagull on the head with a vortex, the amount of chipmunks, getting invited to Terri's house for thanksgiving, to the movie 'rent' being rubbish and pretending to be awake during it, to getting sun burnt and to getting 2 kids stuck on the zip line and having to call my boss to help me!, to the big thunder and lighting storm, my first late night chat in Canada and to breaking curfew!

Make the Irish do it!!

Today was the last day of learning to instruct the different activities. This morning we did mountain biking (which was by far my favorite will def be doing it often) floor hockey, roller skating and skateboarding. At the skate park is where the humor of my day began. Bradon decided to teach us how to skateboard. We started with how to stand on the board and move it and how to turn- so far its all good then come the ramps!! He did it a few times then it was our turn, we started off in pairs doing it I helped Tom all was good then Toms turn to help me. Off I went keeping weight on the front of the board as I was told only for him to let go half way down I panicked the board flew up in the air and I landed with a massive crack to the back of the head Praise the Lord for helmets is all ill say of course everyone pointed and laughed! Even with this burn I was able to go down the ramp by myself so I was very proud of my achievement. Next came the zip line... during the set up someone said would it not be better to send someone down so we can really see what its like?! The instructor then says “YES LET'S MAKE THE IRISH DOWN!!! With alot of protest from myself I decided to do it not realising this included a 50 foot straight high climb up a telegraph pole with only pegs about ¼ size of my feet to climb with. The zip line was 1000 feet long. I am kaking myself by the time I get to the top and Mike is down below shouting come on down in an N.Irish accent (Yes the mick is being taken about the accent!) After about 10 mins I managed to push myself off the the Edge with a little persuasion from John and I didnt swear! So I was the first of the group to do it we'll see who's laughing tomorrow when others have to do it!! Tonight after dinner Mike, Tom, Terri and I went into Huntsville to the bank and Walmart was good craic. Tom has been singing Rent songs all day and is now trying to convince me to watch it – I'm not too sure how long ill last- not a fan of musicals!
Tomorrow is the first day of instructing kids which I'm kaking myself at the thought of, in true Kirk style I'll whing it! Here's to replacement Oreo Mc Flurrys, "What up your craic?" (To explain someone thought when I said whats the craic I was asking whats up your craic!) and kids thinking a mouse was in the hall when infact it was only a chipmunk.

Mass Korean exit

Well all the Koreans are now gone. It was very bizare to be in Canada surrounded by 450 Koreans which the majority of didnt speak much or any english.I started my contract yesterday and training began today. So far Ive had a crash course on instructing football, disk golf, hiking and ultimate frisbee. Over the next couple of days ill be doing Inline skating, orienteering, archery, mountain biking, beach volleyball, golf, tennis and skateboarding.All of which we get to play or have a go at while we learn which is fun. Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday we begin training on all the rope courses, swings, climbing wall and zip line etc its a 4 day course but we're trying to do it in 3 days. Ive met all the people ill be working with and most of them I think ill get on the best with so feeling good about that. Now also have my room sorted out so def feeling more settled and have been able to go out for a couple of runs and a cycle.
The first kids we've to instruct arrive on Wednesday lunchtime and Thursday will be crunch day for all the activties we've learnt over the begining of the week.Going out for tea with Lorna tomorrow night as its her last night :-( including a trip to Walmart to get some supplies. Here's to silver toothpaste, climbing down a pretty slippy cliff face during todays hike and laundry room conversations.

Disgusting!!

So was my first day of work, I drove around on the back of a golf cart for a while opening cabins for the new guests to stay. Now these guests are from Korea they brought their own food which they were eating in the music hall. We put all the rubbish from the music hall into a pick up, I climbed in the back to drive about the place doing different jobs. Arriving at the big bin I help start throwing in the rubbish... So im lifting a bag when out of it runs all the watery stuff and rice from the Korean food all down my legs, down my socks and into my shoes! DISGUSTING!! and im ages from a change of shoes! IT STUNK! I was not happy but as I had just met the people I was with I felt I needed to just suck it up and get on with it! Most annoying was that it was all over my new favourite blue shoes! :-(

Canada

Arrived safe and sound at Muskoka Woods last night/this morning at 12.30am. I think it will take some time to get used to the time difference right now I feel like I could go for a nights sleep. Through the tiredness from what Ive seen so far I think Im really going to like it here and get on well once I get unpacked, settled and find my feet. This week is a training week and then all the groups start coming from next weekend and the work begins. Im living in a cabin called the farm house and sharing a room with a girl from Austrailia I think so should be good. Stay posted for more antics...