Hello everyone! I just returned from a lovely weekend at Tadoussac, a cute little town next to the bay up here in Canada. On Saturday our group of 14 drove up in a mini-bus (which made me miss Scotland and think to myself,"Dr. Lee is driving on the wrong side of the road and the steering wheel needs to be on the right." Hee hee) and we visited the Canyons Suspentionnale or some title like that. It was gorgeous! Three suspentional bridges going across a lovely waterfall. We walked around that and took photos for an hour, and I took more photos on the first side and missed a bunch of rainbows on the other cause I ran out of film. Oh well. Then we faire de dejeun'ed (our groups way of saying, "Did some lunch") and headed the rest of the way up there. I got to look at the beautiful Canada wilder-side (wilderness and countryside put together :) and listen to music. Our hotel was right next to the ocean and was red-topped! When we got there Lacy and I watched le télé and then faire de sieste'ed (took a nap). When I woke up I bought some film, then walked down to the beach and just smelled the air and looked at the ocean and the kids swimming in it (holy cow! That water was frigid!) We were right next to a marina so that reminded me of my days on Stockton lake, when my family had a boat docked there. Then at 8 o'clock we all went downstairs and had a marvelous dinner-buffet, complete with (this is what I had) shrimp, snow crab, salmon, mussels, salad, broiled tomatoes, shrimp gumbo, artichoke heart salad, some pig thing that actually tasted good, and dessert, dessert, dessert!!! I made four or five trips to the dessert table, I think! I ate like a queen and paid for it later. But it was worth it. After that, Lace and I walked with Dr. Lee (our professor from SMS) and our friends Christina and Jennifer (who is, by the way, a wonderful person!) on the boardwalk for a bit. Then Lacy and I walked up to this playground and talked a bit about God and how our faith seems to separate us from the other people sometimes, because they don`t understand Christianity. Then we saw the swings and swang, and climbed a jungle gym, and played with a little bulldozer toy-thing, and rode these little bouncy whales and faire de see-saw'ed (i.e., we see-sawed.) All next to the ocean in the cold night air. It was super fun. AND, it brought back another random memory, which I will tell here in a bit.

The next morning we woke up at 7, took showers and headed out to the boat. We first took a shuttle (which was completely not necessary; the ride lasted about 45 seconds) and recieved some awesome pull-on pants with suspenders and big fat waterproof coats for the boat. Then we rode out and picked up some other peeps. Finally, we headed out to the ocean. Our first whale spottings were just of fin whales, which don`t have their tales come out when they dive. But soon enough, we saw a humpback named "Tic-Tac-Toe" and whales called "minkies" and more fin whales and little white belugas. It was beautiful, and I was just thanking Jesus the entire time for creating such amazing creatures and giving me the experience I was having.

Something that became really apparent to me during this trip was the human need to worship. I watched my friends while we were in the van, when we first saw the ocean and the view with the mountains right next to it. I saw the expression on their faces and understood it to be a mixture of awe, wonder, delight! There was a need to express some sort of emotion, but it could not be expressed. I knew what emotion that was. It was the need to thank someone or something for the beauty of the world. Who do they have to thank? They don`t know. Could be mother nature, or whatever, but in the meantime people who do not have God sit there and feel an emotion they cannot express, and become, well, I dunno, anxious. I realized this because I was worshipping God the whole time. I was expressing that emotion! And it was the most beautiful emotion and feeling and action I feel I am capable of. Such is the meaning of worship. Very cool. Yet another thing to praise Jesus for.

Okay, ready for the random memory? Here goes:

(Yet another tale from elementary school; playing on the jungle gym the other night reminded me of it) When I was in grade school, I was a monkey. I had trees that needed to be climbed all over my back yard, so when it came to the jungle gym, I was a master. I could beat some boys at chicken, and of course all the girls (except for my other friend who lived in the country and was a tomboy like me). One day, I was wearing a skirt (bleck! I hated it when I had to wear those!) and I was playing chicken with someone. One of my FRIENDS, Nathan, began peeling my fingers off of the bar while I was playing (this was a very tall jungle gym!) and finally I lost my grip and fell, right on my butt. My skirt flew up. Kids were laughing, my friends ran to get the nurse. She lifted my skirt to check and make sure my butt was okay. I was mortified. Thanks, Nathan Morgan. I will never forget that. You`re gonna pay......someday.

I get to come home this weekend! I am happy and also sad! I can`t believe my time in Canada is coming to an end. But man, it was SO MUCH better than spending the summer working at Crapplebee`s in Springfield, Missouri. I do miss all my pals though, and I am excited about coming back, excited about the new year up ahead! I have been praying about it so much.

Emperor`s New Groove quote of the day:
"That`s the last time we take directions from a squirrel!!!"--Izma, after dining at the Aztec-ian equivalent of "Big Boy." :)