29.1.08
A Final Farewell, dearest blog
So this is it, today one year ago my parents and I came back from Zambia. I thought it was fitting to write a final post today, because my blog just sort of abruptly ended. To begin with, our travelling back went fine; all of our luggage arrived intact. We also got to spend a day in London on a layover. We toured the city (Buckingham Palace, famous parks, Westminister Abbey, Trafalgar Square etc) in the bitter cold, and I achieved my only goal of riding on the top level of a double-decker bus. We ended up going to the church service at St. Paul's Cathedral because it was Sunday. Unfortunately, all of our pictures of London were somehow deleted.
When we got off the plane we waited in the immigration line for quite a while, freshened up in the bathroom, and arrived in an onslaught of family friends, siblings, and other such wonderful people. For the first few days back we unpacked our house (though Grame and Anna had already unpacked most of it, and bought us groceries), and tried to recover from jetleg.
Following our initial arrival, I integrated back into "normal school" pretty well; I joined my school's play, which took up a lot of time. Also, I was randomly put into a Drawing & Painting class, which I ended up loving (and took another one this semester). I went to youth group again (something I definately missed in Zambia), and youth conference in Calgary during spring break. On the spur of the moment one night midnight in April I wrote an application form for my school's free trip to Ottawa (sponsored by the government) for the 90th Anniversary of Vimy Ridge (one of Canada's most significant accomplishments in WW1 towards being recognized as a country, and not just a colony of England) and ended up getting in. Seven students from each province/territory congregated in Ottawa for a Remembrance Summit. I had a lot of fun, even though it was bitter cold most of the time - along with this our "delegation" recieved a lot of publicity; we were on TV, in the newspaper, on the radio, etc. I celebrated my 17th birthday in Ottawa by watching a beautiful sunset at the Cabane au Sucre (a maple sugar farm where we collected the sap from trees, and were able to eat maple treats afterwards).
In April I got my L (able to drive with someone 25 or older) and am able to get my N (able to drive one passenger) next April. Unfortunately, my "loose ends" of Distance Education school weren't tied up, and staying true to my procrastinating habits, I finished up Media Arts 11, English 11, Math 11, and PE 11 during the end of may-june 15th (while at the same time doing final projects, presentations, tests, and provincial exams in "normal school"). If I learned anything, it is to never again take an online course without proper accountability.
Over the summer I took two lifeguarding courses, and am now a qualified "Water Safety Instructor" meaning that I can teach swimming lessons. I also visited my cousins in Seattle for a week, got my volunteer hours in working at FunRec Daycamp, and went to Anvil Island summer camp.
This semester (which is over as of last Friday) I took History 12, English 12, Chem 12, and Drawing & Painting 11. I was also involved in my school's fall play, "Love's Labours Lost" by Shakespeare and played "Costard" the fool. It was an intense few months of school work, and hours of rehearsals almost everyday. In addition, I joined my youth group's leadership team, Titus. For Christmas the Boyd cousins came to our house, and it snowed on Christmas for the first time in 12 years (we had a snowball fight, and built a snowman).
Now I just have to get through Provincial exam week, and begin my new semester of Comparative Civilizations 12, Math 12, Acting 12, and a spare. It was actually my English Provincial today that birthed this idea of a closure blog (and I also might have been thinking about it falling asleep last night) because the composition topic was "the lessons we learn when we are young prepare us for the future." I wrote about Zambia, thinking it qualified as original for the "original composition" that has to stand out among the hundreds of exams the marker is reading each day.
Around my house there are still reminders of Zambia everywhere - drinking Rooibos tea each night after dinner, Mrs. Ball's chutney (mom found it at a south african store), art work on the walls, our picture album, and my immense collection of african jewelery. And most importantly, my brother who's absence in our house is due to the fact that he has been in Zambia since November, and will stay until June. If you'd like more Zambia-inspired updates, his blog is http://onekokole.blogspot.com
Thank you, faithful readers.
Alanna/Temwani
When we got off the plane we waited in the immigration line for quite a while, freshened up in the bathroom, and arrived in an onslaught of family friends, siblings, and other such wonderful people. For the first few days back we unpacked our house (though Grame and Anna had already unpacked most of it, and bought us groceries), and tried to recover from jetleg.
Following our initial arrival, I integrated back into "normal school" pretty well; I joined my school's play, which took up a lot of time. Also, I was randomly put into a Drawing & Painting class, which I ended up loving (and took another one this semester). I went to youth group again (something I definately missed in Zambia), and youth conference in Calgary during spring break. On the spur of the moment one night midnight in April I wrote an application form for my school's free trip to Ottawa (sponsored by the government) for the 90th Anniversary of Vimy Ridge (one of Canada's most significant accomplishments in WW1 towards being recognized as a country, and not just a colony of England) and ended up getting in. Seven students from each province/territory congregated in Ottawa for a Remembrance Summit. I had a lot of fun, even though it was bitter cold most of the time - along with this our "delegation" recieved a lot of publicity; we were on TV, in the newspaper, on the radio, etc. I celebrated my 17th birthday in Ottawa by watching a beautiful sunset at the Cabane au Sucre (a maple sugar farm where we collected the sap from trees, and were able to eat maple treats afterwards).
In April I got my L (able to drive with someone 25 or older) and am able to get my N (able to drive one passenger) next April. Unfortunately, my "loose ends" of Distance Education school weren't tied up, and staying true to my procrastinating habits, I finished up Media Arts 11, English 11, Math 11, and PE 11 during the end of may-june 15th (while at the same time doing final projects, presentations, tests, and provincial exams in "normal school"). If I learned anything, it is to never again take an online course without proper accountability.
Over the summer I took two lifeguarding courses, and am now a qualified "Water Safety Instructor" meaning that I can teach swimming lessons. I also visited my cousins in Seattle for a week, got my volunteer hours in working at FunRec Daycamp, and went to Anvil Island summer camp.
This semester (which is over as of last Friday) I took History 12, English 12, Chem 12, and Drawing & Painting 11. I was also involved in my school's fall play, "Love's Labours Lost" by Shakespeare and played "Costard" the fool. It was an intense few months of school work, and hours of rehearsals almost everyday. In addition, I joined my youth group's leadership team, Titus. For Christmas the Boyd cousins came to our house, and it snowed on Christmas for the first time in 12 years (we had a snowball fight, and built a snowman).
Now I just have to get through Provincial exam week, and begin my new semester of Comparative Civilizations 12, Math 12, Acting 12, and a spare. It was actually my English Provincial today that birthed this idea of a closure blog (and I also might have been thinking about it falling asleep last night) because the composition topic was "the lessons we learn when we are young prepare us for the future." I wrote about Zambia, thinking it qualified as original for the "original composition" that has to stand out among the hundreds of exams the marker is reading each day.
Around my house there are still reminders of Zambia everywhere - drinking Rooibos tea each night after dinner, Mrs. Ball's chutney (mom found it at a south african store), art work on the walls, our picture album, and my immense collection of african jewelery. And most importantly, my brother who's absence in our house is due to the fact that he has been in Zambia since November, and will stay until June. If you'd like more Zambia-inspired updates, his blog is http://onekokole.blogspot.com
Thank you, faithful readers.
Alanna/Temwani
# posted by alanna @ 4:14 AM 
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YES!! finally after a year of waiting we finally get some closure here. Im glad you learned about closure at such a young and impressionable age. Kristin is 24....AHHH. Oh and yes "proper accountability"...I was acutally charging about 18/hr (bags of granola...not dollars) during my dictatorship of accountability. Thanks for the shameless plug. Ill tell the 4 buses your name is written on here in Kitwe that you are retiring.
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