Retreating with my Billet Family

This past weekend end my Billet Family took me to a family retreat at Canterbury Hills in Ancater. It was a whole weekend of family activities and games, with a few religious things thrown in as well.

Friday night we arrived at around 6:00 and unpack the car, a Toyota Prius, which had all of its "contents under pressure". I'm still not sure how we got all of our luggage in the back of that car. There were three rooms in our cabin each containing 2 bunk beds, I got a room all to myself. It was very different because usually in the Katimavik house there are 2 bunk bed in the guys room, but they are all used. I am getting use to having my own room again since billeting started though. After we unpack we went to the main hall to meet the other families, and got our family picture taken. Then the kids went and watched a movie from the 80's called Short Circuit, it was a pretty funny movie.

The next morning we had breakfast and then started tobogganing down the hill. It was a lot of fun and many different tracks were created, such as a luge track, the speed track, and the jump track. All of them were a lot of fun. In the afternoon a a drum lady came and we played drums and other rhythm instruments for an hour, that too was a whole lot of fun. That night we watched Cat in the Hat, which wasn't as funny for younger kids, and then another 80's movie called Follow That Bird, which of course had Big Bird from Sesame Street in it. Mostly older kids stayed up for that one.

Sunday morning we ate, and pack the Prius again with its "contents under pressure" still. We then had a Sunday morning worship, and then we headed back to Shelburne and I had a nice long nap for the rest of the afternoon.

"I Wanna Drive the Zamboni"

Well our group arrived in Ontario after surviving the worst snow storm to hit Saskatchewan since 1969. It delayed us by one day, and so we had to spend an extra night at Youth Farm Bible Camp in Rosthern, SK. It wasn't that bad, we had a movie marathon (in both languages), and played a lot of floor hockey, and some of us even ventured outside into the waist deep snow. We left a -25 (-40 with windchill) Saskatoon, and said hello to +7 Toronto.

Our new house in Shelburne is much newer, and bigger compared to the house in Saskatoon, but the same moisture problems still exist in the house. The boys share a slightly bigger room with a bathroom, while the 7 girls share a room about the same size as the guys with no added benefits.

My job for this placement is at the Centre Duffren Recreational Complex (AKA the Arena). There I do the job that every Canadian dreams about, I drive the Zamboni. Well technically its an Olympia (GM model), but it does the same stuff. I use to think that riding on the Zamboni would complete my life, but driving it is a dream come true. Believe it or not I learnt the same way as the guy on the Master Card commercial did, only I practiced entirely on the Zamboni (not on his truck like he does when practicing doing the boards). When we're not working on the ice we are keeping the rink clean, and fixing anything that needs to be fixing. Its a lot like a farm, the rink is your crop so you care for it, but the rest of the time you are doing what you need to get done.

I am already into billeting, its been fun so far. I hope it contines the way it was been going. I must get to bed now.