Monday, July 19, 2004
More Info
Yesterday I typed up a detailed report on what happened Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of my trip. Unfortunately, I mis-clicked something and Blogger messed it up, so now I guess I'll just give a brief overview.
On Friday, we rode on the bus for four to five hours. We camped out in West Virginia, which was not a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of sleep. On Saturday, we traveled for another 9-12 hours and watched Forrest Gump, Hoosiers, Dumb and Dumber, Iron Will and A Knight's Tale. When we arrived at our hotel, we checked in and met the missionary couple that had invited us there. They showed us around the St. Jamestown area, which is the most multi-cultural place in the world. I heard many different languages and we passed many people in turbans, veils, etc. I saw a flyer for a Marxist-Leninist party. It was really cool.
On Sunday I went to Blythewood Road Baptist Church, where my group would be doing the Vacation Bible School activities. After the service, we went to Planet Hollywood and then to the CN Tower. I ran out onto the glass floor and started jumping on it, which really scared the people with acrophobia. I still don't understand what the big deal is...I mean, there's like 2 feet of glass separating us from a 1200 foot freefall. After that we went back to the hotel.
On Monday the work began. Our kids arrived, and things went fairly well. However, it was kind of hard to get hyper seven-year-olds to settle down. Plus, there was this kid named John that got on our nerves for the entire week. He was the oldest (I'm guessing 11-12), and he wouldn't go 10 minutes without disobeying or saying stuff like, "This sucks" or "This is so stupid". By Friday he was #1 on the List of People We'd Most Like to Strangle. The schedule was as follows:
1. Sing and Play Bay - have the kids watch a video of other kids singing songs. Our kids sing along and do the motions. And yes, I had to do them as well. The songs were so annoying, at times it took me 45 minutes to get to sleep at night because they kept running through my head.
2. Survivor Sal - A puppet show. I never saw it, since I went upstairs with Jennifer and Aaron (the other people in my group) to get ready for Hot Bible Adventures.
3. Hot Bible Adventures - the main Bible point of the day. On Monday, Jennifer led it but Aaron and I had to dress up as shepherds and perform a short skit.
4. Crater Crafts - the name says it all.
5. Snack.
6. Jungle Gym Games - the kids go downstairs to the gym and engage in recreational activities.
7. Chadder's Island Adventure - the kids watch a DVD about a chipmunk puppet on a reality tv gameshow-thing. I couldn't stand it, but the kids were mesmerized. After that, there would be a brief discussion and related activities.
8. Lunch.
9. Whatever major activity had been planned for the day. On Monday, we went to a park that had a wading pool. I didn't have my swimsuit, and my intention was to stay along the outside and watch the kids from there. Unfortuately, kids+ball+water = wet, and pretty soon I was soaked. It was fun though.
After that, the kids left and we went back to the hotel to eat.
On Tuesday, I led Hot Bible Adventures; it went pretty well for the most part. We went to the Science Museum, and Jennifer and I were in charge of watching over the kids named Matt, Jacob and Jonathan. For some reason, Jonathan had decided I was his favorite leader, which was pretty cool. He gave me hugs every day and kept dragging me around the Science Museum to all of his favorite spots. We had a pretty good time, though our group almost got left by the bus.
On Wednesday, we went to a place called Pioneer Village, which is supposedly similar to Salem in the US. The kids had a great time going into old-fashioned houses and learning about how things were done generations ago. After witnessing their enthusiasm about that and the Science Museum, I have come to the conclusion that the next generation of American kids is going to be, to be blunt, just plain stupid. I can't remember the last time I saw a group of kids interesting in actually learning stuff. Also, I'm guessing people would do a lot better in physics if they spent more time at Science Museums studying. They have examples of practically every single high school physics topic in action.
On Wednesday night, we went to a huge mall and were given around 2.5 hours to just hang out. I spent $40 on DVDs (Reservoir Dogs, The Godfather, Zulu), and had a good time.
On Thursday, I dressed up like a Roman guard in a rather small plastic suit of armor, as part of a skit to illustrate the lesson. After VBS, we set up a carnival in the gym for the kids to attend. The church we were at is freakin' rich, and they rented a popcorn machine, a candy floss (that's Canadian for cotton candy) machine, and one of those big bouncy castles for the kids to jump in. This girl named Mary and I were in charge of the "Fishing Booth". Basically, the kids cast a fishing line over a table that had been turned on its side (which I was hiding behind), and I placed tickets on the paper-clip "hook" and threw out candy. Fun fun fun. There was also some face painting, a ball-throwing booth, this game where the kids had to catch small butterflies, and a bowling activity where they had to knock over huge pins. During the breaks, I was bored, so I went and placed fake tattoos all over my arms and had people paint my face. Then I went to the bathroom, where I proceeded to paint the rest of my face blood red. I looked like a demon. I also drew a smiley-face on my chest (nipples make good eyes), but I didn't go around lifting my shirt for people to see. I wasn't feeling that extroverted.
We left the carnival early in order to go shopping down Bloor Street, which was next to the hotel. There was a rather boring department school called Roots that the girls loved, but Aaron and I didn't care for much. Aaron was going nuts. While we were walking down the sidewalk, a car passed by playing loud rap music and for no reason he started dancing along. Then again...that's Aaron. We also checked out an awesome 3-story book store. However, I'd say my favorite place (though we were only there for about 2 minutes), was a place called...fcuk. That's f-c-u-k. I was very tempted to buy a t-shirt, but they were $35. They had slogans such as:
On Friday, we rode on the bus for four to five hours. We camped out in West Virginia, which was not a lot of fun. I didn't get a lot of sleep. On Saturday, we traveled for another 9-12 hours and watched Forrest Gump, Hoosiers, Dumb and Dumber, Iron Will and A Knight's Tale. When we arrived at our hotel, we checked in and met the missionary couple that had invited us there. They showed us around the St. Jamestown area, which is the most multi-cultural place in the world. I heard many different languages and we passed many people in turbans, veils, etc. I saw a flyer for a Marxist-Leninist party. It was really cool.
On Sunday I went to Blythewood Road Baptist Church, where my group would be doing the Vacation Bible School activities. After the service, we went to Planet Hollywood and then to the CN Tower. I ran out onto the glass floor and started jumping on it, which really scared the people with acrophobia. I still don't understand what the big deal is...I mean, there's like 2 feet of glass separating us from a 1200 foot freefall. After that we went back to the hotel.
On Monday the work began. Our kids arrived, and things went fairly well. However, it was kind of hard to get hyper seven-year-olds to settle down. Plus, there was this kid named John that got on our nerves for the entire week. He was the oldest (I'm guessing 11-12), and he wouldn't go 10 minutes without disobeying or saying stuff like, "This sucks" or "This is so stupid". By Friday he was #1 on the List of People We'd Most Like to Strangle. The schedule was as follows:
1. Sing and Play Bay - have the kids watch a video of other kids singing songs. Our kids sing along and do the motions. And yes, I had to do them as well. The songs were so annoying, at times it took me 45 minutes to get to sleep at night because they kept running through my head.
2. Survivor Sal - A puppet show. I never saw it, since I went upstairs with Jennifer and Aaron (the other people in my group) to get ready for Hot Bible Adventures.
3. Hot Bible Adventures - the main Bible point of the day. On Monday, Jennifer led it but Aaron and I had to dress up as shepherds and perform a short skit.
4. Crater Crafts - the name says it all.
5. Snack.
6. Jungle Gym Games - the kids go downstairs to the gym and engage in recreational activities.
7. Chadder's Island Adventure - the kids watch a DVD about a chipmunk puppet on a reality tv gameshow-thing. I couldn't stand it, but the kids were mesmerized. After that, there would be a brief discussion and related activities.
8. Lunch.
9. Whatever major activity had been planned for the day. On Monday, we went to a park that had a wading pool. I didn't have my swimsuit, and my intention was to stay along the outside and watch the kids from there. Unfortuately, kids+ball+water = wet, and pretty soon I was soaked. It was fun though.
After that, the kids left and we went back to the hotel to eat.
On Tuesday, I led Hot Bible Adventures; it went pretty well for the most part. We went to the Science Museum, and Jennifer and I were in charge of watching over the kids named Matt, Jacob and Jonathan. For some reason, Jonathan had decided I was his favorite leader, which was pretty cool. He gave me hugs every day and kept dragging me around the Science Museum to all of his favorite spots. We had a pretty good time, though our group almost got left by the bus.
On Wednesday, we went to a place called Pioneer Village, which is supposedly similar to Salem in the US. The kids had a great time going into old-fashioned houses and learning about how things were done generations ago. After witnessing their enthusiasm about that and the Science Museum, I have come to the conclusion that the next generation of American kids is going to be, to be blunt, just plain stupid. I can't remember the last time I saw a group of kids interesting in actually learning stuff. Also, I'm guessing people would do a lot better in physics if they spent more time at Science Museums studying. They have examples of practically every single high school physics topic in action.
On Wednesday night, we went to a huge mall and were given around 2.5 hours to just hang out. I spent $40 on DVDs (Reservoir Dogs, The Godfather, Zulu), and had a good time.
On Thursday, I dressed up like a Roman guard in a rather small plastic suit of armor, as part of a skit to illustrate the lesson. After VBS, we set up a carnival in the gym for the kids to attend. The church we were at is freakin' rich, and they rented a popcorn machine, a candy floss (that's Canadian for cotton candy) machine, and one of those big bouncy castles for the kids to jump in. This girl named Mary and I were in charge of the "Fishing Booth". Basically, the kids cast a fishing line over a table that had been turned on its side (which I was hiding behind), and I placed tickets on the paper-clip "hook" and threw out candy. Fun fun fun. There was also some face painting, a ball-throwing booth, this game where the kids had to catch small butterflies, and a bowling activity where they had to knock over huge pins. During the breaks, I was bored, so I went and placed fake tattoos all over my arms and had people paint my face. Then I went to the bathroom, where I proceeded to paint the rest of my face blood red. I looked like a demon. I also drew a smiley-face on my chest (nipples make good eyes), but I didn't go around lifting my shirt for people to see. I wasn't feeling that extroverted.
We left the carnival early in order to go shopping down Bloor Street, which was next to the hotel. There was a rather boring department school called Roots that the girls loved, but Aaron and I didn't care for much. Aaron was going nuts. While we were walking down the sidewalk, a car passed by playing loud rap music and for no reason he started dancing along. Then again...that's Aaron. We also checked out an awesome 3-story book store. However, I'd say my favorite place (though we were only there for about 2 minutes), was a place called...fcuk. That's f-c-u-k. I was very tempted to buy a t-shirt, but they were $35. They had slogans such as:
- fcuk
- fcuk you
- fcuk it
- fcuk toronto
- too busy to fcuk
I think I spent the entire 2 minutes walking around and just laughing. I'm surprised people didn't stare at me.
Speaking of strange stores, we also passed places with names like The Groundhog Pub and The Spotted Dick. Though I think everyone's favorite place (we didn't go inside) was a small shop simply entitled The Condom Shop. The entire youth group laughed so hard we almost cried. Toronto is an awesome place, but it sure is liberal. I had heard that a few of the girls had been hit on by this guy on the street, and as we were stopped at a street corner on our way back to the hotel, guess who decided to show up? This Latin guy named Javier suddenly exclaimed, "Hey! I know you!" and began a conversation with a few of the girls...
...though the details of that conversation will have to wait. I need to go pick up my mom at the airport.
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 7/19/2004 04:02:00 PM 
