| Oh The Bittersweet |
I have a good amount to write about tonight so this one post will be about 2 or 3 days worth of goodness. Prepare yourself.
So I'll start from two days ago.
I got up early Monday morning to see the sunrise for the last time in Vanderhoof and to check my email for any new updates for anything. There weren't any.
Anyway, I returned to my room afterword and managed to stuff all the clothes I had previously packed the night before into my little suitcase. I hadn't bought much extras over the past 3 months but that little I had took up valuable space. You know, things like a cd, 2 shirts, and a paper cup full of change sure are demanding. I managed to get all packed up and cleaned the room in about 2 hours time.
Throughout the day, we also painted our third of the table that we've been eating off of through the whole rotation. Tristan, from what I understand had built the table by hand and had told us from the beginning that we would be able to claim one third of the table and paint whatever the hell we want on it. It only took an entire trimester to get it done, granted, it made the perfect going away activity.
When the bus arrived the house exploded in pandemonium! The girls started screaming, the guys started mimicking the screams, somewhat sarcastically until you could hear nothing but shrill noise. Tristan ran downstairs, passed me and we gave each other raised-eyebrow looks, knowing full well we were both saying "hooooly sh*t!" in our heads.
 We packed our stuff, said our goodbyes to Tristan, got on the bus, took our seats and waited. As the bus started moving we all watched as Tristan walked over onto the steps of the house, leaned forward on the railing and watched us leave. We won't be able to contact him again for 30 days as Katimavik won't allow it so we all knew that would be the last time we saw him... for a long while and it was as much a bittersweet moment as the term's definition can allow. We had to say bye to an awesome friend but we were also saying hello to a whole butt-load of new experiences.
I'm sure that sight was nagging at all of the Hoofs' minds throughout the next few days.
Rotation Camp
There weren't too many exciting things going on over the next few days at rotation camp. We drove over to Camp Friendship, about an hour outside of Prince George and settled in after hauling our luggage down a path trough the woods to our cabins. (I was one of the few lucky ones who stayed in the heated cabin. The others had to tend their own fires to keep warm.)
Throughout our stay we (our cluster) did a few little reflection activities like listing our favorite experiences from first trimester as well as a few expectation activities like writing letters to ourselves describing the experience we're expecting and a newscast from our next placement.
There were funny moments for sure but nothing real spectacular; no one wanted to be there, we all wanted to travel to our new homes.
The one thing that really stood out for me was going on a hike outside of the camp into the hills overlooking the forests. I was carrying my djembe around with me in hopes of finding someplace in the camp where I could just sit and play. As I started putting my boots on and walked toward the door, a small group of people approached me and asked if I wanted to take a hike to go see the mountains. I had originally planned to go by the lake and play there but I figured I'd go along with them.
We followed the road out to the entrance of the camp, started down the logging road, and turned off onto a logging trail. From there we went "off-roading" and blazed our own trail through the knee-high snow. It took us a few minutes of trudging before we couldn't even see the logging road anymore, even having walked up a hill. Some of the others were wearing shoes or had boots and hadn't tucked them in and they started complaining about their ankles burning from the snow. But we continued.
 We eventually got to a large pile of logs where we took a little rest so the others could shake the snow out of their shoes. I think I was the only one who didn't have that problem, thankfully. Once everyone was ready to go on I decided I'd stay back cause the view from the log pile was enough to inspire me. The others went on and I sat on the log pile, took my djembe out of its sack and slapped away.
After a few minutes I couldn't hear the group's voices anymore and that brought on an awesome feeling of freedom and independence. We weren't too far from Camp Friendship; it was maybe a 30 minute walk from where I was perched so there wasn't the feeling of fear. Plus, in the unlikely event that the others abandoned me and I, for some reason couldn't find my way back, I had everything I needed to survive the night. I could short-circuit the batteries in my camera and light up the rope that was the strap for my djembe and I was surrounded by wood so I could keep a fire going. I was dressed in only a hoodie so there would be no way I would sleep real well considering the cold but digging a hole in the snow would provide me enough shelter to fight the cold. I was prepared but I didn't have to resort to any of it.
I looked around as I was playing and in front of me was a line of mountains in the distance, shrouded with blue atmosphere, capped with a white-orange from the fading sunset. And to my right and far into the sky was the sliver of moon rising higher into the swarm of stars. The skies were clear and being so far away from civilization meant there were no lights so every single star in the sky was visible.
Not long after that, I started hearing voices from the direction the group had gone off in. They were coming back and I started packing up my djembe. They came back to the wood pile and we continued our trip back to camp leaving us with another half-hour of free time before supper.
Now if I remember correctly, it was the next morning that we woke up at 5AM to get ready for our bus ride to the Prince George airport.
To be continued... |
posted by Tomas P. @ 12:59 AM  |
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Name: Tomas P.
Home: Miramichi, NB, Canada
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