gnocchi making!

tonight, in valerie's apartment, we made gnocchi with ragu sauce. thank you marta for leading us <3 

 "make a small serpenti..." - marta

November / Spontaneity

It is now November, and though I try my best to denounce the formal measurements of time, it is still a bit unnerving to see the seasons change. But, I am happy with my time here. I do not feel like I have wasted much of it, and I do feel that I am garnering some deep relationships with people, which I appreciate very much. 

I realised that much of what I love about the college is to do with spontaneity. Planned things are a great joy, but often nothing beats the night walks into the forest, or to Weirs, or the impromptu bay jumps or fires, or even the weekend trips, the bike rides to Metchosin, the movie nights. Conversations that randomly spring up, sometimes they just last until 5:30am, and you’ve no idea how you conversed for 5 hours. 

Middle East & South Asia Regional Day is coming up - and I’m excited! Sadly, it’s the last regional day of the year, and the last time that I’ll be able to represent myself at a Regional Day, but that’s ok! It’s been very fun, but also sometimes gets pretty stressful. 

I wrote my first Philosophy Essay last week - it was not as difficult to write as I thought it would be, but I’m sure there is much to improve! I will really try harder to start writing more about what goes on here, but these past few weeks I have found it to distill the days into one blog post. One thing that retrospectively was beautiful, was the sheer excitement that people brought back from CAS week when seeing each other! Running down East House lawn to hug Morgane, or looking for Marta while she looked for me and then reuniting in front of the first floor bathroom in East House and screaming!!

This weekend we had a East House sleepover in the dayroom, where we gathered to watch Fight Club (which was really interesting, but I did not enjoy the violence), and talked to each other, and slept in the dayroom. I really love being in East House - the people are so wonderful, and full of life, and I think we get along with each other. Which, I really appreciate. It helps to create such a essence of home, and whenever I walk in through the door I feel this comfort in my heart, that I can’t really explain. 

Theo

refugee day

Refugee Day was this Sunday. Starting from 11, the campus became a hive of people, smiling faces, joyous laughter, and raucous dances. No, I’m not describing the students of Pearson College, but rather the refugees from Syria that have settled in Victoria.

The day was really eye-opening for me. I loved feeling happy based off of other people’s happiness. There was a big dance party in the caff, and to see my friends so happy and at home amongst the music and dances, a comforting reminder of the fact that we’re all from such different situations, and that the college embodies a new lifestyle for everyone, but that it does skew closely to North American high school traditions. 

I learnt how to play checkers, and managed to spend 40 minutes playing against a lovely girl, we shared in each other’s delighted cackles or groans, and eventually we realised each of us was too stubborn for the game to ever end, so we cut our losses and declared it a win on my behalf. 

My friends played soccer in the rain with the children, and I also learnt a few arabic phrases. I think most importantly though, that it isn’t about what I learnt from the experience: it’s what my efforts gave to other people. I think that the day really showed me how to be selfless, and I was just glad to see the pure happiness around campus.

Theo

the goose

over the weekend, my roommates and i went for a room bonding. 'bondings' at pearson, is the colloquial term used for any sort of time spent together with a certain group of people. there are regional bondings, large groups of 40-50 people separated into the 6 main regional groups of pearson. there are smaller, still based on origin country, bondings either based on single countries (germany, usa) or on smaller geographic locations (nordic, provinces of canada). there are also bondings based off of the languages we speak (francaphone, chinese/mandarin). there are house bondings, either separated by gender, or first year/second year, or altogether as a house! but most commonly, there are room bondings, where you organize an event or get together solely with the three other members of the space that you share and live in, in order to become more closely knitted.

we decided to sign out a few school bikes, and bike on the goose to metchosin, where my-chosen cafe lies. the cafe is a popular destination for pearson students, since it's essentially one of the 2-3 restaurants in walking distance (which is still about an hour!). the poutine, burgers, and general food is excellent. there's pizza which can sometimes be seen ordered to the college. there's also an excellent ice cream parlor, with supposedly great milkshakes and banana splits.

on saturday, the goose was utterly different from about two months earlier, when i'd last taken that part of the goose to metchosin. though still mostly green, now the sky was grey, and it was raining cold droplets. the best part, was the sea of yellows and oranges that covered the ground of the goose. as we sped by trying our hardest not to freeze, i was struck by such a beautiful image. i'm very grateful for the conversation and fun we had at the cafe. grateful to have such lovely roommates, who are funny, kind, honest, and respectful of each other.

photography

this morning i've been thinking a lot about photography, watercolors, and writing. i feel like i've interacted with all 3 pretty regularly, but have never advanced past the beginning phase of a lot of interest, and very little tangible talent. i want to take better photos; better composed, that use light better, and shadow and colors and scenes. how do you do this?

i want to write about my life with more than just rote description of what happened. i want to write more about my emotions, how i feel. what;s the point in blandly showcasing what has happened to me if i'm not writing how i experience what;s around me.

and it's time for more watercolors, less abstract, i'd like to do more detailed. perhaps even more on color theory. i think i'll get some watercolor paper next time i'm in town.

i've really got to write this philosophy essay, and clean my room. and then slowly think about other things. but i got some really yummy, crisp and warm, purple halloween tea from david's tea over cas week. i was very happy.

morning

this morning, i woke up to a hazy blue sky from the window above my bed. it was a comforting, pleasant sight, after a day of grey rain. i stood up, and saw white specks covering the roofs of the buildings around me. it was euphoric, pretty, calm, and special. snow had finally stuck to the roofs. its snowed a few times this week, but never stuck.

now, i'm sitting in the corner of the library, trying to stop thinking about things, to distract my mind. outside the window, golden sunlight is streaming in even though its past sunrise. it reminds me of my first day at pearson, warm summer sun and green.

the snow is slowly melting off the roofs now.