Today I woke up so late. There was a thick mist on the lake that gave a King Arthur vibe feeling, like some Mistress of the lake could just appear and bring Excalibur from below the water. Fortunately, the wood stock did not need much of a refill, so I could just go to the office and try to catch up with the journal. Jim was there, watching Youtube videos about the importance of silence and learning to be silent. When Fran woke up, we discussed the reason why humans think they are better than animals when animals can do many important things way better than humans. It is hard to talk to people when you are not prepared and you lack a solid foundation to build your own opinion and belief. Moreover, I have a personality that makes me tend to please people instead of going against them.
During our conversation, Asher arrived to scare us. Both me and Jim pretended to be scared but with a little delay, so we ended up laughing because it was funny. Later, me, Asher and Laila just set on the porch with peanuts. We ate them and threw them at the chipmunks. Laila got a nice shot of one of them eating a peanut.
We had breakfast and then we tried to pull a cable from one side to the other one below the office. I was mentally ready to go under the floor where the dirt reigned supreme since Asher did not want to do that, but in the end Jim went knowing that I am kind of germophobe. After that we went straight to the cabin to work on it all morning long. We got the side walls and the back wall done before lunch with the help of Larry and a regular at Lighthouse Landing Camp.
Since we moved the table out for the pot luck we are having our meals outside. Some of the people like to have the back on the sun, but I prefer to be completely in the shadow. It is cute how Asher always wants to sit next to me. Today he hugged me again and hold me tight with one arm while holding Jim with the other. Both him and River kept asking me to play with them or do the monkey while eating, so I thought that maybe I should put some boundaries on when we can play our games. Another funny thing is that Asher loves cherries but he messes his face with them every time he eats them. It makes it look like the Joker’s lipstick from the Nolan’s trilogy.
Done with lunch we went back to work on the cabin and we assembled all the walls and started with the roof. I had some misses but overall I did a good job. The funny thing about this work session was that Larry just kept farting all the time. They were short and noisy farts and he would just fart while standing next to you so me and Jim just could not stop laughing about that. We had to lift up the plywood for the roof and I was on top of the building. So Jim and Larry had to push it from below. The moment Larry flexed a little bit to push the plywood up he started a really long fart that matched the contraction of his muscle. It was a really fun eight seconds on uninterrupted fart. It goes without saying that me and Jim just could not stop laughing about it.
While I was getting up the roof I got a massive sliver inside my left hand, so I ran to the office to take it out. Laila was there and helped me pull it out. As I was headed back she asked if we needed her, but I told her to enjoy her day. In one month she only had one day off. Which is cool in my opinion because here they feed you all the meals, plus they let you join so many cool activities. When I went back we started nailing the roof. Fran arrived exactly in that moment and just invited us to the beach.
I played a little bit with Asher and Haven, swam to the raft and dived, then played again. Asher kept bringing his bike in the water which made me think how much we overvalue things. A normal parent would complain about the cost of the bike and shout to their children to take it out of the water. But Jim and Alyssa are different and it is a kind of different that works because Asher is really a good boy.
To dry I worked out a little bit again. River, who was not in the water with the others because he can not swim, followed me so I taught him how to do the pull ups and the dips. Up to this day, I can only do maybe five or six consecutive pull ups. Man I suck.
The people were enjoying their time and River went back to his mother, so I walked my way back to the office. I noticed that I would never do that in Italy. Even if it just grass, I would be so afraid of anything that could be there, from living to not living things. I changed in the middle of the grass where everyone could have seen me but I made sure to be fast and unseen. I did not wear the swimsuit in the lake, so my shorts were feeling to heavier to work with.
As I waited for Jim to start working on the building again, I turned on my computer and kept catching up with my journal. It is funny how some memories just fade away after such a short time, while maybe meaningless details remain in your mind.
As everyone was cooking food for the vegan barbecue, I biked around the camp with the young ones until Asher asked me to do the horse-ride. I do not know if I actually have to say no sometimes, but I think that Jim is the kind of person to tell me not to do something if he does not like it.
For dinner we had barbecued celery, a bean salad and boiled corns. I put so much margarina on the corn that Jim asked me if I wanted some corn together with the margarina. Me and Fran teased Laila a little bit because she did not pick up a corn, the reason why probably being her pride because of what happened at Wallmart. In the end we convinced her to have one and she liked it. It was fun because she picked one that was not even the best one because of a little part that was kind of rotten.
The activity of the day came after dinner. We set up a projector in the Activity Building and we watched a short movie of all the pictures and video of the week. I got emotional because I am liking it so much here. I mean, when I was in South Korea I loved it, but it was about creating human connections with people that I shared the same frequency with. Here I think I am growing as a person and learning so many new skills and so much knowledge. Everyday is a challenge with myself to grow and be a better version of myself. Just the thought of leaving all of these experiences behind and be far someday makes me feel a little bit sad. Everything is great here.
Everyone then went their way to their own cabin and I helped Jim to cover the roof of the “Monkey Kingdom”. I like to call it like that since the kid chose the name. On my way back I was going to go to the Activity Building to get some milk and cereals, but I stood at the door since Laila and Fran were in and did not notice me. At one point, Laila said “I do not mind the age gap because man tend to be more immature than women” so I went to her and used a batman like voice to say “Immature what?” She freaked out and started shouting, but since she did it so loud the ear plug in Fran’s ear went crazy scaring the hell out of her. It was so funny but at the same time I worried so much about Fran. Since everything was okay I just grabbed a bowl of cereals and almond milk and went to finish my journal.
Jim came to the office too and wanted to show me and Laila the Youtube video of the guy who he quotes when he says “party party ya” in a German accent. It was actually a famous beatboxer who gets to travel around the world. He is called TedX Beatbox Brillance and he was really good and cool. Jim even showed us KRNFX (read Korean Effects) who is a Canadian youtuber who won the beatbox world challenge once. Since KRNFX did a collaboration with Walk Off The Earth (the band who did “Somebody I Used To Know” – five people one guitar version) he showed us the video of the dancing choreography he does every year with his 8th grade students because of a dance festival they attend every May. To motivate them to dance the first year, he bet on the fact that if they danced on a Walk Off The Earth song, the group would have commented on their video. His student did that and in the end the band really commented on the video. This gave so much motivation to Jim’s class that now every year they can not wait to dance because Walk Off The Earth is a pretty big thing in Canada. It made me want to help out for next year.
I spent the rest of the night working on my journal even if Bettina invited us again to a bonfire. Guess it is for the best since I am actually catching up little by little. As usual me and Laila ended up eating peanuts and having some tea. Here they call everything tea, from chamomile to whatever you put in hot water to drink. Since vegans do not have honey, I tried to use maple syrup instead. Hope my chamomile will help me sleep through the freezing night.
Godyl Go! 