Waking up early has never been as easy as it is in this camp. Going to bed tired really helps to just sleep through the night so well. During breakfast we saw a fox just passing really close to the activity building. It just passed showing no fear for humans. Jim told us that that kind of encounters was really common in the camp.
We went on with our little cabin project and started taking measures for the wall’s frame. Jim was so happy that I was getting better and better with the screws and the nails. He trusted me with the side walls to get started with the front and the back walls, which were way more complicated to frame.
Lunch came in no time and we ate the leftovers of the previous dinners.
After lunch, we had plenty of activities going on. First we painted the rocks yellow and black for the “Bee activity”. The goal of the activity was to paint the rocks as mentioned and write something on it starting with “Bee” (so for example “Bee unique”, “Bee yourself” etc) to place the rocks all around the camp. I helped with giving a first and a second layer of yellow on the rocks.
We ended up the Bee activity and hit up the canoes to go to Magnetawan (the closest city to our camp) via the lake. Jim put me in charge of stiring my boat which was composed by me, Laila and Larry. We did not do a really bad job, but we could have definitely do better. I think we went straight just twice the whole ride, going zigzag most of the time. I spent the time on the canoe singing Disney songs in Italian so that Laila could guess the movie.
We arrived at a park and put out all of the food on a picnic table. Fran reached us with a car, so we had lots of stuff. Before lunch Fran introduce Laila to a local guy. He was very muscular and Laila said that he was a nine out of ten with the premise of having a good character.
We had lunch and I stuffed my toast with everything that I could. I also kept eating crackers and celery with hummus. Afterward, me and Laila played Ukulele. I taught her the few chords I knew (the pop progression) and sang on the music she was playing. I ended up singing some Linkin Park, which are one of her favorite groups.
The kids went to play in the playground close to the shore, so I took a look at the place and noticed that there were so many particular benches. I took a picture of them because they were so cool and unique. All of the people under five years had a lot of fun going in the water, but I tried to take a nap on the swing. It did not work though.
Jim suggested that we should have jumped off one cliff into the water. I went first and tried to make a double L with my fingers to show something that could recall the Lighthouse Lading Camp. After me, Laila jumped with a scream to get rid of the anxiety of jumping from ten meters. Bettina did it with her son River. At first it seemed like he was okay, but he must have been scared because he started crying on a rock after getting out from the water. The last one to jump was Melissa. And it was so cute because Haven kept telling her mom not to dive.
On our way back Jim taught me how to stir the canoe. I was just like rowing left or right according of where the canoe was headed, so it took lots of energy. Basically you just put the paddle at the side end of the boat with the face looking sideways and pull outside as much as you need to stir the canoe. After that it was so much easier to go straight, but we still rowed too slowly.
I kept teasing Laila about tipping the canoe over, but I had lot of stuff in it so my teasing was not effective. During the return we saw a black pharaoh posing for us. I got a shot of it but it was so far and we were worried of scaring it if we just rowed closer to it. So I used my camera’s zoom. The picture in itself is nice, but obviously the details were a little bit off.
After that we tried to speed up the pace but we got lost again into different conversations. For example, Laila asked me my opinion about soulmates. I joked asking her if she was a promoter from a website called soulmates.com but then I told her that if we were not the last ones to get back to the camp, I would have told her my opinion. We did surpass Melissa and Bettina. I joked about the fact that I would like to believe in soulmates because that would mean that I will eventually find one person for me. Melissa said that I am a special person and that only a special one can be the one for me. She wanted me to have faith and be patience, but I do not believe this thing anymore. I admit I am not the best guy to be someone’s boyfriend. Maybe I am too self-centered, maybe I lack experience and real love to give to myself and to others, but I think that it is not a coincidence that I am still single at this point of my life.
Laila went on with her point of view, stating that to her soulmates are souls that have met before. So even if the two people do not actually know each other, they feel like they knew each other so well it feels like they were friends for a lifetime.
The day was filled with activities, so we used the time after the canoeing to build the frames for the side walls. We did it in a way shorter time than the morning. We had a good teamwork and sped up things. I even got one nail in in just four hits with Laila as a witness of the incredible moment. We were so hyped we thought we could finish everything before dinner, but Laila broke the tip of the driller that she was using to pre-drill the planks, so we actually went at a normal pace afterward.
Jim called it a day and we went back to the office. Since Jim and Fran were working on the computers, they asked me to help Alyssa with the dinner. I ended up playing with Asher until the Polish couple came with water guns. They squirted us so bad that it seemed like we were just coming back from a dive in the lake. Me and Asher played as Alyssa cooked, but I was so worried when he started squirting even the people in the kitchen and in the office. Jim and Alyssa did not say anything about it which made me admire them for their consistency on raising him. As long as it is not harmful, dangerous or incredibly stupid, they would let him do and experience different things. When I will have kids I will ask them for tips for sure.
We had a hotpot of different vegetables together with quinoa. I always wondered what that was and in that moment I finally found it out. Vegetables do not lack any nutriment and in percentage they have so much to offer, but since they are smaller compared to other foods you actually have to eat lots of them.
Fran and Laila took me to Huntsville after dinner. The drive took around 45 minutes but we stopped in Burk’s Falls to get something from Tim Horton, a food chain from a former Hockey player. Fran wanted me to get something so I had a mango smoothie but it was so sweet that it actually felt a little bit heavy.
We arrived at Home Depot at the same time that we got a call from them. On our way there we actually called them and Greg answered. He is an old guy around his forties who is trying to go out with Laila. So he knew we were coming and he called us back when we parked the car.
Fran sent me on an errand to get some peat moss but there was only the six liters pack, so she ended up getting something else. The reason we went there in honesty was to get a window for the cabin we are building, so Laila went to Greg to talk about that and we got the last window for the size we were looking for. Greg asked Laila if she had some days off, so me and Fran started teasing her because it was so clear that he wanted to go out with her. Whatever, we got a discount from Greg since one tiny part of the window was missing.
Wallmart was the next unplanned stop. We stopped at the vegetables section of course, since everyone is vegan at the camp. We found a teenager sorting out the fruit. His name was Alex and Fran just attacked him with tons of questions. I could feel a little bit bad for him since Fran has a strong temper and she was showing her disappointment for not finding what she was looking for. At the same time, Fran wanted to take some corns so she asked me to peel them. Laila was against it because the corn was light yellowish and white. In her opinion it could only be full yellow. We started fighting (in a funny way) and she even searched for “Canadian corn” to show me that the ones that I was peeling were not good. However, Google showed the same exact kind of peeling so we started to fight and laugh at the same time. Everyone in Wallmart close to us noticed and it seemed like it gave them a good time. Even Fran was advertising the fight and telling everyone we were from Italy and Germany.
With everything we needed in our shopping cart we paid and went back to the car. Fran took some time to go to the washroom and so me and Laila went ahead with what we bought. There was a big raven that just pooped on some chairs from the edge of Wallmart’s roof. After that it flew right close to us and I could get some shots.
We thought we could finally get back home to work on our own stuff since we do not get so much free time during the day at the camp, but Fran wanted to stop by the flags. Therefore, we made a detour and stopped by the flags. After the fight for the corn Laila just kept laughing for everything and it seemed like she was so drunk. She admitted that she was really tired but still it was funny to see her laugh that much for no reasons. We took some pictures and filmed some videos at the flag. We laughed about Germany and Italy being right next to Canada’s flag. They were there to celebrate this year’s G8 summit in Canada. We took a selfie as soon as the wind started to blow a little and it was even funnier the fact that all of the flags started waving except for the German one. We finally made it back at the camp and it makes me smile that I almost wrote “back home”. The ride back was a fight against my sleepiness just to hear Fran and Laila talking to each other and sometimes to me. The landscape and the sky were beautiful though, as the magical sunset standing right on the horizon line and everywhere around us. Its colors were really beautiful and well blended.
Today I finally had some time to text my mom through Facebook. I could use whatsapp but that would made me waste so much time on social networks and instant messaging. As I started writing my journal, Fran went to bed and gave me and Laila some cookies and peanuts. We were alright for the night but we still ate lots of peanuts and finished the cookies.
On our way to the trailers we stopped to watch the sky. For the first time in my life I saw the Milky Way and it was so cool. I had other chances to see a clear sky at night before, but I never saw the Milky Way prior to that moment. We stared for a long time and I saw three shooting stars. Or falling stars, whatever you want to call them. Just so you know, I asked for the same thing for all of them.
Before saying farewell I started pointing my flashlight in the distance and Laila scared the hell out of me saying that I should be not worried about not seeing anything but about the chance that I would see something. My mind just went straight to all of the Asian horror movies that I could recall in that moment. It goes without saying that I ran to my trailer and went to bed with the lights on. I just kept waking up all night because of that one sentence from Laila.
Godyl Go! 