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Again, I don't have much time to say anything execept that it's really loud in the lounge right now because of a (french) concert being held here. (Lots of little concerts for us Trekkers only. =) Anyhoo, saw the Deputy Prime Minister and watched a very good short theatrical parody. Much more than that happened of course, but I'm limited by time. With that, I go.
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We had to get up early today so that we could make it to the Château Laurier by eight for breakfast. Being a fancy (CP) hotel, I was hoping for an extravagant meal, but I was rather disappointed to see that we were only offered a continental breakfast (again) and the only juice that was available was grapefruit juice (which I mistook for orange juice since it was so orange). Most of us figured that this was just a breakfast appetizer of sorts and that the real breakfast would be served later. I we betting on that hunch and only had two croissants for myself. (I didn't realize how good honey was on croissants!)
There were a couple of speeches, and a presentation from the Pole to Pole team. This team of eight youths (from around the world) and one guide are on a trip to go from the North Magnetic Pole to the South Pole by ski, foot, canoe, kayak, and bucycle relay. (A trip of over 22000 miles.) They started on April 5th, and plan to finish in late December 2000. I think it's a pretty cool idea, and if I had heard about it, I probably would've tried to do it myself.
After the speeches and presentations, we had Trek Talk, where we had a little discussion amongst our tables about the problems with exposing Canadian youth, how we could make it easier for our (our being the youth of Canada) voice to be heard, and to show off our accomplishments, achievements, and aspirations. Our work would later be presented to the Deputy Prime Minister in the afternoon. After that lengthy discussion, we we were led to the Alexandra bridge, where we unveiled our three hundred and fifty meter mural. There was some sort of presentation at the head of the banner, but the rest of us were lined up in front of the mural so that we could do the wave when the banner was unveiled. (They even caught it on tape and everything!)
After that, we came back to the Château for lunch (some tomato and wild rice soup, calzone, and fruit cocktail), and we were entertained by a couple of theatrical performers of.. I can't remember the name of the group, or the name of the skit, but it was some sort of paradoy using the Ontario Air Force. It was pretty good, but the only part I can remember (apart from the crazy hand gestures which I can't demonstrate here) was when they chanted,
"un, deux, ein, veinz, one, two, ooh, lalu (four)"
If anyone recognizes this, then throw it into the comments!
Afterward, there was a speech given by the leader of the Pole to Pole team, Martyn Williams, the first person to lead expeditions to the three extremes, Everest, the North Pole, and South Pole. It was an interesting speech, and a little inspiring. Afterward, we presented our work from the morning, in the form of two speeches, to the deputy Prime Minister (basically the Vice President for you American folk). The speech that was given basically struck a chord with all of the Trekkers at the Château. With all this talk about the youth of Canada being the future of Canada, and how most of the accomplishments of Canadaian youth are not always highlighted, I think the most powerful part of the speech was when he said,
"We are not the future. We are the present!"
To which we all cheered and applauded. After the noise died down, he continued with,
"Don't praise us for what we can do, praise us for what we've done, and what we are doing."
(Although this was from memory - I didn't write down the speech or anything - I believe that was the wording that he used.) The speech, needless to say, was pretty darned powerful. I was surprised at how much they actually said in the speech, but hey, if we gave some sort of calm formal (i.e. boring) speech, I don't think anyone would listen. The Deputy Prime Minister's response seemed (to me at least) a little condencending and definitely prescripted. I was a little disappointed that he didn't try to directly respond to our.. er.. demands, although he did mention a program that was already being put in place that addressed one of our suggestions. Another pet peeve was when the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned that this was the first Canada Day in the new millennium. Ooh, I knew someone would say that eventually.
Before heading back to camp, I picked up a few postcards and stamps. I really wanted to get some postcards from Hull, but I didn't know where to look. Oh well, the Ottawa ones were good enough.
Back at the village, I filled out the postcards, found out that the power was out for the computers, played a bit of soccer, lent my Future Trek hat to Nicholas (who later placed it somewhere and apparently told me but I didn't notice), and thought of what to do that night when it started to rain. I was lucky enough that one of the coordinators gave me another hat to replace the one I lost (they're not supposed to do that).
Actually, while I was filling out the postcards, Colin (one of the guys in my tent) asked me why I was sending out postcards when the earliest that the mail would be processed would be next Monday and I was going to be back home in only a couple of days. That was a good point, but one of those postcards was going pretty far away (New York) so I figured that it was worth it anyway.
Wandering back into the tent, I bumped into Colin, who was preparing to go out. He asked me what I was planning to do that night, and I told him that I was going to go and sleep. He asked me if I had a girlfriend or something (*sound of cracking whip*). I told him no, and he told me that I should go out and enjoy the night. To be honest, I never liked going clubbing. I don't drink, I can't dance, and the music is too loud to have any meaningful conversation. But..
I wandered into the lounge to call up AgentP to confirm the plans for Canada Day. There I bumped into Becky, who asked me what I was doing that night. I told her that I was probably going to sleep, and she asked me if I wanted to go out to the Factory with them.
*much debating in head*
You know, it's so much easier to be coerced by a cute girl than it is to be convinced by a guy. (Yeah, she's kinda cute, but has a boyfriend for those of you wondering.)
So I agreed to go, and take Nicholas with me (who was underage). The girls took the cab, but being the cheapskates that we were, and the fact that it stopped raining, we walked with a bunch of other people to the club. Fortunately, at least one of us knew where the club was (the same guy who wore the CTRL-A T-shirt infact) and we headed across the bridge. Partway across, it started to rain again, and Nicholas started to have second thoughts. I tried to convince him to come along, but he eventually turned around and went back to the village. I was having second thoughts myself, but the rain was starting to come down pretty hard and I needed to find shelter. The closest shelter was a bridge that was a bit further on.
Our group took refuge under the bridge during the heaviest downpour, but once the rain let up, we headed out and continued on towards the Factory. As we continued on, and the rain started to come down again, our leader (the guy with the CTRL-A shirt) told us that the club wasn't that much further,
"Just at the end of the street."
So we all pressed forward in the rain. He didn't mention that "the end of the street" was seven blocks down, but hey, we never asked. Along the way, I was talking with this girl by the name of Nadia, who went to the University of Waterloo (as did just about everyone else from Ontario). What surprised me more was that she knew SDS! (He had tutoured her.)
By the time we reached the Factory, I was completely drenched. They carded us at the entrance, so it was probably a good idea that Nicholas didn't come along with us. Also, since we were Trekkers, we were allowed to enter into the club without a cover (only three bucks, but still..). The place was also mostly empty (which probably had to do with the weather). I stayed there for a couple of hours. I noticed that there were quite a number of Trekkers there, and as the night wore on, the place started to get awfully packed. I stayed just long enough before I got too claustrophobic, and headed back to the village on my own. The walk back to camp was refreshing, and even better, I didn't get lost!
I took a shower, and went to sleep.
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