A few insights....(or procrastination by writing blogs)

I changed my lay out and lost all of my links! Do you like this one better, or the old one? Let me know before I put in the effort to make all the links again.

This week I have to behave myself and be more serious about life. I have a big paper and an exam to get through, so no more pranking around...for a few days at least.
Today I realized how much this place (my apartment) is starting to feel like home, and it's a feeling I enjoy. This afternoon I went to the grocery store and checked out my goods with a lady I have gotten to know a bit in there, who was born in the SAME HOSPITAL AS ME IN ENGLAND! Isn't that great? We have a bond that goes back a long way..actually, our entire lives.......
I finally got a bike to ride to Tyndale, and proceeded to venture down the big steep Bayview hill today with Lory on the back, clinging on for dear life!! Lory is one of my wonderful room mates. She is Ecuadorian, but grew up in Canada. I love hearing her speaking on the phone to her Mom in the most beautiful Spanish. She had never ridden a bike before today, so she was very brave to climb aboard!
(After one day of biking to school, Lory couldn't sit down from the pain, and I had to take a bath to ease my aching body. I know...we are pathetic)

I am reading two marvellous books right now, neither of which are anything to do with school, but I can't put them down. One is The Poisonwood Bible, upon high recomendation from various people, including Beth Johnston, whose opinion I trust immensely. The other is Captivating, a book I have heard talk of for quite some time. I find myself underlining stuff on almost every page so far.


April is another of my fantastic room mates, and she is half Cambodian. I also love listening to her on the phone with HER Mom, speaking in Khmer (pronnounced Cumai). I am jealous that these girls grew up bilingual! Today April and I happened to see our 'groundskeeper' Wally, wheeling cart after cart of stuff over to the garbage dump outside our apartment building. Being the broke-barely-any-furniture-apartment-renters that we are, we leapt over our balcony (don't worry, we live on the ground floor) and ran to see what treasures we could steal. 15 minutes later we were the proud owners of a beautiful TV cabinet and shelves, a coat stand, a full length mirror, a camera, and a pile of brand new CDs. Ingenious!

The down-side of this escapade was when we were climbing back over the balcony, April felt something land on her shoulder, and when we looked up, we saw 2 grinning boys who looked about 20, spitting on us from the 10th floor! Can you believe it? Don't worry, Wally yelled at them. (Wally is a lovely middle aged man who tends to the apartment and its property, and he would probably take a bullet for us. He is a fatherly figure who is constantly looking out for us. Good ol' Wally!)

PS My Third room mate is the lovely Jenna, who is as white and non-bilingual as me. She does however, speak the language of art in a very beautiful way, and you should see her colourful bedroom!

The Three Musketeers Strike Again!

It was a Tuesday night after a week of Midterms, and though my body and mind were exhausted, I was determined to take advantage of this rare 'night off'. Together with my partners in crime, Laura (sister) and Beth (cousin), we set off to wreak havoc on the city of Toronto. (or should I say REEK havoc....pun very intended!) Armed with our weapon of mass destruction, (an extremely realistic fart machine with 15 varieties of fart) we entered the TTC system, where we spent the next 4 hours going from subway to subway, platform to platform, springing chaos on poor unsuspecting members of the general public.

I have not laughed this hard in months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Let me explain how this contraption works: There is a small black box -with boom-box technology no less- that can be hidden anywhere. Mostly we hid it on the body of one of the three of us. Then there is the remote control, which works within a 100 metre radius, allowing the button presser to be far away from the scene of the crime and never suspected as the farter.)
Here are some highlights of the night:
1)The Eglington Subway platform where a gentleman in his thirties was beside himself with laughter at our antics, finally figured out what we were doing, and proceeded to join in with us, explaining to everybody standing around that "she can't help herself, she has a problem."
2) The guy who tried hitting on Laura, walking towards her saying "hey there", to which Beth (holding the remote) promptly responded by letting one rip (the machine was in Laura's jacket), -the guy just about jumped backwards onto the tracks in his hurry to get away!
3)The couple who were mid-makeout session, until I walked past and destroyed their magical moment. The girl collapsed onto her boyfriends chest in laughter, and when I walked back past a moment later, the guy held out his hands in protection and said "STAY AWAY FROM US!".
4)The TTC workers in their office who were becoming more and more disturbed by the loud flacculence noises coming from the platform, until finally one marched out and shouted "We need to evacuate the building"!! Upon seeing Laura standing around the corner, he exclaimed "You???? And such a pretty girl! You need to eat more vegetables."
5) The group of five guys in their 30's who, after hearing the obnoxious noise, all blamed their friend "Dave" who tried in vain to defend himself and proclaimed "it wasn't me, it was that girl over there"! .......Yeah right Dave.
6)The group of three guys in their later 20's who were in full conversation until they heard a large fart, to which they suddenly hushed, and a few seconds later, a small voice could be heard muttering "safety."
7)The guy in a long black trench coat who sussed out what we were doing on the train, and got so excited about it that he wanted to order his own fart machine. When we told him about it, he yelled out rather loudly; "It seriously has 15 varieties of fart???? Can I please listen to them all?!"

As a psychology student, it was interesting to look at the social psychology lessons in the way that people reacted, the genre of person that people blamed as the culprit, and the way that humour breaks down social barriers with complete strangers!
We found in general that the male population shared our "toilet humour" far more than the females. The typical female reaction was to wrinkle her nose in disgust and shoot a dirty, shocked look in our direction. Often she actually got up off the bench and walked away! As for the boys and men, they were either trying desperately not to laugh, or had given in to the hilarity of the situation and were practically rolling on the floor guffawing.....(guffawing, what a great word!)

As for Laura, Beth and I, I don't think we'll ever grow up, and we most definitely will never become 'ladylike'...it sounds far too boring.

PS: The next day, Jesse, Jo and I spent a good hour in the Tyndale school library pulling similar shenanigans. Sorry sem students!

I'll bring the OJ

Tonight I went to a halloween party with a wicked costume. Here it is.

Yep, I was inside it.
I also took with me my "secret weapon"; a device which I have to write another whole blog on. Check out my cousin's blog if you can't wait to hear of our adventures, otherwise tune in tomorrow....!

He loves me, he loves me not, he LOVES me.

I have felt so encouraged by his love this week, in a few different ways. It's been like God has been hugging me, whispering to me how much he cares. One of those was definitely the guitar. Such an extravagently beautiful gift, and maybe I'll never know who gave it. Will I ever understand the love of God? No, but I am clutching a precious glimpse right now. I think that the more we understand his love, the more we are able to love others in a way that is real and deep and joyful. As Max Lucado says, "He loves you with an unfailing love, and that love, if you will let it, can fill you and leave you with a love worth giving." True love is ALWAYS worth giving, but what is true love? His love. Him.

Here is a quote by TS Elliot that I LOVE, though I don't understand it fully yet. What are your thoughts on it? (especially you English majors!)
"Except for the point, the still point, there would be no dance, and there is only the dance."
There is tangible beauty EVERYWHERE. open your eyes and find it somewhere new today....

The Greatest Gift.

In order to understand this blog, you have to read the one before it.

Yesterday afternoon I was home in Stouffville, and in the middle of the afternoon, I went to open the front door, and there, sitting on my porch, was a most BEAUTIFUL brand new guitar in a beautiful case, with a note saying "Hannah, let's not let the music fade".

This is what it looks like. It is so beautiful. I am totally gobsmacked!
I DON'T KNOW WHO IT'S FROM.
I thought I did, but I don't!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
Please reveal yourself to me.

When the music fades...

I'm really craving my guitar right now. I miss it terribly, it's such an outlet for me. I can wander anywhere with it, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. My favourite physical place to wander around here is the weeping willow tree outside my apartment building. I love sitting under it to play, especially early in the morning. When I have my guitar I can wander the corridors of my mind and let my thoughts dictate the music. I can stop off at whatever memory or thought that I like, and allow the associated emotions to emerge as the notes begin to fill the air. My guitar can really take me places ....and right now I just want to go somewhere! Sadly, I lent it to a friend while I was in BC this summer, and it got stolen. So now I have no guitar. The end.

Hello everyone!

Hi, it's me, Hannah. I have become a terrible blogger. By that I mean...I haven't blogged in ages! It's not intentional, I just haven't felt the urge to sit down and write about a particular thing. Maybe my life is totally boring and I don't want you to have to endure reading about it, or maybe my mind is in a zillion places a day and I have no idea which parts to write about. I think it's the second, but whatever the reason, I am still alive and well, walking through the world day by day, and learning lots. I hope to be back on here soon writing something worth reading. Despite not contributing to cyber space myself, I am still reading your blogs and living vicariously through your adventures! Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canadians, and for all the British who don't have thanksgiving (let's face it, we aren't a very thankful bunch), have a great weekend!

Some Trivia for those as ignorant as I was: Did you know that pineapples grow out of the ground like this? Before living on a pineapple farm in Zambia, I thought they grew on trees!