Week 50

Day 343: Jul 19, 2015

We had a field trip today!! About half of the village headed down the mountain to spend some time down at the lake. It was truly like a camp field trip. We played telephone on the bus ride down which was hilarious because at different points the phrase was being translated from english into polish, polish to spanish and then back to english. Once we got down to the lake we quick slathered on the sunscreen and ran off the dock. Before jumping in, I saw about 5 trout that were about 10 inches long but they were gone by the time we got over to where they had been. The lake was cold but we got used to it pretty quickly. We swam around, found a log to sit on in the water. We pretended it was a boat and paddled around a little. We tried to stand on it without having it roll (we were only successful for a short amount of time) and just sat on it. We took a short hike over to the next harbor over (Refrigerator Harbor) and some people jumped off the cliff. I went up planning on jumping but decided against it once I was up there. I figured it was enough of a fear facing by just going up there. We spent time just enjoying the sun and read. It was wonderful. We headed back after about 4 hours of fun and it was like a kindergarten bus ride. Half of the bus was asleep at some point during the ride. The remaining part of the afternoon was pretty chill. After Eucharist a bunch of people gathered in my living room and played dungeons and dragons while others of us went out onto the porch where a few played guitars and the rest (mainly me) sang or hummed along. It was a lovely way to end a great day.

Day 344: Jul 20, 2015

I did basically nothing today beside put aloe on my burns from yesterday.

Day 345: Jul 21, 2015

So the power went out for the whole day at 7am today. It was only in the building where I work but that meant that I worked 2.5 hours and then had the rest of the day off. It was pretty great. I went back to sleep, cleaned up my room, and did some reading. It was great. I ended the day with watching a dodgeball tournament while eating ice cream and then spent some time on our porch while watching the moon set.

Day 346: Jul 22, 2015

Today was very musical. Levi came into the coffee shop today and played his guitar for a while and eventually Honna came in and joined in on the violin. In the afternoon I took a nap and read while listening to Levi practice and in the evening I showed Alex how to turn the heels on his socks and then we went to a different chalet where we talked, played Monopoly Deal, ate popcorn, and listened to Levi play more music on the guitar.

Day 347: Jul 23, 2015

Tonight was pretty great. We had vespers around the fire ring by the creek (there was no fire) and had a group hug because Max is still cancer free!!!! I am so happy that his scans were clear. It is a HUGE weight off my chest. He has been cancer free for a year which is awesome. The evening was finished with a little painting with Bob Ross and some coconut cake to celebrate a friend's birthday!

Day 348: Jul 24, 2015

Wow, the village is so quiet right now. There are about 15 people out doing overnight hikes today. There were two main groups, the trail crew and a group going to the next boat stop about 17 miles from here. When there are only 50 some odd villagers it makes a huge difference to lose 15. It is kinda bizarre. There is no one on my floor in the chalet and there is nothing to do tonight because most of the people I hang out with are out. I guess that means I will finally get a full night of sleep. I started making fruit leather today. It is in the dehydrator right now and probably won't be ready until tomorrow morning. It is strawberry, blueberry, black raspberry, huckleberry, and thimbleberry leather. Should be good.

Day 349: Jul 25, 2015

Oh, man. Once that fruit leather was completely dry it was amazing. It is truly leather-like and is completely dry but the flavor is awesome. Mmmm, so good. The day was pretty normal plus a few weird Holden moments. Tomorrow is James' (a villager who loves to show off his “hikeys” aka calves and loves certain shaped noses) birthday. He is a well loved very long term villager and tomorrow is his 50^th birthday. So, being the village that we are, we made a video for him. There were hikeys, noses, and 50 Cent (his favorite nose of all time) included and those are only the parts that I know of. We are going to show it tomorrow. Should be great. To end the night, we had a variety show. It was pretty short (only 6 acts) but Lawns and Gardens brought some freshly harvested carrots from our mini green houses. Those carrots were amazing- crunchy, juicy, wonderful flavor, and not woody at all. So much good produce, so little room in my stomach.