Christmas

It has come and gone now. The advent calendars and count downs can be put away for 11 months and thus beginning a new year with new challenges, new people and new situations. So my Christmas, well it was surely different than years past, never before have I attending five family gatherings, four present opening or had that much turkey in one week. However, with all of that, it was wonderful, so many people to celebrate with and also reconnect with after being away since September. If I could I would go back and start the whole week over again, I wouldn’t add anything to the week and surprisingly I wouldn’t take anything away, not even one of the turkey dinners or when I got sat on. I could go on and list all the foods I ate, all the gifts I got and all the times I laughed until I cried. But that wouldn’t do anybody any good because those are my memories from my holiday and not yours. Everybody has their memories from their Christmas and has their own traditions (something I thought we, Archers, lacked in until they started). So, that is all I will say about my Christmas, just that is was one of the best yet.

I was asked if this was the best Christmas yet and I couldn’t say yes as in yes it was by far much better than all the rest but I could say yes because it was different than all the rest. I have spent four Christmas’s outside of Canada in three different countries and those are the ones I remember, I am sure I spent at least one in the USA with my American side of the family (however it would have been when I was younger and I hardly remember anything from those days). For me, there are no two Christmas’s that are the same, the ones I remember are all so different from each other, I wouldn’t even know where to start comparing them to each other. So, yes this was the best Christmas but only because I haven’t had one quite like this before.

Love,

a.m

Saskatchewan

So, I am home. This is so weird to say, three months felt like one day with a few naps.  That was really what it was like, and since most nights I was going to bed late and waking up semi-early it really was just like having a nap in the night time. But oh my, how nice it is to be home. To actually be allowed to make my own food, not have to climb into my bunk and here’s the big one, being able to watch TV (which I have now realized after watching TV, that there really isn’t anything on to watch). So many freedoms were taken away and that just became how life was down there, that I began to forget how many freedoms I have at home. That was until I went into the kitchen Saturday night to get something to eat, I felt a little overwhelmed by how much choice I had, it wasn’t all laid out for me but I actually had to do everything myself. Well I would have had to do everything for myself if my dad didn’t come in after I opened and closed the fridge for maybe the fourth time while my eyes popped out of my head. Now that day two of being home is done, I can say I did get myself food and figured out where everything in the house is since the house doesn’t look the way I left it on September 12.

Home Sweet Home!

a.m

Work Day

I can now count down using my fingers until the day I come home. HOORAY! As exciting that is, there is also another side of this coming home thing that isn’t so much fun – cleaning. We have to clean everything. I am not joking here when I say everything, there are lists everywhere and we have to go around finding our names to find out which things we have to do. Here is some of what we have to do:

In our rooms – the walls, the tall closets, the ceiling, the windows, the desks, the cupboards, the carpet, the beds, the mattress, the garbage bins, the walls, the fan, the door and the drawers. There can be no trace of sticky tack being on the walls, none of our stuff can be left in the room and the beds have to be put back the way we found them.

In the dorm – each tile on the floor, the glass sliding doors, all the windows, the walls, the staircases, the sofas/chairs, the tables, the lamps, the doors and the curtains.

In the bathroom – the drawers, the shower curtains, the walls above the showers, the toilets, the door, the tiled flooring, the light bulbs, the ceiling, the cupboards and the towel racks.

If it is not done and looking the way the staff want it they will take away our down payment or something like that. So we are all freaking out since that is a heck of a lot of work to do while we are still living here, going to classes and then they, as in the staff, have some end of the term ‘fun stuff’ planned for us. So when are we meant to clean? Yeah that is a question nobody has a really great answer too. It will probably end up being done Wednesday night since dorm check is Thursday at 1:30 but we are out until 1pm that day. Anyways, that’s what is going on at the Hill these days.

8 days and counting,

a.m