i'm back in vic tonight.

i'm currently sitting in my friend lauren's living room in victoria, and the four of us who are here are all on our laptops, having a blog party. this past week has been non-stop and this is pretty much the only chance i've had to sit down on the computer for any sufficient time for blogging... so here goes.

one week ago today, we kaleos packed up, woke up and rolled out of campus to head to the harbour in victoria, to head on our SALTS trip. i'm going to be honest, i wasn't expecting a tonne from this trip - essentially five days on a tall ship with no showers and no privacy and no facebook or itunes. sure, i figured it'd be fun, that it'd be a cool experience, but i had no idea how sweet it would be. from the moment i stepped onboard the pacific grace, i was amazed at the ship's crew... perhaps some of the most Christlike people i have ever met. we were divided into three different watch groups; i was in port watch, which became known as "team pan-pan" (due to some near-capsizing experiences on our lifeboat). throughout the week, we'd have shifts being on watch and steering the boat and listening for distress calls on the radio, which might sound like a lot of work but it was pretty much the most chill time ever. the only real difficult task was night watch, where two people would be on-deck at all times throughout the night, making sure that we didn't drift into rocks or get attacked by pirates, etc. we'd all have one-hour shifts, and i usually scored some time between 2 and 4 a.m., but it was pretty valuable time once we'd drag ourselves out of bed. it turned into really rad bonding time for some of us... which is, i suppose, what the whole week was. by the end of the week, it became clear just how much our community is building and how big our story's arc is shaping up to be.

after getting back from SALTS, i had about 20 minutes to shower and get ready for youth group, and was almost wishing i had more time to rest between but i'm so glad i went. the heart of these youth really reminds me of that of my own youth group - the youth decided (and it was entirely their idea) to hold a thanksgiving banquet for the community around, and so the basement was packed with people of all walks of life - none churchgoers, but all full of joy and fantastic turkey. and the youth loved it, they were so excited afterwards. it was phenomenal.

after that, i went back to pacific woods lodge, slept (finally), and first thing in the morning me and my fellow kaleos jeremy and nate took off to pender island, which actually meant we headed to saltspring island and hitch-hiked from one side to the other. it was really sweet, saltspring has a cool vibe. after spending the night and following morning at nate's grandparents' house, we ended up coming to victoria due to ferry issues with the holiday monday and such, and stayed at my good friend lauren's house, and meeting up with old friends.

and through this has come one of the coolest blessings ever: lauren's mom is really into photography, and has a whole bunch of cameras, and for a while i've been scoping out slr's. so it turns out lauren's mom had someone give her a really sweet film slr camera, for someone who really wants it, and (i can hardly believe this) i get to try it out for the next little bit! i don't know how long i'll have it for, when she wants it back, etc, but i'm excited to have it at least for a bit.

and stoked on the week/month/year ahead!