Things in the Mail

The monkey fell out of his bunk (THUMP)

And slid down the elephant's trunk (WHEE!)

The elephant sneezed and fell on his knees,

But what became of the monkey (monkey, monkey, monkey...)?

Hello everyone! Hopefully you're all finished exams and things and have officially started your summer (:

On Tuesday I got a very exciting package in the mail from Girlguiding UK! When I was at an international camp in Manitoba last summer, a group from SW England was there, and they had the most amazing GG shirts I have ever seen. So I *had* to order one ;D Our centenary shirt was kind of a disappointment compared to this:

The little circle emblem is the GGUK centenary logo:


And it says "Girlguiding UK Girls in the Lead" on the sleeve. I thought it was awesome.





Wonder if I'd confuse the British Guiders when they heard my accent while wearing that shirt at camp?

I also got THESE :D Not that they'll be coming to camp :(

The most amazing pair of flip flops in my collection.
If GGC ever decides to make flip flops, I will be the first to order a pair!





So that's what came via snail mail...via e-mail I recieved the 7th edition of GM Buzz, which was pretty exciting! Have you had the chance to read it yet? Town Square sounds incredible. I can't believe how much work and dedication is going into making this such a great camp. A big thank you to any volunteers reading this! GM2010 is going to be the best GM yet :D

Days to GM: 10

Blogger Contest Entry

I love to go a-wandering along the mountain track,

And as I go I love to sing, my knapsack on my back

Hello! Any ideas where this week went? Between seeing Lauren Fairweather play a show in London, trying to come up with a new cat name (turns out it's a boy :P), seeing the Tempest, my birthday yesturday, and studying for exams, I haven't gotten much of anything done D: Since I'm up to my eyeballs in history review tonight, I thought I'd post my original blogger contest entry. The word max was much too low to my liking, but this is what I came up with :) See you in a few weeks!

If you take a look at the old program books, you’ll see that Guiding is for fun and adventure, challenge, and opportunity. Add friends to that list, and you’ve got exactly what Guiding means to me.

FUN: We can all attest to the amount of fun we’ve had in Guiding - that’s one of the reasons we’ve stuck around for so long ;D Whether it’s playing games, meeting new people, or trying something new, Guiding and fun to go together like...outhouses and stink. Eloquent, I know.

ADVENTURE: Nearly all of the “adventurous” things I’ve done have been through Guiding. Although tenting it in mid-January and going on an overnight canoe trip might not seem like the pinnacle of adventure to some, there’ll be more to come in my Guiding career. Can you say Yukon, anyone?

CHALLENGE: The best part of Brownies and Guides for me was always earning badges. I was the browner Brownie who got all her badges in one year, and I didn’t do too shabby in Guides, either. But challenges extend outside the realm of the Canada Cord (slash Ribbon) – things like learning to ski and planning meetings count too!

OPPORTUNITY: Guiding is all about the opportunity to try new things. I have a 350 word limit, so I can’t go into detail, but some of the highlights have been an international camp in England, and another in Manitoba. The plan is to someday volunteer at Our Chalet, and hopefully receive one of the scholarships GGC offers :D

FRIENDS: I have met so many awesome people through Guiding. I’ve got friends all over the world, from New Zealand to the UK, from Alberta to Newfoundland, as well as 45 minutes north east, and 2 minutes down the street.

One fateful night, many years ago, I was selling GG Cookies to a neighbour. She and my mom were talking about the number of girls dropping out of Guiding before Pathfinders, either from becoming too busy, or just losing interest. I piped up with, “I love Guides! I’m never going to quit!”

Today, my attitude remains the same (:

Days to GM: 17

Blogging > Homework

Tall trees that reach the sky,
Mountains and lakes near by,
Draw near my friends, come sing my friends,
Our campfire time is nigh.

Hello again! How do you like the new layout? If you haven't noticed, I've been trying to keep with the whole blue/green/red theme of the GM logo, but now things are a bit brighter (:

(I was about to start this paragraph with "Speaking about GM," but then I realized, Rachel, this whole BLOG is speaking about GM. So let's try this again.)

Camp is less than a month away! Can you believe it? I can't. When I created a little countdown on my Facebook profile, there were over 400 days to go. And now - 24. Crazy!

This weekend I took a trip down to Burlington to visit Mountain Equipment Co-op. It's a pretty cool store for a Girl Guide. Never have I seen that many headlamps or packets of dehydrated food in one place. Plus, you can find clothing that was made in Canada :O It's unreal. Our unit now has at least one solar shower to use at camp!

Exams are fast approaching, so our unit hasn't had any time to get together yet. I hope you're all reading and commenting on Hazel's blog, who is coming to GM from the UK and doing much more interesting things to prepare for her trip ^.^ There's also Caitlin's blog, another blogger from Ontario (Click their names to visit their blogs!)

If you have a Facebook account, make sure you join the Guiding Mosaic group! There's all sorts of discussions happening on the boards right now, where you can ask any questions you have about GM. Threads for different neighbourhoods have been started too, so you can chat with some of the people you'll be camping with in only a few weeks :D

Time to get back to that homework :/

Days to GM: 24

Shrunken Swaps

The people beyond our borders, and far across the foam,
They all call it Canada, but I call it home!

It's been a crazy busy week this week! Thursday, after 2 years and 120 days, I finally got my braces off :D On Friday I went to Canada's Wonderland with our school band, and on Saturday I got my birthday present early (: 

She has yet to be named though!









On the GM front, I've been busy making some swaps and attaching my little name tags. Anybody else do something like this?

Well, minus the pink xD

My unit is planning a swap party to make swaps before camp - maybe some tie-dye hat crafts for the 70's Ranger Village if I can find turquoise dye ^.^ We'll also be making shrink art swaps! I have a surfboard-shaped shrinky dink on my hat from California that I thought was really creative. Here's a tester that I've done for GM:

 1 by 4cm ish.

The hiring has been finished for the photography team, and right now we're all starting to get to know one another via Facebook. It's going to be tons of fun looking after the photography at GM, and I can't wait to meet everybody!

Be sure to leave me a comment below (: Let me know how your unit is getting ready for Mosaic!

Days to GM: 32