Life @ SMUS

Not only did the SMUS Senior basketball girls qualify for the Provincial Tournament in Kamloops this year, but we will also arrive with the prestigious title of Island Champions. I wish I could say we effortlessly beat opponent after opponent, but such was not the case. The metaphorical journey to Kamloops has had its fair share of blood, sweat and tears.

It all started when the Senior girl’s season ended sooner than we wanted during the last Island Championships. Back then we could have been classified as one of the more “inexperienced” teams in the league as we had only one returning Grade 12 player and the Grade 11 players were just being introduced to a competitive league. We felt a bit low after losing our last game but collectively, in the hotel rooms as we packed to go home, the team decided we would work extra hard off-season to become “the team to beat.” I guess there is truth to the famous quote by Joe Paterno who eloquently said, “The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital,” because a week later, some of us were already back on the court.

After a restful summer in September and October there was open gym sessions every Monday and Wednesday evenings. It wasn’t mandatory but it was fun for those who had time to shoot around or scrimmage against their friends for an hour and a half. Also, it was a great time to play against my coaches to see if they really knew how to play (which they definitely do). Once November rolled around, our full squad was back in motion with practices three days during the week and once a weekend coached by the devoted Gary Brooke (otherwise known as “GB”) and former Vikes MVP, Ms. Brooke. As the season progressed, we had practices and games throughout the weekday and we participated in exposition tournaments on the weekends. All the practice was intense and the players sacrificed a lot of their Fridays and Saturdays, but we improved immensely with the extra games, making it worth it in the end.

In the game for 1st place, we were matched with Carihi, the only AA school on the island that we lost to by only one basket a month earlier. As one can imagine, the game started with SMUS hungry for not only sweet revenge, but for that trophy. Right off the bat the Senior girls got into it and the score was tight up to the last minute. When there was only 50 seconds left in the game we were leading by a single basket. As we were counting down that last minute however, Carihi had no choice but to foul and take our player to the line for foul shots in hopes that we would miss and they would get the ball back. Unfortunately for them, however, we made our foul shots and didn’t allow them to make any shots when they got the ball back. Eventually, when the clock went to 0 seconds let’s just say our team looked a lot like this:

(I couldn’t find a picture of us that looked like that but you get the picture)

I’ll find an actual picture of us and the trophy.

So here we are now and as this blog is being published, we are either sleeping on the bus somewhere between Victoria or Kamloops, or playing an intense game of basketball. No matter what we’re doing though, I know we are having a blast.

BC Parliament Buildings, Victoria

It’s funny to hear people say, “Ugh, there’s nothing to do on Friday nights in Victoria.” I mean, I can understand because the first “things-to-do” in Victoria that come to my mind include Butchart Gardens… the Victoria harbor… Butchart Gardens…

But even though Victoria may not be as dynamic and bustling as big cities like Vancouver, one can find many fun and simple things to do with your friends. I am going to recommend some downtown hotspots for students!

Shopping—not only for the girls!

The Bay Center is pretty good, but you can check out the cool boutiques down Government Street, like Utopia. You can find the coolest and funniest t-shirts at Utopia that can be the topic of a great conversation and help you start new friendships (I have seen this happen, I kid you not). While you’re there, you can walk down along Johnson Street and browse through the latest fashions in the Converse Shoe Store or Rebel Rebel. You can find gifts and outfits for any occasion shopping along this area.

Relaxation

A nice stroll along the parliament buildings and by the harbor, but while your there you might as well grab a treat from the Rogers Soda Shop!

IMAX and the Royal BC Museum

• If the museum is not your thing, you can find an IMAX film that everyone can enjoy.

Live performances

• You can treat yourself to a concert at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre or McPherson Playhouse

Hangouts and Adventure

• Peacock Billiards and Bistro: Bring all your friends down to play some pool!
• Discover the Past: Tours downtown
  So you may get mixed reviews amongst your friends but you can choose between a regular tour of downtown where you learn about its history or you can choose “Ghostly Walks.” The website claims to take you to “spooky places where the echoes of hangings, murders and colourful events can still be heard.” Fascinating!

Festivals

• Depending on the time of year, festivals take place downtown. You can see upcoming special events here.

FOOD

My favorite part! There are so many options downtown! You can find little cafés anywhere where you can find lunch or dinner for less than $10. Also, talking about good deals, I recommend Azuma Sushi on Yates Street! You can get a bento box with a generous serving of rice, salad, fruit and your choice of meat like teriyaki chicken or beef for under $10!

For those who don’t mind paying a little extra for a more lavish dinner, I recommend any restaurant down along the harbor, like Milestones. You get great food and an excellent view!

Dessert: Now for my favorite part. If none of the activities listed above is to your liking, you can at least bring all your friends to Moxie’s Classic Grill to enjoy a nice dessert. Maybe you feel like you deserve a nice treat after a long week… or maybe there is no reason. Whatever the occasion, I highly recommend the following desserts when you do feel the need to indulge.

Sticky Toffee Pudding!!! Need I explain in detail? It’s a warm, soft sticky toffee pudding cake…

The Ultimate White Chocolate Brownie! It’s served warm and moist topped with whipped cream and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I can’t explain the brownie because I won’t be able to give it enough justice.

Now that I have shared some of my ideas, I hope that this weekend you’ll go downtown, enjoy the fresh air and try some of my recommendations. I am confident that once this blog is published and word about downtown Victoria, BC is spread all around the world, I will see I ♥ Victoria t-shirts everywhere I travel.

Jasmine is a Grade 12 day student.

I must confess: I live my life from holiday to holiday (or long weekend). So, obviously I’m super-excited about the holiday coming up this Friday… Hallowe’en! Who doesn’t love getting dressed up as something completely ridiculous and consuming copious amounts of candy? I know I do. I swear that those mini chocolate bars you get around this time of year taste better than the originals too, like honestly, I don’t get how they do that.

At any rate, I’m extra excited this year because I’m a grad, and that means I get to do candy grams. I’m not actually sure why I want to go through hundreds of little messages and create candy bags for the 500 and something individual students in the senior school, but I do. It probably has something to do with eating the extra sweets. An added nicety this year is that October 31st falls on a Friday night, so no one has to worry about getting to bed early for school or whatever. Of course, that means there will probably be a lot more mischievous little hooligans out exploding pumpkins on driveways too, but I can assure you that I certainly will not be one of them. I think that is more of a middle school thing to do anyway.

As much time as I’m spending thinking about my Hallowe’en costume, the real event in my life right now is university applications. You know the things that multiple people tell you a million times but you don’t really pay attention to until you have to do them? Well, university applications are one of those things. Yes, that means that everyone who told me they were a ton of work (including you, Mom) was right. It’s actually like taking another course. During all of my spares, I can be found sitting in a reclusive corner of the library hooked up to my iPod and furiously working on application essays. I’m not applying early action or decision or anything, but I’m applying to three American schools (of which only two take the Common Application, not to mention they both require supplements), three UK schools, and one in Paris. I figure that if I’m working hard on them now, I will be able to just finish before I go on non-denominational-holiday-season-winter break. Wouldn’t that be nice? Basically, that means I have roughly a month and a half to write 5 essays… no problem. That isn’t even including the random loaded questions they ask you to respond to in 175 characters or less. They do determine the rest of my life though, so I guess it’s worth it.

As I stood in the spreading puddle that contained our tent, those five words were among the last that I wanted to hear. We were standing on a rocky outcrop at Lake Kwai, in Strathcona Provincial Park. Well, we assumed the lake lay somewhere nearby, but due to the very present fog, we couldn’t be sure. It was day one of our Summit School out-trip, and the weather was decidedly unpleasant. I just looked up synonyms for unpleasant, but none of them truly captured the “essence” of the moment. To be exact, the 20mm of cold, wet, morale-dampening “essences.” After setting out early that afternoon from the trailhead (it was raining then, too), we hiked through the 5km to Kwai Lake, our camp for the night. In the rain.

I encourage you to all fetch your rulers and find 20mm. That’s a lot of rain for an afternoon. Now, I’m sure many of you are rolling your eyes and calling me a wimp. To my credit, until Jake spoke those words, I had been quite positive. Having hiked since I was three years old, I’ve endured a lot, especially having lived in Western Canada all my life, seeing more pouring rain and depressing fog than anybody should be exposed to in their single digit years. This really wasn’t too bad. Being cold and wet builds character, or so I’ve been told. I can’t wait to use that line on my own kids someday. Also, the forecast said that today would be the worst weather, so all we had to do was survive and things would improve.

Upon reaching the lake that evening, there began a brutal, extended duel with our tarp that was supposed to keep everything dry, serve as a cooking area and as a place to hide from the elements. Apparently our tarp had other ideas. The tarp won the first round, when both my hands and Jake’s became too numb to tie knots, however we appealed to our guides and in no time flat, we had an excellent, if rather low tarp established. Round two: us. It was at that point that we chose our moment and made a break into the sheeting water to set our tiny two-man tent up.

I knew from experience that even after the worst of days, a dry tent could make everything better, especially combined with a warm sleeping bag and a pair of ‘magic socks.’ (These lifesaving beauties are the pair of socks that one leaves stuffed in their sleeping bag no matter what, and only wears when in the tent.) So, as Jake announced that one of our tent-poles had cracked at the top, forcing it to skew at a crazy angle, he shattered my happy, optimistic expectations for the evening, and momentarily, well, ‘dampened’ my attitude, if I may. We tried to fix the pole on the spot, but cold fingers and too great a hurry made us drop the tent. Watching our tent submerge under the water, we stood there pondering the significance of this unwelcome development.

Then, simultaneously, we sprang into action. Scooping the now sopping tent out of its own miniature Atlantis, we raced back to the dripping shelter of the tarp. Fortunately our guide was able to temporarily fix the tent pole, enabling the bedraggled tent to finally be put into its proper position. Through the entire trip, we never did manage to dry it out; not surprising, given that the first day we saw sun was the fourth day of the trip and the first day without rain was the day we left.

After the tent was up, these moments of despair passed, and shaking the rain from my hood and the cold from my hands, I looked around. On all sides were dark, lush alpine trees, wreathed in wispy twists of mist and fog, progressively shrouding the now visible lake out of sight, fading it into the gathering gloom of dusk. There is a feeling that I get in the outdoors that I’ve had for as long as I can remember, a feeling of exhilaration at being out in the intricate, miraculous wonders of nature. This feeling was very strong right then, as I collected myself, and marvelled at the place I was.

Despite all the rain and minor discomforts, in the end the trip was excellent. Each day became better and better, and as the group meshed together and the weather steadily improved, we began to have a lot more fun. Unfortunately, due to extreme fog, we never managed to climb any mountains; however, Summit School will continue to live on in each of us, quietly persuading us to seek the alpine, to seek the peaks and to push ourselves out of the comforts of home, into the real world.

That to me is the beauty of the Outdoor Education program. By exposing us to the wilderness, and nurturing a healthy, green respect for our world and the beauty of the wild, the program allows high school students to develop our own personal outdoor ‘drive.’ The diversity of choices for out-trips is staggering, as is the quantity of incredible gear available through Outdoor Ed. I encourage all of you to give out-trips your very best in years to come, and to just have a blast. Out-trips are truly unforgettable. For the upcoming Grade 11 students, Outdoor Leadership is absolutely worth it. Imagine sleeping perfectly warm, under five feet of snow in a shelter you skied to and built yourself that afternoon, surrounded by snow, trees and stars. More on that another time.

As I sit here now in a dry sweater and jeans, drinking tea in front of my computer and listening to “Electric Feel,” in the warm comfort of home, I realize once again, like after so many trips, that I miss it all. I miss the silence and isolation of the wilderness, the peace of it. I miss the feeling of not having a cell phone, iPod, TV, or computer to steal me away from breathing each breath and truly living each second. I miss the millions of stars that can be seen on a clear night. I miss the camaraderie of out-trips. I miss the warmth of the first ray of morning sun hitting your face. Now, paging through my full agenda and looking at the assignments, the tests, the meetings … I would give anything to be back out there, in the rain, living.

Hi, my name is Ben, and I am an outdoor junkie.

Ben is a Grade 12 day student

“So, what does it feel like to go to school with girls?”

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Why would any logical person post this kind of ridiculous statement on the Internet for the whole world to see? Well, let me break it down for you: Most of you folks have been attending a co-ed school since the day before forever, so I guess you probably take it for granted. But moi? This is something completely new. I came from an all-guys boarding school on the other side of the Strait of Georgia, and to be honest with you, I was very nervous and had no idea how was I going to find my place in this “co-ed” society.

I felt like Christopher Columbus when I got here on the first day of school. I didn’t know what I was going to discover and I sure had no clue whether the inhabitants of this “New World” would welcome me into their society. It felt a bit awkward at first because…(don’t tell anyone this) the last time I had a conversation with a girl at school was five years ago when I was in Grade Six, and the world has surely changed since then. The last thing I wanted was to do something that would embarrass myself in front of everyone because according to my grandparents, your first impression of someone would last forever. Therefore I was being extra careful about everything I did and made sure I wasn’t giving anyone a hard time. However, my skepticism about this place slowly began to diminish after a few days. The people I’ve met here are very friendly and now I realize that, to survive in a co-ed environment wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. For a lack of a better phrase…I got my game back!

Tom is a Grade 11 boarding student from Vancouver

We have only had 2 full weeks of school, and I’m already behind. I just got back from Los Angeles though, and it was definitely worth it! Three of my friends and me, plus Mr. Cook, went down to beautiful California for a PeaceJam conference, where, I must admit, it wasn’t all that beautiful. It was kind of smoggy and cool the whole time, but whatever.

PeaceJam is this organization that was started by a husband and wife whose goal was to connect Nobel Peace Prize laureates with youth around the world. A few years ago, the 7 laureates who participate in PeaceJam came up with the Global Call to Action: the challenge to start one billion, not million, but billion service projects to make the world a better place over the next ten years. We found out about PeaceJam earlier this year at a leadership conference in Minneapolis, and it looked interesting, so we joined. This year’s conference was supposed to be in Costa Rica but got changed to Los Angeles, so off we went.

The conference took place at Layola Marymount University out by the airport, which is a very nice university by the way. The campus is beautiful and the cafeteria has really good burritos. While there, we heard from the likes of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Adolfo Perez-Esquivel, Shirin Ebadi, Jody Williams, and Betty Williams (no, they aren’t related). It was amazing to hear their individual stories and what they have done to change the world, and more importantly, how they feel we can change the world. To oversimplify, they mostly spoke about non-violence and starting small – think locally. In addition, we got to see presentations from many schools across the USA, two others from Canada, and a few from the UK. A definite highlight was presenting our own project in front of many of these schools, and the Archbishop Desmond Tutu himself. He’s so cute!

I probably speak for myself when I say that my number one highlight from the conference wasn’t the conference at all, and no, we didn’t go shopping; much to our dismay. What we did do was go down to East LA and paint a mural at one of the high schools there. It wasn’t really that eventful, but it was still fun to see a different part of LA and do something good for the community, as opposed to just talking about it. At any rate, it was fun and rewarding for us (it was pretty!), and I think it brought some of the people out and together in the community. Obviously we met loads of nice people in LA, especially when we were split up into “family groups”. After all, there were something like 2000 people there. We were also treated to some beep-boxing (or is it beat-boxing) by an MC from the UK named Testament.

I could go on and on, but basically, it was a really fun and interesting trip. It really made us realize how much service/volunteer work we do at SMUS, and trust me, the Admissions officials didn’t tell me to say that. If you want to learn more about PeaceJam, visit www.peacejam.org. It’s a pretty decent site, in fact I’m there right now looking at the photos from LA. Now if you’ll excuse me, I HAVE to go fix the shuffle setting on my iTunes. I’m getting awfully tired of Soulja Boy…

April

April is a Grade 12 day student

I know and I’m sorry. You’re tired of hearing it. Every year around late August-early September you start to hear people saying or perhaps you yourself have expressed in a sigh phrases like: “Wow summer went by too fast” or “I can’t believe we’re back in September.” After that, most of us would just sadly shrug it off and continue on with our life waiting for this impending reality.

Was I “shrugging” this reality off? Nope, I can’t say I was… because after my absolutely carefree July, I started to hear something crazy among people in my grade along the lines of “THIS IS OUR LAST YEAR OF HIGHSCHOOL!” Those in grade 12 are probably already tired of this… but please bear with me as I emphasize what a big deal this is. Every day is the last day we will ever experience as a student at SMUS. This means last first day of SMUS, last September 7^th at SMUS… well I could go on.

People like me, who can get sentimental over the loss of time, may get a little saddened by this fact. But I think I have found a way to cope. Of course adjusting to the new grade and new responsibilities in first term will not be easy but I’m going to look forward to every big, fun and exciting event at school and long weekend/holidays that are in the near future. Who knows…maybe later I might put a “COUNTDOWN!” facebook application to grad… KIDDING!  

Jasmine

Jasmine is a Grade 12 day student