Good morning Laidlaw!!! This is my proof of life for week 2. Make sure to tune in for Tilly’s proof of life too- she has now been asleep for 14 hours and I am debating whether it is worth it to check if she is still breathing. She is probably exhausted from the best week ever ever ever so I shall allow another hour before getting very worried! Although it is a Monday and we should probably start some of the work we actually came to Canada for. Don’t worry Ben, we are not slacking off at all!!! In fact, we had a call with our supervisors and they were MEGA impressed at how much work we have gotten done. They thought we would need at least 2 more weeks to complete the project which should be completed today (as long as Tilly wakes up at some point). So that is epic news. In fact, they have asked us to get involved in a third project which is SO SO SO cool because it is exactly the kind of project I would like to work on after grad. It is a massive project trying to tackle depression within adolescents! It is sill in the early stages but Tilly and I would be involved in designing a focus group with adolescents affected by depression to better understand their perspectives on how they would like to be supported. I am so so excited because this last project has been a lot on the genetics aspects on mental health (which I LOVE! As my genetics tutor would tell you I have trouble limiting my word count in my tutorial essays because genetics is so so so cool) but also it is amazing to work on the more social science side of it which is equally if not more important. So work is going well!!!

But side-questing is going EVEN better. Tilly and I swam during sunset almost every sunset last week. Everyone claps when the sun goes down. On Tuesday we saw this boat that had a dragon head? Or maybe it was a lion head I can’t really remember but it looked cool. The man who owned it saw us looking at it and told me he had a mermaid tail and asked if I wanted to wear it. I obviously said yes and proceeded to race this man in his boat whilst I swam in his mermaid tail. I don’t really know who won but my dad wants to sign us up for a duathlon the day I get home (or maybe he already did?) so I might need to see if we can find mermaid tails because you go SO fast in them and we will need the extra boost since my knee is injured and will limit my usual mega speed for the running event. 

Talking of injured knees, I think I am doing a pretty good job at not letting it impact my life at all. I have of course still been dancing loads at the most insane dance school ever. However, I came to the conclusion that ballet is still highly problematic and makes me angry which is annoying because it is also so much fun. The BEST classes are always the ones with male teachers but that is only because men get to do all the fun things in ballet (cool jumps and funky turns) whilst women are forced to wear point shoes which do not only make your toenails fall off but also highly limit your jumping capacities. So the male teachers always design the better classes cause they incorporate loads of what they are used to (jumps and turns!!!). So that is quite upsetting and I hope it changes. I did not bring my point shoes to Canada so I have been doing across the floors with the boys and trying my hardest to jump higher than them which is quite difficult because their legs are probably 4 times the size of mine but I definitely jumped higher than 2 guys on Tuesday which was epic. Talking of mega thighs why do men get to be super strong whilst the girls are encouraged to starve themselves. ALSO after the men do their solos they always bow like 12 times whilst after a female solo you are not allowed to bow and just have to run away. It is actually quite crazy. If anyone reading this is bored and wants a new project, I recommend tackling the patriarchy in ballet. Maybe Tilly and I can get on it if we finish our other internship project mega fast again. 

My FAVOURITE FAVOURITE part of the week (and probably why Tilly is still asleep) was this weekend when we went camping at Bow Peak with the UBC outdoor varsity club. Firstly, Tilly and I were in the funniest car group ever. Our driver (we call him the mad professor because he looks like Einstein’s twin) was a very enthusiastic (probably to make up for his being very off-key) singer. We were also joined by Justus (a German guy who acts as if he is taking one espresso shot per minute), Mark (who has previously been driving us to hikes and we suspect might want to murder us) and Joseph (who appeared at the very end of the drive as we picked him up whilst he was sprinting in front of our car holding a rake and a frying pan and who ended up just holding on to the side of the car instead of actually sitting in it (don’t worry it was very safe as it was only for the last kilometre and on a very bad road so we were driving slower than walking pace hehe)). Joseph actually ended up carrying the biggest watermelon I have ever seen up the mountain. He also brought his rake to clean the path on the way. And climb the trees. He is quite odd but also very kind because when we got to the top he offered to swap sleeping bags with me so that I could sleep outside because his was a lot warmer than mine and he apparently does not get cold. He also fell from a 5 metre tree and was not injured at all. I think they are built different in Canada. 

Tilly and I got put in the speedy hikers group (because apparently being from “the boonies” as they call it makes you qualified) which was very fun but also meant we had to wait on top of the mountain for almost 4 hours for the others to catch up. It did mean we got to do loads of exploring before dinner, although it was extremely cloudy and snowy so we could not really see where we were going. I made a snowman and Tilly threw it off the mountain (#teamwork). I also found a guitar (still confused why there happened to be a guitar at the top of the mountain) and got made to play every single song ever written ever whilst the hikers sang (obviously lead by the mad professor- our most enthusiastic singer). 

After dinner I SLEPT OUTSIDE!!!!!! It was SO SO fun. The stars were gorgeous. Tilly abandoned me to sleep in the hut. I guess she would rather sleep with mice than me. But it is okay because I had 3 boys to protect me from the bears. Their tactic seems to have been to fart loads to repel them. I had to keep my hoodie over my nose but I guess that is an okay trade off. 

I woke up at sunrise and Tilly and I did a mini hike before breakfast before SPRINTING down the mountain to make in time to a pub to watch to football final! I did fall asleep on the floor of the pub although I am not sure whether that was caused by the hiking, 3 hours of sleep or the fact that no one was scoring at any point in that game. 

All in all it was an epic week. Tilly is still asleep which is quite concerning. 

Bye Laidlaw!!!!