Gleekend

Gleekend, n.: a weekend of glee.

A few hours ago I returned from a very good two days at the McGill Outdoors Club. Six of us left Friday, in one SUV (natch!) because one of two drivers had backed out at the absolute last minute. That guy's on notice with me, needless to say. Anyway, we arrived about 7:00 and had a mellow evening of chit-chat.

The highlights of Saturday included:

1. Awaking Saturday morning we awoke to find an exciting cast of characters had arrived from all corners of the globe. There were representatives of Australia, England, France, Germany, New Zealand, and Wales present. Actually, I think I was the only Canadian girl in the cabin (unless I mistook some of the francophones' accents), as Anna, the only other girl in our little delegation, is on exchange from England herself.

2. Going snow-skateboarding. This is a new and exciting sport where the participants use skateboards without wheels as tiny, misshapen snowboards. McGill owns a section of the hills across from the house, so we traipsed around the trails and destroyed the skateboard decks on the lack of snow.

3. Losing all momentum after lunch. Basically, we had grilled cheese and then gave up. Unless "playing cards" counts as an outdoor activity, then we did no outdoor activity in the afternoon.

4. Getting to know the members of the G8 summit going on in the cabin. Welsh Tom and I talked about Welsh separatism (I didn't even know it existed, likely because they don't blow things up at all often). He also tried to teach me some Welsh, which sounds cool even if I can't remember any of it. This morning Pete From Leeds played Four Strong Winds on the guitar with the missing string as Kiwi Chantelle declined to be corralled into cooking (pleas of "but you're all descended from Captain Cook! You should cook!" fell on deaf antipodean ears). The French girls mostly talked among themselves, but a few of them mixed.

5. Everyone getting beaten at Risk by German Sebastian, prompting French Mathieu to comment, "third time lucky!" This is one thing I love about university: even with a big group of people and a festive atmosphere, it is always acceptable to start a board game.

7. Not having anyone try to steal my food, which turned out to be better than the sketchy "meat sauce" someone procured for the pasta. Go, veggie burgers! And go, national stereotpyes, too! One of the English kids let out what could reasonably be called a shout of triumph when I produced teabags. "Oh, tea! Lovely!"

So yes. All in all, quite a good weekend. Yes, Jacob, you were right. It was fun.