Today we successfully crossed into Canada! We had our passports ready to show the boarder patrol agents and when one boarded the bus he just asked if we all were American and upon answering “YES”, he needed no further proof. So… that was easy! The mood on the bus is great. There has only been two sword fights so far… so we figure all things considered, that’s not too bad. I’m not kidding… there have been sword fights. A couple boys purchased foam swords at the grocery store when we stopped for lunch… so there have been a couple duels “UP AND DOWN THE AISLE”! (If you’re an alumni and you’re reading this you might remember Nick Schnittker yelling “UP AND DOWN THE AISLE” as he was telling students to dance to get their stuff back.

Which is my random segue-way into my next story. Since the beginning of the tour some of our students have been leaving behind some of their belongings as we move from place to place. So this morning we had our first episode of I Want My Stuff Back. I’ve been collecting such things as hoodies, belts, flippy floppies, shoes, McDonald’s Shrek 4 happy meal characters and even a cell phone and charger. It should be noted that the cell phone was being charged in the wall of the room that we were doing I Want My Stuff Back in… and after people sang and danced for their stuff… the cell phone was forgotten… by… drumroll please… Lindsey Heckes. She did notice before we left the college however Dan Beirne noticed first, and proceeded to make her do an interpretation of a tree blowing in the winter wind and then becoming happy when spring arrives. (Dan is super creative… I am not… it’s a good thing he’s youth director)

I bid you adieu for now with a song…

O Canada! our home and native land!
True patriot-love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Whats up y’all this is Nick Greene and Garrett Panno

(Nick is a freshman going to be sophomore and Garrett is sophomore going to be a junior)

So as we talked about previously we took a very long ferry ride across lake Michigan in to Michigan. We then traveled another 2 hours to a college where we spent the night in the dorms. Right when we got to the dorms we had vespers also known as family time or highs and lows. This is where we talked about all that we had done so far and what we liked and what we want to work on as a community. Many people then ordered pizza from papa johns on campus and watched the unfortunate loss of the Blackhawks. After we the game ended we all hung out and got ready for bed. All though it was a frustrating loss with such an awful to the game the night was fun and the dorms where pretty nice. We then woke up early, packed up, and got back on the road. As we write now we are on our way to Canada.

Hey, this is Garrett Panno, I love fuzzy puppies and rainbows this tour so far is a lot of fun! As you just read, Nick just told a little about our college trip, which we just left from, and are on the way to lunch and then to Canada! But the reason why our title is part of “Infection,” is because there has been a little bit of a medical problem going on around here. Some how, I managed to some how get pink eye the day before the tour and didn’t show signs of it until the first day of tour, and then when it was clearly pink eye (so we think, it might not be pink eye, we are not 100% sure yet, yet.) It was the 2nd day on tour and it had already spread to another friend on tour of ours by the name of Nick Waite. And when I saw him, I thought it would be funny to think that at the homecoming show at the end, if we all had pink eye, it would be gross, but funny. (haha) But Thankfully, we have a super mom on the trip by the name of Mrs. B! And she made a call to one of her friends that is an eye doctor and got a prescription for us, and both of our eyes are looking better! It should be cleared by the end of the trip, but just every one was thinking about yesterday because every one was afraid that they would get the Pink Eye! (Oh ya, and tour was fun to! =P )

Editors note:

Garrett and Nick have been on antibiotics now for over 24 hours and are no longer contagious. No worries. Nobody else should become infected.

All you parents can breath a sigh of relief… WE DID NOT LOOSE ANYONE OVERBOARD!!!

Riding the carferry across Lake Michigan was super-dee-duper funzies! It was really neat watching the bus back into the carferry. On board there were a variety of activities to keep us busy. Some of us watched a movie, When In Rome, in the movie lounge, we went shopping in the gift shop, there was a “quiet room/museum” and there was even an arcade with guitar hero!