2008-09-16 - 10:29 a.m.
A wonderful, exhausting, school free weekend! My friends Jeff and Kirsten came to visit from Victoria, and it was really great to see them again.
They were going to be walking on the ferry, so I took the bus out to meet them. It's free for me, since I have a pass through the UBC student's society. I figured that as well as it being polite to meet them, it would be useful to know how to get to the ferries.
BC Transit in Vancouver has a couple of wonderful features that I wish that all transit system had. The first is a great website, where you can type in your location and destination, and the time you're going to be leaving, and it tells you exactly what bus to take, where to transfer, and how long you'll be waiting. It's really handy, and pretty accurate. The other amazing feature is that most of the buses announce what stop they're at. So, for example, you're trying to get to Granville, but have no idea what it looks like. All you have to do is wait till you hear Granville announced, and make sure you get off at the next stop. Very handy for those of us who are directionally challenged!
Jeff and Kirsten came on Friday evening, which was perfect for me. I have no classes on Fridays, so I was able to get a bunch of reading done before leaving for the ferry. It took me about an hour and a half to get out to the ferry - a long time, but at least you can take the bus there. And it didn't cost me anything, so it was like a tour of Vancouver. Kind of . Anyway, I made it there, and met them, and we even got back to campus with no trouble.
Saturday we spent downtown. I had never been downtown Vancouver, at least not since I was a little kid. We went to Stanley Park, saw the water, and I gaped at all the tall buildings. We saw the Anglican Cathedral downtown, but there was a wedding in progress, so we couldn't go in. I think that I'll make it there on a Sunday before too long!
The next day we met with some friends of Jeff and Kirsten who live in Vancouver for lunch, and then they headed back to Victoria. It was really great to see them - I've only been here a couple weeks, but it feels a lot longer. It was also nice to realize how easy it really is to get back and forth from Victoria to Vancouver.
Our prayer praxis for this week is movement prayer. This can take many forms, and is basically, prayer through movement. For some people this might take the form of walking, for others, changing posture. We practiced a way of changing position while praying - going down on your knees for confession, then standing to give praise. We also walked the labyrinth, which I had never actually done. The labyrinth is laid out on the lawn of the school, and you walk the marked path slowly to the center, praying as you go, then pause in the middle, and walk out again. It was very interesting.
