How Well Do You Know The Residence?

Contest!!!

How Well Do You Know The Residence

For the contest you need to give the residence room number of where you can find each of these things. You can check to see if you’re right by comparing the sum of your room numbers with the sum given below. There will be two prizes given out – 1 for the first person to get it right and 1 as a draw from all the other names. To submit your answers email them to grebelspeaks@hotmail.com. The contest closes Tuesday, November 18 at 11:55 pm. Good luck!

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1. A faithbook poster

2. A 50 year old globe

3. Panpipes

4. A dinosaur colouring contest

5. A boomerang

6. A mini grad cap (palm-size)

7. A movie theatre pole

8. Buddha

9. A toilet (not in the bathroom)

10. Two gold coins from frosh week

11. A shrine to “the office”

12. A water bottle that shrunk in the dishwasher

13. A chalk board desk

14. A wooden fridge

15. A large penny event TV

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Sum of room numbers: 61344

Magic of Elfland

It was a Monday evening. Having just supplied my body with the nutrition to be found in a delicious grebel dinner, I was content. One thing you must know is that it is approaching the time of examinations here at waterloo and thus my ability to procrastinate has increased exponentially within the last several days…

It was slightly after 6 o’clock. Amid shafts of sombre light from various lampposts the snow was slowly falling from the sky. I longed to be among the wonderfully magical winter flakes. Oh to fall from the sky as one of those intricate flowers of crystallized hydrogen dioxide…Suddenly as if a divine being was playing genie, She was there.

“Would you perchance like to go on a walk?” She murmured…

The walk was wondrous, the snow was exquisite, She was beautiful and the divine being was smiling down on us. It is amazing how like children we were. We ventured off to Narnia and once talking beavers had lost there appeal we carefully crossed the bridge into another fantasy. Terabithia was, and is, always a delightful place…

However, as the night wanes and the morning approaches dreams do not last forever. Our ungloved, bare hands began to become cold, the snow began to stop its procession from the heavens, and we returned. We returned from the fantasy to the reality of Conrad Grebel.

Another thing you should know is that when the dream is over and one wakes up, one is given a whole new day to proceed with a whole new marvellous adventure. And so it was…

It was 8 o’clock, the Grebel Advanced Hockey Team was beginning to fight for a fading vision of being in the Intramural finals. Alas, reality is sometimes cold and defeat is never overly warm. The scoreboard read as a shattered vision saying, “Home 0 Visitors 4”. But dear reader, even nightmares have there ends when the day begins and thus, we arrive at the final triumph of Monday the 19th in the 19th year of this humble writers existence…

It was 10 o’clock, the snow was perfect. Each flake seemed to be magnetically attracted to every other piece of snow that it came in contact with. Needless to say, the snow was seductively calling to be shaped and packed into something more then itself. Thus, as many young men have done before and many have yet to do, four of us formed a bond that night. The snow fort was gargantuan; a proper igloo – made up of massive balls of snow, rolled and then stacked together as one. Its entryway was majestically formed in the shape of an arch, its interior was spacious, it was the Final Triumph of the night…

It was 1 a.m., the igloo was finished – our energy spent. We returned to Grebel and bid each other a good night… Oh, what a good night it was, one full of the mystery of forming relationships and the elation of experiencing it all…

May you too be graced by the magic of Elfland and in so doing experience the divines smile.

-By: the Resident of memories

Written by Josh Enns

From (one of) the Editors' Desk

What can you do with 10 dollars? You can’t go for dinner at East Side Mario’s. You can barely go to the theatre to see a movie. You can’t even wash and dry 4 loads of laundry. One thing you can do is support a university student through the World University Service of Canada Student Refugee Program (WUSC-SRP). Grebel students have been supporting this cause since Fall 2007. We had a student from this program live in our community last year and it is the plan to have one next year again.

In case you didn’t know Grebel students are currently donating $10 per term to support this cause (look on page 60 in your constitution!!) but this commitment only lasts until Spring term 2009. It will be coming under review soon and the question will be put to Grebel students whether we want to continue to support the Student Refugee Program. As this time comes nearer I encourage all of you to think about those $10. All of us attending university have the privilege, the means and the resources to make it possible to go to school. The Student Refugee Program enables these students to go to university so they can bring their knowledge back to their home communities.

How much is your $10 worth to you? How much is your $10 worth to the refugee student who gets to come live at Grebel next year? Please think about this a little bit. For more information you can look on page 60 of your constitution, go to http://www.wusc.ca/en/campus/students/sponsor/refugee_program or you can go to the University of Waterloo Student Refugee Program website at www.uwsrp.ca. More details will be coming from Student council in the near future.

Written by Becky Klassen - GrebelSpeaks Co-Editor

The Short Poem In Which I Grapple With a Rock

i wrestled it and clung to it

down many flights of stairs

like a limpet as it softly spun

through howling cosmic airs

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at the bottom of the sea

i thought i'd ground it into dust

but it buoyed me up and shook me off

with wild volcanic thrust.

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i struck out like a tiger

and i grasped a gritty crag

and the boulder bounded on

my body rippling like a flag

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the one i was the who i am

that unobtrusive mote

was next to not existing

ere the day this stone first smote

Written by Dylan Siebert

Comic - By Andrew Stroud

I Love

I love the sun that beats down one day

And hides the next

And I love that chill that fills the void the sun left behind.

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I love the buildings, the trees, the grass

I love the squirrels that peek out of trash cans

I love the geese that fly overhead.

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I love that stranger I pass every day on the way to class

He still avoids my glances

And I grin to myself every time.

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I love the guy who walks as if he can’t step on the cracks

And the ‘safe’ places to step are very far apart

So every step is a lunge.

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I love the smell of cigarette smoke on days when the wind blows

And I even love it when it hangs around

I cough, glare at the culprit and continue on my way.

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I love passing mobs of friends

Who smile with delight at my presence

I love being loved and I love in return.

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I love the awkward hello

Spoken to the person I know I should know

But I don’t really.

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I love that professor who stares right at me

I think she thinks I’m smart

Because I stare right back.

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I love that it is past midnight

And I write this poem knowing full well

That I have a difficult midterm this evening.

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I love that half the residence is up with me

Plugging away at their work

No doubt they have been more productive then I.

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I love that half can of sprite and granola bar wrapper on my desk

That all you can eat buffet is just not enough

My stomach still growls.

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I love the feeling of freedom that lifts me off my feet

When I think of what I shall do

And where my future will lead me.

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I love that I am here

And even in the awkward, not fun moments

The loves prevail.

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Written by Jennifer van Overbeeke

Beauty

“Ugly,” she says. “Jessie you are ugly now. You were beautiful when you came but now your skin is dark like ours. You are ugly.” I laugh first at the irony of the situation. I think of all my peers back in chilly Canada who pay hundreds of dollars each year to artificially acquire the tanned skin that eight months of tropical sun have given me. When I describe tanning beds to my Lao friends their mouths gape open in disbelief and disgust. Forget J-Lo and Angelina Jolie, Lao girls crave nothing more than to look like the pale skinned, rail thin, delicately featured, silky haired Thai pop stars they see on TV.

But later that night, when the conversation runs through my head again, I’ll admit, I start to cry. No, my host sister’s comments have not offended me (such matter of fact statements about appearance are an every day occurrence here), but it suddenly hits me hard that our world has taken the concept of beauty and twisted and contorted it until it has become an instrument of torture. Why is it that young Lao girls smear bleach based whitening creams on their faces and hide behind thick layers of clothing every time they step out into the sunshine? And likewise why am I tempted to suffer severe sunburn and skin damage in the hopes of maintaining a golden glow? (Tempted dad, only tempted.)

When I begin to compare and contrast the characteristics of beautiful people across cultures, it’s easy to see what a social construction the whole concept is. Somehow, beauty has evolved over time away from the appreciation of the exquisitely, intricately and uniquely Created beings that we are and into a Platonic Form (represented by the “beautiful” people we see in our society’s media) of which we will always fall short. We will never be light enough, dark enough, thin enough, fat enough, tall enough or short enough to be beautiful, so why not love our bodies just as they are right now?

I should make a confession: it’s easy for me to say these things in writing, but somehow this Form of beauty seems to be stamped into my brain in permanent ink. Even here in Laos, when I should be worrying about the very real issues of injustice rather than wasting mental energy fretting about my appearance, there are still days when I wake up feeling that my zits are too big or my hair too frizzy. I’ve come a long way in the last few years in the journey towards loving myself but I’ve still got a long way to go.

As I walk alongside young people in this country (and in Canada), on our shared path towards a more peaceful world, I realize that we will be able to do very little to build peace with the people around us until we gain the sort of confidence and inner peace that comes from accepting and loving the person we are, frizzy hair and all.

Written by Jess Reesor last year while living and serving in Laos

How to Bond with your Roommate – Advice from Room4402

Greetings from the Short Room on the 4th Floor! The occupants of Room4402 have compiled a list of suggestions to help you become closer to your roomie. These are things we have done together that have proved positive to our relationship.

- Since the start of the year, we have been drawing lots of pictures depicting fun adventures, fears, and dreams of each other and hung them on our door. This helped us to move past any awkward surprises about each other and embrace the individuals we are

- We wrote a song about the first few weeks of living at Grebel. This spilling of thoughts and raw artistic emotion really drew us closer

- We went on a roommate date – hungry, alone, and without parents- and discovered the trials and tribulations of living in the real world as a student with responsibilities

- We often help each other through emotional turmoil. For example: Vicki lost her hairbrush and Jacquie was there for her. Shortly after this event unfolded, it was discovered that actually Jacquie lost Vicki's hairbrush. Once again we had to work through all sorts of difficult emotions, but in the end we had a stronger sense of trust (and respect for each other's belongings/space)

- We share each other's clothes. For example, right at this moment, Jacquie is wearing Vicki's blue v-neck, and Vicki is wearing Jacquie's "To Write Love on Her Arms" tshirt.

- We write info notes to each other during the day. This way no one is left alone without knowing about it first

- We share our food (usually Oreos), water (of the bottled variety) and even the same box of Q-tips

- We call each other's parents Mom and Dad. We have built the relationship up past ourselves to a family level… we are family now

- We both have a pretend fetish with the same celebrity. This helps build recognition of each other's interests

- We have tested each other's strength in fights in the death in the volleyball sand after snack night. We realize that this task is not for everyone, but it helped us to recognize each other's weaknesses and learn to be sensitive about them in future times

These examples are proven to help one bond with their roommate. Room4402 has become so close that once Jacquie saw a picture of herself on Facebook and thought it was Vicki, and tagged it accordingly (until days later when she realized that, oops, that's me not my roommate). Vicki's own Oma often calls and starts to converse with Jacquie thinking its Vicki. We are fortunate enough to have bonded so well as roommates, and we hope that these examples can help any roommates who feel that they could be that little bit closer with their roommate. :)

Written by Vicki and Jacquie

How do you feel about the morgue ...

Hmmm...what comes to mind when you hear the word morgue? That pretty much sums up my feelings about the place. Plus all the guilt about not studying more :( ~ Sarah Garland

I find that it’s ironic that the study room is right beside the games room which you have to walk through, talk about self discipline. ~ Emma Gard

A very scary place ... I’m a tad intimidated ... ~ Katie Cowie

Coffin-like ~ Katie Penner

Death ~ Melanie Goodfellow

The morgue is bleak and suffocating and cold and lonely. ~ Ellery Penner

There is something loud and buzzy and it needs to be fixed. ~ Kate Findley

The morgue does not seem a happy/comfy enough place to study. It is depressing. ~ Toby Woerthle

Quiet! ~ Michael Maiolo

Great idea. Love the name. ~ Peter Plaisier

I’m indifferent. ~ Ben Scott