The Epic of 2006

So I skipped my 3:00 BIO lecture and CSC laboratory at UT downtown to go all the way back up to church for the Colluni Winter Retreat, but unfortunately the "6PM SHARP" did not register among my fellow campers.........So at 8PM, off we (Tim Li, Andrew, Alison, Alex, me) went into the wilderness in Andrew's car. Travelling on Highway 400, we passed the Wendy's/Tim Hortons, and thought of whether it was our "midway" stop....but no, it wasnt, cuz us chinese ppl love deals, and obviously, the McDeal was a big hit. Then suddenly, off on our left, the McDonalds zipped by.....and from some strange conclusion, we decided that it wasnt THE stop, so we kept going. So after many more KMs, we got to barrie, and got a call that all the cars except ours and Dave's stopped at the McDonalds.....haha, so we decided to go find a nearby McDonalds in Barrie. As we approached the Barrie/400 intersection (Yes, to me, Barrie only has one intersection with 400), a sign said that a McDonalds was just 2km away.....but another McDonalds was off of the Barrie intersection. After 5 zigzags along the lanes decided whether or not to exit, we did exit, and stopped by for our McDeal dinners (well, most of us, cuz fish isnt too satisfying for us hungry asian stomachs). So after our quickie dinner, most notable by Andrew's $0.22 Fillet O'Fish (HAHA, Barrie McDonalds girl cashiers dunno how to press the buttons properly!!!), we went off into the wilderness...and this time, yes, it was wilderness, cuz we were out in the rural, where only darkness surrounded us. Then, the snowstorm came. The blizzard swung into the area, and pretty much made us blind and everybody else invisible, because there was ZERO VISIBILITY. Driving blind was not fun. It was dangerous. But amidst our freaky conversations about possible serial killers jumping out of the wilderness to attack us, we did lighten up the mood, and after many attempts of finding the correct directions, we all arrived at a nearby A&P in Collingwood to ask for the directions we never really found through the snow... (Yes, all 5 of our cars, minus Peter's, somehow met up at the A&P). It was then we got news that Peter's car got stuck at the bottom of the hill, and Pastor Tim's car got stuck at a ditch at the bottom of the hill as well. We needed a solution fast. The solution? Kitty Litter. Yes, kitty litter. Maybe it can give more grip on the ice? I dunno, but off we went. On our way, we passed the entrance, so we tried to do a 3pt turn. Bad idea. Got the front wheels stuck in a ditch, so Dave, Dan, and I tried to LIFT THE SUV out of the ditch. After some rhythmic rocking-of-the-SUV, three orange-jumpsuited muscular white dudes on snowmobiles came to the rescue. The 30-second interrogation was something like this:
Us: Hey!
Them: What the f*** did you guys do?
Us: Um, we got stuck.
Then the three of them plus us three lifted the car. Time duration of lift: 5 seconds.
Us: Thanks alot!
No reply. They drove off.
So yes, we continued our adventure (It was past midnight now), and found the entrance at the bottom of the hill. After spotting the snow covered Honda Accord (Pastor Tim's car) off to the side, the engineers decided that we needed to have at least 30km/h speed to go up the hill. Our SUV and Dave's car got up, and we were safe! YAY! Peter's car made it too somehow. But unfortunately, 3 other cars were still stuck there on the hill. Then there was this one hour break that some of us did at the cabin because we werent the drivers, but at around 3AM, after 2 more cars made it through, a few of us guys volunteered to trek down the hill to help get the last car out. So how did we get Kristen's car up? KITTY LITTER!!! And it worked! We got all the cars, and more importantly, everybody safe!!! Praise God!!!! After the madness, some of us decided to play some "dare-poker". No chips, no pointsystem, just either IN or OUT, with winner daring the loser something. Of course, Sampson and I were the winners, not losing even once during the +1 hour of playing, but the dares did get really really funny! Kisses --> Snow --> Butt biting. Yes, butt biting. I didn't even lose once, but somehow, Gabe's teeth got a chunk of my butt. Still haven't checked for any scars yet, but everything was on video, so.......... nevermind. =)
Yesterday and today was alot of fun at the retreat! We made our own food, and had our own worship sessions, and Pastor Tim spoke 3 messages. The experience was amazing because only 30 of us were up there and the small fellowship made it seem like the Didomi Committee retreat last year. We had an awesome snowball fight and also skeleton/luge/bobsled on shoemats down a steep icy hill (alot of fun!!!)! Also, even though ladybugs were EVERYWHERE in the kitchen, we managed to have a good time scaring the girls with them, as well as just catching them (and for Peter, having one tickle his tongue). God really was with all of us at this retreat. Being with us on Friday night through the snowstorm, being us while we had our fun playing Cranium. Being with us during worship and messages. God really gave us an awesome weekend away from schoolwork and stress. I am very blessed to have had this opportunity to spend time with fellow church uni students away from Toronto. Even though we arrived back in Toronto at 8PM Sunday (3.5 hours late....again, chinese time), all was fun, and all was well. Praise the Lord, for His guidance! and also the fun! (including the butt biting and ladybugs...)