Trans Canada Expedition - Day 7

July 20, 2013 – Day 7

Locations: North Battleford, Saskatchewan; Edmonton, Alberta

We all slept at an empty parking lot yesterday. It was a new experience. Three Sprinters formed an open rectangle with a giant tarp as base layer in the middle. Everybody huddled on the tarp and slept in their sleeping bags on their sleeping mats, while the HQ team slept outside the tarp. This gave us all an excellent opportunity to test out our sleeping bags and see if it is warm enough for the Arctic Circle.

Morning came. One by one we all woke up. It was a beautifully cool morning. Many enjoyed being in their sleeping bags and didn’t want to come out. Why? This is because they were warm in there, so they did not want to get out into the cold air. Some felt cold throughout the night, while others felt cold only after they woke up. We packed up our bags and group by group we walked towards Tim Horton’s to refresh ourselves. By the time we got back PT began. We each do our own stretching and then a new exercise was practiced, called “single feet dance”, invented by Billy for the military. However, two people were singled out for not going to sleep when they were told to. As punishment they get to do push-ups and sit-ups (in the form of banana style).

We were in a hurry so breakfast consisted of donuts and yesterday’s leftover lunch (for those who haven’t finished it yet). The drivers drove us all the way to Edmonton, making a pit-stop along the way. While driving, the sky suddenly decided to rain on us. It was a good thing it didn’t rain at night when we were all sleeping! We got to Edmonton on schedule but the roads leading up to West Edmonton Mall became a little complicated. GPS decided to lead and gave us a tour of the city. The city is really beautiful. The roads we passed through looked really neat and tidy in a picturesque kind of way.

We finally reached West Edmonton Mall. Students and leaderships all formed their groups, while HQ and Admin teams stayed behind for some logistics and watch over the sprinters as well as charging our comms. Through majority vote we agreed spend the day (7 hours) there. Everybody was excited. Some wanted to go to the Waterpark, some wanted to go to the Amusement Park, some wanted to Skate, and some wanted to shop. As everyone went and had fun and enjoyed themselves, the drivers got to relax and rest up before the long drive that awaits us.

An unexpected event occurred. We met up with Calvin’s family. What are the odds! And they just so happen to have an empty house they can lend us to use for the night. What luck! We also had dinner at Calvin’s cousin’s restaurant. This is a good opportunity to rest up fully and get our laundries done, before the trip up north. Starting tomorrow we would not be able to have this kind of luxury again for a long while… Let the fun begin!

Tiffany

Waking up puzzled at a carpark, I felt like I had a hangover. Well, at least what I think a hangover is.  The cold froze into my body and vibrated my bones, I needed a jacket. Everyone slept on a big blue tarp, in a random formation, some had their feet in other’s faces, some had their faces buried in others bags, it looked as if a zombie attacked the pile of neatly positioned campers and messed up the entire formation. Well, to put it in other words, my first night at a carpark. It was an interesting experience indeed, nobody complained, nobody cared, and everybody just simply passed out.  We cleaned up, freshened up at tims and got back for PT. PT was actually entertaining, we had to carry the left leg of the person on your right, with that person’s hand around your neck. We then formed a circle and carried out this challenge, as Billy stepped out and pointed to two members of the monticle family – Michael and Mickey, apparently they were talking at 2:00 am wasting Billy’s valuable sleep time, so their penalty was pushups and the banana for 8 minutes. We switched constantly, laughing as we go, cheering as we went, and ended up all pumped up for the day.

I was the co-driver of the day, so I was obligated to stay up the entire time. Well, surprisingly I succeeded! As the entire convoy traveled with great spirit, I had a deep and meaningful conversation with Billy. It was raining then, so Billy took the advantage of physical demonstration and gave me a lecture about leadership. He said: There is a big difference between a leader and a follower: Imagine a leader and a follower looking out a window with a storm, the things they think about is extremely different. The follower would think: Its going to be wet. The leader would think: The rain is going to…. (feed the plants, benefit the environment, give water to mother nature(Planet division)) The main idea of this metaphor is that, a follower thinks about the result while a leader thinks about the benefits and what has to come.

Then, on the endless straight  road, Billy told me about tunnel vision and omniscience vision . Picture yourself on a straight road. Nothing else but a straight road. If you only stare at the first 4 meters of the road, you will not know what to prepare ahead, if you focus on the big picture you’ll know what to prepare and what to do. It made much sense.

Mom, dad, if you are reading this, I’d like to let you know that this entire journey’s objective is to open our eyes to how much pain and consideration(stress) you guys go through. To realize reality of the real world, to face the problems you guys grow white hair about. All but the pain of having a child. If this is the objective of the camp, I’ve already experience one third of the journey, but so far I am surprised and really shocked of what you guys have been going through (plus the unbearable pain of having a child, --- me----).

Other than all of that, today we went SHOPPING! I was supposed to go to the world’s biggest indoor wave pool, but turns out I FORGOT MY SWIMSUIT! Ahh never mind, things happen for a reason. I ended up having tons of fun with my new made friends, but oddly, they were all at least 3-6 years older than me!

After hours of shopping and wandering around, we were reformed into new groups, goals, motivation, intelligence, courage, Successful, and responsibility. Yes, you guessed right, I’M SUCCESSFUL! Well, I guess that boost of confidence can keep me going for a while longer, at least until I’m done typing this blog. 

There are many things you can learn from Mother Nature, but what I take most importantly, is respect. Tonight we are heading to Calvin’s cousin’s house for overnight, hope we don’t make a big mess. That’s it for now, as I probably have already taken quite a bit of your time. Thank you for paying attention till the end of my blog! Peace. I’m out.

Edwin Cheung

We have a long trip to reach to Edmonton. We drive 1354km for 17hours. Our decide is to slept in parklot, since there is not motel available. We have a good slept and we wok up at iat quick as possible. We then have about 5hour. drive to Edmonton. The City street is name out of numbers. It is pretty comfusing find street. We head to West Edmonton. It is the biggest Mall in Canada. It have Water Park and many more. We spend about 7 hours here. The HQ team stay back monentary to take care of equipment in the trala. Because when I go to camp alot of Mosciputo try to tick me. After we meet with Jacky. Later, We had dinner in “Thai Together” for dinner. It was all right. We then when to Jacky casence house to live. It is a prillage for us. Tomrrow, We will head to British Columbia…

Lemuel

Woke up at 5 today in the parking lot of a Walmart in Battleford. We moved out to Edmonton and arrived at around 12. While the students went and explore the west Edmonton Mall, all the HQ took shifts watching the equipment in the parking lot. Oddly enough, Calvin’s family were in Edmonton for vacation and somehow we ended up staying in his cousin’s house for the night. We also ate dinner in his cousin’s restaurant. Apparently his whole family’s into the restaurant business.

Edwin Chan

Today we woke up at 5 at a walmart parking lot in Battleford, Saskatchewan. Our destination for today is Edmonton, Alberta which is about 750 km. Today I took a break from driving since I thought I might as well let Michael drive all the way. Since we left from the motel I slept in the car until we had our first pit stop. At the first pit stop we had to clean out the hot chocolate that spilled in the car. When we continued our journey I slept again until we reached our destination at West Edmonton mall the largest mall in Canada. In west Edmonton mall I walked around looking in surprise as to how big the mall was. When I was with Calvin and Lemuel we got lost while trying to find the indoor Amusement Park and the water park. A little while after I grabbed a map from the top of the garbag can and we later found our way to the food court instead. When we finished our lunch we went down to the Ice Ring and saw some people from Monticle. I later joined them in skating while Calvin and Lem have to go to do their shift. A while later Jenn was teaching me how to skate backwards since its been about 10 years since I last skated.

Mireille

Yesterday, we slept in Wall Mart’s Parking; a new experience :) Fortuately I didn’t cold thanks to my sleeping bag (Thanks Terry!) And there, there aren’t mosquitoes (is the most important!). Then when we woke up, I brush my teeth in Tim Hortons washroom :X and I bought a hot chocolate for the first time in Tim Hortons. After that we made PT it wasn’t difficult and I enjoy it! Then at 12pm we arrived at East Edmonton Mall. I only buy things against mosquitos. At 7:20pm we went to Calvin’s family’s restaurant! Yeah! It was very good. Tonight we are all sleeping in Calvin’s house! Thanks!!

Roman

What an amazing day! We have finally arrived at Edmonton! In Edmonton there is this mall, it is a big mall, it is biggest mall in America ( West Edmonton Mall)! There are quite a few amusement parks a IMAX movie theater and hundreds of stores and restaurants. Today was our last day of … rest, starting from tomorrow we will push, push, and push until we reach Artic Circle. I hope all goes well…

Marco

Woke up right out side Walmart in the parking lot. Felt really good, slept well, so warm yesterday night. But almost woke up late. After packing our stuff we continued moving on to West Edmonton Mall. I got a little bit car sick but thankfully I didn’t throw up.            “Wow so big!” We finally got to the largest mall in Canada! I think it was worth it to drive this long to go to Edmonton. There is a anmusment park inside, a hockey stadium for skating, rope quest and LOTS more! Can you imagine how big the mall is! Me and a few of my friends went skating, it was really fun, when I first went in the rink I kept tripping and falling, from all of my friends help, I remembered how to skate! Thank You my friends! I never thought skating would be that fun. Also don’t remember the “good” old shopping, we bought some things for our future journey, but I didn’t buy anything.

                Right after the fun part ends, it is when we go to the place we are going to live which is Calvin’s relatives house. We had to make a line and move our stuff. I didn’t really like it but it made me learn more, so I guess it is fine.

                Overall today was really good. But starting from tommorrow is when it gets really tough.

Justin

Today we have finally arrive Edmonton. The place we longed for so long, we insisted the West Edmonton Mall, the longest shopping mall in North America and once the world largest. Isn’t is facinating that we were camping in the wilderness the night before ad now we are stunning, from the amusement park to the aquarium, my stay in he shopping mall was an unforgetable experience. At night, I once again experince the importance of teamwork. In order to transport our luggages into where we stay at night, we formed a chain under great leadership and luggagges to the house safe and sound.

Alan

Today we got to the West Edmonton Mall. I didn’t exactly like it because shopping isn’t my thing. I also didn’t put on my lens the night before so I couldn’t see much things. but, I didn’t have a bad time there. I camped at Chapters and read book. It wasn’t bad.

Crystal

Even though it was fairly cold last night, I slept straight through it without any discomfort. After a bit of morning PT, we all shared a breakfast together then left for our next destination. We drove for a few hours, had a washroom break, then finally arrived in Edmonton! Soon, after we parked at the West Edmonton Mall, everyone happily rushed in, not wasting even a minute of exploring the grand area. Everyone got into groups of 3-5 or even more and quickly dispersed throughout the gigantic mall.My group and I decided that we werent going to go to the waterpark but rather finish buying the equipment we were lacking and then going to the ice rink and amusement park. We had skated for an entire 2 hours, and as time passed, more people from other groups came and joined the fun too. After deciding we had spent enough time at the rink, we left to finish buying anything else we were missing. However, after walking just for a few minutes, we had passed by the awesome and huge amusement park, Galaxy Land, which was suprisingly located within the mall. Jennifer and I both wanted to go on the Mindbuster, supposedly the largest indoor rollercoaster in the world. So, we quickly bought our super expensive tickets and ran to the ride’s lineup. Unfortunately, the ride was closed for maintenance, so we had to wait for 30 minutes before we got on the ride. But in my opinion, it was totally worth the wait! It was awesome and one of the best rollercoasters I’ve ever been on! Sadly, all good things do come to an end. Soon, we had to leave the mall and we ae at an amazing restaurant for dinner. Tonight, we will be staying at one of our driver’s relative’s house and hopefully we arrive in Yukon by tomorrow night.

Matt

Today was probably the first timme that I was so excited on this whole trip; we went shopping in the biggest mall in the world, “West Edmonton Mall”. Unfortunately before we could reach the mall, we had a very long and boring ride from “Battleford” to West Edmonton Mall”. I was co-driver/navigator of the day for bravo car. Sadly I broke one of the rules of this job and that is falling asleep. I had a nice sleep last night (sleeping in the parking lot, so I was confused that I was falling asleep. Luckily near the halfway point to the mall, I pulled myself together and stayed awak the rest of the trip. Driving the sprinter in the city is very hard as I have experienced as a co-driver. Especially staying together in a convoy. Finally we arrived at the mall at around 12:00 PM. At the mall we quickly divided ourselves into groups of at least 3 people per group. But once we were in the mall the groups changed and me and alvving walked around the mall for awhile until Roman tagged along for the rest of the visit. Most of us visited the store “Atmosphere” to load up on equipment like mosquito spray and nets. I went there as well and also sport chek, champs, foot locker and roots, I ahd a healthy lunch at subway with an unhealthy drink, “Fanta”. When all of us met back at the sprinters, we all met Jacky. Jacky waws the guy who did the cross lake Ontario with JJ. We had dinner at Jacky’s cousins Thai restaurant. The food wasn’t exactly filling because the portions were pretty small. Afterwards we left to Calvin’s cousin’s house, to stay in for the rainy night in Edmonton. Since it was raining outside I tracked in lots of mud onto the steps of the sprinter so now tomorrow morning I might have to clean off the dry mud.

Qunice

Today was a great day and a bad day. We finally went to West Edmonton mall, where there is a waterpark, amument parks, and parks to play indoor. I only played the amusement park. Shame I can’t even see the water park. Now here comes the harsh momoent. We have to be in the rain taking laugages inside Jacky and Calvin’s house. I’ve got my shoes covered with mud. I’ve brough a watch in atmosphere. The atmosphere is in the West Edmonton Mall. The watch was G-Shock. People think my watch is fake. But it is real. So yeah. That’s the day.

Kathy

Today was the seventh day in monticle. We went to the mall to bought the thingse we need. Then some of use decided to go skating. I didn’t like skating so when they were enjoy their time, I felt really boring, but I was keen on took pictures for them. Next we went to deep sea adventure. Although I’m afraid of hight place. I still try to enjoy the activities. In truth, I think it was fun. I had a good time in shopping mall today. At night it rains heavily. It’ so terrible that we put our things inside home in big rain, but I knew it was the part of teamwork, I must learn to did well.

Mike

Today was somewhat unexpected and stressful at the end of theday. Although Billy has warned me and others about the difficulty and stress, today was probably the day with the most stress, and that was only during the night! When Billy first told me about stress, I thought it would be about controlling people, but now I realized that it was everything piling up at once, the weather, the urgency and the people. tat is when stress levels go high.

Grace

After three hour’s drive, we finally arrived at the mall. we were all very excited because we would be shopping in the second biggest mall in the world. there is a water park, we first decided to go but finally didn’t. I bought some food, and spent most of the time walking around. ther were too many shops which maked me confused what to buy. we leaved the mall at 7, and went to have dinner. thefood was delicous, six people on the table finished them quickly. I accidently spilled the ice water on Mike’s pants, who unluckily sit beside me, I felt really sorry, because the water was really cold, but after everyone started to laugh at him, I felt better.

Today we have different group members, three as a new team. Billy said tomorrow is going to be challenging, I am now expecting tomorrow to be intereting.

Ryan

A request from Billy states that we must cease summarizing our events and go straight to our thoughs and feelings. therefore I will go straight to my usual last paragraph nad merely say that this is the 5^th day of our travel.

Today I end the day feeling hopeful and relaxed. Although there were some parts of stress along the way it taught me both parts of being a leader.

                Billy always tates that a good leader must always work as hard and mostly even harder then there followers. I have became to truly understand that meaning from both sides. As a follower it seriously annoys me and stresses me when the leader is just sitting there not working. Therefore as a leader I have given myself a resolution that I will never be without work in hand.

                Today also had relaxed me because I was ale to go to Edmonton mall and just walk around with no aim and no purpose. This has truly releived me of the stress, confusion and hate of the trans Canada days.

                This day has also given me hope as since we are now at Alberta and Billy stated that we will reach Yukon by tomorrow it makes me think that we are almost there and that we will make it.

                I have also searched and found happiness in this company.

Owen

Today was quite tough.  We all slept in a parking lot and woke up at 5:50am.  This is the first time that I am being homeless.  We even did not get a shower.

Billy warned me not to wear my slippers again or else hewill burn it.  I think it is unfair to me cause my socks are still wet.

Although we could stay at Cavlin’s cousin home for one night, we had to unload our stuffs outdoor under heavy raining.  My slippers were fully covered by muds.  Poor….

Jennifer

Ideas flow better when I am typing.  When I am writing, I find that my thoughts outrun my hands.  I have watched the foliage and rugged rocks of Ontario mold into the greenery and various bodies of water in Manitoba turn into the gently rolling hills in Saskatchewan and now, the monticles of Alberta.

Last night though, I watched the sky brighten over our humble parking lot and that lovely Walmart sign.  We slept in a parking lot – very easy on my budget since it cost us nothing in terms of finances.

We headed to the West Edmonton Mall where we enjoyed our day and bought all of the things we still needed.

I, spent most of my day ice skating with Kendra, Crystal, Mike, Marco, Edwin Chan, Lemuel, Calvin and  Tiffany.  I love the smooth feeling of ice skating.  I can now spin thanks to Kendra teaching me!

We also went on a roller coaster.  But my  funnest and proundest moment today was convincing Mike and Marco to come skating especically since was afraid of it.  And Marco slowly learning amd getting better at it over the tund hoars we were there.

We are in  new groups of three today and we’re currently making it hell for them. Perhaps it’ll let up and they’ll deal with it come mornig.

Kendra

Yesterday, I slept for the first time ever in a parking lot. I was actually really excited to try this once in a life time experience, but even though it was really cold, I still really enjoyed myself. This morning, we woke up pretty early and had some P.T. During P.T I learned that we need to work together to get the job done well and smooth. We were told that we worked really well and that we really showed teamwork together. Then, we travelled to Edmonton and had free time at the mall. I really enjoyed myself today and had a great time at the mall. We then went ot dinner. After dinner it started to rain, because of the rain, we had to make a chain and pass all our personal gear. I thought this was kind of like another team working drill. If we work fast we get the job done, if we don’t, we get poured in rain. Luckily, we managed to get the job done. Today, I learned that your team is the most important thing, if one member is down, the whole team goes down. Today was a great day and I learned so many important things.

JJ

For the recap of today, all there is to know is that we woke up at approximately 0550, had breakfast at 0613, got to the West Edmonton Mall at 1145 and stayed there till 1915. After that we had dinner at Calvin’s relative’s place and then we prepared to crash at their home.

Today we also switched the leadership game plan from 3 captains and assistants to many groups with a different “leader of the day” every day. I believe this will also allow the instructors to see the abilities of each individual student in a leadership position. Personally, I believe that a slow transition into a position of power would allow a greater learning experience for the students.

Mickey

Today, we go to the one of the biggest shopcentre every body is happy. But after dinner, I felt everything is bad. Dinner, sleepig. I think, Let us doing our jods in rainning that is fine, But… all right! Even any time, anywhere I will try my best to do that like Billy yesterday tell me. The world future is in our hand. Tomorrow I am a leader! I will try my best do it! Good luck!

Calvin

Our stop today was Edmonton. It was a real coincidence that I saw my family here. I had not expected that my father, brother, grandmothers, and grandfather were in Edmonton!

From today on it will basically our last sight at the big cities and our journey towards the wilderness. It will be interesting to see what people will have to change to adjust to new surroundings. Hopefully their comfort zones will change and just like the army they will need to change to successfully survive.

Jason Wong

After this sleeping in the parking lot of Walmart I still feel tired. After having doughnots for breakfast I felt that I had enough to eat. I slept most of drive to Edmonton and felt more energized. I was a little light headed but I bought a powerade to feel better. I felt happy to go to the stores I wanted to and felt that we had enough time in the mall. I thought that I didn’t really to buy anything. When we were assinged to new treams of 3 and eat with the new team. Me and my new 2 teamates had our own table, and had to finish all the dishes. I was glad that we finished all the food.

Howard

After much built-up hype, we finally arrived at West Edmonton Mall, the largest mall in North America. Upon arrival, we split into small groups to experience the titanic mall. My group consisted of four people: me, Jason Wong, Justin and Alan. My thoughts immediately echoed on whether anything would go wrong.

I was unable to foresee the problem that lied ahead. With the hastily made four-man group, we blasted through norms and rejected to visit the famous attractions such as the water park or the amusement park. However, I noticed that Justin seemed to not eat anything at lunch, did not seem thrilled when we stopped at the mumerous collector shops, nor was he very energetic as we toured the vast mass of the compound. However, hindsight is 20/20 and I didn’t notice this earlier, not to mention that I don’t know how Justin truly feels. I think I’ll ask him after this.

Michael Fung

Mistakes are inevitable. It makes you feel disgusted, but it makes you feel good to. It depends on how you take it or interpret it. As there is a baseball tournament in the city of North Battleford, we were not able to find any formal accomodations (e.g. hotels and motels). As the drivers had been driving for almost 13 hours or so, motels or any other accomodations that are so flexible and efficient are mostly considered. As a conclusion, when we saw the clock displaying such numbers ’23:30’ (Saskatchewan time), we just decided to stop at Tim Hortons and have a 5-hour sleep over the parking lot right outside Walmart. Firstly, this recalled me the experience that happened 3 years ago in Labrador. What differentiates the experience on 20^th July 2013 from the one 3 years ago is that it is a lot more chilling, and the sleeping was done by thirty people simultaneously. Supposedly, Billy needed all of us to sleep until 05:00, yet I and Mickey disobeyed his order and made for an overnight walk, jog and dump aorund the sleeping area. Basically, both of us could not get into sleep because of the coffee we had drunk in Tim Hortons. Hence, I slept for less than an hour, ad then went with Mickey for a night walk and jog. When we were back at 04:45 and saw Billy’s gruesome face, we realized that we were in deep trouble… The morning PT just swifly  weaved into our tight schedule, and in the PT I and Mcikey were chosen to be the two doing the pushiups and quasi-situps, while having the other teammates holding each other’s legs and grabbing their arms, as well as switching sides at times.

After doing such PT, I felt terribly guilty because of not following Billy’s orders, not getting dressed well (to protect myself against the chilly weather of around 8 degrees Celsius) and not doing the pushups in a proper manner. (I should ask Billy for rectification right after the completion of the PT)

To be honest, I got two negative remarks today because of the parking lot incident near Walmart and another parking lot incident near the West Edmonton Mall. For the former, the lesson I learnt is that if I don’t follow the orders from the commander, other team mates might not be following the orders as well. The whole team might get disordered so instantly (luckily it didn’t). Moreover, if I don’t get dressed properly and get myself sick, as a military man I might be condemned offensive charges. I am not sure if it is a crime or not, but anyway it sounds like a guilt or something. For the later, I just grabbed the brush, started dusting off the internal part of the Sprinter, and then suddenly got the stick of the brush upon my shoulder and swinging it. Billy witnessed that I almost hurt Owen because of the swing, hence I should receive a negative remark. I deserve these two remarks and for sure it did make me feel disappointed because it seems that I amthe only one receiving negative remarks as a leadership. Yet, on the other hand, I am also relieved because Billy frankly told me that I am not a perfect leader (or a follower). He just told me when he was driving at the front. Everyone within the car (except Hazel) should be able to witness Billy commenting about today’s behavior. In fact, I don’t really concern about self-esteem and similar things. But, as long as everyone learns my mistakes, then my mistakes will no longer be noxious, but otherwise benevolent. Keep positive and drive forward!

P.S. I always doubt about the reason why Billy always refers me as the Monticle No. 1. I don’t think I deserve this honor because I didn’t receive intensive (and perhaps intimate) trainings with Billy for a long time. I am just a foreigner who sometimes lay back and observe, but not willing much to take the initiative. Billy had told me before, leadership traits were given to birth together with the baby. Without sufficient knowledge and understanding, I lack the subtle but vital confidence to take the leade (JJ, Tiffany and Jennifer are excellent examples of leadership so far). Maybe I don’t fit as a good leader or Monticle No. 1; maybe I’l improve soon. It’s hard to tell. Right now, the team system or distribution is varied into a newer version – Team A and B convoys with Calvin and Lemuel in carge of them respectively. Each team has 5 small teams of 3 people, as well as their respective team maes. Let see which is optimal for me as well as for the overall team chemistry.

Good luck and hope everybody enjoy! Please don’t repeat my mistakes!