I am a bad SLC. I drank inappropriately last night when I went out clubbing with Jenn, Michael, and Simon. I think it was the lack of food and water I had yesterday while I shopped in London. All I had was a small bag of chips and then 2 pieces of toast before going out. No liquids at all - nice and dehydrated. The best part was that both Michael and I got sick. But for those of you concerned, we avoided the vomit fine as I kept my sick to Michael's trashbin and he kept his to the toilet. That would be classy with a k. Apparently there was semi-topless dancing and also Michael and I wrestled on the floor at the bar.

I am currently sitting in Oxford in a beautiful flat. It does not belong to me but a friend I'm visiting for the weekend. He's a Rhodes Scholar and is attending a dinner party at the moment being all academic-ey. He has left me trying to use his Mac laptop....I am sooo not a fan but I really want to be. Maybe if I just had a mouse...but it would need to be a mouse with two buttons and a wheel.

WOW! This has been the best mail week ever! First I got two things on one day - a sexy postcard from Toronto with 4 hot babes in tiny bikini's, courtesy of David and Joel! Gay boys have great taste in postcards afterall. Also on that day I got a package from Andréa that included a CD from Ottawa's favourtie music group, Eric Eggleston Band, - complete with an autographed magazine from the band themselves.
Today it was a package from Jackson and Shandy. They made a VCD for me that was clips from them having fun in Waterloo and Toronto and even Uxbridge! Jackson travelled there to visit my parents and dogs! They also included important people on the video who it was great to see! I had a permagrin for the whole glorious 30 minutes of it and still do. So tonight as I fine students for vomiting in the hall, I will just think back to the video and transport myself to a happier place.
PS It's 7:45pm and the students are already on their way to the pub. Yesterday was day 1 of the new vomit fine, but we anticipate tonight the first fine will actually occur.

I hate having to come out in a workplace setting. Actually, I hate having to come out period. Some people may think I am shameful of my sexuality because of this but so be it. I don't hide my sexuality, nor do I flaunt it. I have a pride flag in my room and a framed picture of Johnny on my bedside table.
So far, one student has asked me flat out if I was gay (I answered truthfully) and one student used the pronoun "he" after I refered to my partner - it was kind of obvious as she asked who I was shopping for in a men's clothing store and I answered "my partner." And I am sure other students are aware of it by now.
We had a meeting the other day with someone from Queen's who informed us there is usually a high percentage of gay male students who do the castle program, however they don't come out until they are back at Queens. It totally makes sense for various reasons (age, isolation factor here). So it's been making me question if I should take a more vocal role to set a good example for questioning students, but then I think that I'm setting a good example anyway - my personality type is not the kind that would throw it in peoples faces. I just want to try and be a good gay role model.
These are my random musings for today. If I cared more about making an actual point I would have worked on this for a bit longer but I just needed to get the above out.

Compilation CD's seem to be a big thing over here. There's something for everyone "Romantic Geek Hits Vol 4," "R&B Lovers Grooves 3" etc. I have always liked the idea of compilation CD's - hello "Cool Rock." Really, this is one reason why people burn their own CD's, to create that perfect mix.
One CD that I am looking at getting here is the NOW compilation CD. They're currently up to #59. Apparently they release three a year, and got it all started in 1983. Some of the songs included on the maiden voyage were; Total Eclipse of the Sun, Red Red Wine, and Karma Chameleon.
Don't worry - I am headed on a few trips this weekend into London and surrounding area and I'll hopefully come back with a good story or two so you don't have to read about things like compilation CD's.

Okay – even though I like to plan in advance, I am finding it very difficult to plan in advance the backpacking adventure that will begin mid-April next year when I finish up here. Annetta and I will be hitting up Spain, the south of France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Greece over the course of about seven weeks. Our two major destinations are Italy and Greece (the islands of course). However, this requires planning – but only because of booking the flight home. Yes this can be changed but that comes at a cost of $200 and that just seems like an avoidable expense. So it looks like for next term, I will be spending 5 months away from Canada, compared to this terms 3.5 months.
I do think next term will go by quickly as we’ve bonded with the students and Annetta will be here, nothing like a face from home. Also, will hopefully have some special visitors! I will miss Michael incredibly but have full faith that I will get along just fine with the incoming male SLC, Jeff.

I am getting old. Yes I knew this was coming and it can only get worse. My body is sore after playing badminton or indoor football (aka soccer). Yes I usually do some physical activity on a daily basis so maybe this is what makes my body ache. If only my body was looking better, like it did because of swim class, then I wouldn’t mind the aches. I will definitely require eye wrinkle cream for when I reach a quarter of a century next June.

Over the course of this weekend, I confirmed that Stanley Kubrick and I were not meant to get along. On two seperate occasions I tried to watch Dr. Strangelove and both times I fell fast asleep during the first half hour.
I did however get along famously with Alias Season 1 and British Queer as Folk. I am excited to hear that JJ Abrams, the creator of Alias, is directing Mission Impossible 3 - which is more like the first one then the sequel.

WOW. I just got bombarded with reality tv news overload. Yes I am not wanting to know how reality shows play out but I had no idea that Amazing Race 6 had even been filmed or contracted to film and now it's about to premiere! WTF!
So I backdoor'ed my way on to the CBS website (avoiding all Survivor news) to check out the Amazing Race teams....ummm, whats with all these dating models, dating actors, married pro wrestlers??

The Student Council is starting to organize a "slave" auction. They'll be auctioning off the Prez, VP and some faculty and staff. There is also a good possibility that they'll auction us SLC's off too. Now I am totally game for that but I want to offer a great "package" to make me a hot commodity - I really just want to bring in more money than Michael or Simon. So if anyone wants to offer up any suggestions for things I can do, bring them on.

Today is Guy Fawkes day in England. Fireworks have been going off for the last month now on random nights but tonight is the offical night. I'm not participating in any festivities however as I'm in charge of a trip this afternoon to London to see a play. The play, Bloody Mess apparently has some indoor fireworks though - so it'll almost be like I did celebrate. Almost.

The students here all getting sad that THE OC is starting in North America and they can't watch it here. It makes me confused because they know how to download movies, so why cant they download TV episodes?
In other TV news, the finale of Six Feet Under aired here the other night. It was good times to the max. I feel like the beginning of 6FU seasons are a very slow (and sometimes boring) to the finale which just takes the cake. I am debating about getting into Nip/Tuck or not as I feel I need another show to watch now without 6FU.

Michael and I are headed to Amsterdam for either 2 or 3 glorious nights. We're currently looking for a hostel and are taking recommendations. We want a decent hostel, not a crazy party one. We're also debating if we may sleep on the street for a night. Please help.

Hallowe'en was great times. In the afternoon, we hosted a children's party at the castle for the local community. I was in charge of designing the haunted house! I love doing hanuted houses so I was in great spirits turning part of the castle into a haunted walk!! The walk was designed for 11-year olds but we ended up getting children aged 8 and 9, so the walk was a bit too extreme, but still good fun!
After that, there was a scavenger hunt (aka treasure hunt) around the castle grounds, our team won after a lot of hard work and running around.
Then we donned our outfits for the actual Hallowe'en party at the castle pub. The SLC'sdressed as the Scooby Doo Crew - hmmm, I wonder who had that influence. I was Fred and my costume included a bleaching of my hair. Photos will arrive shortly.
Sidenote: the mid-term trip last week to Edinburgh and Liverpool was fantastic! The details of that will be included in my email update this week.