This Is It - as they say in Newfoundland

Hello All,


Before I write anything, I feel that I should say that I am sorry for not updating this blog in such a long time.  You might have been wandering what happened to me, or what type of fun adventures you were not getting a chance to hear about.  Maybe you didn't notice that my last blog was many weeks ago, in which case I would say that living life sometimes requires us to step back from the world of the internet and just live.

The first to see the sunrise in all of North America.  Was staying up all night and standing in minus 13 degrees Celsius temperatures worth it?  I think so!

The snow fall that caused my flight to be cancelled.  So thankful for this moment!

I am currently sitting at home in Summerville, South Carolina.  My flight arrived yesterday, after being canceled the day before due to so much snow in St. John's, Newfoundland.

As I sit down and reflect on the past few weeks of my life (in which I didn't blog), I can tell you that they were the busiest, yet best weeks of my entire life.  It's nearly hard to hold back the tears as I write this.  The past few weeks, nearly without a doubt, were the best few weeks of my life.  I say this again because it is real and true.  I have never spent so much quality time with so many people that I care about so dearly.  Each day for the past three weeks in St. John's was filled with meetings upon meetings, events upon events, gatherings upon gatherings, and a lot of celebrating.  (I fit studying in there as well- we would all make it a plan to hang out in between study breaks whenever the exams were in full swing).

Many nights in the past few weeks I would find myself going to bed around 3:00 in the morning because of the groups desire to hang out with each other as much as we could before our time ended.  In those last few weeks, we really started to understand how special our time had been together, and we really wanted to squeeze all of the greatness out of that time.  After going to bed at 3:00 in the morning, I would find myself going out to breakfast with another group of people.  The entire day would be filled with all types of varying plans and activities.  It was like a social boot camp for me.  I have never been so socially exhausted in my entire life, but just like all things, the more you do something, often the better it becomes and the better you get at doing it.  The more you spend time with people, the better you are able to understand them and connect with them.  All of us international students could not get enough time together due to our unbelievable connections with each other.

As I write this, it is not my intention to make it an extremely pleasurable and great piece of writing for you, but to simply write out what I am feeling.  I want to be able to remember how important it is to spend time with people, and to have communities of friends that you can gather together with, laugh with, cry with, and share special moments of your life with.  We are all in this life together, and we all have something special to give to the next person.  For me, I used to have a lot of trouble feeling as if my life was unique, and that my presence within a group of people was of any additional benefit to that group of people.  Now, however, I have realized that not only myself, but everyone is special and unique.  This was really made known to me via my local and international friends in Newfoundland.  For the first time in my life, I felt like people wanted me with them wherever it was that they might be.  I would receive emails (because I don't have Facebook and didn't have a phone), a few times a day, from people asking me to join them at this or that.  Similarly, I would invite people to events or activities, and if perhaps one person was not able to come, they were truly missed, and this was made  known to them.

It is really hard for me to put the past few weeks, and my time in Newfoundland into words - as you might be able to tell.  This semester was the best semester of University experience, and the best 4 months of my life.  I can't even imagine how this decision to go up to St. John's, Newfoundland, for my last semester of University will effect my life.  Just a couple of minutes ago, I was looking at a map of the world, and it means so much more to me than it used to.  I am able to look at country after country and associate it with the very special person that I met in that particular country.  I am now able to travel around the world, and nearly always find a place to stay with someone that I have a special bond with.  I am so thankful for this, and I am very thankful that God has put this opportunity in my life.  I know that this is all part of His plan.

As for you, my friend and family, I want to thank you for coming along with me on this journey.  You have had the chance to read about the best 4 months of my life.  I hope that I have been able to inspire you in some way.  I hope that you have seen what can happen if you step out and take risks that you would normally not take.  I hope that you have been able to see, through all of my writings, how important it is to love God, love others, and to love yourself.  With anyone of these Truths missing, this trip would not have happened.

In closing, I would like to thank you again for joining me.  If you ever get the chance to go to Canada - Newfoundland especially - you should take it.  The Newfoundlanders, or Newfies, are the nicest people group that I have ever met - by far.  I'm not sure what it is about them, but if you get a chance to go there, there is no doubt in my mind that you will be telling people the same bold statement that I just told you.  They will always have a special place in my heart, and so will the rest of the people that I met up in the great white north.

With a warm heart,

Benjamin

American Thanksgiving in Canada

Hei,

Last Thursday during the American Thanksgiving, my heart was filled with thanks towards all of the people that are in my life right now.  The church that I attend on Sunday mornings decided to have an American Thanksgiving for all (2) of the American's attending the church.  At this point, I realized that I would no longer be going down to Ohio to join family for Thanksgiving, and that these people at church were willing to go completely out of there way for 2 people.  It made me feel so special, and so thankful for all of those servant hearts out there.

When Thursday finally rolled around, I had a place to celebrate Thanksgiving, when just a week before I thought that I was going to miss out on one of my favorite holiday's of the year.  I stepped from bitter cold outside air into a warm and cozy house with the smell of stuffing and turkey in the air.  Ten dishes were served at the Thanksgiving meal, and they made sure that we had football on the TV after we all finished eating.  It was oh so warming to see how much the people putting the Thanksgiving dinner together wanted us to feel at home.  I am so thankful for these people and all of the other beautiful people that are in my life right now :)

St. John's Christmas Parade  

On a different note, last Saturday was quite the comical day to me.  Before I talk about this event, let me just say that if you thought the Christmas season started early in America, ha!  Up here in Canada, the day after Halloween (Oct. 31st), Christmas was in full swing; all of the stores had their Christmas gear out, the people began putting lights up, tree decorating parties began, and Christmas plays started up.  It was really weird to me.  It still does not feel like the Christmas season has begun, yet it is seriously in full swing up here.  I am seeing all of these Christmas activities going on, but for some reason, I have no special emotion about it.  It is all just stuff to me right now.  So, be thankful that we have Thanksgiving in between Halloween and Christmas in America, for at least that gives us some kind of guide as to when we should start setting up for Christmas.

Okay, so St. John's had this Christmas Parade on Saturday.  As I walked to the parade that would be happening on Water Street, I looked up into the air to check out the helicopter that was flying bye, and lo and behold, there was Santa hanging out of the helicopter door waving to everyone!  Haha.  Prior to going to this event, some Newfie's told me that they took Christmas seriously here, but I surely wasn't aware of the level they took it to.  I managed to make it down to water street just as the first group in the parade arrived.  As I sat there and made friends with some guy in his 70's, dogs walked by in reindeer outfits, elves came by dancing to Christmas music, and even big bird from the Sesame Street made an appearance.  I couldn't help but sit there and laugh with my friend.  This parade went on for just shy of two hours, with nearly every parade character I ever thought existed coming down the street (and every dog breed).  Despite the randomness of some of the parade characters (luigi, beauty and the beast, pirates, etc.), we all had smiles on our faces.  It was a very lighthearted day, and nearly brought me into the Christmas spirit, but not quite.  Newfie's may be called goofy from other provinces in Canada, but there is no denying that they know how to have a good time!

The main attraction, riding on the iconic row houses and a semi truck.

Realization of our time here    

Some thing that I don't talk about too much, which definitely deserves a blog of it's own, is how close all of us international students have gotten, and how we all realize that the time we are spending here together, representing over 15 countries, will only be available for 3 more weeks.  Last Friday, we had a "graduation" dinner for 40 international students in a nice restaurant in downtown St. Johns.  We all dressed up in business casual wear, and spent nearly 4 hours at dinner together, realizing how special the semester has been.  The international students that organized the event, prepared a PowerPoint for the night, gave out awards to various people, and had speeches prepared to present to all of us.  It was a very nice night, and no one wants this semester to end.  Yes, we wouldn't mind the studying to end, but to be able to talk and hang out with so many people from so many completely different cultures...priceless.  Since being here, I feel like I have spent time all over the world.  I think what binds us all together the most is not that we are all from different countries, but that we all made the same decision to step out and come to St. John's for a semester, with nothing but ourselves and our clothes.  We all knew no one when we came here, but now, we know that we are capable of having great relationships with almost anyone.

Oppriktig,

Benjamin

 

A Day to Remember, Colourful Houses, and Signal Hill

Good Afternoon,

My intentions in this blog is to give you a little view into the town of St. Johns, and tell you a little about this holiday they celebrate in Canada (and in the other Commonwealth countries) called Remembrance Day.  I have been wanting to show you for a long time what downtown St. Johns looks like, so, finally, I am getting the chance to do just that!

On Sunday morning,  I turned over in bed and opened my eyes to a beautiful blue sky with the feeling of fall in the air.  As my mind began to wake, a thought went through my head that went "If there is a day that should be nice in a season full of rain, mist, fog, and darkness, today is the day."  Sunday was a special day in Newfoundland, and in all of Canada, for it is a day of remembrance - a day to remember all of the fallen Soldiers of WW1.  In America, there is Memorial Day, and also Veteran's Day, which is on the same day as Remembrance Day, but I don't ever remember these days in America.  All I ever knew is that they were holidays, and that I get school off...shallow of me, I know.  This day just seems to come up in America, without my knowing it, and then next thing I know, the day is gone and life moves on.

In Canada, Remembrance day seems to be much more sincere.  Starting at the beginning of November, people wear a poppy flower on their clothes throughout the day.  The first day I saw these, I knew something special was going on.  Then, the next day came around and people still had these poppy's on their shirts.  Word got around and I figured out what was going on.  Let me say, everyone wearing these poppy's for eleven days leading up to the Remembrance Day Parade was pretty inspiring.  I could tell that these people truly cared about remembering the fallen soldiers of WW1.  The anticipation of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month was amazing!

As I arrived in Downtown St. John's to meet up with friends to watch the parade, the town seemed to be more alive than ever.  The streets were packed full of people and families with their heavy coats, wool hats, scarves, and a warm cups of coffee.  The sound of the marching band filled the city, while thankfulness and sincerity filled the crisp, fall air.  As the parade began, we all followed after those serving in the military to the final destination of the ceremony.  I could feel so much excitement in the air.

Once we all made it to the final destination, the ceremony began.  In a city that is known to be the windiest city in all of Canada, a day like Sunday with no wind felt so peaceful and quiet.  We all stood around, in complete silence, for over an hour as the ceremony went on.  Here and there, little flakes of snow fell down from the clear blue skies.  I felt so in the moment and so at peace; I was willing to stand around in silence all day!  After the ceremony and parade, the entire town must have rushed out for brunch to the same, cozy and warm restaurant called Bagel Cafe. As the line went clear out the door of this little cafe, aromas of hot chocolate and pastries, as well as the occasional breezes of warm Bagel Cafe air and glimpses of a bustling fire kept us all in line.  Needless to say, brunch was well worth the wait :)

Three massive and beautiful horses that led the parade.   It was about a 20 minute walk (with nearly the entire town joining in) to get to the ceremony location.

The memorial ceremony was up the hill to the right, which isn't in this picture.  Not a very interesting picture.  I guess you had to be there :)  

The ceremony ends and everyone marches back.   I was more interested in getting a shot of the colourful shops one street up than I was of the soldiers,  so there they are lol.

Downtown St. John's and Signal Hill

For the rest of this blog, I will be posting up pictures and maybe writing a little caption under them.  I'm not too sure what way of blogging is more interesting for the reader - stories with pictures built in, or pictures with stories built in.  Times when I feel like there are a lot of pictures I want to share, it seems to be better to just show what I have taken pictures of.  So, without further ado, here are just a few pictures of what downtown St. John's looks like, along with a little hike I did with Jan up to Signal Hill.  I hope you enjoy and can get a feeling for what this city looks like.  

St. John's makes the list for one of the most colourful cities in the world.  This picture doesn't show it completely, but hopefully some of the pictures you see will.

My friend Hanna from Sweden on the right, with the St. John's Harbor in the background.

Some more colour in St. John's.  When walking through the city, nearly every house is a different colour than the one next to it.  Some rows of houses are more vibrant than others, while some seem to need a new paint job.

       

Saved the best for last :)  There are many streets in downtown that really stick out, with this clearly being one of them.    

Jan and I walking on our way to Signal hill.  Some very unique houses on the way there!

Still on our journey to get to the trail path.  When the sun is out in St. John's, people's clothes will be out on the clothes line.  I thought this picture was great.

The beginning of the trail.  Such a beautiful hike along the ocean.  At one point in the hike, you have to hold onto a chain that is bolted into the rock wall on your so that you don't fall off the cliff on your right! 

The destination at the top.  Wait, the journey is the destination.  Nevermind lol :)

I took this picture because of the big rocks that you see that look out of place in this scene.  I'm not sure if it was the case here, but Newfoundland is known for a lot of glacial activity back in the day.  Huge rocks were carried all over this island by glaciers, and then deposited when the glaciers melted.  When you get in the country of Newfoundland (a 2 minute drive), there are tons of massive rocks all over the place with glacial pools in their midst.

The edge of the world.

Cabot Tower. 

The city of St. John's.

Thank God for Colour.  The world just wouldn't be the same without it.

Well, that is it for this blog.  Thank you for reading and checking out some of what the scenery in St. John's is like.  I hope you don't mind me putting all of these pictures up.  This city is such a beautiful place and I don't think words do it complete justice.     

Sincerely,

Benjamin

The "Screech In" Ceremony and Other Doings

Hallo kjærlighet,

Since arriving on the island of Newfoundland, countless conversations with local's excited about my exchange to St. John's have brought up the question, "Have you been screeched in yet!?"  Along with this same question often came, "Have you had a Jigs Dinner?"  Well, I can proudly say that I have now done both of these special-to-Newfoundland activities in what some might call my right of passage into Newfoundland.

So, what is getting "Screeched in"?  If you're anything like me, Screech from my favourite childhood show   Saved by the Bell initially came to mind.  Maybe I will get to go to The Max and have a milkshake with Screech himself.  Unfortunately, getting Screeched in has nothing to do with Saved by the Bell.

Last night, Hanna, Mia, Vincent, and I all went down to the famous George Street to get "Screeched in."  I don't know if I have mentioned yet, but George Street is this street in down town St. John's that has more bars and pubs per square foot than any street in North America.  Maybe you could guess what a screech in entails?  Anyway, we went down town, registered for the ceremony, and then waited for the ceremony to begin at 11:15.  As you can see by my last sentence, it is a fairly structured event.

As the room of people anticipated the starting of the ceremony, this guy comes walking out onto the bar floor with some kind of sailor outfit on and a big boat paddle.  He immediately gets everyone's attention, yells to the bartender for a drink, and begins to speak in the very unique Newfoundland accent.  The act had begun.  The entire bar watches him as he speaks a thousand miles an hour while drinking his drink.  He sings a couple of songs, has the bar sing some songs with him, and then proceeds to call out all of the people that will be getting "screeched in" on the night.  (He was very entertaining and put on quite an act!  I felt as if I was in a pub in Ireland!)

He went around asking the Screechers their name and where they are from, while making a little joke about each one.  Of course, he decided to pick on the American from South Carolina and have me become the centre of the show for a while lol. To make a long, entertaining story short, the Sailor brought in a big Cod fish from the back of the room, and all of us Screechers had to get on our knees and kiss the Cod!  After this we all had to take a shot of this rum called Screech, and then try and say some very hard to understand Newfoundland saying.  Needless to say, no one could repeat the saying lol.  After this, we all got our certificate and officially got initiated into Newfoundland!

Other Doings

A ton has happened since my last blog.  While I have been away from this blog, I house sat for my host family here for a week while they went down to Florida (Canadians love Florida), which included taking care of the love of their life, Becky, and two of their cats.  While I truly missed having Dwight and Eilis around in the house, it was nice to be able to spread out on the couch and watch a movie.  Becky, on the other hand, probably couldn't wait for them to get back.  I was not as good at following the strict schedule that they have for her...sorry guys!  Two walks a day was tough for me, especially when it was cold and rainy out.

Becky and I outside soaking up some vitamin D.  This is about an hour before Eilis and Dwight arrived back in St. Johns from their trip to Florida.  This was the first day in two weeks that the sun came out.  I'm not exaggerating.

The sun fighting through the clouds, finally!  We did not even see a glimpse of the sun for 2 FULL weeks here.  You couldn't even tell where it was in the sky.  After about a week of no sun, many conversations started to revolve around how it had been so dark, and in wander of when the sun would come back out.  "I don't care where I am or what I am doing when that sun  finally comes out; I am dropping everything and going outside," I would say.  Here I am, exactly 14 days since seeing and feeling the sun on my skin.  You have to seize the moment when the weather is right here!

The Birthday meal :)

Also of great importance to me, the 23 anniversary of my birthday came around!  I have never been away from my family on my birthday, so this was somewhat of a big event for me.  When it comes to birthdays, I have always preferred to be with my family; I had nothing to do with my being born, so if anything I think that I should be celebrating with my parents, as they are the ones who brought me into this world.  Even so, I realized that a birthday is a day of love and thankfulness.  For the people that I told the date of my birthday to, whenever I saw them they would wish me happy birthday and ask me how it was.  You know what I told them, and what most other people want to say when asked how their birthday is going?  I told them that it felt like any other day.  However, at the end of the day, I felt extremely thankful to have people in my life that care to wish me a happy birthday and make sure that I feel appreciated and loved.

My good friend Hanna from Sweden :)

They surprised me with a birthday cake!  I was so thankful when I went to bed on my birthday that I could barely sleep.  People can be so kind!

One of the more unique things that I had the chance to experience in the last week is the St. John's Story Telling Festival that has been going on here.  I think that making the decision to attend one of the story telling events, which then followed with my attending more, will have long lasting effect on my life.  It was a Friday night, and Hanna, Mia and I went to this cozy bakery called the Rocket bakery.  Long story short (I would love to go into more vivid detail about most of my writings, but for the sake of time, I have to cut them back), here we were in a dimly lit, brick walled room--about 70 of us-- letting our imaginations go wild as we attentively listened to "magical and mystical" stories, with a warm cup of tea in hand.  I wish I could go into more detail about this, but I won't.  It was a very special night for us, and my interest has been sparked about increasing my imagination, learning how to better listen to people, and also how to captivate someone's attention in the form of storytelling.

To try and sum up all that has been going on here in Newfoundland over the past couple of weeks, there is this one thing that continues to excite me more than anything, and that is people.  One of the hardest things about being a Christian, and a reason why many Christians get a bad rep, is because of this huge concept called love.  Since I have been here, I have truly started to realize that the love that makes you feel warm and at peace inside is a love without conditions.  It's the type of love that says, "I don't care what you have done in your past, or what activities you partake in that I would not take part in;  I will love you, without judgement, because I am not the judge, but I am a child of Love."  I have realized that what I have heard from God is for me to follow.  I have found so much freedom in this idea and find myself excited to meet people, talk to them, listen to them, and try to come up with the words that their soul longs to hear.    

I hope you have enjoyed this blog.  I'm glad to give you a tiny glimpse into my time up here in good ol' Newfoundland :)

Med Kjærlighet,

Benjamin













  

A Saturday in Newfoundland

Hi there,

Last Saturday was a very special day for me.  For the first time, I felt like a true Newfoundlander, or as some might say, a true "Newfie."  On this special day, I got to experience and immerse myself in the culture like never before.  Here is how my day panned out:

1)  I woke up around 8:00 to fishcakes, some eggs, and Canadian maple syrup to go along with some Newfoundland moose sausages :)

2)  I then proceeded to head to the farmers market, where I talked and learned more about the aboriginal people from Newfoundland--the Beothuks--, looked at local art, saw some local produce, and heard the unique Newfoundland phrase-- "What are you at?".  Upon hearing the phrase, I silently thought to myself--"This is it."

3)  I then rode the bike back to the home, where Eilis and Dwight (my host parents) waited on me so that we could all head out to Middle Cove.  Middle cove represents Newfoundland to me.  I will explain more in pictures later.

4)  I went on a hike along the beach with Dwight and Eilis, which ended up with me picking wild cranberries on the side of a hill with two Newfoundlanders.  Pick one and eat two.

5)  After the beach, we headed off to Portugal Cove, and lo and behold, we almost ran into two moose crossing the street!

6)  Upon arriving at the restaurant in Portugal Cove, I sat outside and waited for Dwight to order our food.  As I sat out in the cold, shivering with my swimsuit on, I looked at the older guy next to me and said, "It's cold out, eh?".  This alone made my night.  Canadians love to use this word, and I've been wanting to use it ever since I arrived.  I couldn't help but smile after my successful use of "eh".

7)  We ate "fish and chips" as the sun settled over the harbor.  Come on.

8) I watched hockey with the host family when i got home!

What a beautiful, well rounded Newfoundland day.  I couldn't have experienced all of this if I tried.  It was a pretty divine day, I'd say.  Everything just worked out.  I was in the right place at the right time the entire day.  There was no escaping Newfoundland life on this sunny, Newfoundland day.

Some Pictures:

Middle Cove.  This is my view to the left.

This is the view to the right of Middle Cove.  

Huge waves crashed against the side of this rock all day.  The magnitude of these waves don't truly show in this picture.    So much power.

Beautifully coloured and smoothed rocks.

A nice place to hang out with "man's best friend."

Trying to capture the power of these waves.

The view from the trail.  This might of been my favourite trail of the trip.  Notice how blogger made me spell favourite--the Canadian way.

Dwight and Eilis up in front; massive waves, rock formations, and wild cranberries in the distance.

As I mentioned earlier, it was a divine day.

"The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."

Just behind the rushing waves, I see this.  So, I head up to them and see what they are up to.  "There are loads of wild cranberries up here," she says.  "I picked 3 gallons yesterday."

Wild Cranberries.  As I sat and took this picture, I had to make sure my feet were stable underneath me so that I would not fall 15 feet into the rocks and rushing waves behind me!

Me and the bag of Cranberries that I picked.  Not sure what I was up to here...other than trying not to fall!

Heading back to middle cove.  Let the camp-fires begin.

A nice little get together on the beach.  The thought of coming to a place like this with my family and having dinner over a bonfire makes my heart full.  

"Be still, and know that I am God."  People sit and gather in awe of what is in front of them.  There are times like these when you can't help but just be still.

I hope you enjoyed the little adventure I was able to take last Saturday.  What a wonderful life it is.

Sincerely,

Benjamin

Gros Morne National Park

Hi again,

Just to update whoever is reading this, my computer that I use for school and personal use has seen its last days--the motherboard is fried :(  With that said, I will be uploading and blogging from the school computers whenever I get the chance.  It is good to get a little distance from the computer, eh?

This blog will consist of the trip that I took during fall break with 13 other international students over a week ago.  Gros Morne National Park was the destination, but a deeper understanding of love was the occasion.  I will be telling some of the story, mostly through pictures.

Here they are all.  This is the crew that we went with.  There were 13 of them, plus me.  There were 7 Germans on the trip, 2 people from The United Kingdom, 1 from Ireland, 1 from Sweden, 1 from Finland, 1 from Canada, and myself from U.S.A.

This what you would see if you turned around in the last picture.  This was the second hike of the day; the first hike was really rough for a lot of people.  It was absolutely pouring rain and so windy that the rain hurt your face when it hit.  We also went off the beaten path in that hike, straight up a mountain; a bout half of the group hated the first hike and half enjoyed it.  We had to go home afterwords and get our heads straight again.  Everyone was soaked and cold!  This hike, however, lifted everyone's spirits!

I'm not sure what the pose was about, but here we are about 1/4th of the way through the same hike seen above.  The cool thing about this hike is that the terrain changed drastically 4 times.  Right after this shot, we entered into what felt like a jungle with loads of beautiful ferns. 

Our first close up view of the ocean!  "This is way better than this morning" some said.  This is Holly from U.K. in the picture.  It was great to have her on the trip.  She helped people stay positive whenever the weather made some feel miserable.

On the edge of a cliff.

So romantic and picturesque.  How great would it be to sit in one of these chairs with the person that you care most about in the world.  So peaceful :)   

Down on the beach.  I've said it before in other blogs, but I'll say it again-- something about the ocean makes me feel so alive.  It was so great to get down on to the beach.  I ended up getting in the water with a few of the other guys.  It was extremely refreshing.  That is Holly again in the picture, so excited to be here.

Moose shoulder blade?  

Part of a moose leg?  No one knew on the trip.

Day Number 2.  Well It is actually Day number 3.  The first day was spent driving the entire day, which is another blog in and of itself.

Some of the crew.  If you type in Gros Morne National Park in google, a lot of the pictures you see are of this fjord.  The most beautiful spot is at the other end, but that is a 3-5 day hike.  Also, the boat tours in the fjord are supposedly great, but we just missed the season for that!  Beautiful, nonetheless...

Here I am.

Okay, so here it is.  The talk of the trip ever since we left was that  we wanted to see a moose.  We didn't see any on the drive up, or the first day, so we were especially desperate to see a moose.  While we were hiking, we kept seeing moose poop everywhere, and ran into some people that said they saw some.  Then, as we were walking, everyone got extremely quiet.  There was absolute silence.  It felt like the world stopped for a second.  When a couple of us guys in the back caught up to everyone, they were all looking in the woods.  I looked along, as I knew they were looking at a moose, but I didn't see it.  Well, I was looking to low!  Moose are absolutely huge!  This things leg is about as tall as me.  A moose makes a horse look small and makes a deer look like a little stuffed animal.  We got to see two more moose on the hike, not as close up, but we got to see faces.  Amazing.

(We all ate moose burgers before this hike.  Poor moose!)

When we first hiked in you could barely see the fjord.  Here is a clearer shot.

The houses

This is where 8 of us stayed.  We joked all weekend about the name of the place--efficiency suite.  I stayed in the room that has the two people standing outside of it, which consisted of the two Scandinavian girls and my friend from Germany.  The efficiency suites were the calm residences.  The other place, which you will see later, was the party house lol.

The view from our kitchen table.  The efficiency unit was quite small, but it got the job done.  I really liked the set up.  Sharing a bed with Jan wasn't the best, but we made it work.

The view from the deck of our place.

No one stayed in this place.  It was at the bottom of the hill from where I stayed.  I really like this house, and the apple tree in the yard, so I took a picture.

Here is the party house!  From the outside, this place looks to be very small.  It looks like a little cube, but the inside was nearly ideal.  I think this house was such a great size.  I took some video of the inside, so i'll show you it when I get home Mom.  You would have gone crazy over how quaint the inside of this place was.

The back of the house.  The little addition there is the coatroom.

Here is the other side.  You can't really see the main porch, but it's behind the tree.   This house was about a 10 minute walk from the efficiency suite.  After a long day of hiking and exploring, we would all go to our places, shower up and what not, then head over to this little house.  We had so much fun every night.  The nights were probably a lot of peoples favourite times.  I definitely enjoyed them.

There was an apple tree in the back yard of the party house.  I'm not sure if this tree was wild or what, but all of the apples looked great and tasted even better.  It's very rare that apples look like this without use of pesticides.  I picked about 15 apples this day ;)

The view from the party house.  The little white house down below with the blue outline was amazing.  I would move into that house in a second.  It also had a massive apple tree in the front yard.

 The Last day

On the last morning the crew finally split.  The entire trip, we all did absolutely everything together.  If someone wanted to do something, we all did it.  While this way of doing things was great, it's hard to satisfy 14 people.  Anyhow, some people wanted to go shop in the town on Tuesday morning, some wanted to sleep, and some wanted to hike.  Here we are at the tablelands.  We tried to hike up a mountain to the right of this that you can't see on the first day.  We didn't realize that the best hike was to follow the trail.  Tuesday was a beautiful day, unlike the morning of the first day when we hiked here.   

Here is the crew that went hiking the last day.  Gosh, I wish we had more time in this place.  This little adventure was a beautiful one.  We all kinda recapped the trip and just enjoyed our last hike in Gros Morne.  

I wasn't able to make it to the middle of the "bowl", but I did make it to this point.  We all wanted to keep hiking and make it to the waterfall at the end of the bowl.  How was there a waterfall coming from the top of this thing?  Where was the water coming from? 

About to leave the parking log.  The road that you see in the distance was one of the more beautiful drives of the trip.  I didn't get a picture, though.  Some things are too beautiful to get distracted by a camera.

One last view of the town of Woody Point in Gros Morne National Park.

I saw this when we were all getting our food and preparing to hit the road.  I figure that Dad might like this.  

This cat jumped in the car outside of Pete's One Stop Shop.  This is by far the prettiest cat I've ever seen, and I have never been into cats.  This cat was unbelievable.  It was so strong and reminded me of a puma.  You can't really see the eyes here, but they were ice blue with a squiggly line going around the outside of the eye.  Maybe cats aren't so bad after all.

The drive back home.  Pretty much the entire drive (8-12 hours) looked like this.  There seems to be no one on the island of Newfoundland.  Anyways, I drove back with a different group of people that I came up with.  I was with all Germans on the way up.  The ride back was one of the most fun parts of the trip.  We were all so tired and had gotten so close over the few days that we spent together.  We laughed almost the entire trip home.

Of course, I only grazed the surface of the trip.  Some things, well, most things, can't be put into words.  When I look back on this in a couple of months or a couple of years, I will remember how special it was to share this wonderful experience with all of the amazing people that I went with.

Sincerely,

Benjamin