Author: Lilly

Me, Polina, and Eva decided to do something fun for the previous long weekend and I thought it would be a good idea to go to an escape room, and the room we chose was a “haunted mansion” called Rosewood Manor. The story goes that the Rosewood manor had been abandoned and everyone who went inside the house claimed it was haunted by ghosts, the 3 of us had to go in as ghost hunters and free the spirit of a little boy who had died inside the mansion named Timmy. To free Timmy’s spirit we would have to find an object that connects to him in our case it was a teddy bear, but we only had an hour to escape as in an hour the house was rigged to “blow up”. So The 3 of us entered the room with 4 flashlights 3 were normal and the other was a black light when we tried turning on the flashlights mine worked but Polina and Eva had gotten broken flashlights. Suddenly the TV lit up in static and the voice of Timmy started speaking to us about him being scared and lonely, we looked around the room and there was a piano, a desk, 2 large bookshelves against the wall, framed photos everywhere, and big grandfather clock. Polina and Eva looked at the piano while I was opening everything I could get my hands on and commenting about how ugly and deceased everybody in the framed photos looked. Eva found writing on the walls with a blacklight, I found a paper with a “newspaper” printed on it and a book with a code lock on it and Polina found…?. (nothing). Along the way we had to ask for some hints well a lot of hints because somethings were just so random and unthinkable to look for, like we had to align some desk drawers with the tiny grooves in the desk, we then eventually solved every puzzle and the book cases split in half and opened up. Inside the little nook behind the bookshelves was a large locked chest and I toughened up and went inside the nook since everyone else was too scared (I was incredibly scared something would jump out at me, we found the code to the chest on some books and opened it, inside was a ugly raggedy teddy bear with a key attached to it. I plopped the teddy bear down on a chair and unlocked the door, we had escaped with 6 minutes too spare. It was a fun experience and we are most likely going to go again to a different room next weekend!

I have a favorite band like one does, the band’s name is Mickey Darling also known as “the sexiest boy band” I’m not lying that’s their record label name! Mickey Darling has a special place in my heart as for some reason I could never get tired of their music, I first found their music back in 2020 with their song “Protein Shake”, I found the song on my YouTube recommended and at first I thought it wasn’t all that but boy was I wrong! Mickey Darling has helped me through some pretty sad times like the summer of 2023 with their songs: “SOMEWHERE ELSE”, “YOU WERE PERFECT AND I SORRY”, and “SAY THAT YOU MISS ME” as you can see through the titles of the songs I was going through major heartbreak but Mickey Darling through their songs helped me realize that letting go is okay and it’s okay to miss someone who no longer is in your life through their music. Even to this day I still consider Mickey Darling’s music so incredible, their lyrics are so genuine that I could practically sob to it, I mean I did a couple of times and that’s how you know the music is good! I think you should give Mickey Darling a listen especially their collaboration with Kevin Walkman called “OhNo!” 5 stars!!

Picture this; it’s the year 2023 it’s February 1st at 2 am and you were supposed to go to sleep “early” so you wouldn’t be tired when you wake up at 4 am to go to your school at 5 am for a ski trip, well that was my situation! Unfortunately, I could not sleep because three things were on my mind.                                                 1. Having to go to my middle school at 4 am                                                                   2. The fact that I have to ski tomorrow but I don’t know how to                               3. My recently developed crush on someone                                                                 All three of these things were nagging me so much that I couldn’t sleep especially my third point, but eventually, I dozed off for 30 minutes before having to get up once again to get ready for the day ahead of me. I was seated with my best friend at the time Mari-Ella, we somehow ended up on the same bus as the grouchy teacher and all the loud kids which was not ideal for me and my 30 minutes of sleep but I endured. When we got to Mount Washington we were fitted for skis and off to lessons but first, I had to buy goggles! FOR 60 DOLLARS?! It was an outrageous price but I needed them, so my friend and I, Piper, went to lessons and boy did I fall a lot. As I was sliding down the hill at a very fast pace my skiing instructor was yelling “PIZZA” at me from a distance, once again I fell down and I almost started crying because I had rolled my ankle! I met back up with Mari-Ella and we both collectively agreed we would never ski again and went off to the cafeteria, she got poutine while I just sat there for a little bit until I saw them my crush, who we will for now refer to as Romeo! Me and Romeo were good friends so he came to sit by me and Mari-Ella, soon as more people started to flood into the cafe for lunch. Me and Romeo got quite close until he left to go tell my friend Mari-Ella something, then I started to think about how much I don’t like skiing, yes it was quite negative but man this sport sucks I mean I spent 3 hours on a noisy and stinky bus for this! Soon Mari-Ella and Romeo came back and we took a few photos before we eventually had to leave to go back. While walking to the busses I told Romeo about how uncomfortable I had been on that awful bus and he gave me his pillow and said he would get it back later (we were on separate busses). I then confessed to Mari-Ella I had a crush on Romeo and found out he liked me too, my ski trip experience had just boosted to an all time high! The whole bus to LadySmith which is our rest stop I had butterfly’s in my stomach, the bus was silent because everyone had tired out from exhaustion but could I sleep? HECK NO! When we arrived at LadySmith I confessed my feelings for Romeo, I will spare you the story but I did explode a mcflurry cup by crushing it mid way through confession, the point is he liked me back which was cool. The bus ride back though was crazy balls banana pants! (Ask Eva she was there ;]). All the teachers had gone to sleep so there was a dance party in the back of the bus, phone flashlights were turned on, so was music and everyone was dancing and getting sturdy. Eventually we made it back to the middle school and we all went home! The Dunsmuir 2023 ski trip was probably the most intense trip i’ve ever been on with a roller costar of emotions such as: fatigue, happiness, excitement, disappointment, love, anger, disco? Overall 5 star trip!!!

I have a dog named Alice, she is the newest addition to our family as she was just brought home 3 months ago, we actually never intended to have another dog as we already had 2 but the story of how we got her was a long one!                It initially started with me asking my parents for a cat because I think I had cat fever at the time because I had watched too many cute videos of kittens online as cats became the only thing on my mind.                                                                    My mom was okay with the idea by my dad was so incredibly against the idea of having a cat inside the house, so in secret my mom and I went over to the BCSPCA (shelter for animals) and looked at some cats available.                              I fell in love with this black and white cat named Bugs when I walked into the room she instantly started coming towards me, she was such a sassy little cat!      Then my mom told me to consider the 2 dogs we have now and how they would probably not appreciate a cat in the house, although I didn’t want it to be true it was and I had to say bye-bye to Bugs.                                                                   When I got home I was quite sad when my dad called me to come to look at some dogs up for adoption, my dad is a dog person whereas I am a cat person so I was kind of opposed to the idea. I was quite surprised when he showed me a listing of bichons for sale in Winnipeg (my home city).                                            So since I knew there was no way I was going to get that cat I thought “Well I might as well go just because I get to see my long-distance friends!”                         So we bought a dog carrier and flew off to Winnipeg, as soon as I arrived I could just smell that the air was completely different from Victoria’s it just felt more heavy. I then went over to My friend Conny’s house for a sleepover and when I came back to our hotel there she was our new little rat dog, we had no idea what to call her we were so stuck on a name, and since we had no idea we all agree that for now, we would call her “crissa” which is “rat” in Russian                (as a joke of course)                                                                                                            We then flew back home, when we arrived back at the house we had realized we had not informed my grandparents about our new little rat family member. So we snuck into the house, gave her a bath, and then presented her to my grandparents, they were shocked!                                                                                    We sat down with our now 3 dogs and created a thinking circle on what to name this little rat dog, my dad wanted to name her Lisa but everyone rejected that idea so fast, so I recommended the name Alice! Everyone loved it so now we call her “Alica Crisa” which means “Alice Rat”! She is my favorite little dog ever !!!!

I would like to tell you about my road trip to Victoria, I had to go through 3 provinces and stop at a lot of gas stations and Tim Hortons but it was one of the best family trips I’ve ever had and it brought me here! Let me bring you back a bit, when I had first initially heard that I was going to move to Victoria, Bc..let’s just say I was not too pleased. I hated the idea of leaving my friends and the place where I grew up to go to some island because of “ocean views” and “amazing weather”! I thought my parents where plain out stupid to leave everything behind, but I put on a brave face and try to make the most of it because at that point there was no changing my parents minds they were already packing up our stuff in box’s and buying a new house! Before I knew it the car was packed up and my best friend doriels family was moving to the island with us, I was so excited that I would have a friend with me and at that point I wasn’t to scared about moving anymore. I woke up early at 6 am to start the drive my grandma and two dogs sat next to me and my parents in front, behind us I another car was my grandpa and uncle. We first stopped in Regina and when I looked at the traffic lights they were sideways, I was surprised because since when can traffic lights be sideways? We stayed in a nice hotel with a pool and water slide and I got to go down it a couple times! Honestly the whole vibe of the place was very 80’s movie, it was very bright and colourful and everytime a song would would play in the lobby or pool area my dad would go “oh I know this song” yes dad because it’s from when you were growing up aka the 80’s.
Our next stop was Edmonton! I don’t really remember to much about Edmonton other than our randomly fancy hotel with a crowded pool and bar. The room in the hotel was quite nice it just felt very luxurious compared to the one in Regina, that said the pool which I was quite excited to go to was insanely crowded so I just decided not to go.
Then we went to Kelowna which for some reason had a massive heat wave just as we were passing through!  When we got to the hotel we were all tired and very hot but when we got to the front desk we were told none of the rooms had ac! We walked into our room and it was so humid and dark so we instantly turned back around, got a refund, and went to the nearest holiday inn. When we got to the inn it was honestly so much better than last hotel, I layed down and took a nap. In the morning we headed straight to the car and started driving to the farey terminals in Vancouver to get to the island, when we got into the fairy it was so very cool as I have never been on such a big boat! When we arrived it was about an hour by car, I honestly fell asleep. When we made it I was shipmen awake to see my new home and I suppose it was all history from there!

This is a piece about one of my greatest friends ever Marky. Marky is a silly little guy, he loves to play funny silly video games such as roblox, genshin impact, and cozy grove! Marky has cool red hair and has a amazing sense of style we like to call “looks he lives by value village”. He goes to Royal bay with some of my other friends who I could’ve chose to write about, but Marky is just better. He is very good at sports and mathematics he is a very smart cookie who’s favorite food is cookies!  Marky always talks about random gaming stuff I don’t seem to understand like “rizzlys” but I try for the sake of not hurting his feelings. Marky is a very good friend he is super cool, awesome, and over all fun to be around! Marky is my bestfriend!