New Year's Recap

Back in October, I had scheduled a week's vacation to go with my brother to Kansas City for a prayer conference during the New Year's break. A few days before we were scheduled to leave, I was invited to join a few people from Young Adults for a trip to Montreal. My trip with my brother was conveniantly cancelled by my brother so off I went to Montreal.

Um, I guess I will avoid naming names out of respect for internet privacy. In any case, four of us drove down early on December 30th and the other four people drove down much later and met us at the hotel. The late arrivals had to deal with the headaches of hotel management that both gave away their pre-paid rooms and refused to compensate them but that's a whole other story.

Montreal was good times for those three days. We accidentally explored the red light district on our first day there and then we beat a hasty retreat into French Chinatown. On New Year's Eve we explored old Montreal, saw a street performer juggling flaming knives and had an excellent meal at a fancy restaurant.

Towards the turn of the year at midnight, most of us got back together at the hotel and celebrated with some champagne and random feats of strength. Kudos to Franz for beating me in our arm wrestling match, despite the fact that we agree that I am stronger. Remember to lock that wrist. I'll be ready for you next time, m'boy!

Only four of us stayed up later on in the evening. For the lack of any other activities, I started up a game of blackjack and I taught the newbies. I was the dealer and Franz, Jesse and Paula were competing. (Bah! I can't mock people if I do not name names.) We didn't have poker chips or money to play with so I came up with the idea of playing for five points. Every time you beat the dealer, you got a point.

The kicker was the punishment. The winner would become the next dealer but the other two people would face the dreaded Canadian Water Torture. It's similar to Chinese Water Torture but instead of slowly dripping water, you have to have an ice cube on your forehead for thirty seconds.

Franz kicked butt and the ice was surprisingly painful. Check out the results below for yourself...


We did the tourist thing at two old cathedrals in Montreal but I don't have pics of those yet. However, I did notice a bunch of cool graffiti just outside of our hotel so I have two of those below for your viewing pleasure.