Hilary @ MindSay

Summer 2007 Group Quest offerings:

United Planet is proud to offer the following Group Quests for Summer 2007!

Cultural activities and excursions are included in all of United Planet’s Group Quests!

Cambodia Dental Quest – led by Dr. Jon Ryder, those who work in or study the field of Dentistry are invited to join this Quest to assist the children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Volunteers will work with Dr. Ryder providing care to patients at the Children’s Hospital and will also conduct oral health education sessions for children in local schools and villages. Sunday July 1 – Wednesday July 11, 2007

Cambodia Photography with a Difference Quest – Dr. Jon Ryder is a man of many talents! In addition to his full-time work as a Dentist, he is also a gifted and avid photographer. Join this quest to pursue your passion of photography while providing necessary work to a community in need. Wednesday July 11 – Saturday July 21, 2007

China Quest –Shan Shan Nie, a former staff member of United Planet and a Boston University student, will be guiding the China Quest team. Shan Shan is currently a resident of the United States and speaks English fluently. She has also resided in ChengDu for over fifteen years. She is well acquainted with the best features of the city and is fluent in the ChengDu dialect. Volunteers will teach English to ChengDu Sports University students while learning Chinese and the customs and culture of that community. Friday May 25 - Sunday June 3, 2007

Costa Rica Environment Quest for students –High school and college students are invited to apply for this 2 week Group Quest to Costa Rica where you will live with a host family, work on a conservation project, participate in fun cultural activities, and visit interesting and fun sites! United Planet’s own Quest Director, Theresa Higgs, will be leading this Group to Costa Rica! Monday July 30 – Monday August 13, 2007

Costa Rica Construction Quest for students - High school and college students are invited to apply for this 10 day Group Quest to Costa Rica where you will live with a host family while working on a construction project in the same community. The group will also participate in exciting cultural activities as well as travel to beautiful and interesting places! Monday July 16 – July 25, 2007

Chile Law Quest - This is a new and special Quest being offered to Law Students and Lawyers! Led by Mr. Steve Kasher, a lawyer from California, volunteers will travel to Santiago, Chile and work with students from 2 different Law Schools. Living with a host family, cultural activities and excursions will provide you with intimate knowledge of the Chilean culture. In addition, speakers will be arranged to address issues such as Chilean politics, the Chilean Legal System and much more! Sunday August 5 – Tuesday August 14, 2007

Chile Home-Building Quest for High School students – High school students with Spanish language skills are invited to work side-by-side with local Chilean youth to build homes for those who need them in rural Chile. Wednesday July 11 – Wednesday July 25, 2007

Chile Home-Building Quest for College students – College students with Spanish language skills are invited to work side-by-side with local Chilean youth to build homes for those who need them in rural Chile. Wednesday July 11th – Friday July 27th, 2007

Jordan Group Quest: “Photography with a Difference” - Volunteers will work on an important and interesting Environmental project as they explore the Jordanian culture through the eye of the lens! Led by talented photographer and veteran UP Group Leader Dorcas Platt Wagenknecht, volunteers will improve their photography skills while gaining valuable insight into the life of Jordanians.

Tanzania Group Quest – Volunteers will work with local non-profit organizations in and around Dar es Salaam to educate young people about HIV/AIDS. This may include school and community center presentations, discussions with youth and visitations to homes where people are living with HIV/AIDS. Volunteers will stay with host families and participate in Swahili language courses, culture classes and excursions. Saturday July 28 – Saturday August 11, 2007

Turkey Group Quest: “Let’s Meet Where the Continents Meet” This unique and culturally fascinating quest will blend working with children at a Foster Home in Istanbul while learning about the incredible culture and people of Turkey! The group will be led by Holly Graham, a Boston-based teacher and returned United Planet volunteer. Holly will mentor the volunteer team members in creating and leading education and fun activities for the children at the Foster Home. Wednesday June 27 –Saturday July 7, 2007

In July and August 2006 Ms. Swank went to Palampur in North India with United Planet to volunteer as a teaching assistant and a caregiver at an orphanage. The actress ended her India trip with a promise to return again.

We hope that Hilary’s example will inspire people of all ages around the world to take an active role in exploring their world and making a difference in communities in need.

In July and August 2006 Ms. Swank went to Palampur in North India with United Planet to volunteer as a teaching assistant and a caregiver at an orphanage. The actress ended her India trip with a promise to return again.

We hope that Hilary’s example will inspire people of all ages around the world to take an active role in exploring their world and making a difference in communities in need.

• Jeff's brother at Dominion
  
• Home-made ice cream sundaes
• Uncooked brownies
• An evening filled with The Learning Channel

• Woke up early to load all the crappy drywall into the car
• Dirty date to the DUMP with Hilary
• Both being amazed that the other person could shower AND get to the bank in 30 minutes
• Forgetting to print out a map to the Automotive Building
• Turning around and missing the train just to print out a map
• Wendy's
• Lady with the HUGE hair.
  
• Parking miles away
• Almost missing that train too
  
• Hilary excited that she finally got to get off at the exhibition stop
• Realizing we still had no clue where to go
• Finding a HUGE sign pointing us in the right direction.
• Realizing that the map was useless
• Pretending to follow the crazy punk kids, then found out that they didnt know where they were going either
• Barrett and his incredible talent for reading signs at hugely far distances away
• Getting into The Clothing Show

• Deserving it's own header
• Half the Automotive Building devoted to dirty, smelly, "vintage" clothing. eww.
• Getting lost in the maze of stands. "Hey, we've been here before"
• Lots of crazy kids who layer too many clothes such as vibrant skirts and big sleeves
• And then there were the hippies. oh so many hippies.
• Ms. Loft? WHAT!?
  
• Finally being able to breathe in the "boutique" section
• Hilary's addiction to sculls
• Naked lady being painted.
• Crazy hair-doooooooooooooooooos. Every colour of the rainbow, so long as it was neon.
  
• The terrifying stand.
• FRED.
• The Black Market stand being the exact same as The Black Market.  Nothing new for The Clothing Show.  Upset.
• Don't know the name, but their stand was right across from TBM stand.  They were awesome.
• Automatically buying 2 new belt buckles to add to my collection.  A big red star as seen here, and a big yellow school bus as seen here.
• Searching the awesome t-shirt selection.  Robot.  Lightning Bolt.  Tricycle.  Emo Heart. 
  
• Hil and I ended up each buying one.  She bought the L-Bolt and I bought the lame broken heart one.  It was funny.
• $50 later, we're walking away from one stand with two awesome shirts, and two killer buckles.  What more could we ask for?
• Howabout some freshly squeezed lemonade?  My dream of having one became a reality.

• Getting tired and having seen most of the stuff, we decided to leave.
• Which was do we go?  The CN Tower way, of course!
• Walking along Lakeshore to Bathurst.
  
• Quizzing Hilary on directions and helping her map out Toronto in her head.
• Up Bathurst to Front.  Hilary freaking out as we keep walking north.
• Finally reach Queen St.  This is where things get sketchy.
• The part of Queen St. that nobody ever goes to. 
  
• I got asked by a random old lady for change.
• Thought we were at a nice shoe store.  Turns out it was a gangsta's paradise.
• Scary ass punk kid with a camo bandana across his face like someone about to blow up a building.  And he had scars and some shit on this forehead (all you could see was his eyes and forehead)  We were officially fearing for our lives.
• G-UNIT's taking over the sidewalk.
• We FINALLY make it to the part of Q st. we recognize. 
  
• Hilary of course wants to go into the dress shop.
• Trusty hot dog stand turns out to be not so trusty.  All he could say was "Yes Sir"
• Realizing later that we hadn't paid.  At least we got the most expensive thing on the menu - italian sausage.  oops
  
• Black Market Superstore.  Stinky as always.  Hilary FINALLY finds the ribcage shirt, just to show me.
• Now we're REALLY tired, but we still have to walk back to Union.
• Hilary's gets scared when I start walking down University.
• Skateboarder kid trips.
• Finally reach Front st and realize we have the money that we expected to use on sausages left.  So we buy more hot dogs.
• Get inside and realize that if we hadn't bought the hot dogs, we would've made the train.
• So we now have 54 minutes to kill.
• How do we do this?  By sitting and doing nothing of course.  Making up games on the spot is key.
• girl spills her food.  her friend says "Now there's melbatoast EVERYWHERE"   ... cue barrett singing "drop it like it's hot."
• Taking inconspicuous pictures of others
• Buying Cinnabon and scratch tickets
• Getting on the train, which hadn't arrived by the time they announced it.
• Eating
• Hilary playing Wheel of Fortune and losing
• Barrett playing bingo and winning $3 back, as per usual
• Hilary asking, "Wanna go play bingo?"
• YES!

• So we drive home, then to walmart to buy bingo dabbers then head on down to the bingo hall
• They recognize us right away as newbs.
• After a brief rundown of what to do, we still have no idea so we just sit down and hope someone will explain it further.
• The nice announcer man walks over before the game starts and asks if we need any help.
• He explained what symbols to go for (my favourite was the crazy T)
• Afterwards, there were two nice ladies sitting at the next table over facing us.
• They said they'd help us out and make sure we were dabbing on the right pages.
• Game gets started. Oh man
• Bingo is like, the most fun you can have for less than the cost of a movie.  it's like, 2 & 1/2 hours of pure anxiety and excitement and frustration and joy.
• I had two chances to win $750 on one card.  Two numbers would've given me the win.  Sure enough, someone else calls it.  3 numbers later comes the ball I needed.
• Oh well, after losing everything (i swear they gave us losing sheets cuz they knew we were new) we came out happy and wanting to go back and play more.
• I highly recommend bingo to anyone.  It's not just for old ladies anymore.
• Some people have awesome bingo bags tho. I want one.  To hold all my bingo dabbers and snacks and such.
• What an awesome day.  Thanks hil. 

Ok...so today was ok i guess everything slowly came together and worked out at the end...I went down to the clute park and hung out with Hilary, Amy, and Kiki then we came here and hung out till about 730 and then we headed over to the clute park and i met cody there and then got somthing to eat....speaking of eating... i had hand caught fresh shrimp and Shark... like my uncle's parents or w/e went to florida and caught shrimp and shark... i think tasting shark would be the most amazing thing bc not alot of ppl eat it... and it wasnt bad... like it kinda tasted like chicken...lol i dont normally like fish but this stuff was good...so anyways... i saw the fireworks with a few friends and stuff and so were all here at kiki's chillin doin whatever...I'm in a really good mood right now like all day i was in a horriable mood.. but now i'm good... like idk... i guess i'm going through a phaze or PMS... either or... but i think thats why i've been so mad and pissy so easily... o well what are you gunna do?? Well put a lime in the coconut...

---HEY, Tell me what you think about michael jackson and if you think he really is guilty---

*You say it best when you say nothing at all*

~Celeste