A Pumpkin Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

For our Halloween cell this year we made an insanely detailed Cinderella carriage pumpkin!

Aside from discovering some mad pumpkin carving skills and the deliciousness of roasted pumpkin seeds, we learned more about the saints through an "All Saints Bingo" activity. Who knew St. Clare of Assisi was the patroness of television (because toward the end of her life, when she was too ill to attend Mass, an image of the service would display on the wall of her cell) or that St. Francis of Assisi once preached to hundreds of birds and that they stood still as he walked among them, only flying off when he said they could leave? 

It was a fun night of pumpkin carving, warm foods that had the warm flavour of fall, bejeweled Bingo cards, and several rounds of Heads Up.

Hope everyone finds a way to make their Halloween this year spook-tastic and treat-iful. Happy Halloween!

We're all Mad in Wonderland!

"Sometimes, I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast." Why, Alice, so does QCCC. Here's our list of six impossible things—done all before breakfast on Saturday morning.

1) Transforming the entirety of Dunning 12, with all its eraser shavings and integral calculations on the board, with Wonderland themed decorations.

2) Hauling food from our respective homes and back and forth between Newman House to keep everything warm. 

 

3) Showing up in costumes as awesome as this: 

And this:

Oh, and how about this?

4) Successfully discovering the murderer of Tweedledee after a series of clues throughout the murder mystery dinner. (You're welcome, Wonderland Security.) 

5) Successfully taking a picture where EVERYONE looked this good: 

6) Leaving Wonderland "muchier" and without losing our "muchness." 

So how's that for six impossible things before breakfast?

"What did you say...I mean, draw?"

Tonight at QCCC we played a mashup of broken telephone and pictionary! Pieces of paper with a single sentence were passed along so that the next person had to draw an image to represent the phrase. The next person would be tasked with summarizing the image in a sentence, and so on until the end of the page was reached. Needless to say, things unraveled rather quickly. "A hippo has a bubble bath" ended up as "an alien is about to abduct a cow" with some creatively interpretive images in between. We had some very eloquent writers, some very wonderful artists, and some...people that tried really hard.

Not only did this activity provide cause for rollicking humour, it also put into perspective the daunting task of communication with God. While prayer is the channel through which we speak to Him, it isn't always easy to know exactly what He says to us. God speaks to us through signs; like the images in the activity, we need to learn to take these signs and interpret them in a coherent way. And as the activity quickly showed, each person can have (sometimes a radically) different interpretation from one another. 

Of course, it wouldn't be a QCCC night without both Saintspiration and Singspiration. We learned about Saint Francis de Sales, the patron saint of the deaf (more on the importance of interpreting signs!), as well as writers and journalists. 

So remember to keep not only your ears and eyes open, but your heart as well. You never know when God might be sending a sign your way! 

Let There Be Light!

It was a night of spectacular lights and bizarre food combinations as our QCCC cell last Friday took us down a journey of unforgettable...taste bud sensations?

We started off the night with "the toaster game", where we put a slice of bread into a toaster and gathered around to answer a series of questions. If the toast popped up while someone was speaking, it meant drawing two random toppings from a bag and putting it together on your toast. Yum. Except people ended up with peanut butter and cheese, frosted flakes and ketchup, balsamic vinegar and bacon, honey and herbs...yikes.

 Aside from discovering some surprisingly delicious combinations (you might want to try peanut butter and cream cheese), we learned some interesting new things about one another—our favourite spot in Kingston, family traditions we would like to pass on, the strangest thing we have on our desk. After stuffing ourselves with bread, we went out on Tindall field for some phone light pictures! We braved the cold for the sake of art, and created some contemporary masterpieces. 

Just in time too, because later on in the night we learned about St. Lucy, the patron saint of the blind. The name "Lucy" means "light" and her sacrifice in life taught us where to find God in our darkest moments, even if we may be blind to his presence during our suffering. May St. Lucy continue to pray for us during this year ahead as we embark on this journey for Christ. Open our eyes to the light of God and the grace that comes with His love. 

QCCC Brings in a New Year!

After days toiling away under the sun at Queen's in the Park and Sidewalk Sale, QCCC is back for another year of fun, laughter, and love. We started off the night "putting together a Rubik's Cube", as we walked around the room with six slips of paper in hand, all sporting a question in the same colour. The goal was to find people holding the five other colours and trade your slip of paper with theirs by asking the question on the paper. Only with six different colour slips in hand do you "complete" the Rubik's cube.

Our next activity had people on their feet, roaring like a T-Rex, crouched like a frog, pawing at the ground like a horse. Everyone wrote down the names of ten animals and then all the sheets were compiled into a bin. Each team had one minute to act out the animal they drew from the bin and try to get as many as possible. A particular love of felines led to a rather impossible acting list involving a Siamese cat, jaguar, African golden cat, lion, and the American bobtail.

Of course, QCCC Open House would not be complete without the tradition of curry fish balls, snacks, and music! We even received surprise visitors from McMaster, a Queen's alumnus, and a University of Toronto alumnus. QCCC is an ever growing family and we're always excited to see new faces join us in our journey through Queen's. We hope that as new and returning members walk with us in this new year, they will all discover the gift it is to find a family away from home. To a new year and new friends!