August 4, 2008, 11:54 AM

The last twenty-four hours of our Cape Breton mission trip just emphasized why the experience was so amazing and why I am so glad that I decided to go. Not to say that every little thing went perfectly, but nothing ever runs perfectly! We arrived in Quebec City at about 7:00. It turns out, though, that the mall we were supposed to go shopping in closes at 5:00 on Saturday nights, not 9:00 as we had been told. Nine people decided to go to a nearby McDonalds to eat dinner and Andy and Kathy went to have an anniversary dinner. That still left nineteen of us to try and find a restaurant that would take us without a reservation!

We ended up going to St. Hubert, which is pretty much a french version of Swiss Chalet. They actually managed to seat all 19 of us together and in only about 15 minutes! We didn't end up eating until far into the evening, but the food was very welcome! We were all very hungry and quite satisfied by the time we were done. There was a lot of laughter happening as we spent our last night together.

We spent the night in the Ozone hotel, just like the first time we were in Quebec City. Some people stayed up later and played cards, and some people went straight to bed.

The next morning, we left Quebec at 6:30 in the morning for our last day of driving! Many people slept and we watched quite a few more episodes of Friends. The main event on our bus ride was the "Better Badder Bus Boulder Awards" in which everyone got an award and a rock from either Camp Geddie or Camp McLeod! The awards were rather silly, and there were a lot of smiles as people were presented with their rocks and made a little speech.

I'm going to do my last bit of daily Paul here this time, instead of at the end of the entry! This is Paul and the rock he won in the awards ceremony. Actually, he won two awards ("Better Badder Bus Driver", and "Most Kobolds Received"), but he only took one rock. Thank you Paul, not only for being a fantastic driver, but also for supporting us and making us all laugh! Hopefully we'll see you again on future trips!

When we made it home to London at about 6:00, there were a lot of hugs and goodbyes going on all around. For myself at least, it was very hard to leave! I can't believe that the trip is over. I am going to remember many things that happened in this past week and a half for a long time. I am glad to be home on one hand, but on the other, I really wish that I could go back.

I really want to say thank you again to everyone who made this trip what it is. Thank you to everyone who supported us in any way (in prayers or financially), thank you to all of the people involved with planning the trip, thank you to all of the people we met in our travels, thank you to our adult leaders and thank you to everyone who went on the trip! This experience would not have been what it was without every single one of you.

Now, we are all adjusting back to our regular lives, but our Cape Breton experience is not over yet. We still have a few services to do in the fall at various London churches. And most importantly, the friendships we made and memories we shared in the past ten days will always exist.

Elena

August 2, 2008, 3:55 PM

Our journey home has begun. We just crossed the border into Quebec, and with it, we are back into Eastern Standard Time, which makes us a little closer to those of you back in London! We have gained an hour, which means more time shopping in Quebec City and more time to sleep on the bus! We are four hours away from our destination for the night, which seems like a very long time after we have been driving all day.

This morning, we left Camp Geddie at around 7:30. They gave us a delicious warm breakfast of french toast. Thank you to everyone at Camp Geddie for the fantastic morning meal and for a great night!

In the morning, we stopped at the school that Rev. John Bannerman of Chalmers used to go to, which was called Barneys River Station School. It was a one-room school house that had classes of grades 1-6 up until the 1970's. We saw some old pictures of him from his school days, as well as looked at the desks, textbooks and artifacts in this former school. Thank you to Nova (John's mother) for offering to show us the school!

Everyone was very tired by the time the official bus ride began. Needless to say, there was a lot of sleeping going on as we travelled! We had a great picnic lunch in New Brunswick this afternoon, with sandwiches and lots of other great food. We have been driving since then, and are still going strong, but it has not been an uneventful bus ride...

Today is Kathy and Andy's 33rd anniversary, so we celebrated on the bus. We all signed a poster and presented them with cake (and of course sang quite a bit)!

We also spent time on the bus by reading Kobolds. Mr. Kobold is an invisible man who goes around and writes about the nice things that people do all day and then puts them into a box. Once a day, we have been reading all of the slips in the Mr. Kobold box. Everyone gets at least one Kobold a day and they range from being sweet and nice to hilarious. Mr. Kobold is a very important member of the trip! It helped us build our community and feel good about ourselves and others.

Tonight, we are going to go shopping in Quebec for one last tourist stop. After that, it is the night at the Ozone Hotel in Quebec and then a bus ride all the way back to London tomorrow. This is going to be the second last entry of the blog: the last entry will cover our final day and what it feels like to be home after such an amazing adventure. Thank you to everyone following along back home and anywhere else!

Speaking of thank yous, the Shine mission team would like to thank all those who have supported us in your prayers and we would especially like to thank those who gave of their time and monetary gifts to make this trip possible. God bless all of you and thank you to Synod of SWO, Womens Missionary Society, North Caradoc St. Andrews, Knox Komoka, Appin, Dorchester Ladies Aid, New St. James, Knollwood Park, Elmwood Ave, St. Lawrence, Burns Mosa, Knox Fingal WMS, St. John's Port Stanley, Westmount, Chalmers, PCC Youth in Mission and Guthrie Melbourne.

And finally...it is Paul time. In the school house today, we found a poster about how to cure a cold (you need a lot of rest!) and we thought that the man on the poster looked like Paul. So here is Paul standing with his doppelganger. Paul is currently driving us through the worst weather we have had the whole trip; it's pouring pretty hard right now! I also think that Paul might be winning for the highest number of Kobolds received...obviously even the invisible population of the bus loves Paul!

Thank you to everyone for supporting us and we will see some of you soon!

Elena

August 1, 2008, 9:55 PM

Our time in Cape Breton is officially over. We had a hot dog lunch after VBS ended with all of the kids and their parents to celebrate the end of our week. Precious hugs were shared and many goodbyes were said. Many kids had trouble leaving with their parents and we certainly didn't want to leave, either! We said goodbye and received a Cape Breton pin and a hug from Rev. Ritchie.

For the afternoon, we went sailing at Baddeck. All of us piled onto a single sailboat and set out onto the Atlantic Ocean. We saw so many wonderful sights, including the beautiful scenery and a bald eagle. The sailing was a very relaxing part of an emotional day. We were able to sit and sway in the waves and think about our memories. And of course, make a few more!

We drove to Camp Geddie after sailing, which is where we are staying for the night. Everything is so familiar, but we are staying in different cabins this time. We did some of our skits and songs for the people at the camp after we were served a delicious dinner! Then we went swimming in the ocean and had a campfire on the beach. We had a lot of fun singing songs new and old.

We are staying here for our last night in Nova Scotia and tomorrow it's off on our very long bus ride!

So now for your second bit of daily Paul. This picture is from Jess' camera, so for once, Paul doesn't expect this... This is Paul talking on the microphone on the bus that we use for announcements all the time, although I think that it looks like he is singing. Speaking of singing and Paul, he does do a very nice version of the Sheep song.

Have a great night!

Elena

August 1, 2008, 8:58 AM

Last night was our final evening staying at Cape Breton University. We did our best to enjoy everything around us and take in us much as we could. We have already made some fantastic memories on this trip, and there are sure to be quite a few more in the last few days. After VBS yesterday, we ate another great lunch at St. Giles, before driving back to the university to get ready for the mine tour in the afternoon.

Our afternoon was spent at the Cape Breton Miners' Museum in Glace Bay. There was a half an hour movie, museum exhibits, a gift shop, a village outside and an underground mine tour. We were split into two groups for the underground tour (I don't think that they could handle all 30 of us at once!). Both groups were led through the underground mine by a retired miner. They knew a lot about the industry that they were speaking about and made the whole experience seem rather real. We all had to wear mining capes and hard hats (which came in handy later for when everyone was hitting their heads on various things). The mine was very dark and wet, with a very low ceiling! At one point, the mine was just over 4 feet high. The tall people were certainly having a bit of trouble getting through. I'm 5 foot 3, and I was bent over a lot of the time!

In the first group, Mavis was volunteered to "drill" some coal on the side of the wall. She was told if she took her hands off of the machine, everyone would die. As soon as the machine started, she screamed and took her hands off. It's a good thing that it wasn't a real mine, or I wouldn't be writing to you today! Joanne was given the job of holding the canary (if the canary died, it meant that there was deadly gas nearby).

We sang for our supper for the second time last night. We went to St. Paul's church, which was near the Miners' Museum. We were served pizza and delicious pies for dessert. We followed the meal with our program filled with skits and songs. We had a lot of fun sharing our music with the congregation.

Last night, we began the process of packing up our bags. Some people had a harder time with it than others, but it all got done in the end. We packed up the bus and returned our room keys this morning, so we are officially done staying at Cape Breton University. We have reverted back to living off of the "Better Badder Bus" for the next few days. We are going to be spending a lot of time on that bus in the next few days!

Today is the last day of VBS! The theme today is "We Praise" and the animal for the day is the Howler Monkey. There were many fun activities going on all around St. Giles this morning. The science centre was blowing up rockets with vinegar and baking soda, the snack centre was creating trail mix, videos of Palm Sunday were being filmed at the theatre station, weaving was being done in crafts and many fun activities were happening in games, both inside and outside. We had a light drizzle this morning, but it is disappearing quickly. So far, it has been a fantastic last day at VBS!

And finally, I've decided to put a picture of Paul at the end of every entry just because he loves being on the blog so much... So here's Paul during the mine tour, in a taller spot on the ceiling that we found for him (although he still hit his head on the top of it). Also, Paul is the most amazing bus driver ever (yes, he did tell me to write that, but we all think it too!).

Elena

July 31, 2008, 11:50 AM

This morning, a group of us went to anothing nursing home during VBS, although this time it was a Verterans Hospital. We sang songs and solos and presented two skits as we spent our morning with them. No one got teary this time, which is a good thing in one way, but we were definitely still touched by the people we spent the morning with. In particular, we met two men named Adrian Patrick Barrie and (watch out, this one's a mouthful) John Francis Patrick Bertrand Aloysius Brennan. We showed them our instruments, in particular the rain stick and Andy's drum. We taught them how to play the instruments and it was very obvious that they were having a great time. It was great to meet some new friends and we had an amazing time this morning. Thank you John and Adrian!

Since the last time I wrote about our extra visit during the morning I told you about Paul, I thought I'd mention him again. This is Paul wearing very old glasses from the museum at the Gaelic College last night. Paul is still driving us everywhere and even went on a shopping trip for us this morning! I hear that the first picture of him was received well back home, so hello to Paul's family, friends and everyone that he knows... Have a great week, everyone!

Elena

July 31, 2008

Hey Everyone, Jasmine here!

Last night we ventured over to the Gaelic College of Celtic Arts and Crafts out on Kelly Mountain. Upon arriving at the college we were greeted by a bag piper. We first stepped into the Craft Shop to explore and purchase Gaelic pieces. We found tartans, jewellery, books and music that put hefty dents in our pockets, lucky for me, today is pay day!

After emptying our wallets we headed over to the museum to learn about the Gaels and their community. There were many interactive stations to explore and mannequins to observe. The museum had quite a bit of information about Scottish names and gave many members of our team a chance to investigate their Scottish roots. Before catching Ceilidh we stopped at cafeteria for another turkey dinner, complete with "dressing", mashed potatoes, carrots, corn, cheese and broccoli and gravy. We ate dinner rather quickly and ended up back at the craft shop again where we approached the bag piper for a few pictures before the performances we were about to see.

The Ceilidh was very entertaining, the night began with bag pipes, but we experienced everything from fiddling to Gaelic singing, harp playing to fantastic drumming, and our night was wrapped up by a special performance by the three fiddlers and some step dancing. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we got back to the university.

The gang just returned from a rain walk through out the St Giles community in their rain gear, today we've already talked about giving, toucans and popcorn. It's time for closing circle and the mine tour that awaits us this afternoon!

Jasmine

July 30, 2008, 11:50 AM

Hey guys! It's Jess again! You've heard about our morning yesterday, which was quite eventful, but it got even better after that. After both the Nursing Home Group and our VBS gang had been reunited, we boarded our Badder Bus again to head to Camp MacLeod in Albert Bridge. As soon as we got off the bus, we all headed down to the dock, where we enjoyed an extremely refreshing swim in the Mira River. This river is half salt water and half fresh, due to the ocean water mixing with fresh river water. This creates a unique environment that doesn't allow many animals (such as jellyfish or sharks, which some of us were concerned about) to live in the water. But believe me, it still tastes very salty!

Soon after those of us that were going swimming were in the water and out to the nearby dock, we were joined by all the campers from Camp MacLeod. They seemed almost as excited about the cool water as we were! One of the little girls that was first into the water looked up at the group of us that were still sitting on the dock and asked, "Do all those teenagers really want to play with us!?" That pretty much sums up how excited they all were that we were there with them. We took turns swimming out to the dock with them, and back on shore we taught them a few of our camp songs. After we were torn away from the beautiful little beach, we joined all the campers and counselors for supper in their dining hall. It was honestly one of the best camp dinners I have ever seen; mashed potatoes, turkey and veggies (plus dessert), and it was made even better by the fact that we got to share it with all the very enthusiastic kids! They kept asking us if we could stay the night in the empty beds they had. After supper a bunch of us played tag with the kids, and Richard got chased around most of the camp grounds by his new friends. Then we had a campfire where we were able to teach the kids some of our favorite camp songs, which they quickly learned and sang with us, and they taught us some of theirs as well. Actually some of the songs that they regularly sang at their campfire were the same ones we knew from our camp experiences, and it was kind of cool how we all knew the same songs. We had a skit of the Good Samaritan put on by a few from our group (Andy was cast as the donkey, the kids loved that!), and they showed us some of the games they knew. It was a good experience, and we all have many new friends to remember. We got home a bit later than the other nights, but we were off to bed rather quickly, and I know I fell asleep not long after my head hit the pillow.

This morning we all got on the bus on time (no one was forgotten, that's maybe because Trish and Theresa are waking people up now instead of Joanne and Mavis:]) We're getting through another day at VBS without any problems; the kids are great, and more come every day! We're all a bit tired, but we're over half way through our trip, and don't worry we have a bus ride to the Gaelic College today, so we can sleep all the way there! Please pray for some good energy for the rest of the week though too!

That's all so far today! We miss all of you in Ontario, and we hope you're having as good of a week as we are!

Jess

July 30, 2008, 8:40 AM

VBS yesterday was amazing, but it was not the only activity that members of our group participated in. Yesterday morning at 9:30, eleven of us went to a nursing home to sing songs and perform skits. We sang some of our favourites, had a few solos and presented the skits 'Forever Young' and 'Cupid'. Everything went well, but what was really amazing was what happened after we were done. We talked with all of the men and women in the nursing home. I am sure that everyone else would agree that it was a very emotional time. Almost everyone was in tears at one point of the morning.

It was obvious that they all really appreciated us coming to share time with them. We shook hands with many of our new friends after the singing and that is when we got emotional. Every one of the people we met were amazing, but there are a few that stood out and left a mark on many of our hearts.

The first was a woman who told Amanda that she had not heard anything as beautiful as our music for many years. The same woman made us laugh later when her friend said hello to her. Her reply was: "Hello, gorgeous puss!" The second person who stirred up a lot of emotion was an autistic man. He was reading a comic book and talking to Erica. He told her that the girl in his comic book was pretty and then said, "You're pretty, too. Will you come visit me?" Both of these individuals, as well as all of the others, really changed us yesterday.

We are going to have another opportunity to visit a nursing home tomorrow morning, and I hope that tomorrow's experience will be as amazing as yesterday. I think I speak for a lot of us who went when I say that I wish we could go back and visit the people we met yesterday. Instead, we are going to have to hold on to the memories and not forget the amazing lessons that they taught us about appreciating life.

On a different note, I think that you should meet someone that has been very important on our trip! This is our bus driver Paul. He has done an amazing job putting up with all of us and gets us through some incredible sharp turns on the bus. Thank you, Paul!

Elena

July 29, 2008

Hi guys. Lots of things have happened since our last post. Most of the youth went to the Mayflower Mall in Sydney for the afternoon while a few stayed back at our rooms on the Cape Breton University Campus. After that, we had our first 'Sing for Our Supper' performance at Bethel Presbyterian Church, where our skits and songs were well received. This performance was very special for one of our youth, Erica, because she was baptized there. After the performance the youth were given a tour of the church while Erica looked for the record of her baptism. We left Bethel Church to go see the giant fiddle in downtown Sydney. Then a tired Mission team headed back to the bus to go back to the University. After a short prayer we were sent off to bed.

The Mission Team woke at seven this morning to begin our second day of Vacation Bible School. After a short bus ride we arrived at St Giles and had a breakfast of cereal, toast, coffee and juice. At nine we began day two of vacation bible school with two thirds of the team. Today some of the team has gone to a nursing home to sing and worship with some of the elderly in the community. We have a bigger group today because some of the kids brought friends along to join us -- we're having lots of fun here. But I have to get back to work. Talk to you tomorrow.

Alex

July 28, 2008, 10:15 AM

Hey folks, today's entry will be brought to you by Jess!

We had another eventful night last night, beginning with our trip to the "Bonnie Prince" for supper. It was awesome food (a few of us did end up having seafood), but I'm sure the most memorable part of the meal was the crazy antics -- some of us had multiple glasses of water, as the drinks kept seeming to disappear when people left the table... and I'm sure we may have disrupted the other diners with our multiple (and yes, rather loud) singings of Happy Birthday to Kris (She had another wonderful birthday :) ). The rest of the table accidentally shared Mandy's dessert (don't worry she got her own after we realized our mistake). We also picked out our 'Rainforest VBS' names for the week... now we just have to get used to calling everyone by the right name!

After supper we made a stop at the boardwalk just outside the town of Dominion. A very short walk along the marsh like board walk lead us once again to the ocean, where we had tons of fun skipping rocks and writing in the sand. The final moments of another awesome sunset eventually lead us back onto our "Better Badder Bus" to come back to our rooms for the night. There we finished the awesome day with an 'oasis' lead by Kathy. I'm sure I can speak for most of us when I say that we fell asleep quite quickly.

Although we're not even very far into our first day at VBS, it's already been an eventful day! We began with almost leaving too of our youth leaders at the residence -- Mavis and Joanne forgot to wake up Erica and Shannon! They were awesome sports about it, and got ready in enough time for us to make it to St. Giles on time, but I'm pretty sure the rest of us will be setting our own alarms for tomorrow. As I said, we made it to North Sydney with enough time to enjoy our breakfast given to us by the congregation of St. Giles. Then we made our final preparations for the kids to come! We have a small group here today, which is actually great, because all of us can get to know all the kids. We've already sung songs as a group, had pop-tart butterflies for snack, decorated t-shirt in crafts, made tie-died butterflies in science and learned about Ruth and Naomi and how they shared in the Old Testament in story-time.

We're also helping out around the church today, with pretty much anything that they need done. The grass has been cut thanks to Tom (aka De Vine) and Paul (Sasquatch), with some help from Mandy (Water) and Erica (Chickadee); the windows have been washed by Cara (Lou) and Theresa (Trees); and Eden (General Sherman) vacuumed the sanctuary.

We're looking forward to even more fun today and throughout the rest of the week:) Hope you're all good too! God Bless!

Jess

July 27, 2008, 4:30 PM

Hello, Cape Breton! We officially arrived in Nova Scotia last night, with a giant sign and a lighthouse standing on the border between provinces. We arrived in Cape Breton itself this morning. Cape Breton is beautiful. As you drive by, you see rocks and trees interrupted by patches of wonderfully clear water. We have seen so many breathtaking sights.

We stayed overnight in Camp Geddie, which was a great experience. We saw the end of the sunset on the beach and looked across the Atlantic Ocean. I hear that we're going to have more time at the camp and a bonfire when we go back on Friday, so that made me feel better about the small amount of time that we had there. We slept in cabins in various places around the camp (some staff members even gave up their beds for us!) and braved the spiders and bugs.

After a bright and early morning (we were leaving the camp around 7:00, just as the campers were waking up!), we traveled the rest of the distance to North Sidney. We have finally seen the church that we will be spending most of our week in, St. Giles. We led a worship service for them this morning and you could tell that it was not what they were used to! We sang songs and did interactive readings. It is already obvious that we are going to have a great time with this community.

The highlights of the service are probably Sass, a Hello Kitty stuff animal being dressed up as baby Jesus and Erica telling everyone why we have belly buttons (we were poked by God, you know!).

We are now also prepared for VBS, which starts tomorrow. Mavis told us we would be staying for twenty minutes, but we didn't leave until two hours later! We had fun decorating the church for our theme of the rainforest. There are now green streamers all over the main hall!

On the bus ride home, we had a birthday party for Kris! (We are still celebrating her birthday every day and plan to for the rest of the trip!) There were party hats and everything. Of course, we sang Happy Birthday for her again. The plan is to tell the waiters tonight that it is her birthday.

We have checked into our residence here at Cape Breton University where we will be spending the next few nights. The showers were a very popular thing to do during our free time until we go out for dinner. Everyone is relaxing right now back in their rooms, and we definitely need the rest. We have a lot ahead of us in the next week! Wish us luck!

Elena

July 26, 2008, 4:30 PM

We said bonjour to Quebec City last night. We spent the evening in the Old Quebec part of the city. We split up into small groups to eat dinner at various restaurants in the area. The streets were bustling with activity and excitement because of the 400 year anniversary of the city. There were street performers on almost every street. French could be heard all around us and a few people were brave enough to try and speak French to the people around us.

During dinner, some of us convinced the waiter that it was Kris' birthday (even though it is really in February!), and we have been celebrating her "birthday" ever since. The people in the restaurant even brought a sparkler in the cake and we sang Happy Birthday!

Quebec was beautiful to walk around in the evening, and the weather was perfect. It was definitely hard to leave Quebec! We left around 7:30 this morning to embark on our second day of riding the bus. This ride is supposed to be even longer than yesterday, but we're bus veterans now. We've also lost an hour of time because we switched time zones when we left the province of Quebec: we're now an hour ahead of all of you back home!

We are currently zooming past the beautiful scenery of New Brunswick. There are a lot of trees, rocks and water. We have a few hours to go before we get into Nova Scotia where we will stop at a Camp Geddie for the night. It is a Presbyterian camp located in Pictou county. The camp offers many fun things for kids to do, from hiking and similar outdoor activities, to exploring creative arts.

We have a lot to do before tomorrow! We are leading worship at a church in the morning, and we have to finish preparing our service and practicing our parts and songs. We are hard at work, preparing for the week ahead of us. I think that all of our legs are very stiff at this point, but we are very excited for what is ahead.

Elena

July 25, 2008, 4:35 PM

The traveling has begun! As it stands, we have been on the road for nine hours, including rest stops. We are a couple of hours into Quebec as I write this, and we still have two hours of travel to go.

It has definitely been a long day! Everyone's favourite activity on the bus seems to be sleeping (as I am sure you can tell from all of the pictures of us doing it!). I guess that the early morning has gotten to everyone. We've watched a lot of movies, played cards and eaten a lot of junk food. Overall, I'd say it was a pretty good day!

We are about to spend the evening in Quebec, enjoying the city and its 400 year anniversary celebrations. We are staying in the Ozone Hotel in St. Foy. We haven't really seen much of Quebec yet, although it is already obvious that we are somewhere new. The traffic in Montreal slowed us down for a while, and all of the signs are in French! Mavis has told us to try and order dinner in French, we'll see how that goes...

So, hello to everyone back home! We are looking forward to our evening and then to getting to Cape Breton. Even though Nova Scotia is still another full day of riding on the bus to go! Over a week of travel is ahead of us, and we definitely cannot wait. Our adventures have only just begun.

Elena

July 24, 2008, 6:13 PM

The countdown has begun. There are 12 hours and 47 minutes until we leave for Cape Breton. This is the time that one of two emotions set in: extreme excitement, or a high level of stress about packing. Did I remember to pack the sunscreen? Do I have enough clothes? Will this trip be an amazing experience (I certainly hope so!)? All of these questions are running through my head, and I'm sure there are questions in all of our minds.

Hopefully, the long process of packing has been long over by now for most of us. If we were smart, we would have made a list a week ago and made sure we have everything we need, setting things out as we went. But, most of us just aren't that prepared. Personally, I started packing this morning. Everything except what I need tonight and tomorrow morning is packed into my suitcase or backpack. I'm sure, though, that there are some people who still haven't started filling their suitcase!

I'm still not certain what to expect from this trip ahead of me. To start, I'm getting up at 4:45 tomorrow morning, which certainly isn't usual for the summer! I think that I will have to get used to unusual experiences. This trip ahead of us is bound to be full of many unexpected and unusual moments, but that's the most fun part of going on a trip. I don't know what is going to happen to us in the next 10 days, but I can't wait to find out.

This blog is going to document our trip, so all of you at home can see what we're up to. My name is Elena, and I'm going to be posting entries here for the whole trip. Along with some other photographers and writers, I am going to make this blog evidence of our trip and our great times. I can't wait to start!

Elena