When Bears Attack

Hello everyone,

This past week has been very uneventful, with the exception of lots of schoolwork and more work projects. Again, I have acquired some extra projects, as I have finished everything else early! I am currently working on a best practices report on Aboriginal Students. Aboriginal is the term for Native Americans in Canada...not the indigenous people of Australia! As for classwork, I have gotten good grades in Staffing Practices so far, but still need to find one last person to interview. I sent e-mails to many people about setting up an interview, but no responses! Hopefully this will get done before I leave here, or I am going to have to rush and find someone quickly when I get back to Blacksburg! Also, minimal progress has been made on my Independent Study...but I do not feel too bad about this, as I have been busy here, and if I would have spent the necessary time on this, I would not have gotten to do anything fun while in Canada! Let's hope my supervisors are understanding about this!

As for later today, I am off to Jasper to camp in the mountains! For the record, I have been camping before, despite what many people have been thinking. It should be a good time, as I am going with some awesome people! In preparation, I have read up on bear attacks, and what to do when you get in contact with a bear. This is probably due to several viewings of "When Bears Attack" on FOX back in the day! I know to speak firmly to a bear if they approach me, because "they will understand that you are human." Does anyone else think this is a stupid plan? If that fails (which it most likely will), you are to play dead, by lying on your stomach, with your legs spread, and arms over the back of your neck. This is so bears can not flip you over...and they should leave after two minutes. If they do not leave after two minutes, they are going to attack you, and you should hit them with sticks and yell at them. Here's my question...am I supposed to set an alarm on my phone to go off...and will the bear allow me that privilege? I doubt that these "complex creatures" will be comfortable with me pulling out my phone, and they probably will get a little angry as I am slowly getting to the ground and getting into "I'm dead" position. Hopefully, I will not have to interact with these "smart" animals, but if I do, I'll let you know what really works!

That's all for now...more to come after the great camping adventure...