The Epicenter

If you go out my front door and turn left and walk straight for a little way following the sidewalk and turn at the cross walk you will arrive at the gate to the Epicenter.  What is the Epicenter you ask? The Epicenter is a little building that was built for all the kids who live at the university.  When you go inside you have to sign in.  You can also sign up to climb on the indoor climbing wall.  The climbing wall is my favourite part of the whole Epicenter.

There is more than a climbing wall in the Epicenter.  There is a craft area where you can colour and paint and even draw on the whiteboard.  There is a library where you can do quiet things like read books, play chess and Battleship and build with blocks.  There is a chess club too and I am a member.  The chess club has only met once but I won my first game.  The Epicenter also has a ping pong table, air hockey table, Foosball table and a pool table.  There is an Xbox and Wii too.  My favourite Wii game is Mario Cart and my favourite Xbox game is football (soccer).  There is even a kitchen in the Epicenter where they have classes to learn how to cook.  There is a skate park for roller blading, skateboarding and biking.  There is a theatre room and they say that soon we will have movie nights.  There is even a music room with a piano.

We go to the Epicenter almost everyday.  My football coach is one of the people who runs the Epicenter.  Parents can visit but they don’t encourage the parents to stay.  The Epicenter is for kids.  I got a cool Epicenter t-shirt and an ID card with my picture on it.  I’ve made lots of friends there.  The Epicenter just opened a few weeks after we got here.  I think we are really lucky.  I have included some pictures of the Epicenter here.  I bet all my friends back home would have lots of fun here too.

A note from dad: The wall is not high enough for ropes but it is a bit high for a little guy like Jaron to fall from – even if it is to a padded mat.  One of the staff was giving parents a tour and when they asked about little kids on the wall the staff said the little ones are too afraid to go that high but then pointing at Jaron said “except that one.” When Jaron gets on the wall he goes right to the top and when its time to get down he just falls off without hesitation.  The others his age don’t go far and have a hard time jumping down.  The kid has the fear centre of his brain turned off.