Sunday, December 28, 2008

Picture Update!

Finally! Phew. Ok, here goes.

This is from the very first snow of winter here! It was really pretty...


On the last weekend of November, we went to Halifax. One place we went was the Discovery Center, which had a pretty sweet display about bubbles. We weren't exactly the target audience of the Center, but we enjoyed ourselves all the same.


On Saturday night in Halifax, Melina and Krista and I went to an adorable little Japanese restaurant that we found. I tried sushi for the first time! (No fish in it...but it's a start at least.)


Here's the group, just before leaving on Sunday morning, on Mat's back deck. He's from Halifax so we stayed with his family while we were there.


The following weekend was our 48 hour break. Like I wrote about earlier, Cynthia and I went to get some piercings while waiting for the bus in Summerside. This is the first one I got...


...And the second (it's called a rook piercing...and I have never experienced pain like that before. Shiiiza.)



We spent our 48 hours off in Charlottetown...this was taken on Saturday afternoon while I was waiting impatiently for my mom's flight to get in.



Christmas time! We cut down a tree a few weeks ago and some people gave us decorations for it...



This is the group picture that one of the local newspapers published with a story about us. I look like a giant tool. Alberton must think I am avery unattractive person. In all the pictures we've had taken of our group, something goes wrong with my face....



This is Mariah, one of the students at the French school that I worked with, and I on one of the last days at the school before Christmas break.


Myself, Mariah and Cynthia...



This is the grade 1 and 2 class that I spent part of my mornings with. They were an awesome group of kids!



On the 20th, we had our Santa's Workshop Fundraiser. We were raising money for Oxfam, partly with a bake sale that I did most of the baking for...




And that's all! I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Also, I hope someone actually looks at this. Ahaha. That would make me happy.



Friday, December 26, 2008

Merry Katima-Christmas!

Merry Christmas!! Holy cow I can't believe that today is december 26th.
I can't sleep so I thought I'd put up some pictures that I finally uploaded, and do some online boxing day shopping. Well...online window-shopping if there is such a thing.

Actually, I'll write about this week and Christmas first then I'll do the pictures. So, this week, Cynthia and I are house managers. On Monday, we were supposed to go to Summerside to do the groceries but there was a storm and a TON of snow so we didn't. I got up and went to the gym at like 6. It was open, but the guy who owns it was about to lock the doors and keep it closed for the day because of the snow. I beat him to it and he let me stay :). Krista had gone to work but there was no one there, so she came by the gym thinking I would be there (which I was, obviously) and kept me company for a while. After that, we went to t he bakery where I had to meet Melina and Cyn for breakfast to go over our menu for the week and things like that. We got a bit of our groceries, just what we needed for Monday, at the Save Easy here in Alberton. One of the great responsibilities of being house manager is shoveling if necessary. There was absolutely NO way i was going to shovel the massive amount of snow occupying our driveway. Outside the Save Easy, there was a guy in a big truck with a plow on it shoveling out the parking lot. I dragged Cyn and Melina with me to the truck, and the guy saw us and stopped. "Excuse me? Hi! Do you think I could ask you a really, really, really, really big favor? Could you possibly plow our driveway?" Haha. The guy asked us where our house was, so we told him 409 Church Street and he was like "Ohh the Katimavik house!" He wasn't sure if his plow would be to wide and rip up our lawn, but he said there was another plow going around town and he'd talk to the guy driving that one and see what they could do. Later in the afternoon, our driveway was clear! Yeaaaaaah. They were probably think Katimavik kids are super lazy, but whatever. It would have taken the two of us like 5 hours to shovel the whole driveway, and it took a truck like thirty seconds.
It was Mat's 19th birthday that day too, so I made a blueberry cake for him. It wasn't that exciting... there isn't a lot we can make cake-wise here because we don't have cake pans. And I put the candles in and the wax melted on them. I couldn't understand why all the candles fell over when I went to get a match, but I guess the cake was way too hot on the inside for them. Oh, and Cyn and I made some pretty much totally fantastic chicken pizza that night. It was good. Later that night, we tried to make a gingerbread house. It was an epic fail. First of all, Mat put too much salt or something in the dough so it wasn't edible. And the icing wasn't strong enough to hold it all together. We just put icing on the pieces and decorated them with smarties and sprinkles...then ate the icing and candies. Icing should be banned. Seriously... all it is is butter and icing sugar. It probably contributes to like 40% of obesity in North America just on it's own. I almost went into a sugar-induced coma that night. It was bad.

On Tuesday, we went to Summerside at 8:00. Well that was the plan. We probably left closer to 8:30. So, 8:00 PEI time. We stopped in Wellington to pick up the group there, and then picked up the Summerside group too because their PL was on time off. Grocery trips to Summerside always turn into full-day epic journeys. We didn't get back to Alberton until 4. Yeaaaaah eight hours of grocery shopping! Sweet.

Alberton had a Christmas Light contest this year (maybe it's an annual thing...I'm not sure) and the mayor asked us to judge it. The nine of us (err 8 actually because Tyler was at a party at his work placement) drove around the town looking at all the lights. Some places were cute, but overall, none were all that exciting. I didn't think so anyways. Everyone in Alberton must think that Katimavik is a big bunch of creepers. People were probably looking out their windows as we were driving past (multiple times at some places) really slowly, wondering what the hell we were doing. A few of us went to Tim Hortons after that. Yeaaaah Timmy Hoes.

On Christmas Eve, we did a Power-Clean in the afternoon. There were a few of us working on the kitchen, and we pulled everything out of the cupboards and drawers and fridge, washed them out and put everything back as organized-ly as possible. I like cleaning the kitchen, actually. Whenever we clean the house, I always sign up for it. I'd rather do that then clean toilets, that's for sure. I just like being in the kitchen, in general.
That evening, Cynthia and I made my mom's hamburger soup (but with TVP...ohhh yeah!) and cheese bread. It was yummy. We did our "Texas Swap" gift exchange that evening. Everyone bought a gift that could be given to anyone, kind of spoofey, and then each person got a few turns to choose one or steal one from someone else. It kind of turned into a weird version of Sociables... which resulted in Melina dancing to Backstreet Boys on the couch. Definitely the funniest thing any of us have seen in... ever. Our PL is a champion.

Most of us went to church at 10.30 that night, at the Catholic Church in Alberton. I was totally wiped and was fighting not to fall asleep pretty much the whole time. The priest was weiiiiiird. And the way he spoke was bizarre... it was as if he punctuated his sentences in the wrong places. The two guys in my group who came with us were checking out girls the whole time (not that us girls weren't scoping the guys, I suppose...). It finished just before midnight, and the seven of us who went walked home afterwards. Outside, it was snowing lightly. Beautifully, actually. Then the snow turned into icy rain which attacked my eyes, but it was pretty while it lasted. Back at the house, everyone started opening presents. I opened my stocking with everyone and then went to bed at about 1.30. I got some tea (Numi Bergamot Black tea... my favorite kind EVER), a bag of mixed nuts from Community, an organic spritzer drink thing (also from Community, probably), a BEAUTIFUL silver necklace that I love, some moneh, and yeah. Santa's a pretty smart guy. Amy made these amazing cookies earlier in the day, they're like gingerbread kind of with butterscotch chips in them, and I ate like 8 of those coming home so I felt really sick when I went to bed. Again. I've cut myself off junk food now. Again (haha). Seriously though.... my body hates me this week.

On Christmas morning, I got up at like...8.30. I have issues sleeping in. I got all my recipes together and then started making brunch. I found a recipe for oatmeal pancakes which I added molasses, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves to so they'd be a bit more festive, and then made 2 quiches (hehe), and some peanut butter, too. Cynthia got up at like 10:00 or 10:30 and made a huge fruit salad. My dad had sent me some Christmas-themed pancake molds (Santa, reindeer and a snowman) from Williams-Sonoma, which I tried to use at first but it was taking too long and they were getting kind of messy so I gave up. My pancake-making skills have improved greatly. The first dozen or so used to always turn out more or less scrambled...but not this time!! Overshot the quantity though...our freezer's newest tenants are three bags of leftover pancakes. The quiches were SO GOOD. Not gonna lie....easiest thing to make ever. And yummy as hell. Also, a ton of fun to have in this house becuase no one can say quiche without laughting. In french, to say "lâcher un quiche" means you farted. The phrase "Auuuugh who lâché-d that quiche??" is said at least ten times a day here.

After brunch, we did our other gift exchange. This one was a secret santa type deal. Instead of each person guessing who they though their secret Santa was, each person described who they had picked without saying their name. It was nice...everyone said a few nice things about the person they had bought a gift for before giving it to them. Krista had chosen me, and her gift was quite honestly the one of the most sincere, thoughtful presents I have ever recieved. First, there was a mug from Tim Hortons. A) I love Timmys and B) I'm always complaining about not having big enough mugs here. Inside, there was a little chocolate-scented body wash and some pieces of paper that I didn't really understand at first. Krista explained that they went together to make a Christmas tree...there were two green triangles for the tree, a brown piece for the stump and then a star to go on top. The other day when we were cleaning, Krista had asked to borrow my phone to play music off it (it's a walkman phone), but she had actually taken it and called my mom with it. My mom thought something was wrong at first, I think, but she assured her everything was fine. Krista asked my mom about what she would wish for me at Christmas... and kind of in life in general. So, on one side of the tree, there's a really sweet note from Krista, and on the other side there's little things that my mom said. I started to cry, because the sentences from my mom were exact phrases that I can hear my mom saying. It was such a sweet gift. Krista is a sweetheart :).

I had an awesome chat with Courtney in the afternoon, and we both opened our gifts from each other while we were on the phone which was fun. She sent me the new Killers CD (so so SO good!), a CD that she burned me (also great), the cutest little book of Sudoku puzzles I've ever seen, some tea and almonds to make almond butter with :). Court's pretty much my favorite person ever, if you didn't already know that. 

My family got back from church in Calgary just before 4:00 PEI time, so I called them after talking to Courtney. My dad put me on speaker phone on his cell so they read the letter and opened the gifts I sent them while I pretended to be there. They all liked their presents, so I'm happy! My sister and brother sent me an apron and pot holder thingy which are really nice and my parents sent me a really cute scarf. 

Wow this blog is never ending. Ok so after that we went to dinner at a lady named Maria's house. A bunch of her family was there...probably 12 or so plus the 9 of us. It was really nice to have a meal out of the house, and to meet a few new people. We stayed until just before 10, and then came back here. 

Now it's boxing day. I've been up for 3 hours, with nothing to do. That would be why I just wrote this novel of a blog entry. Ugh. I want to go to the gym but it isn't open until 1...and we have to do a power clean or something in half an hour so I probably won't even GET to go. Eff. I'm going to go start cleaning now, then. Maybe then I can get out of doing some later. I hate my inability to sleep in. 

I'm sick of typing and being on the computer so I'll put up pictures later. Yeeeeh. 


Oh and also LESS THAN TWO WEEKS ON THE ISLAND WHHAAAT. Time flies, eh?



Thursday, December 18, 2008

...

OH MY GOD ONE WEEK.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

fa-la-la-la-la-la-ck.

So, the Christmas c0untdown begins. Eight days! The weather here has been pretty decent so far, although it's snowing right now and there is supposedly a storm coming in.



Last week, (I forget which day...) we had a workshop on "Interpersonal Relationships". It was actually really, really interesting. I don't really feel like going into details about it...but it was fun. For the most part. Apparently I'm a power-hungry control freak, more or less. Fabulous.



Tomorrow, we have our Farewell lunch party thing with all of our work supervisors and billet families. It's going to be at the school here, for a few hours in the afternoon. I think only my billet-dad can come, but it's better than nothing. After school, the four of us that work here will stay to do a staff gift exchange/ Pce-Out Katimavik get-together for a bit. And that evening is the Winter Solstice that Krista has organized at the Clubhouse, for the members. On Friday, we're going to Charlottetown at about 4 to go out for dinner then go volunteer at a concert fundraiser. In each rotation, we have a "Food for Learning" budget, which we can use to go out for lunch or dinner as a group to experience the local cuisine. We're going to an organic café in CHarlottetown. Afterwards, we'll go to help out at a place called the Guild which is holding a "Food and Warmth" concert, as a fundraiser for a local food bank. It's a show featuring a bunch of local East Coast musicians.



On Saturday, we've organized a "Santa's Workshop" fundraiser for the community. We're having a bake sale and raffle to raise money for Oxfam, as well as taking donations of non-perishable food items for the Caring Cuboard, a local food bank, as well as Gingerbread Men decorating and other crafts for kids. It should be a gong show. I've tried to get the baking underway, but not much else has gotten done. I think the crafts that are happening are organized...i hope. It's all really last minute and I'm scared to hell that a huge amount of people are going to show up, we'll run out of baking and craft supplies and it'll be a giant disaster. I sure am optimistic sometimes.



Funny baking story... So far I've made banana-chocolate chip muffins, brownies (which I'll ice on Saturday morning), oatmeal-peanut butter-raisin cookies, almond bark and my Mom's shortbread cookies. Shortbread cookies might just be the easiest recipe ever. Butter. Icing sugar. Salt. Flour. Corn meal.



Wait, wait, wait. Corn MEAL? No...corn STARCH. Oops. I guess I copied the recipe down wrong last year from Mom's recipe cards...

The cookies are a little grainy, which is why I realized the possiblity of a mix-up. They taste fine otherwise...so I need to decide whether or not they're good enough to sell at the bake sale.



Our freezer isn't big enough to hold all this stuff...so I'm going to be up late Friday night and early Saturday morning making more.



Yesterday, I pretty much had the worst day ever. Well, maybe not ever, but it was pretty damn shitty. First of all, the principal wasn't at the school, and he's the one that teaches 2 of the 3 classes that I help out in. Most of the students weren't there either so nothing much happened all day. I hate days like that. Whenever I feel like I don't do anything in this program, I always have work to fall back on. I can justify being here because of the working aspect...so when I have a completely useless day, it makes it a lot harder to be optimistic about staying. A reporter for a local newspaper was supposed to come at 4:30 yesterday afternoon to take our picture and talk to us about the Workshop for an article tro advertise it. So, I rushed to the gym after school and left early to make it back in time for this guy. I was at the house at 4:30, only to find out he wouldn't actually be there till 5:15. Frustrated, I went to take a shower. I was shaving my legs and cut my knee quite badly. It wouldn't stop bleeding and the blood was soaking through like 4 layers of band-aids. It took me a good twenty minutes to get it taken care o.
The reporter guy finally came, took a few pictures and talked to us about the Santa's Workshop that we have planned. I was already totally wound up, and then this man starts asking about how we feel about missing Christmas at home and everything. How do you THINK we feel about it? Eff. When he was asking about that, i got a little teary. Talking about not being home for Christmas was something that I just didn't need at that particular moment. I ended up leaving the living room discussion and hiding out in the bathroom for a while, and then went and cried in my room. Yeah, that's right...I'm on top of things.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

48 Hours

Holla ballas.

So since my last post...I'm finding myself less often in a constant state of mental breakdown. That's good, right? Hope so. I decided to give myself until the 19th of December to think about what I want to do. I think that I'll end up staying until Port Colborne, and re-evaluate there, unless the next two weeks are completely insufferable.

This past weekend was FANTASTIC. On friday, Melina drove us to Summerside so we could catch the bus from there to Charlottetown. We got there at about 5.30 and grabbed some dinner at Timmy Hoes. Our bus didn't leave till 10.30 that night, so Cynthia and I took advantage of the couple hours we had to kill to go get some piercings we had been talking about for a while. The piercing studio was really nice - clean and everything. The piercer had 8 years of experience too, which made us both feel really comfortable. AND they had a buy one, get one half off deal! So for $60 i got the upper, outer ridge of my right ear pierced as well as the rook of my left ear. The first one didn't hurt too much, but the second one killed. If you don't know what those are, then google them.





We got to Charlottetown just after 11pm and took a cab to our hotel. A few people went out, but since I'm 18 and the legal age here is 19, there wasn't much for the rest of us to do. I had the worst sleep of my life that night, thanks to the fact that it hurt to sleep on both sides of my head. At 9.00 Saturday morning, Krista, Cyn, Frede, Amy and I had breakfast at the hotel and then headed out to walk to the Farmer's Market. People on this island have an issue with walking, i think. It was like a mile and a half to the market but the few people we asked about which way to go were all like ''Do you have a car?'', ''You know that's like half an hour away, right?''. Big freaking deal. It took 20 minutes to get there. Anyways, enough about islanders being lazy.





At the Farmer's Market, we found ''Postman Pat" who we met last time we were there, quite a few weeks back with the whole group. Krista and I had spent quite a long time talking with him and then he sent us awayu with 2 bags of these huge Cowboy Cookies (so so so good, oh lord). So this time, we wanted to bring him something to thank him. Last week, I made half a dozen jars of beets and Krista suggested we bring him one. The jar got as far as the hotel...but then Krista forgot it there that morning. Oh well. It's the thought that counts, right? We visited with him some more that morning and also ran into the Wellington group. After lunch, we walked downtown. There was a band playing at a little music store, I forget their name but they're from O'Leary which is super close to Alberton. We hung out there for a bit, then checked out another vinyl and vintage store before settling down at a café called Beanz. It was kind of cold outside so we just killed quite a bit of time at the café. I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my mom, who's flight came in at 5.30 that evening. At about 4.30, i took a cab to the airport. Once she got there, the two of us took a taxi to the Delta, stopping by the EconoLodge to pick up my stuff from friday night. We hung out in the room while we unpacked; she had my Christmas presents, new running shoes and some food from my dad (Kudos on the granola, poopsie. It's amazing. And almost all eaten already...) and I had all the gifts that I wanted to send home with her for the whole family, as well as some clothes I don't think I'll be needing.


We had a really nice dinner together at the Delta's restaurant. I ordered their "Vegetable Tower", which was black rice, these dumpling things, vegetables and tofu all layered together with this amazing curry sauce. The only part i wasn't a huge fan of was the tofu, because it was really soft and the texture kind of sketched me out. The waiter came by to see how we were doing and was like "Oh, so you're not a huge fan of the tofu?". I said that I just didn't really like the texture..but i kind of mumbled it. I didn't want to be rude...the rest was phenomenal, I just, well, didn't really like the texture. A minute or so later, the head waitress lady came out to see how everything was. I told her it was wonderful, as did my mom (because her chicken was also fantastic). Then, a few minutes after that, the CHEF comes out to see how everything is. I swear it's because I didn't eat the tofu. It was like it was this huge offense or something. Whatever. I found the degree of concern they showed quite entertaining.



I was ridiculously tired after that...we went back to the room and chilled. Our TV didn't work for a while, so someone came to fix that. (All he did was turn it off and back on again...) And Mom ordered a $14 glass of wine which was funny. I crashed pretty early, as did she.


On Sunday, we slept in (according to our definition of "sleeping in", of course) and then had breakfast downstairs again. After that, we went out to meet up with Amy, Krista, Cyn and Frede for coffee at Beanz, so my mom could meet them. Then, we just wandered around the area for a while, checked out some shops and stuff and then had a late lunch at the cutest little restaurant ever, that was hidden in a little side street. If you ever go to Charlottetown (which i wouldn't necessarily reccomend, especially in the winter), go find the restaurant "Off Broadway". It's this cute little place, with maybe half a dozen tables in an old, brick building. The inside is all dark and ambiance-ey and private, and the food was fabulous.

By the time we were done there, it was time to go back to the Delta, get all my stuff and take a cab to the bus station, so I could go back to Summerside. It kind of sucked that my mom and I barely got any time together, but I really enjoyed it (based on my state of mind recently, the timing was perfect). And hey, a short visit is better than no visit at all. If you're reading this, Mom, thanks for coming down. I'm ridiculously happy that I got to see you before Christmas. Phew.

When we got to Summerside, we waited for Melina to pick us up at the bus station then since the weather was kind of bad, we all went to the Sumemrside house and waited there for the PL's to decide if it was safe enough to drive back to Alberton that night. We probably could have gotten halfway there in the amount of time they spent deliberating about it. In the end, we went, leaving behind our two house managers, Mat and PM, sice they would have had to come back to Summerside yesterday anyways to do the grocery shopping.


So! Christmas is in 16 days and we have less than a month left in Alberton. Hmm. I'm not gonna lie...I'm not especially looking forward to Christmas...it's going to be really tough not being at home with my family and friends. Oh well... it's only one year and I have a lifetime's worth of Christmases ahead of me to be at home for.

Right?

Sunday, November 30, 2008

whaaaaaaaaa.

I'm very much lost right now.
I need to make my mind up about my uh... future in this program ASAP. It's hard because I can't even take advice from anyone because they aren't in my situation, and it's an effing hard situation to be in. I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT TO DO.


I found this horoscope today though. It's quite insightful, I think and it's creepily relevant.
Aries Horoscope for week of November 27, 2008

Have you ever arrived at a mountaintop on a clear day? Do you remember what you felt like? Can you re-imagine the sparkling purity of the air as it sweetened your lungs, the shimmering light that washed through you in lush waves, the exaltation of the sweeping vista as it lifted you to a deeper understanding of where your place is in this life? That's the kind of peak experience you need and deserve in the coming days, Aries. If you can't actually get to the top of a mountain, find the next best thing.


My timing sucks. Christmas being so close is making this decision a lot harder to make. Sorry for being vague.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

a blog about my reply to another blog. nothing to do with katimavik.

As everyone knows, I work hard. All the time. I'm very diligent. So, the other day while I was working my butt off (kind of like I'm doing now), I happened across some blogs on the CBC website. One in particular caught my attention...

Food Bytes
Mega coffee, ASAP!
Monday, November 10, 2008 03:49 PM ET


by Tara Kimura, CBCNews.ca

In the new movie Role Models, the frustrated character Danny delivers a sharp rant against the rebranding of small, medium and large at Starbucks.

Danny – as portrayed by Paul Rudd – orders a large black coffee. When the server tells him a venti is large, he replies: "No venti is 20." He proceeds to bicker with the barista and his girlfriend, charging that only Fellini would order his coffee using Starbucks' terminology.

In an interview at the New Yorker festival last month, Rudd discussed his disdain for the trendy new monikers. Rudd explained that for him, the new cup sizes are on par with the phrases "been there done that," "ASAP" and "24-7."

"What is wrong with small, medium and large?" he asked. "Nothing. [The new labels] just make the world a worse place."

He also noted the demise of small, medium and large has not been limited to the U.S. One coffee shop in England uses Mega for its large designation, he said.

"There are such inconsistencies with language. I'll take a mega coffee?" he said.

What are your food packaging pet peeves?

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/foodbytes/2008/11/mega_coffee_asap.html

And here is my reply, which it wouldn't let me post on the site for whatever reason. So I'm posting it here.

All last year, I worked at a cafe on the Bow River in Calgary. Our sizes were Medium, Large and Extra Large, which even I, as an emloyee, hated. Regular customers knew that by ordering a large they really were getting a medium, but whenever I didn't recognize them I always worried that I wasn't giving them the size that they really wanted.
The sizes we sold were posted quite visibly though, as is usually the case, so I personally think that customers have no one to blame but themselves for size mix-ups.
One thing that threw me off a bit though, was when someone would come in ordering a "tall". In Starbucks-lingo, that's a small and I always assumed that that's what the customer wanted. On numerous occasions, however, I was wrong: they wanted a large.
Also...Starbucks has ruined the Macchiato. A real macchiato is espresso "marked" (that's the meaning of the name) with foamed milk. A few times, someone would order a macchiato and I would make them one. A real one. Problem: What they REALLY wanted was a vanilla latte with caramel sauce in a criss cross on top. Starbucks-style.

I have to say though, in the GRAND scheme of things, is it really that hard to read the board of coffee drinks when you walk into a cafe, figure out how their sizes work and then order whatever size it is that corresponds with your need for caffeine. Jeez.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

November 25th

Holla!!

Winter is def here. Unfortunately, it has bad timing. We had to cancel our trip to Halifax and Moncton last weekend because of a storm on Friday night and Saturday. Hopefully, we'll get to go this coming weekend, but we don't even know if the trip has been approved yet, thanks to the fact that everything here happens in slow-motion, it seems. Fingers crossed.

Kyla leaves today. My roommate is heading back to Winnipeg, and our group is down to 8 participants. I think I'll be moving into the other girls room, now that there are only 5 of us left. Our PL and I are thinking about disassembling the bunk bed in the room Kyla and I were sharing and then using the space as an exercise room of sorts. Speaking of exercise, I'm gonna buy a month-long membership to the Iron Haven gym in Alberton. I'm sick of being a couch-potato. Well, I'll still be one because it's hard not to be in this program, especially in a town the size of Alberton, but at least I'll be doing something.

Christmas is in ONE MONTH TODAY. WHAAAAT!!?? I'm excited...buuuuut sometimes not so much. It's gonna be hella tough.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

living in a winter wonderlaaaaaaaaand...

Yesterday was the first snow of the season! It feels like winter now! Everything is while outside...it's amazing how much snow they get here. ANd the best part is that it's all sticky, wet snow; perfect for making snowmen!
School starts an hour late today which is why I'm writing this right now. I kind of whish I had known that an hour ago so that I could have continued sleeping, but that's ok.

We're hopefully going to Halifax and Moncton this weekend...assuming that our excursion gets approved and that the weather holds out. I've heard that the weather is supposed to get milder by the weekend though so hopefully that won't be an issue.


Everything is very mediocre these days...but I think thats just me.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

nine days is too short.

Billeting might just be the best thing that has ever happened to me.
The family that I've been staying with since Friday is amazing. The parents, Michele and Glenn, are both teachers at local public schools. They have a ten year old daughter and a 9 week old puppy. PUPPY! Man, I'm seriously in love with the dog. Her name is Chloe and she is the cutest thing that I've seen in a long time.

They have a really nice house a few minutes outside of Alberton. I get to sleep in a double bed! The first few nights I didnt even go near the other side of it... I guess Ì'm too used to my little Katima-bed. I love staying at their house! I get my own, big room and I get to cook a ton (which Michele and Glenn love too!), and I've met a lot of their neighbors and some of their family which is really nice as well. Cynthia's billet family is actually right next door, so we can hang out if we want to. On saturday, Michele took the two of us, along with her daughter and her daughter's friend, to Summerside. The two girls saw a movie, while Michele, Cynthia and I went shopping for a bit. This coming friday, Michele is taking Cynthia and I, and hopefully Frede as well, to Charlottetown! If there are any good movies playing, we might go see something. Otherwise, we'll just shop a bit, and stay the night at Glenn's sister's B&B. I'm so excited!

On Sunday, everyone will go back to the Katima-house. Although I wish billeting would be for a longer period of time, I'm really glad that I got to be with the family I'm with, because I know I'll keep in touch with them afterwards and hopefully see them again at some point.

Oh! Funny story. It's a small world. Glenn used to live in Calgary between semesters at St. Francis Xavier University, working construction and stuff. So, he was asking me what high school I went to. I told him St. Francis and he asked who the principal was. Guess who he went to university with!? Danny McFarland....brother of John. AKA my high school's principal. WIERD.

Speaking of it being a small world...have you ever heard of the theory of Six Degrees of Separation? The idea is that everyone on Earth is connected to everyone else by 6 links. Example: Michele knows a lady who's friend had the opportunity to golf with Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Kevin Costner. I met that lady, so I'm connected to Costner by three links.
Kevin Costner -> Lady's friend -> Lady -> Me.

So lets say that Kevin Costner sat next to someone on an airplane, say yesterday, who has a cousin living in Australia. That cousin buys their produce from a local farmer in Australia who lives literally in the middle of nowhere.
Farmer -> Aussie Cousin -> Random on plane -> Kevin Costner -> Lady's friend -> Lady -> Me

Voila. We're all connected.

Well class is over. Home time! (The chem class I help out in was writing a quiz...I'm not just a giant slacker, I swear...)

Thursday, November 6, 2008

...and then there were ten.

Yesterday was sad. Our lovely, lovely Lisa went home to Langley, BC. She decided on Saturday that she was going to leave, for a variety of reasons, and then by the time all the flights were arranged, she didn't go until Wednesday. When we said goodbye for the last time before leaving for the school yesterday morning, I told myself that I WASN'T going to cry...but it didn't work. I cried, a lot. It feels wierd having the one less person around, especially since Lisa's personality was so outgoing and present.
As much as I'm sad that she decided to leave, though, I know that she'll be happier doing something else with her year off than she would have been had she stayed. And we'll keep her fully updated on the happenings of our group.

...I feel like I'm writing about someone dying. I'm going to stop.
Lisa, if you happen to be reading this, we miss you a ton already.


In happier news...OBAMA WON! I have to say, I find it really exciting that we're all living through this historical event. Someday, our kids will be reading about the first African-American President of the United States in text books and I'll be able to say that I remember that day! I guess I can't really say I was there, technically. but that's ok.


Other events of yesterday...I almost missed my bus which was fun, and then when I got home, I discovered that the 2nd care package from home came! I got tea, books, the Globe's University report card, DRIED CHERRIES (!!!) and some of my dad's dehydrated specialties.


I have to go actually work now...no more slacking.
Lovelove.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I'm going to try and keep this recap as brief as possible.

The weekend before last, we volunteered on Friday night at the haunted house down the street from our house and on Saturday, we helped out with a children's Halloween Festival. Both were a lot of fun, although I froze to death in the haunted house on the friday. Also, I don't think I'm very good at scaring people.

We saw a play on Sunday night about the Acadian Deportation, in french. This year is the 250th anniversary of the tradgedy, so there have been a lot of commemerative things happening for it. The four of us at the French school actually saw it again today, with the grade 5-12 students. Our house meeting from last week happened over the course of 4 sessions: Sunday afternoon, then Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings. There was a massive amount of discussions about our frustrations, which is why it took so long. The previous week was pretty tense around the house....we were well into our "Storming" period, in Katima-words.

Wednsday night was Kyla's 18th birthday! Her and Lisa were House Managers so they made pizza and cake and stuff, and then we all played a game her family sent her..."Things In a Box". Pretty much the BEST GAME EVER. We play all the time now.

Thursday night saw the last part of our house meeting, and on friday, we spent the evening in Wellington with the other two Katima-groups for our Halloween celebrations - an 80's-themed night. Not gonna lie...it wasn't thaaat exciting. Mostly because we had to leave really, really early to drive back to Alberton. We didn't get egged on the drive at all though, which was nice. And our house was untouched too.

We didn't do a ton this weekend...we had a lot of free time, broken up only by a game of soccer, writing letters in French and the house meeting.

There's more to write about but I'll catch up later. The subjects are Lisa and Obama. Totally unrelated, though.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Housemanaaaagers.

Hi! So today is Friday, and I have a lot to catch up on. Even though I'm pretty sure like two people read this. WHATEVER.

On Saturday, we drove to Charlottetown. We went to the Farmer's Market first, and spent a few hours there. I'm not sure how... considering it's about the size of the produce section at Safeway. Krista and I were trying to discover two things: the three most common vegetables of PEI (not that we didn't already know the first...) and the coolest thing we could buy for a toonie. There was a friendly-looking guy working at a farm's produce stand who we went to talk to. He was actually really interesting. He told us about giant "Cowboy Cookies" that we could get for a dollar, how the market was more of a weekly social gathering for locals than anything else and sent us on our way. With hugs. A little later on, after wandering around the rest of the market, we ran into him again. Krista and I decided to buy some little mini pumpkin-things ("gourds", technically) as our under $2 item. He gave us four for a dollar! AND THEN he bought us a dozen Cowboy Cookies!! 

The group had lunch in the van after that, and while Melina went back to the market to buy a few things, Krista, Lisa, Amy, Kyla and I wandered around the uPEI campus for a few minutes which is right across the road from the Farmer's Market. Then everyone drove downtown together in the van, and we had about an hour and a half of free time. Krista and I found a little vintage clothing and vinyl shop, and then wandered into a café for a bit. After that, we all went to an art gallery for two hours or so. We had dinner that night at the cabin of one of the guys in my group.His family had a barbecue there for us which was really night. The cabin was right on the ocean with a really nice view of the Confederation Bridge.




Sunday morning, we had free time like usual. In the afternoon we read french books (weekly french activity) and played street hockey (weekly healthy lifestyle activity). After dinner was the weekly House Meeting. It was definitely a little less painful than last weeks meeting. All in all though, Sunday was very routine.



Monday was the first day of the Krista/Erica-House-Manager-Power-Team! Melina took the two of us for breakfast at the Bakery/Café, and went through all our house manager duties with us, as well as the menu we had planned for the week. Then, we drove to Summerside to go grocery shopping. We stopped to pick up the Wellington group on the way, and spent most of the rest of the day with their PL and their two house managers. The six of us hit up a produce stand for apples and carrots and a few other things, then the Summerside Bulk Barn, Superstore and finally Salvation Army (to buy a bunch of blankets for the house). Melina, Krista and I didn't make it home until about 5pm, so dinner was a little late.

That night, we made potato latkas (or latkes? im not sure). Potato Pancakes. They were really good! It just took FOREVER to cook them. We have a griddle, which was cooking them fairly well, and we tried to cook some on the stove too but that didn't work. Maybe if more than 2 of the elements worked, and we had some real frying pans it would have been easier. Alas. We also made pumpkin-applesauce muffins which are flipping FANTASTIC. I love googling recipes.
Monday pretty much drained me. Grocery shopping for 12 people is intense, and since we have a pretty tight budget, it takes a lot of time and effort. It's quite stressful.

On Tuesday, we cleaned the house. We do that a lot. After lunch, Amy, Krista and I went with Melina to a local junior high school to do a presentation about Katimavik to a Grade 9 class. It was pretty fun, actually. You know how Grade 9's are...they think they own the world, but it went well, I thought. We can't actually "recruit" for next year since the funding is uncertain, but we can still let people know about the program, regardless. For dinner that night, Krista and I made Tandoori chicken, Naan bread (kind of) and a chickpea curry. I thought it was all fantastic, as did most of our group. It was. Actually, it was phenomenal. I'll make it for you sometime. 

Wednesday was pretty chill. We cleaned again in the morning, picked up some more groceries in the afternoon and did a hell of a lot of laundry. There were everyone's sheets to be washed (everyone does their own laundry with the exception of bed-sheets, which house managers do on a weekly basis) as well as the mountain of blankets that Melina bought on Monday. The previous night's dinner was spaghetti. Simple? Not if you're the Krista&Erica-House-Managing-Power-Team! We made my mom's world-renowned tomato sauce, and attempted to make homemade pasta too.
Everything turned out preeeeetty well. Keep in mind that we don't have a pasta machine (one of those things that stretches out the dough and cuts it) so we couldn't get it as thin as would be ideal. Plus, when we were cutting it and putting it on to trays, we didn't put enough flour on the noodles so a lot of them stuck together. It didn't help that our pot of water took AN HOUR to boil. Have I mentioned that our stove is a total piece? 

The finished product looked...interesting. But tasted good! I'm not gonna lie...the noodles weren't as aesthetically pleasing as my dad's, but they tasted the same! Krista and I were very proud of ourselves. 

Yesterday morning, I went for a run and right at the start, I ran into a guy named David, who lives across the street from us. He and his wife had brought us some baking when we first moved in, and a pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving. We brought them some muffins to thank them and Lisa and I run into David every once and a while on our runs. Like yesterday. Melina went over to their house on tuesday night to ask if they would be able to billet one of us (and they can't, but that isn'r the point) and either offered or agreed to a few of us coming by Wednesday night to visit with them. David plays the accordion and a few other instruments that i've never heard of, and the idea was for Krista and Tyler to bring their guitars and we could all have a little ...jam session of sorts. The problem was...Melina didn't tell us. So David and his wife were waiting around for us to come over that evening and well...we didn't. His wife even made us a cake!! He told me that they waited until about 8.30 and then decided we probably weren't going to show up. I felt absolutely awful, and when I told everyone else, they did too. 

Since we had free time last night too, six of us went over to their place. It was nice...David and his wife (who's name i never caught) are really friendly. Krista and Tyler played their guitars, David played his variety of instruments and the rest of us sang. Halfheartedly on my part, i'll admit, but still. After an hour and a half, a few of us were pretty tired and i tried to instigate us leaving but it failed. I said I wanted to call my mom and I only could until 9 our time (which was entirely true) but then David's wife was like "But you';; miss cake and ice cream!". I tried to politely say there would be other times but it didn't work and I ended up getting roped into calling my mom from their house to tell her i wouldn't be able to call. 
Mom: "I hear hymns in the background... You can explain later." 

Oh, I will. Don't even worry about it.

Yesterday, Krista and I were pretty much in the kitchen all day. We cleaned, as per usual, in the morning and then after lunch we made brownies, apple crisp, chili and cheese bread. The brownies are a little on the dry side because our oven SUCKS and cooked them too quickly. The apple crisp (apple and pear actually) turned out well. We had this left-over caramel sauce from this cake we had that is just pretty much butter and brown sugar so we mixed that with some oats and that was the crumble on top. Our chili was vegetarian, which apparently was a big issue. In Katimavik, we have a food budget which doesn't allow for meat every day. Most of us are ok with that, or even really happy about it. Other people aren't. This week, Krista and I planned for chicken twice and beef once. Last night was not one of those occasions. Personally, I thought the chili was pretty good. For a few though, it wasn't good enough. There's kind of an unwritten rule that if you really don't like what is  being cooked, then eat some cereal or toast or something, and no one will be offended. 

Note: this rule doesn't apply AFTER you've given the pot a dirty once-over, a look like you're going to be sick and then made some comment about how sick you are of not having meat. 

I'm not gonna lie...I took it really offensively. Krista and I put a lot of effort into making the chili, and there was a couple individuals who wouldn't even try it. Know what? I wouldn't have even minded if they hadn't been so blatantly rude about it. It sucked, because those few looks and comments sucked all the fun I had had yesterday right out. 

P.S the cheese buns turned out well :)


That's all for now. There won't be much happening today, until tonight. We're volunteering at the arena at their Haunted House, and then tomorrow from 8 to 2, we'll be helping out with their Children's Halloween Festival.

Friday, October 17, 2008

But who's counting?

HAPPY KATIMAMONTHAVERSARY!


That's quite a mouthful. If you didn't catch what I mean by that...sound it out.
Today is exactly one month since I left C-town for Katimavik. I can't decide if it feels like more or less than that...so I've decided that it quite simply feels like what it is: a month. 

This week FLEW by. Holiday Mondays always make the following four days evaporate. We've almost got the library set up at the school, finally. The lady from Charlottetown who was supposed to come fix some stuff in the computer system didn't show, which is unfortunate. On the bright side though, today I figured out how to get all the students information into the system so they can check out books. And we also figured out how to check out books. 

In more exciting news, I am dead broke. It's quite shocking, considering there isn't ANYWHERE to buy anything here. Except gum, I buy a lot of that. And caramel rice cakes. (Don't knock them 'till you try them.) I have a bunch of money in the bank, but I put all of it into my Savings account (except $100 in Chequing) at the beginning of the program so that I still have money to contribute to university next year. It's also my Emergency-Running-Away-To-France Fund. ERATW. Eat Rotten Apples 'Till Wednesday? Don't ask.

Also, I had $60 in my wallet from Katima-allowance. STOP BEING ALL OVER THE PLACE, ERICA! WHERE DID YOU SPEND IT?

Ten Thousand Villages! Not that Alberton is big enough to have it's own store, but they come through here once a year or something, and set up in the United Church for two-ish days. Since we live on CHURCH street and the United one is about 16.3 seconds away from our house, a few of us went to help set up all the merchandise last night, and they let us do any shopping we wanted to do when everything was done. Anyways, i did all my Christmas shopping last night! Considering my lack of income this year, I'm only getting things for my family and Courtney (who is family). I now have $30 left between my Chequing account and my wallet. We're going to Charlottetown tomorrow and I won't be buying ANYTHING apparently. Well...knowing me, I probably will even though I'm broke. Whatever. It isn't like I really need money for much here anyways. 

PLUS everything from Ten Thousand Villages is fair-trade and wonderful, and I know that everything I bought will be thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated by my fam. I wish Christmas was NOW so I could give it to them. =) I'm excited!

Also, I'm tired and I want to try to run tomorrow morning. I'm going slightly stir-crazy.

Bonne Nuit!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

windmills and turkey pictures.

So on Thanksgiving Monday, we spent the afternoon at North Cape. There are a lot of windmills on the island, and North Cape is where they opened the first test site - a place where various companies could test their technology and make sure it met all the standards necessary to be used for power generation. It was pretty exciting. Also exciting was learning about how much a lot of the people who live here hate them. First of all, only 5% of the energy produced by them stays on the island. The windmills are owned by a company called Irving, who sells most of the power to companies in the states and in New Brunswick. Secondly, the power has to be transported somehow; and that just happens to be in big power lines that apparently let off a ton of radiation. Yaaay cancer! Not. Finally, the only reason Irving makes windmills is to get "Green Points". The more green points they get - for doing environmentally friendly things, the more environmentally unfriendly things they can do. In this case... build an oil refinery.

We got back to the house at about 4.00, and Kyla and I started right away on dinner. Most things we had either made or prepped as much as possible on Sunday, which made things a lot simpler. Our turkey was in the oven by 4.15, and for the next three and a bit hours while it cooked, we tried to organize the cooking of all the other dishes using the only two (although sometimes three...) stove elements that work. I hate our oven, by the way. Everything turned out great! Voici some pictures...






Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Weekly update...

Last week kind of sucked, a bit. Pourquoi?

First of all, it was the first week that we really started to settle into a routine, and it finally hit me that I was going to be away from home, in this program and with this group of people, until June. That in itself instilled a bit of homesickness in me, which was magnified as Thanksgiving loomed. Certain conflicts within the group, mostly just small personality clashes, seemed much more serious and stressed a few of us waaaaaaaaaaay out.

Secondly, Alberton must think that I'm a giant homesick mess. (And they aren't necessarily wrong). I guess that's what I get for walking down the street crying, after getting off the phone with my mom, and then continuing the water works on the lawn of the post office. Whatever...Alberton can think what it likes. I was a little wound up, and after calling my mom to ask for recipes, and impatiently jumping at her for who knows what reason, I felt like the big jerk that I am...and that made me even more homesick.

On Sunday, we had a bit of free time in the morning so that everyone who wanted to go to Church could do so. I didn't go, so I used the time to call Courtney and have yet another giant bawl-fest. Have I mentioned that I'm a mess? I'm ridiculously grateful for my best friend. And for long distance phone plans. Quite honestly, I don't know if I would be able to handle all this without knowing I had her to talk to about it.

It isn't that I'm not enjoying myself. I am! It's just that being a participant in this program is a lifestyle that, in certain aspects, is extremely different from the one I've had over the past few years. Living in the same house with eleven other people isn't the worst thing ever...it's just now that everyone is more comfortable with each other, certain personality traits have started to show that not everyone necessarily gets along with. I know - you can't get along with everyone, all the time. Easier said than done. The situation is different when you're at work, for example, becuase you get to leave at 4 or 5 and get away from the people that you find frustrating. But here in Katimavik, you spend all your time that isn't at work with those people.

Free time is one of the things I'm having the hardest time dealing with. We get about 4 blocks of it every week...but theres always more than that. I get home from working at the school at 3.30, and then theres two to three hours before dinner where I have nothing to do. After dinner, if we have something scheduled, it usually only takes an hour or two, leaving another few hours free before bed time. And on nights when there is free time scheduled, then from 3.30 to 10.30 or 11 (with the exception of mayyybe an hour for dinner), there's nothing to do. This wouldn't be a problem if we were living in a bigger town, but quite honestly, there is nothing to do in Alberton. A few nights a week, there's the aerobics class which some of us go to. For the most part though, free time is spent all the same way - sitting in the living room reading or using the computers. Compared to how busy I kept myself the past few years, this feels really slow. All of grade 12, I would go straight to dance from school every day, sometimes with an hour or so at Second Cup to do homework in between, then go home afterwards, have dinner, do more homework and go to bed. On the weekends, I worked 8 hour shifts at the Bean both days, so the only real free time I had was on Friday and Saturday nights. I find that there is just too much sitting around here. And I miss dancing like nothing else. Until last week, I was running almost every day, for an hour on average. But now my left knee is giving me grief (again) and I haven't been able to for the past few days. I think I'm going to give it a few more days off, so that I don't end up not being able to run for two months or something like that. I get really stressed out when I can't do any physical activity, though. There isn't any other means of me getting exercise here besides running and if I can't do even THAT, i'll honestly go crazy.

IT ISNT ALL BAD THOUGH. I have exciting things to write about too! *Ahem!*
Kyla and I made the most fantastic Thanksgiving dinner on Monday night. We cooked a turkey! It wasn't burned, or frozen on the inside or ANYTHING! It was awesome! We had mashed potatoes, carrots, a broccoli/cauliflower/green bean casserole (with a sauce that Melina made...so props to her), stuffing (my mom's recipe...<3), gravy, and buns. Since Melina and Lisa are vegetarians, and Krista and I are toeing the line, we made stuffed peppers for ourselves; with rice, lentils and diced bell peppers inside. For dessert, we had made three pies; one pumpkin, one chocolate and one apple. Also, our very sweet neighbors from accross the street brought us another pumpkin pie!! Everyone really enjoyed it, even though we had to eat pretty late that evening. It was really exciting, because all the people in my group from Quebec had never had Thanksgiving dinner before. I guess no one celebrates it there, so for them Thanksgiving is just another three-day weekend. They thought it was great. We had lots of left overs for lunches yesterday, which were all delicious. Cooking is pretty much the best thing in the world. I find it really relaxing and calming, and it definitly helped keep my mind off of the fact that I didn't get to be at home with my fam-jam. PICTURES WILL BE UP SOOOON!

MORE EXCITING NEWS THOUGH! On November 21st to 23rd, my group is going on an excuuuuuuuuuuursion! Our original plan was to go to Cape Breton for that weekend, but apparently that's too far away and too much mileage to put on the Katima-van. Instead, we're going to Halifax and Moncton!! Personally, i think they'll be way more fun than Cape Breton, as beautiful of an island as it is. So, on Friday the 21st, we'll drive to Halifax. One of the guys in my group, Mat, is from Halifax and hopefully, we'll be able to stay at his house. On Saturday morning, we're going to go to Farmer's Market there; it is supposed to be PHENOMENAL! Visiting the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, the "Tree to Tree" high ropes/zip line course, and the Discovery Centre are the other activities we're looking into doing while we're there. On Saturday night, it just so happens to be the official Christmas Tree Lighting! It's kind of a festival-y thing that happens there. We'll have some free time after that, and a bunch of us want to check out the local indie music scene. On sunday morning, we'll drive back towards P.E.I., detouring through Moncton on the way. There is a historical village we might go see there, or an Acadian museum. We'll leave sometime after dinner to go back to Alberton.

I'M SO STOKED THOUGH!

Well, enough of me pretening to work while blogging. I have the 11/12 Math class to go help out in now.
(Just so you don't think I was actually slacking...there really was nothing for me to do this morning)

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Work it ouuuuut!

My hamstrings HURT!

On tuesday night, a few of us, Kyla, Lisa, Krista, Fréd, Mat and myself, found out about an aerobics class that happens a few times a week here and decided to go check it out.
Of course, it was aerobics Alberton style which means a Biggest Loser video in the boxing ring in the basement of the courthouse. It was pretty intense actually...we're all still sore and it's been two days since we went.

One of the girls in my group, Krista, is working at the CMHC's clubhouse and they were hosting a thanksgiving dinner for the members and their families. So, as Krista's Katima-family, we all went. It was awesome - $2 for a full thanksgiving dinner. We stayed after to help clean up, and then came home and...didn't do anything.

We've had a lot of free time lately. Tonight, we were supposed to go to the Phillips Residence (a senior's center) to do Halloween crafts with them, but it was moved to tomorrow night. Therefore...more free time! Tomorrow, I think some people will go to that, and some of us are going to aerobics again.


I'm starting to get a little bummed that I won't be going home for Thanksgiving, when so many of my friends will be. I haven't been homesick at all really so far, but I think this weekend might be a little bit tough. I figure if I can make it through until Tuesday, i'll be ok. At least until Christmas...

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

List of Excellent Things!

1. Yesterday, we drove to Summerside. It's about an hour or so from Alberton, and we went there to vote at their Elections Canada office and get groceries. There were only a few of us needing to vote, so while we figured out our mail-in ballots with the more-or-less incompetent Elections Canada staff, the rest of the group headed to Superstore to start the groceries. We met them there when we were done voting, finished up most of the groceries and then went to Bulk Barn to get the last few things.
2. Bulk Barn is exciting. I've never been in a bulk store before, and man, was I impressed. You can buy anything there, and that was a relatively small store. Dried strawberries and differently-flavored dried cranberries, and chocolate covered ANYTHING. I didn't actually buy myself anything, as I thought I would, because I had already bought some things at Superstore. I'm trying not to touch the money I've got saved in the bank, and to only use the $21/week allowance we get from the program. It's hard.
3. The parcel my parents sent came! THANKS GUYS! I now have my sweatpants, the wool sweater my grandma just sent me, my almond butter, tea and coffee...and my high school diploma? Can’t say I necessarily want to have that out here with me right now. I suppose it’s a good reminder of how I’M DONE HIGH SCHOOL FOREVVVVVVVER! Yes please!
4. The teacher that teaches the grade 11 Chem class over teleconference to the students at the school that I'm working at said I was a "miracle worker" and that she was really glad I was there to help them as she's teaching. I have to say, I really appreciated hearing it. Yee!

I’ll write soon...as long as Blogspot stops locking and unlocking my blog like craaaaazy.


Ericaaaaah. =)

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Let's Learn About Potatoes! Yeah!





There's actually a lot to know. Like, did you know that waayyyy back when, people thought that potatoes caused leprosy - because of their uneven, sometimes scabby peel? And they originated in South America. Bet you didn't. 



When potatoes were first introduced to Europe from South America, they were very unpopular. But then Marie-Antoinette wore potato flowers in her hair and everyone fell in love with them.  They're high in fiber, potassium and vitamins B and C. Not to mention, you can pretty much cook them any possible way you want. We have a list going in the house actually.... Mat and I spent an entire afternoon thinking up different ways to eat potatoes.



After the Potato museum, we drove up to West Point to walk at the beach for a bit. On the way, we passed tons and tons of windmills. There are a lot of them here, but the Islanders, or so we've heard, aren't happy about it because all the energy from the windmills goes to New Brunswick. Either way...it looked like a scene from a sci-fi movie, which was cool.

Again, the beach had really nice red sand with tons of seashells and rocks that were perfect for skipping. We walked up and down picking up ones to make necklaces with. If we actually do, I'll be surprised; but in the meantime I've got a lovely pile of pebbles in my room. The West Point lighthouse was there too, which is Canada's only functional lighthouse in an Inn. (Quite the uh... accomplishment, I must say). Here are some pictures from our stroll...




That's all for ce soir. Tomorrow is another day of work at the school, which I must say, I am very much looking forward to! =)


Cartier, Red Sand and Bagel-Making!


Yesterday afternoon, we drove to the Jacques Cartier Provincial Park. It's where Cartier landed on the island, apparently. We wandered up and down the beach for a while, talking about ... bilingual communication or something. Yeah.

The ocean was beautiful, as you can probably see. There's a campground here, it's closed for the season but I can imagine it's quite a popular place to stay during the summer. The beach is sandy and wonderful.




We found a dead sting ray...it was pretty exciting. Katima-kids make their own fun...in this case it involved writing in the sand. It was intoxicatingly entertaining.




Oh, and this morning, I made bagels! We had a bread-making workshop last week, but I hadn't had the chance to make any yet. Since I haven't had a bagel since I left home and I was craving them, I decided to skip bread and go straight to bagels. It definitely took a lot longer than I thought, but it was a lot of fun!! Especially the boiling part. There's a lot of room for improvement...but I've got lots of time to work on my bagel-making skills. They're good though!
I'm very proud of myself, if you didn't notice.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes

Yesterday was a PD day at the school, so there were no students. The four of us, Pier Marc, Cynthia, Frédérique and myself went anyways, to set up for a wedding that is happening today. They have a really nice "Multi-Purpose Room" there that is used quite often for weddings and other special events. We started out just placing chairs at all the tables that were set up already, and then Fred and Cynthia continued with table settings and things like that while Pier Marc and I went to help in the kitchen. I have never seen so many potatoes in my life. We had two 50-lb bags of huge, dirty potatoes to peel. We only ended up having to do about 75 lbs of them, but still; that's a LOT of potatoes. I guess it's been really rainy here this year, because a ton of the potatoes had these rotten spots in the middles that we had to cut out, which come from when the growing season is really wet.

Today, we've got the morning free. I went for a run and now I'm working on this. I've been running on the Confederation trail, which is a pathway that goes all across Prince Edward Island. It's really quite boring and monotonous. I mentioned to some of the students that I've been helping out that I run there in the mornings and they just kind of looked at me, adn then one of them told me that people have been killed and gone missing while walking alone on it. Pfft. Whatever.

At 1 we're all meeting up to do some kind of contract-ey thing...I can't remember what it's about though. Tonight, we're going to all have a game of soccer together then, as our weekly "second-language" activity, we're gonna translate songs from english to french and vice-versa.

Tomorrow morning, we've got free time again and in the afternoon we're going to a POTATO MUSEUM!!! And a wool museum or farm or something. It's pretty exciting, I'm not gonna lie.