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)