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.

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.

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.

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.

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...)

...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.

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.