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...

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)

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...

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. =)

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.

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.