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.

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.