First Day of Billeting - Jan 19

Hey guys...

Don't you just hate it when you finish writing an email, and as you are about to send it or do something with it, you just accidentally closes it? Well, that's what happened to me and the Jan 19 email yesterday (Jan 29). Guess I will have to start over...

Jan 19

Well, as far as I can remember, not much happened in the morning time and work, so I will just jump straight into the exciting part of the day, which was for me around 4 pm and everyone pretty much was feverishly packing and preparing themselves for the billeting family, which arrives to pick us all up at 5 pm. So pretty much I only have an hour to pack for 2 weeks, but it wasn't as bad as it seems. In fact, I put all the things I needed into a medium sized suitcase, and I was pretty much done in 30 minutes...although I thought I packed too much though. After I was done, I went to the living room where people who were done hung out, and chillaxed a bit before my billeting family comes to pick me up. Pretty soon the families started arriving...first it was Maxime's family, so she was the first one to go. Before she left, she gave everyone goodbye hugs and when she got to me, she started tearing up...I absolutely could not believe it. I was like "Maxime, why are you crying? It's only 2 weeks!" And Aaron (who is actually Stephen's billeting family) comforted her by saying that because the town is so small, pretty much she will see everyone everyday...

Next it was Zach's family, and then Mike's family and my family came at the same time. It was only Sister Dianne who came to pick me up, and she is this dumpy 60 something year old lady. I said my goodbyes, and off we go to her house...Sister Dianne and Sister Trina live in this nice 3 level house which is too big for them by the travel center (where I work, in case you guys don't remember ;), which is the biggest reason why I was chosen to live with them. When we enter the house, I was greeted by Sister Trina, Dianne's older sister (equally dumpy) who was cooking in the kitchen. And a little farther I could see the cat, a fat black-and-white thing hovering in the distance. (For your interest - the cat actually has no real name. Dianne calls him whatever she wants depending on her mood - aka "fur baby" to "CAT!!" Trina calls him "Maui" majority of the time).

So anyways Dianne shows me my bedroom, which is also Trina's office. It looked strangely like a bed-and-breakfast type of room. I dropped off my things and Dianne continues giving me a tour of the house. Here's what the house consists of:
- Basement: An open area with some old furniture, a laundry machine and dryer, and lots and lots and lots of old Christmas decorations which the ladies hasn't finished packing away yet. As well, this is where the cat sleeps, so there is also a litter box and food.
- Main floor: A big living room with 3 comfortable couch-chairs (think granny chairs), a big TV, fireplace, plus lots of plants
A small/medium kitchen, fully functional
A nice dining room plus another living room
A tiny washroom
Trina's office/my room
- Top floor: A bathroom
Two big bedrooms, one for Trina and one for Dianne
An actual prayer room, complete with bible, pedestal/lecture stand, and statue of Jesus. This room made me slightly queasy and iffy about the Sisters. But then again, they are nuns, so what can I say?

After the tour, I had some time to unpack, and pretty soon dinner was ready. As we ate our meat tarts, the Sisters grilled me with questions...which is different that what I am used to because it's usually me that asks the question instead of the other way around. As well, they told me about this concert that's happening in the French Catholic high school around 7 pm, and they had bought a ticket for me to go with them. So after dinner, that's where we went.

When we got to the concert, Trina and Dianne led me to this row close by the stage where all their friends were sitting (later I found out this row was affectionately dubbed "the nuns' row") and they introduced me to their friends, whom most were senior-aged nuns. As well, Dianne introduced me as the Katimavik student that they got in for billeting...I always find it so funny that people's eyes light up when they find out that I am doing Katimavik and I am from Vancouver...and it doesn't help that Dianne presented me as if I was the newest toy in the market and she is lucky enough to have it in possession. In the concert, I saw Cynthia, who is living with another nun named Sister Bernadette...unfortunately they sat pretty far away from us so the only thing I could do was wave to her. Apparently this concert is a "nuns' event", because the performers are regular church-goers and they are there to support them. The concert that night was to raise money for the Rotary Club, which apparently is an organization that is similar to Katimavik, except it's worldwide and the person is doing it for a year (I am going to look into it when I have time). The whole performance revolves around a band which is a knock-off of the Dixie Chicks, and the performers looks eerily creepy to the Dixie Chicks, except they are much older...in fact this is probably how the Dixie Chicks will look like in 15 years time (No I am not kidding either, there's so much resemblance). Of course, they have a band that plays drums/bango/harmonica at the background, and they are all men (hahaha). For the next 3 hours, the band played mostly country music, especially songs by the Dixie Chicks. Surprisingly, the concert was really really good, even though I don't listen to country music all that much. a) The ladies can really sing and perform b) Who would think this tiny town would have talent, especially from 3 middle-aged ladies? I also really appreciate the fact that the lead singer (Louis) told many many jokes throughout the whole evening. Let's see what I can remember:

1) When God created the first man (aka Adam), God told Adam to spread the human species. Since Adam didn't know how to do that, God gave him a set of instructions - walk through the forest, swim through the river, go down the valley, climb up the mountain, find the cave, enter into the cave, find the woman, and reproduce. Again, because Adam has never done any of these things, God had to explain everything to him, step by step. Finally, Adam was ready to go, and he walks through the forest, swims through the river, goes down the valleu, climbs up the mountain, finds the cave, enters into the cave, and finds the woman. However, something happens, and he turns around and returns to God. When God saw him, he was confused and asks Adam, "why did you return?" Adam then asks God, "What's a headache?"

2) Once there were two sisters/nuns (and Louis adds, "No, they are not Sister Dianne and Sister Trina, hahaha") who were doing grocery shopping. They saw the beer was on sale, and they very much wanted to buy it and drink it up. However, they are nuns, so this makes the situation complicated. "What should we do?" asks nun #1. Nun #2 thinks about the situation, then says, "don't worry about it, let me handle the situation." So she picks up a case of beer and walks to the cash aisle, where the cashier gave her a very weird look but still rang it in. The nun laughs and says, "no no, we are not going to drink the beer, God forbid...it's for washing our hair!" As soon as she finishes saying that, nun#1 comes in and tosses a bag of pretzels next to the beer. "And don't forget our hair curlers," declares nun#1.

3) There was a man who went on a business trip, and he wondered how his home was doing. So he calls home and an obedient servant answers the phone. "How is the house? And how's my wife?" asks the man. "The house is good, sir", answers the servant, "and your wife is good too...she is sleeping with another man upstairs." The man instantly got very furious. "What?? How dare she sleeps with another man other than me...why they both must die!" So the man told the servant to go get his gun and kill both of them, and then report back to him. The obedient servant obediently did exactly what she heard. "Sir, I did what you told me," said the servant. "Good, good...what did you do with the gun?" asks the man. "I got rid of it," said the servant. "Excellent, and what did you do with the bodies?" asks the man. "I threw both of them into the swimming pool," answered the servant. "Good...wait, I have no swimming pool in my house though!" exclaims the man. Then he realized that he did something very, very terrible..."Is this 543-27...???"

So overall, I had an excellent evening, and when the concert ended and we got home, it was around 10:20 ish. Pretty much we wounded down and just watched TV for a bit (20/20: Credit card debts and frauds), while the Sisters continued to grill me with their questions and made comments about the shows. Around 11:30 I started getting sleepy, so I bided the sisters goodnight, took a shower, and went to bed.