First Email

Hey guys!

So here it is, the first email from Blind River. Hope you guys are doing well...so far I am having a good time here. I am trying to figure out the best method to present the email, as well as how often I should send an email to you guys, etc. Not sure exactly what I am going to do, so I think I will just go with the flow. Maybe a journal plus random thoughts and facts?

Unfortunately at the moment, the house computer crashed, so except for people who brought laptops (2), no one can really use the computer unless they go to the town's public library (a 5-10 minute walk). This is where I am typing the email, as well as one of the possible work placements. More on that later...

Nov/29

The night before departure, Bryan and I decided to brave the random Vancouver snow and watch Casino Royale 007 (thanks a lot for driving out from Port Moody to Vancouver, Bryan! =) at Silvercity in Metropolis. Anyways the movie was around 7 something, and as we were watching the movie the fire alarm came on. Normally if this happens in the mall, everyone pretty much just ignores it. However, watching a movie is an entirely different matter, and after minutes of annoying ringing, the head honcho of the theater decides to evacuate the place which means no movies in Silvercity. But they did give us movie vouchers, so Bryan and I decided to go over to Paramount (in downtown) to use it up, and chose to take the Skytrain instead of driving there. By that time it was 8:30 ish? so when we got there it was around 9:10-9:15ish? Anyways we decided to catch 007, which was playing at 10:30. With that extra gap of time, we went to Red Robins and had a Rocky Giant Mudslide? dessert (which Bryan ate most of, hehe) and went back to catch the movie.

Because the movie took around 2.5 hours, so by the time we got out it was around 1:30 am. Unfortunately, the Skytrain closed so we had to take the 19 bus back to metrotown (which, thank god, was still running). By the time we got off the bus it was 2:30 and when Bryan dropped me off it was almost 3...aiyah. Basically I didn't sleep after that because the flight was at 7 am and I wanted to leave the house at 5 something because of the snow, plus I still have to finish minor businesses. With shower/a bit of eating/computer/MP3/packing, I left the house at 5:15? with my head all wiry (I must say, it freaks me out how fast Yellow Cab can arrive to my house...5-10 minutes after I call, eek) and after a nice chat with the Indian taxi driver (haha) got to the airport at 5:40? After check-in, I decided to get a cup of tea and just relax before boarding. Anyways I did that and slept a bit...I almost overslept, and when I almost boarded the plane, the flight attendant (or whoever stands in front of the entrance to the plane) called out "wai han?" (i have no idea how they know my chinese name except that katimavik was using that name) and said I was really late, and the flight is about to leave. In my defense, I really wasn't that late (just 10 minutes before 7) and haha, the flight was delayed 40 minutes because of ice...so at 7:40, I officially left Vancouver...

The plane ride wasn't that great...Air Canada no longer serves breakfast but instead charges people for snacky things...and I spent most of the time sleeping (which I didn't get that much on, because of where I was sitting plus the seat itself). Where has the service gone? It's sad...anyways despite the delay, we arrived to Toronto just 15 minutes later than expected (2:45 pm EST?), so that gave me around 1.15 minutes to get my luggages, have a quick chat with Karen (a friend of mine who is in Toronto studying) and board on the plane to Sudbury, where I would ride a Greyhound to Blind River. However, the God of Twists in Life struck, and after 45 minutes of waiting for my luggages (and finding it in another conveyor belt which had luggages from Trenton Ont...?), I finally saw Karen and we were about to go check-in for my flight to Sudbury when I find out that my flight to there WAS CANCELLED and I had to wait for further instructions from the Katimavik head office...lucky for me, becaus Karen was there, that time of waiting became our hang-out time instead, and it was pretty cool to catch up with her after not seeing her for a couple of months. However, the ambiguity of Katimavik was a bit annoying, as no one knew when the alternative solution to the problem (having the Greyhound bus go to the airport to pick us up and drop us off at Blind River) was going to arrive. But I guess another silver lining to the problem is that a good number of the katimavik people who are doing their program around the same area (Blind River, Elliot Lake, Sault Ste. Marie = same cluster) got to meet, so at least everything is suffering together, haha. I met 4 of my housemates in the airport there (Zach/Cynthia/Maxime/Charles).

So what happened at the end...the bus arrived at 8:00 pm EST (which meant we waited for almost 5 hours in the airport), and we (15-20 of us) were picked up from the airport. We were told that going from Toronto (Southern Ontario) to Elliot Lake/Blind River/Sault Ste. Marie takes anywhere from 6 to 8 hours, and since we were picked up at 8:00 pm, we would probably going to arrive the next morning...oh dear god. Luckily enough the tour bus was huge, and since there weren't many kids there pretty much everyone had their window seat plus the seat next to them. I intended on sleeping throughout the whole trip, which I kind of did but unluckily for me, there were 2 to 3 other girls in front of me who became fast friends in the airport and decided to giggle the way through...and the one single light they had on glared brightly on my face...argh...

The bus trip was long, but ok...we must have went through at least 6 different weathers throughout the trip (rain/shower/heavy downpour/clear night/fog). The darkness and the lack of traffic helped with my sleep, although I kind of wished it was daytime because the scenery must have been spectacular (if I remember correctly, there were at least 5 rivers/lakes which the bus drove past of). Unfortunately for Cynthia (who everyone called in the airport "the sick girl" because she was suffering from the 24 hr flu), she needed to puke but she couldn't make it quick enough to the washroom in the bus and puked outside of it...poor her. However one of the participants was ever so kind as to help her clean it up...but other kids were like "ew"...it's sad. One of them was Zach and let's just say I was not impressed at that moment and wary about our future life together.

After hours of bus ride, the bus finally arrived in Eliott Lake (first stop). That was around 1:00 am, if I remember correctly. As the kids who are going to live in Elliot Lake got out, so did Maxime and Charles. Zach and I were thinking "why are they getting out of the bus?", so I said "we should stop them"...but then he said "oh I am sure things will be fine". At that point I was just shocked that he would say that, and I told him "that's not very nice" and ran out to see what they are doing. Lo and behold, Maxime and Charles were having a smoke break (and Maxime is so young too...just 17...seems like smoking is part of the Quebecois culture, tsk tsk :( ). I felt better than they didn't went off with the wrong group, but let's just say Zach is not on my good list...

After another hour of bus ride, we (the Blind River crew) finally arrived to our house. By then it was 2:00 am and I was so tired. We got off, got our stuff and was greeted by Emilie, a girl around my height with crazy dreads. Apparently the other people have arrived 3 hours earlier than us, and were sleeping. She told us we could stay in bed until 11 am (thank god!) and showed us our rooms. Before I went to bed, I called my mom to let her know I was ok, then I climbed upstairs to my room, climbed more stairs to my bed (because I came later, I get to sleep on the top bunk), and fell into a deep slumber...

Well guys, that's my adventures for November 29th...christ that's a long email...I must learn to summarize or no one is going to email me back, haha. Just so you know, it took me at least 3 to 4 days to write this email. Stay tuned guys, because if I have this much to say about one day, imagine the rest of the days, hahahaha ;)...

I am still going to try to email you guys another long email (adventures of me from November 30 - Dec 8) by Friday (that's tomorrow, uh-oh)...I can't promise anything though...meanwhile, email me back, tell me how you guys are doing amidst the burden of finals (haha) and let me know if you want postcards...because I am making my own since Blind River only has one choice and it's more fun and original and Katimavik-like that way, wouldn't you say?

If you are curious to know, it's now 3:35 pm, Dec 7...it took me almost 5 days to write the email...gotta find a more efficient way to do this...don't blame me if the next email is shitty...

Peace out \o/