New Year - A New Beginning?

Hello hello

It's now 10:19 am, January 1st, 2007...and I am using Stephen's laptop (because the house computer is a piece of trash and cuts out words in emails) to write this email to you guys. The house is really quiet, and even though I am not the only one up in the house (Rebecca and Cynthia are in the living room, but they both fell asleep on the couches after they came downstairs), I feel like I am the only one in the house which is really really nice since there is constantly people everywhere in this house. I chose to wake up a tad earlier that others to write this email to you, so enjoy :)

Dec/31/2006

Yesterday was technically a big day, because it's the last day of the year but we have big plans later that evening. Originally I wanted to wake up early (like around 6-7?) to finish up the emails that I promised myself to do, but instead I woke up around 9 something and remembered that I still need to work on my talent for the talent show (which happens after dinner with everyone plus guests/emilie's friends)...and since you all know I am merely an ordinary folk with no talents, I decided to do something that I was interested in but people won't be bored with while I am doing it...a psychology test. Pretty easy, I found a test online and copied it down, then translated it in French since I want the French folks to understand it. That took me around 3 hours because I had to manually copy everything down and translate it to French the old fashion way, plus I was in and out quite a bit. Zach woke up a bit later than I did and after a bit of figeting, he made everyone French toast for breakfast (not because he is a kind person, but because he is the house manager for that week). Anyways after I finally finish my "talent", I had the rest of Zach's French toasts (by then most of the people had woken up and trailed into the kitchen so much of his toasts are cleared out) with strawberry jam...pretty good I must say but the whole wheat toasts takes a bit to enjoy, I guess

I helped Rebecca do the dishes (specifically I dried the dishes), and taught Stephen and Charles how to play Chip's Challenge (a game I highly enjoyed when I was in elementary school and still do, so I downloaded it into Stephen's laptop without his permission, but he didn't yell at me...a good man he is =)...god they learn the game so quickly, it must in the male genes to play video/computer games. Afterwards I wanted to write emails, but people kept using the internet so instead I read a bit, and then Zach and Stephanie (the house managers that week) made us lunch...pasta salad. I personally don't know why they bother, because everyone had breakfast already. But yeah, I had some...and more dishes and cleaning.

During lunch I told the crew that there will be a meeting on the excursion to Sault Ste. Marie that I was planning, so that's what happened. The meeting took around an hour, and we all hung out in the living room and I explained to them what's going to happen with the trip, and everyone was delegated something to do for the trip, be it phoning people or planning something else. We have a really tight deadline to meet (January 5th) but I really hope everything will fall into the right places...apparently if this goes through, we would be the first group ever in ontario to go on an excursion during the first trimester, so that's pretty cool. Afterwards I did some clean up with the excursion plan, printed out some stuff for people to look at while they plan, and chillaxed a bit. By that time it was around 4 o'clock and rebecca started the food for the talent show/party later while zach and stephanie worked on dinner (homemade burritos). Rebecca forgot to buy the condensed milk for her dessert dip so I volunteered to go to Valumart to buy it for her...the whole trip took around half an hour, and during the trip I saw Emilie 3 times in different locations in town...it's ridiculous.

So that's that, and after I came home I relaxed a bit...read a bit, chatted with Emilie's friends Matt and Aaron (they dropped by and performed during the talent show), and before you know it dinner was ready. Aaron and Matt stayed over for dinner. but unfortunately Aaron did not like the burrito
dinner and it was really funny watching him trying to scarf down his food. Finally he gave up after eating 2/3 of the burrito and decided to throw it into the garbage…what a waste.

After dishes and cleanup, everyone rearranged the furniture and made a makeshift stage for the talent show (actually known as “coffee house”, because that’s what Emilie called it), and the coffee house started around 6:30 pm. Initially we were supposed to wait for this girl called Kelly (who did Katimavik last year in Blind River) and her boyfriend Alex (who she met here while doing Katimavik) to come, since Kelly was going to do a mini-workshop and tell us about her experiences in Katimavik…however they were 15 minutes late and Matt told Emilie that he has a tendency to be late…very late. So Emilie just went ahead and started the talent show/coffee house

Here are the performances:

Stephanie/Cheryl/Rebecca – they did a magic performance (which was really Rebecca’s idea, but Cheryl and Stephanie jumped in to help) where they did 3 or 4 magic performances. I did not fully comprehend how these tricks were performed but it was kind of cool. I really like their entrance to the show where they were doing this funky dance while covering themselves in tablecloth and finally unveiling themselves and saying their name at the same time…it’s pretty cute

As soon as Stephanie/Cheryl/Rebecca finished their performance, Alex and Kelly came in and Kelly talked a bit around her Katimavik experiences…there were some interesting stories but she ended up talking much much more about juicy things when I started asking her questions (yes lots of questions, you know me). Apparently in her group there were 4 people who ended up with dating (2 couples) throughout the 9 months. One couple started dating in the first trimester while the other began dating in the second trimester. She said that often these occur during the 48/72 hours (see end of email for details) and after the 48/72 hours, people would find out. Kelly said that conflicts occur within their group because of these exclusive relationships, but oddly enough both couples are still dating according to her – one pair may even be getting married in the future. I probably told you guys that exclusive relationships are not allowed in any group, but apparently all project leaders knew about the relationships and did not do anything about them, which I thought was unfair because it was affecting the group dynamics. This situation just reminds me of BMQ and all the scandalous relationships there, but honestly I really believe no one in our group will end up hooking up with each other, because that would be really really weird, like dating your own brother or sister.

Anyways after Kelly finished her presentation, we continued on with the coffee house, this time with her boyfriend Alex. Alex did a magic trick too, but it’s a stupid funny one. What he did: he got a volunteer (Maxime) to sit on a chair, then he ripped a sheet of toilet paper and rolled it into a ball. He showed it to Maxime and told Maxime that he can make it disappear. The way he made it disappear – when Maxime wasn’t looking, he tossed the tissue ball to the back, and showed Maxime that he doesn’t have it, but he can make a bigger tissue ball and make it disappear again. This happened for 3 tries until Maxime finally stood up and looked around her, where she found 3 balls of tissue rolled up 5 feet away from her. It’s pretty funny, everyone was laughing.

Next was Aaron, and he had us thinking that he was going to split a giant brick in half because a) he knows martial arts b) he got out a giant break and acted like he was going to break it in half with his two forefingers. But instead he did something so incredibly stupid that it’s super funny, especially because of the way he led us to believe that he was going to break the brick in half with his forefingers. Instead of doing that, he pretended his forefingers were fighting each other on the brick…his left hand beat out his right hand, and yeah…hmm…

Emilie and Stephen did a jam session, and performed a song which they wrote about the Katimavik group and everyone there. It was pretty cool the way the song was done, because it was quite random and not at the same time (at one point Emilie sang about Rebecca in Spanish)…I like what she said about me (miam, miam, miam...6.5, 6.75, 7.5 out of 10, it’s Angel with her food, her food, her foooooood….) and especially what she sang about Mike (who what when where how can it be Mike? Can it be Mike?). I will see if it’s possible for me to get the song and show you guys to lyrics, because it’s kind of cool.

Maxime and Zach performed a song from Moulin Rouge (the one where Ewan McGregor convinced Nicole Kidman to be his lover) and they dressed up for their roles. Things were going well until our shitty CD player started skipping and they had to stop…but Zach instead on performing so they ended up doing it a capella…it’s a good thing they both can sing and perform…

Matt (oddly enough, he used to be in army rank force until he left after SQ) did some tunes on the guitar, and when he did “Dust in the Wind”, both Alex and Aaron did screechy female background vocals. It was fun, but Matt really needs more practice.

Emilie and Maxime did a French rap song, and not only did they dressed up for it, they also made shadow puppets and had a storyline which goes with the song…seeing Emilie as a hippie to a gangsta-rapper was quite funny.

With Maxime’s help, Charles pretended to be a talking potato who told jokes. Unfortunately most of them are in French so I could not fully comprehend, but what he does physically kind was funny enough already.

Finally, it was my turn. I did the psychology test to everyone in the show, and I guess everything went ok. There were some very interesting answers (Zach’s answer #1 – Mike, #2 Elephant, #3 Ride on it….Cynthia’s answer for the body of water and what she does with the water – she was walking and she wasn’t even looking for water…she never came across any water but decided to head back to find water…she found a creek, but did not cross over it because she sees no point in crossing the creek). Anyways I am probably confusing you with these response, so I am going to send you the quiz...so you guys can do it and have fun with it.

Cynthia read one of her diary entries which was not exactly her diary entry, but more like visual essay…it was pretty good, and very fitting for Katimavik.

Wes (another guest who came in later the evening) is going to art school and he chose to do a quick portrait for his talent. We all choose Emilie to do that and he used 10 minutes to do a portrait of her using entirely of scribbles. The results were really good, and I kind of wished it was a portrait of me so it becomes my Blind River souvenir.

Rebecca and Mike did a dance to “Save a horse, Ride a cowboy” and dressed as a cowboy and cowgirl. Mike was awkward but it was kind of okay…actually better than people had thought he would do. Rebecca reminded me of Mary Kate and Ashley when they were little and did the film “How the West Was Fun”, she was so cute, haha…and when I told her she gave me a dirty look and smacked me on my back.

The coffee house ended with Cheryl and Stephanie sending us to do a scavenger hunt around the house. We figured everything out after 10 minutes, but by then people were getting tired and only Zach and Cynthia really tried to do scavenger hunt. Afterwards it was around 11:15, so everyone pretty much chillaxed and danced…some people left and at 11:50 Emilie told us to bring our blowers and fake wine, and go into the Katima-van/coquette mobile…Matt and Wes were in another car, and we followed them. We drove to a forest just a little bit off the hospital, and then Emilie told us to get off and follow her. Walking in the dark with our shoes covered in muck (I was wearing runners, it was a bad idea), we talked to the shore of the lake and we celebrated the new year by lighting up fireworks which Emilie gave each of us (it was a surprise, since technically we were not allowed them in Katimavik)…unfortunately it was raining outside, so not all of the fireworks worked but nevertheless it was still very cool. Finally, we headed back home and enjoyed more snacks and the fake wine we bought.

After a couple of games of Spoon plus the group’s analyzation of my love life, I went to bed around 2:30 ish. Honestly, this was one of the best New Year’s celebrations that I ever had, very satisfied about it.

What else can I say? Happy New Year? Yes Happy New Year everyone…unfortunately I did not finish my emails, so I guess we shall start from scratch ;)

48/72 hours – it’s a block of free time that we can use to do anything. It’s equivalent to getting time off at work and for you military folks it’s like time-off/weekend, when we get leave. For the first trimester, the group decided to go on January 13/14…with various people going different places. I am thinking of going to Toronto, just because I really need to buy groceries there…did I mention I am going to cook a Chinese New Year Dinner for my group during the Chinese New Year? Yeah I have to do shopping for that….should be fun…and I can finally eat out and have Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese/etc. food! Yay