Thoughts on Blind River

I am leaving Blind River very soon, but before I go I think I should talk about Blind River and what it is about. So here goes...Let's start with the house. The address - 40 Michigan Street, Blind River, ON P0R 1B0The house is located in a nice area. It's right across from a Catholic elementary school, and it's on a street where there are at least 3 to 4 churches (more on that) In fact it's next door to one. And we have a beautiful view of Lake Huron/Gerogian Bay, with Manitoulin Island (the largest freshwater island in the world) in the distance. One thing I love to do when the weather is beautiful is to go by the lake (2 blocks away) and take pictures and enjoy the sunrise/sunset, because there's a lot of incredible sunrise/sunsets over the lake. The house is also a 5 minute walk away from the arena/community centre.The house itself: The house is almost 100 years old, but despite that plus renovations, it's a nice house with quite a bit of history. Apparently many people in town have some form of connections to the house, ranging from "I lived in it before" to "I had a sleepover party there". There are 4 levels to the house - basement/main floor/upstairs/attic. The basement is cold, old and scary, and the landlord instructed us not to use it. All we do there is store eggs (given free by the community, woohoo!) and other miscellaneous things. The main floor consists of living room/office/dining room/kitchen/laundry room/tiny storage room which became the "Alone Zone" because of Zach. As well, outside the house (but not quite outside because it's boxed in) there's a coat and shoe storage...there must be a name for it but I don't know what it is. Upstairs - there are 3 bedrooms plus a bathroom. One is Emilie's (her room also has this extension to the balcony), one is for the guys, and one for the girls. Both guy and girl room has 2 bunk beds/4 beds (although the closet in the girl's room is rather dinky, compared to the guys). Then we have the attic, which has a walk-in closet, one bathroom, and 2 bunk beds with much more room. If there are 4 guys in one group (like mine) I think they should be put in the attic instead of the boy's room downstairs because the living situation for Zach/Stephen/Charles/Mike was quite bad since they didn't really have enough storage, plus the fact that Mike is so messy that all his crap are thrown across to the other guys' stuff. So for you Castlegar kids - if Emilie arranges for 3 girls to stay in the attic again and there are 4 guys, you gotta speak up.Little quirks of the house: the sink faucets are incorrectly screwed on. The red is actually cold water, and the blue is hot water - a lesson I pay dearly each time I wash my hands- Because the pipes are old and a bunch of other things, there isn't a constant even flow of water for the whole house. Which means when someone is washing dishes or doing laundry, the person showering will have freaking cold water, but that can change quickly too. I once showered in hot/cold/hot/cold in a span of 10 minutes.- Emilie may impose the "if it's yellow let it mellow" flushing policy. Flushing takes around 6 litres of water each time, so that's her way of saving water (a policy I never got the hang of due to good habits, haha).- We practice a "2 loads a week" laundry schedule, which means each person is allowed to do laundry 2 times a week only. This happened after the laundry machine and the dryer broke down...very very bad (again, our washer now does not do spin cycle...nice thing to happen before we leave, haha)- Umm that's it I think? Overall I like where I live in town, it's walking distance to almost everything (but then again that's like anywhere to anywhere in town, haha). Our group really is blessed in a sense that a) free eggs! and b) our house is the result of complaints from previous Katimavik groups when they lived in a tiny house with problems and rats, etc. For that I am thankful (although I recently found out from Zach and Cynthia that they saw a mouse running from the kitchen in a hole in the dining room, haha) - The pipes are old and rusty, so sometimes the water turns orange. Mmmmm, orange water (and we drink water straight from the tap, haha) - Apparently Rebecca and Cheryl wrote a small note for the next group and hid it in the table in the kitchen...so go find it, haha So now, the town itself...I am not going into the basic introduction of it, so you can find out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_River,_Ontario Before I started Katimavik and went into the town, I thought it's your average little little town where everyone is extremely friendly but unknowledgable about the world. As well, there would be no one of another race other than caucasian people (which conjures up images of people approaching me and saying in a slow drawl,"can you...speak...english. Eeeennnglish...") The first one has somewhat of a truth to it, as people in general are relatively friendly and open, especially when they find out you are doing Katimavik. Unknowledgable? Nah...apparently Blind River has one of the greatest number of post secondary graduates in small towns of Canada. Unfortunately, because work is scarce here (ever since they closed down the white pine mill and now only Cameco - an uranium mine in town), the majority of young people move out of town. Which leaves mostly seniors in this town. The thing about having only caucasian people in town is false. There are actually a couple of Chinese families living in town (2 of them have Chinese restaurants, I think, haha) plus 2 indian families also (one person is a doctor, another owns Old Mill Motel)...which does surprise me, but it's a good thing. Hmm, what else can I tell you...the town is situated along highway 17 (the trans-canada highway) and CPR so often you will see trains and trucks going through. The town is so small, it takes only an hour to walk from one end to another (as Cheryl and I demonstrated one night). There are 2 convenience stores (the 24 hour one is close by the house), 1 grocery store (Valu-mart, expensive deals), 2 banks (RBC, Scotia), 1 hospital, 1 police station, 1 fire department, 1 community centre, a couple of schools (divided between public and religions, English and French), 1 library, 1 LCBO, 1 Beer Store, 2-3 bars...Tim Hortons serves as the hip hangout in town (it's 24 hours), and Greyhound buses are parked at CountryStyles (30 minute walk from the house). What else...man there are so many churches here it isn't funny...I find it so odd that in a town that's the size of my high school, there is a need for so many churches. The street I live on already has 3-4, and there are a couple more scattered across the town. Is there a need for that? Or am I just cynical? Because of that, a good number of people you will meet in this town are either "fathers" or "sisters", or have some affliation with church. Yes, because the town is small, technically there isn't much to do, unless you know people in town. Saturday nights there are hockey games in the arena, where people support the local team (Blind River beavers). Sometimes dances occur in different venues. But people in town have different ways to entertain themselves. Random ideas/facts of town According to Ed Ritchie (also the unknown encyclopedia of Blind River): - Cameco had 2 explosions in the past, and there may have been spillage...leaking into the water. Mmmmm, radioactive water. - Before they built Eckat High School, that plot of land used to be an animal farm. Animals would die there and they would be buried there. Now behind the school there are water houses (or something like that) that takes care of the water. Old animal cementary + Blind River = potable water....???? All this talk about the water here makes me miss the water in Vancouver. - The amount of smokers in town is atrocious. It's probably 1:4 people who are smokers. Because of that, Blind River actually has one of the highest rates of cancer in Canada (according to another local). - Blind River is quite a bilingual town. A good number of people can speak French, which was quite a surprise. I don't really know what else I can say, so I will talk about the important people in town: Paul and Baryl - a lovely elderly-ish couple who lives out in the bushes. They are probably some of the most giving and helpful people in town, and probably in life. They helped us out a lot during our time here, and Baryl has lots and lots of influence in town. Lorraine Serre - the main power player/owner of Dorca's House, a local thrift store in town. Again, very giving and nice, and has lots and lots of influence in town. Denis - Lorraine's grandson, likes to hang out with Katimavik kids. A pretty nice kid, although some may find him annoying. He had a crush on Maxime and when they went to the high school dance together, he showed him in a nice suit/tux and brought corsage. Awkwardness ensued and now...you get the picture. Matt and Aaron - if you read the long story, you know what they are about. Hmmm this is really long now....and I am going to rotation camp very very soon (2 hours time) and leaving Blind River once and for all, so I will stop. Overall, I enjoyed my stay in Blind River, and people overall are friendly. It may be a bit boring at days with the lack of things going on (it's a small town, after all) but it really does allow bonding time. If you know how to make the best out of the town, you would really enjoy yourself here. Good Bye, Blind River