Sorry, can`t think of a title for this blog...
Work is really, really chill without Claudie here...I have been using the computer quite a bit, which is very nice since there`s no computer at Billy`s house. As well, I am getting to know Annie and Aurelie better, and learnt some cool things about them (i.e. Annie has some form of sixth sense, according to her...and she said so does Claudie).
Not much happening yesterday, other than the fact that I had an interesting discussion with Billy about Quebec separation. This is something I am always curious about because of the lack of understanding of the situation. As well, this is one of the good things about doing billeting - learning about different cultures and stuff. Although Billy was extremely hesitant on talking about it, because he thinks talking about things like this does nothing (typical male behaviour - no discussion unless something worthwhile comes out or something gets fixed). This is why he thinks talking about politics is a complete waste of time. However, he eventually came out and we spent more than an hour discussing about it. He based a lot of his reasons on history and how the English society have been mistreating the French population, and therefore creating differences that are too great for union. As well, he believes Quebec has enough resources to hold itself up as a nation, and if anything Canada is the one that needs Quebec and therefore doesn`t want Quebec to separate (these points were said after I pointed out that I believe the economy of Quebec will collapse if Quebec was to separate from Canada since Canada gives a lot of money to Quebec). But he said the biggest reason for separation is because virtually no Quebecois sees themselves as a Canadian - they would pretty much tell you that they are from Quebec, and not from Canada. So already it is its own nation.
Um...our discussion was interesting, but I feel like he doesn`t want things to improve or for the gap to close up. But I guess it is as he says "I will not change my opinion because I am speaking from feelings. And you can`t change feelings from the heart or analyze them". But come on, if every single Quebecois acts like this, the situation will never improve...
I think I will have to talk to more Quebecois about this and get a bigger picture...
Friday, March 30, 2007
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Attack of the "Gastro"
Hey all...
Remember when I said I threw up in the middle of the night on Friday/Saturday and pretty much stayed in bed for the rest of the Saturday? Well some news flash...
I went to Stephen`s house on Tuesday night for a little bit (more on that later) and found out some striking news: Apparently I wasn`t the only person who got sick too. In pretty much the same night, both Stephen and Zach had the same problems that I had and threw up in their billeting families, and had to have bed rest for the whole next day and more. Actually in Stephen`s case, his sickness extended into Monday/Tuesday. And how does Stephen know that Zach was sick too? Because apparently he didn`t go to work on Tuesday and had to go to a clinic to treat for dehydration...and he went back to the Katima-house (there`s a key to enter into the house) and saw Zach there...so Zach told him the story where he and his billeting family went out to a bar and had some beer...that`s when Zach got really sick and went to the washroom in the bar and threw up. However, he didn`t want his family to think he was sick from the bar, so he held out and pretended nothing happened...and pretty much the moment he entered into the house he just started to puke his face out. That really sucks for him.
So how is it possible that all 3 of us got gastro (en francais)/stomach flu at the same time? This pretty much goes back to Cheryl, who got sick from one of the kids in the nursery place and we got it from her. And get this: Before I went to my billeting family, Noah-Kim got gastro from his nursery a week before that, and then the whole family got it too. Once they recover, I came into the picture and I got sick. Two days later, Noah-Kim got sick, then the whole family gets sick again. They recover the next day but Billy`s dad, who lives next door, got gastro too...the whole situation is messed. And Aurelie yesterday thought she was getting gastro, but thank god it turns out she just needed rest from a lack of sleep. Apparently there`s an epidemic going on in the region with this disease, just like when Elliot Lake had head lice and pretty much all the guys in that group (now Chicoutimi group) shaved their hair. Hey, I will talk stomach flu over head lice any day, but I seriously hope I do not get it again in my billeting family for the next week or I will be seriously annoyed...my 72 hours off is in the next weekend and I am going to Montreal to visit my friend (Kyle if you are reading this right now, hollah!).
So a quick recap of what happened since I last updated:
Monday - Baby Noah-Kim got sick, had to go to work late. That night after dinner just out of curiousity and for a nice walk, I went to check out where Stephen lives. The street he lives on (Rang 9) is just a couple of walks away from me...shouldn`t be that far right? Little do I know. His house number is 1345, and I started off from 35 something...50 minutes later I was at 23 something...because of darkness and time factor I had to turn back. So I got home at 8:30 pm ish and found out from Sabrina that Billy actually went out and looked for me in his car, because I didn`t return an hour later (I said it was either 1 to 1.5 hours, if not less). Aiyah...I hate it when this happens, feeling bad and then annoyed that I feel bad about it.
Tuesday - Whole family got sick, and they couldn`t drive me to work because of that. So I called Claudie and told her that...pretty much she said if I get sick the next day, I have to call her as soon as possible, and if I get sick I absolutely cannot come to work. So pretty much I stayed in the house the whole day, except when I went to the local grocery store (which may I add is very expensive) to pick up some stuff and made everyone chicken noodle soup. And at night after 6 pm something I decided to give walking to Stephen`s house another shot...took a long long long time and in the end because it was getting dark and I was at the 14 something ranges, I actually went to someone`s house and asked for directions...apparently I was just 5 minutes away, so I kept pushing...I was almost there when a car drove past me, then backed up and stopped. The guy rolled down the window and immediately I recognized the man as Billy`s dad...I was thinking "goddammit why is he so protective even when he is sick?"...so he drove me to Stephen`s house, which was pretty much the last house on the road before wilderness. Saw Stephen, his billeting family (a middle-aged man), and the house...reminds me of Paul and Baryl`s place, only much smaller. Then he drove me home and on the way back we tried having a conversation, despite the fact that he knows no english and my french is so broken and accented...quite interesting.
When I got home, I found out that Billy actually didn`t call his dad to find me...his dad just happened to find me by luck (apparently his father likes to drive around a lot). So the fact that he saw me in the dark and picked me up is just bizarre...
Wednesday - Everyone got better, Billy`s dad got sick. Went to work, and there was this conference thing with many many many people...I made tips, don`t know how much because Claudie didn`t give it to me (and I probably won`t get it until I am back from Montreal because she went to New York for a one-week vacation today). After work Billy/Sabrina/Noah-Kim/me went to Sabrina`s family for dinner...a jolly family, grandparents and uncle included. It was all right, and although the family was cordial they didn`t really ask me any questions, which I thought was unfortunate. Sabrina sure has a good looking family...her brother is very easy on the eyes and her sister is attractive too, although her boyfriend isn`t very...which leads me to the golden question I have been asking myself since billeting:
Why does average looking men usually have girlfriends who are better looking than them, but almost never the other way around?
This is a phenomenon that is right in front of my face ever since I started doing billeting. The best example is Billy and Sabrina themselves...Sabrina is young and way too pretty to be settled down right now, in my opinion. Billy...is Billy. As well, there is James (Billy`s brother) and his girlfriend...same thing. If anyone has an opinon or insight on that, let me know.
Um...gotta go!
Remember when I said I threw up in the middle of the night on Friday/Saturday and pretty much stayed in bed for the rest of the Saturday? Well some news flash...
I went to Stephen`s house on Tuesday night for a little bit (more on that later) and found out some striking news: Apparently I wasn`t the only person who got sick too. In pretty much the same night, both Stephen and Zach had the same problems that I had and threw up in their billeting families, and had to have bed rest for the whole next day and more. Actually in Stephen`s case, his sickness extended into Monday/Tuesday. And how does Stephen know that Zach was sick too? Because apparently he didn`t go to work on Tuesday and had to go to a clinic to treat for dehydration...and he went back to the Katima-house (there`s a key to enter into the house) and saw Zach there...so Zach told him the story where he and his billeting family went out to a bar and had some beer...that`s when Zach got really sick and went to the washroom in the bar and threw up. However, he didn`t want his family to think he was sick from the bar, so he held out and pretended nothing happened...and pretty much the moment he entered into the house he just started to puke his face out. That really sucks for him.
So how is it possible that all 3 of us got gastro (en francais)/stomach flu at the same time? This pretty much goes back to Cheryl, who got sick from one of the kids in the nursery place and we got it from her. And get this: Before I went to my billeting family, Noah-Kim got gastro from his nursery a week before that, and then the whole family got it too. Once they recover, I came into the picture and I got sick. Two days later, Noah-Kim got sick, then the whole family gets sick again. They recover the next day but Billy`s dad, who lives next door, got gastro too...the whole situation is messed. And Aurelie yesterday thought she was getting gastro, but thank god it turns out she just needed rest from a lack of sleep. Apparently there`s an epidemic going on in the region with this disease, just like when Elliot Lake had head lice and pretty much all the guys in that group (now Chicoutimi group) shaved their hair. Hey, I will talk stomach flu over head lice any day, but I seriously hope I do not get it again in my billeting family for the next week or I will be seriously annoyed...my 72 hours off is in the next weekend and I am going to Montreal to visit my friend (Kyle if you are reading this right now, hollah!).
So a quick recap of what happened since I last updated:
Monday - Baby Noah-Kim got sick, had to go to work late. That night after dinner just out of curiousity and for a nice walk, I went to check out where Stephen lives. The street he lives on (Rang 9) is just a couple of walks away from me...shouldn`t be that far right? Little do I know. His house number is 1345, and I started off from 35 something...50 minutes later I was at 23 something...because of darkness and time factor I had to turn back. So I got home at 8:30 pm ish and found out from Sabrina that Billy actually went out and looked for me in his car, because I didn`t return an hour later (I said it was either 1 to 1.5 hours, if not less). Aiyah...I hate it when this happens, feeling bad and then annoyed that I feel bad about it.
Tuesday - Whole family got sick, and they couldn`t drive me to work because of that. So I called Claudie and told her that...pretty much she said if I get sick the next day, I have to call her as soon as possible, and if I get sick I absolutely cannot come to work. So pretty much I stayed in the house the whole day, except when I went to the local grocery store (which may I add is very expensive) to pick up some stuff and made everyone chicken noodle soup. And at night after 6 pm something I decided to give walking to Stephen`s house another shot...took a long long long time and in the end because it was getting dark and I was at the 14 something ranges, I actually went to someone`s house and asked for directions...apparently I was just 5 minutes away, so I kept pushing...I was almost there when a car drove past me, then backed up and stopped. The guy rolled down the window and immediately I recognized the man as Billy`s dad...I was thinking "goddammit why is he so protective even when he is sick?"...so he drove me to Stephen`s house, which was pretty much the last house on the road before wilderness. Saw Stephen, his billeting family (a middle-aged man), and the house...reminds me of Paul and Baryl`s place, only much smaller. Then he drove me home and on the way back we tried having a conversation, despite the fact that he knows no english and my french is so broken and accented...quite interesting.
When I got home, I found out that Billy actually didn`t call his dad to find me...his dad just happened to find me by luck (apparently his father likes to drive around a lot). So the fact that he saw me in the dark and picked me up is just bizarre...
Wednesday - Everyone got better, Billy`s dad got sick. Went to work, and there was this conference thing with many many many people...I made tips, don`t know how much because Claudie didn`t give it to me (and I probably won`t get it until I am back from Montreal because she went to New York for a one-week vacation today). After work Billy/Sabrina/Noah-Kim/me went to Sabrina`s family for dinner...a jolly family, grandparents and uncle included. It was all right, and although the family was cordial they didn`t really ask me any questions, which I thought was unfortunate. Sabrina sure has a good looking family...her brother is very easy on the eyes and her sister is attractive too, although her boyfriend isn`t very...which leads me to the golden question I have been asking myself since billeting:
Why does average looking men usually have girlfriends who are better looking than them, but almost never the other way around?
This is a phenomenon that is right in front of my face ever since I started doing billeting. The best example is Billy and Sabrina themselves...Sabrina is young and way too pretty to be settled down right now, in my opinion. Billy...is Billy. As well, there is James (Billy`s brother) and his girlfriend...same thing. If anyone has an opinon or insight on that, let me know.
Um...gotta go!
Monday, March 26, 2007
A Quick and Dirty Summary from Thursday Til` Now...
...which is a bit sad, because a lot of stuff happened...
so Thursday, woke up at 6:30 ish to get ready for work. Yes I know I am a house manager, and I am not supposed to work, but Claudie told me about this giant event in the cafe where there is a debate/discussion between the candidates of the election in the Lac St. Jean area and they would need help. Not wanting to miss out on this cultural discovery event I got my ass up and worked from 7 to 10. Didn`t need to work too hard, the event was interesting even though I don`t really understand all the French (by the way the most charistmatic candidate there, Alexandre Cloutier, is unfortunately from Parti Quebecois and is leading in the polls...this should be interesting), and in fact I made TIPS! Yes tips...$7.50 I think. Even though I am not supposed to and Claudie knows this.
Went home, asked Valerie for money to buy groceries to make food to freeze in the freezer so when we all came back from billeting, we won`t need to panic for having no food like last time (although I put a stop to this in Blind River before it happened). After 3 hours of chaotic work between me/Stephen/later on Cheryl (she stayed home because she caught something from the kids at work and threw up Wednesday night) plus a slight panic attack on my part because I haven`t packed by 3 pm and my billeting family comes to pick me up at 4. But all worked out and at 4 pm a car with a man smoking inside comes driving in. Everyone panicked because no one is really ready and they all thought the man is here to pick them up. Me...smoking man? no....but turns out the man is here to pick me up. A quick bye bye, and off I go.
The man - a 25 year old man named Billy Lemieux who has a beautiful girlfriend, a young child (1 year old) named Noah-Kim (very funky name even for French, in my opinion), and a cute dog named Paul He works as an insurance seller. Unfortunately, he lives relatively far from Alma...in a small village/town named Labrecque, 20 minutes outside of Alma. The closest person to me is Stephen, who probably lives a 15 minutes walk from my house right now. Billy reminds me of my uncle, goofy and good-natured, good sense of humor.
This should be an interesting experience...the family is really nice and full of love at the moment, but they have 3 things that I don`t like in life - 1) kids (and my room is next door to the baby`s room, and I have been told he wails at night, as I have tasted on Friday morning) 2) dogs (although the dog is cute, he climbs onto me all the time) 3) smoking - both Billy and Sabrina are heavy smokers, yuck.
That night after supper they brought me to their friends who leaves nearby...another young and unmarried couple with a baby, plus the guy`s sister. Hung out a bit, tried to understand the French conversations, they offered me beer, I declined, then went home because baby needs to sleep. That`s when I found out Billy knows Alexandre Cloutier and dislikes him as a person...and therefore would not vote for him despite the fact that Billy is a separatist.
Watched A Good Year with Sabrina...really a good movie. Went to bed, baby woke me up at 5 am Friday morning. Got out of bed at 6 am.
Friday - Went to work and found the cafe much busier than usual...damn and I was thinking of playing hooky since Claudie thought I was still doing house-managing. So after 3-4 hours of working (with me sometimes being in the way of Claudie, in my opinion), all was done...and man I made tips again???? $5.00. Claudie said if I wasn`t there, she couldn`t have served all the people by herself (I disagree). I think I am going to save my tips and see how much I earned at the end. Right now it`s $12 something. Billy came in and had coffee...apparently he was a regular and Claudie was extremely surprised to find out that I was doing billeting with him.
Returned to billeting after work...oh yes wait Sabrina picked up me from work with Noah-Kim, and on the way she saw a hitch-hiker...and picked her up! Yes. First time in my life where I saw that happening, I guess it`s a small town thing. The lady Sabrina picked up thought I was Sabrina`s daughter....?!?!?!?!?! Um...let`s see...she is 24 (and looks like that), I am 20, she is white, and I am Chinese...hello????? But it was quite funny...and in the evening we went to another one of Billy and Sabrina`s young and unmarried friends with babies (Jonathan and Majorie)...and had dinner there....raquette (kind of like fondue, very fun and yummy), red wine (had some, mixed it with 7 Up)...it was fun despite that I can`t really understand all the French plus lots of drinking and smoking. The red wine made me very very sleepy and lethargic...so I had to ask Sabrina to drive me home at 11:40 pm (more like a convenience ride since she and Majorie were doing their routine smoking drive). A bit of Jay Leno in the house, didn`t bother to brush my teeth and shower, went to bed...
...and got woken up by the biggest stomachache. Ran into the washroom, ended up puking, took a shower, brushed my teeth, felt better...and found Billy outside with a questioning look..."are you ok?" "Yup, bonne nuit.." Went back to bed.
Saturday...woke up at 11 pm, thought I felt better. Was going to go shopping with Sabrina but my stomachache came back. Had to cancel dinner and slept for 12 hours. At the end I ended up loafing on the couch and watching The Simpsons in French.
Sunday...did feel better, wrote a bit in my journal and in the afternoon Billy`s brother brought me to do ski-dooing (like snowmobiling)...a lot of fun, went through a couple of villages around, hung out in this ski-doo bar and chatted with him (both using franglais) and got to drove for a bit at the end. Went out for dinner to eat poutine in Alma with family, learnt a bit about real poutine, and spent the whole night watching TV. Fun stuff...
Now...gotta go back to work! Tata! Elections today...fun stuff.
so Thursday, woke up at 6:30 ish to get ready for work. Yes I know I am a house manager, and I am not supposed to work, but Claudie told me about this giant event in the cafe where there is a debate/discussion between the candidates of the election in the Lac St. Jean area and they would need help. Not wanting to miss out on this cultural discovery event I got my ass up and worked from 7 to 10. Didn`t need to work too hard, the event was interesting even though I don`t really understand all the French (by the way the most charistmatic candidate there, Alexandre Cloutier, is unfortunately from Parti Quebecois and is leading in the polls...this should be interesting), and in fact I made TIPS! Yes tips...$7.50 I think. Even though I am not supposed to and Claudie knows this.
Went home, asked Valerie for money to buy groceries to make food to freeze in the freezer so when we all came back from billeting, we won`t need to panic for having no food like last time (although I put a stop to this in Blind River before it happened). After 3 hours of chaotic work between me/Stephen/later on Cheryl (she stayed home because she caught something from the kids at work and threw up Wednesday night) plus a slight panic attack on my part because I haven`t packed by 3 pm and my billeting family comes to pick me up at 4. But all worked out and at 4 pm a car with a man smoking inside comes driving in. Everyone panicked because no one is really ready and they all thought the man is here to pick them up. Me...smoking man? no....but turns out the man is here to pick me up. A quick bye bye, and off I go.
The man - a 25 year old man named Billy Lemieux who has a beautiful girlfriend, a young child (1 year old) named Noah-Kim (very funky name even for French, in my opinion), and a cute dog named Paul He works as an insurance seller. Unfortunately, he lives relatively far from Alma...in a small village/town named Labrecque, 20 minutes outside of Alma. The closest person to me is Stephen, who probably lives a 15 minutes walk from my house right now. Billy reminds me of my uncle, goofy and good-natured, good sense of humor.
This should be an interesting experience...the family is really nice and full of love at the moment, but they have 3 things that I don`t like in life - 1) kids (and my room is next door to the baby`s room, and I have been told he wails at night, as I have tasted on Friday morning) 2) dogs (although the dog is cute, he climbs onto me all the time) 3) smoking - both Billy and Sabrina are heavy smokers, yuck.
That night after supper they brought me to their friends who leaves nearby...another young and unmarried couple with a baby, plus the guy`s sister. Hung out a bit, tried to understand the French conversations, they offered me beer, I declined, then went home because baby needs to sleep. That`s when I found out Billy knows Alexandre Cloutier and dislikes him as a person...and therefore would not vote for him despite the fact that Billy is a separatist.
Watched A Good Year with Sabrina...really a good movie. Went to bed, baby woke me up at 5 am Friday morning. Got out of bed at 6 am.
Friday - Went to work and found the cafe much busier than usual...damn and I was thinking of playing hooky since Claudie thought I was still doing house-managing. So after 3-4 hours of working (with me sometimes being in the way of Claudie, in my opinion), all was done...and man I made tips again???? $5.00. Claudie said if I wasn`t there, she couldn`t have served all the people by herself (I disagree). I think I am going to save my tips and see how much I earned at the end. Right now it`s $12 something. Billy came in and had coffee...apparently he was a regular and Claudie was extremely surprised to find out that I was doing billeting with him.
Returned to billeting after work...oh yes wait Sabrina picked up me from work with Noah-Kim, and on the way she saw a hitch-hiker...and picked her up! Yes. First time in my life where I saw that happening, I guess it`s a small town thing. The lady Sabrina picked up thought I was Sabrina`s daughter....?!?!?!?!?! Um...let`s see...she is 24 (and looks like that), I am 20, she is white, and I am Chinese...hello????? But it was quite funny...and in the evening we went to another one of Billy and Sabrina`s young and unmarried friends with babies (Jonathan and Majorie)...and had dinner there....raquette (kind of like fondue, very fun and yummy), red wine (had some, mixed it with 7 Up)...it was fun despite that I can`t really understand all the French plus lots of drinking and smoking. The red wine made me very very sleepy and lethargic...so I had to ask Sabrina to drive me home at 11:40 pm (more like a convenience ride since she and Majorie were doing their routine smoking drive). A bit of Jay Leno in the house, didn`t bother to brush my teeth and shower, went to bed...
...and got woken up by the biggest stomachache. Ran into the washroom, ended up puking, took a shower, brushed my teeth, felt better...and found Billy outside with a questioning look..."are you ok?" "Yup, bonne nuit.." Went back to bed.
Saturday...woke up at 11 pm, thought I felt better. Was going to go shopping with Sabrina but my stomachache came back. Had to cancel dinner and slept for 12 hours. At the end I ended up loafing on the couch and watching The Simpsons in French.
Sunday...did feel better, wrote a bit in my journal and in the afternoon Billy`s brother brought me to do ski-dooing (like snowmobiling)...a lot of fun, went through a couple of villages around, hung out in this ski-doo bar and chatted with him (both using franglais) and got to drove for a bit at the end. Went out for dinner to eat poutine in Alma with family, learnt a bit about real poutine, and spent the whole night watching TV. Fun stuff...
Now...gotta go back to work! Tata! Elections today...fun stuff.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
House Managing so far
So...so far house managing with Stephen has been interesting...
Monday - did grocery shopping at 12 something with Valerie. 1 hour later - $216 for 3 -4 days worth of groceries. Valerie had different ideas on how to shop, and personally I would have gone to Maxi (like Superstore, but bulk) to buy things because it`s cheaper...but whatever. She also tried to convince us not to buy the cheapest margarine, saying 100% soya-based margarine is bad...
Came home at 1:30 pm, still had to clean the house/bake bread/cook dinner...everything was done by 6:00, with dessert in the freezer too (orange jello)
Tuesday - 3 interesting/funny things happened because of bread-making.
1) Our house has 2 stoves/kitchens, and I was letting the bread rise in the other kitchen. After that was done, I flung the towel that covered the bread onto the stove and brought the dough into the actual kitchen. Ten minutes later, I walk back in and saw that the kitchen was kind of smoky...I thought "why is the kitchen kind of foggy? Or is it just my glasses getting dirty...then I saw the towel turning kind of black on one corner...immediately I shouted "oh my god Stephen come here", and opened the door to let the smoke out...I lifted the towel and I must have fanned it a bit because the towel started going up in flames...I freaked out, ran out of the door and flung the towel into the snow. At the same time, the fire detectors started ringing and so did the phone...it was chaotic.
Stephen`s theory - whoever last used the stove (which he believed was Cheryl and Charles making beans a couple of days ago) did not turn it off, and I was just unlucky to have the towel on there to find out that they didn`t turn it off. I find it a bit far-fetched that no one knew the element was on for so long, but whatever.
2) The bread I made (new recipe, trying out whole wheat bread), after an hour of baking (recipes calls for half an hour) was disgusting...centre was uncooked. I love the faces of people as they tasted a bit of it...and I found this out at 9 pm. Because there`s no more bread (even though Stephen and I made some on Monday) I had to make more...and on average bread takes 2 - 3 hours to rise and bake...I didn`t get to go to bed until 12 -1 pm.
3) Later in the night I realized why my bread was screwed up...I thought the oven was in celsius rather than fahrenheit...pretty much I didn`t cook the bread, I was heating it instead...uuggghhhhh...
Stephen was highly amused by all 3 events and kept making fun of me for them...
Gotta go...time to do dishes and clean the house...it`s almost 12 pm.
Side note: Why does people in the house keep inhaling bread and cheese like there`s no tomorrow? The 2 loaves I made yesterday are almost all gone already...frick I have to make more (must talk to Stephen about this). Damn white people and their bread (KIDDING KIDDING)
Monday - did grocery shopping at 12 something with Valerie. 1 hour later - $216 for 3 -4 days worth of groceries. Valerie had different ideas on how to shop, and personally I would have gone to Maxi (like Superstore, but bulk) to buy things because it`s cheaper...but whatever. She also tried to convince us not to buy the cheapest margarine, saying 100% soya-based margarine is bad...
Came home at 1:30 pm, still had to clean the house/bake bread/cook dinner...everything was done by 6:00, with dessert in the freezer too (orange jello)
Tuesday - 3 interesting/funny things happened because of bread-making.
1) Our house has 2 stoves/kitchens, and I was letting the bread rise in the other kitchen. After that was done, I flung the towel that covered the bread onto the stove and brought the dough into the actual kitchen. Ten minutes later, I walk back in and saw that the kitchen was kind of smoky...I thought "why is the kitchen kind of foggy? Or is it just my glasses getting dirty...then I saw the towel turning kind of black on one corner...immediately I shouted "oh my god Stephen come here", and opened the door to let the smoke out...I lifted the towel and I must have fanned it a bit because the towel started going up in flames...I freaked out, ran out of the door and flung the towel into the snow. At the same time, the fire detectors started ringing and so did the phone...it was chaotic.
Stephen`s theory - whoever last used the stove (which he believed was Cheryl and Charles making beans a couple of days ago) did not turn it off, and I was just unlucky to have the towel on there to find out that they didn`t turn it off. I find it a bit far-fetched that no one knew the element was on for so long, but whatever.
2) The bread I made (new recipe, trying out whole wheat bread), after an hour of baking (recipes calls for half an hour) was disgusting...centre was uncooked. I love the faces of people as they tasted a bit of it...and I found this out at 9 pm. Because there`s no more bread (even though Stephen and I made some on Monday) I had to make more...and on average bread takes 2 - 3 hours to rise and bake...I didn`t get to go to bed until 12 -1 pm.
3) Later in the night I realized why my bread was screwed up...I thought the oven was in celsius rather than fahrenheit...pretty much I didn`t cook the bread, I was heating it instead...uuggghhhhh...
Stephen was highly amused by all 3 events and kept making fun of me for them...
Gotta go...time to do dishes and clean the house...it`s almost 12 pm.
Side note: Why does people in the house keep inhaling bread and cheese like there`s no tomorrow? The 2 loaves I made yesterday are almost all gone already...frick I have to make more (must talk to Stephen about this). Damn white people and their bread (KIDDING KIDDING)
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Quick Summary of Sunday
It`s 1:43 am here...I should go to bed but I think I will write a blog before I do that. After all, the competition for the computer here is fierce...
So Sunday - I left the cafe around 12:30 pm, because there seems to be an activity going on at the afternoon...plus I don`t want to do another walk-in to the house and see everyone eating without me...fortunately that didn`t happen, but apparently the cheese factory tour (which was cancelled earlier) was back on, so at 1:30 we left the house and drove 30 minutes or so to this town/township called Hebertville...there`s this cheese factory/farm there which specializes in 3 different types of regional cheese - Valbert, Pikouka, and Kegaomi (pardon my mis-spellings). Except for Kegaomi (sharper and more interesting in taste), the other two are sweet and mild - the Pikouka won prizes before. Pretty much everyone went crazy with the cheese tasting except for Zach (and Mike kind of), since they don`t really like cheese that much.
Next we were shown their barn, which had lots of cows in there, plus some pigs, chicken, 1 lamb, some kittens...plus who can forget the barn dog? The cows were all female, different ages, and very gentle and curious...they pretty much follow you with their eyes whenever you go, and lick your hands if you held it out (I didn`t do it). Pretty much all the girls had a good time oohing and ahhing at the animals, plus taking pictures. During the time we were there, I got to see the process of cows urinating, farting, and excremating (misspelt properly, excuses-moi)...as well see Cheryl walking in when a cow was swishing its tail (needless to say it was laced with excrement and hit Cheryl straight on the head). Anyways we ended that with a couple of people buying cheese from the farm. Then we drove on, and I thought we were going home but nope, we went to another cheese factory (en francais - la fromagerie)...this time tasting 5 to 6 different cheeses. My favorites - this one that smells like feet but is extremely creamy and sweet, another one that resembles a cross between sour cream/yogurt/cream cheese, mixed with a bit of honey, and mozeralla cheese curds...yes it`s quite something, it feels like chewing on rubber styrofoam but the flavor is good enough that I had it again and again...
Finally we started heading home...but not before Cheryl coxed Valerie to drive us to Lac-St. Jean (which was on the way anyways) for a view...and what a view...it`s all white and frozen...it would have much more gorgeous in the summer. But by then we would be in BC, and the lakes are much more beautiful anyways, hahaha.
Prep for dinner/dinner/house meeting ran by Cheryl (Valerie would like us to run our house meetings now)/free time/bed
Oh yes before I end this, I finally talked to Maxime about her weird behaviour during the week (she has been crying all of a sudden every now and then, and leaves the house to be alone). Summary of that - she didn`t want to talk about it, but she is feeling much better (although the fact that I brought it up made her think about whatever made her unhappy, which was bad) and (I hope) she is glad that I was concerned. So my lesson here - when Maxime is upset, stay away from her.
So Sunday - I left the cafe around 12:30 pm, because there seems to be an activity going on at the afternoon...plus I don`t want to do another walk-in to the house and see everyone eating without me...fortunately that didn`t happen, but apparently the cheese factory tour (which was cancelled earlier) was back on, so at 1:30 we left the house and drove 30 minutes or so to this town/township called Hebertville...there`s this cheese factory/farm there which specializes in 3 different types of regional cheese - Valbert, Pikouka, and Kegaomi (pardon my mis-spellings). Except for Kegaomi (sharper and more interesting in taste), the other two are sweet and mild - the Pikouka won prizes before. Pretty much everyone went crazy with the cheese tasting except for Zach (and Mike kind of), since they don`t really like cheese that much.
Next we were shown their barn, which had lots of cows in there, plus some pigs, chicken, 1 lamb, some kittens...plus who can forget the barn dog? The cows were all female, different ages, and very gentle and curious...they pretty much follow you with their eyes whenever you go, and lick your hands if you held it out (I didn`t do it). Pretty much all the girls had a good time oohing and ahhing at the animals, plus taking pictures. During the time we were there, I got to see the process of cows urinating, farting, and excremating (misspelt properly, excuses-moi)...as well see Cheryl walking in when a cow was swishing its tail (needless to say it was laced with excrement and hit Cheryl straight on the head). Anyways we ended that with a couple of people buying cheese from the farm. Then we drove on, and I thought we were going home but nope, we went to another cheese factory (en francais - la fromagerie)...this time tasting 5 to 6 different cheeses. My favorites - this one that smells like feet but is extremely creamy and sweet, another one that resembles a cross between sour cream/yogurt/cream cheese, mixed with a bit of honey, and mozeralla cheese curds...yes it`s quite something, it feels like chewing on rubber styrofoam but the flavor is good enough that I had it again and again...
Finally we started heading home...but not before Cheryl coxed Valerie to drive us to Lac-St. Jean (which was on the way anyways) for a view...and what a view...it`s all white and frozen...it would have much more gorgeous in the summer. But by then we would be in BC, and the lakes are much more beautiful anyways, hahaha.
Prep for dinner/dinner/house meeting ran by Cheryl (Valerie would like us to run our house meetings now)/free time/bed
Oh yes before I end this, I finally talked to Maxime about her weird behaviour during the week (she has been crying all of a sudden every now and then, and leaves the house to be alone). Summary of that - she didn`t want to talk about it, but she is feeling much better (although the fact that I brought it up made her think about whatever made her unhappy, which was bad) and (I hope) she is glad that I was concerned. So my lesson here - when Maxime is upset, stay away from her.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Yesterday`s Events
So what happened on Saturday, March 18 - St. Patrick`s Day?
Overall, it was a pretty good day. We had an excursion to both Chicoutimi and Jonquiere (because both places are so close to each other) and we didn`t even need write an excursion plan because it was within our pentagon, according to Katimavik conduct. Anyways we were all supposed to leave at 9 am, but most of us (Zach, Rebecca, Cynthia, Rebecca, Cheryl, Charles, me) were a tad late with various reasons and when we got out of the house...that`s when we found out she drove away with Mike, Maxime, and Stephanie. We all waited for approximately 25 minutes before she came back and during the time we all thought she drove away to prove a point to us, because she is a stickler for punctuality and we thought she was doing that to give us a taste of our own medicine. Personally I thought she just went out to pick up some stuff...and if she really was then she is not using the right method, haha...because I didn`t feel punished in any way shape or form. But she came back...and we drove off into the distance, with gentle snow softly cascading the surroundings around the van...oh yes I found Maxime`s fake ID and bank card (she lost her wallet last Saturday) tucked in a pack of gum when I crawled into the back seat...I was like "Who the heck is Alexandria Cynthia Fortier?" loudly in the van, and Cheryl who was sitting next to me said "Psst, that`s Maxime`s fake ID" and immediately told Maxime that we found her ID, which made her happy (something she needs a lot of these days)...and I took 2 pieces of gum from her since I didn`t brush my teeth that morning, hahahaha
1 hour later - we arrived in Chicoutimi, and we first went to the look-out point where we can see a good part of the city. On this viewpoint there`s this giant white cross with a red heart in the center...kind of creepy in my opinion but the view itself was pretty cool. It`s basically trees, then houses, then buildings and churchs and other things plus a river and bridges...plus it was snowing which made it look like winter wonderland, although the cloud factor kind of ruined it.
We then went to La Pulperie de Chicoutimi, which is this old mechanical pulp factory back in the day turned into a museum of the city and region. It was pretty cool, and they featured things about the history of the city (the forestry and pulp industry), to architecture in Quebec (such as the Montreal City library, which I have been told is extremely cool looking), to artists in town (apparently this famous Canadian artist named Arthur Villenvue lived there...and he painted his whole house with his art...his whole house is in the museum and they showed how they transported his house into the museum, which was pretty cool. Although honestly, I am not a big fan of his art...I much prefer his son Michel Villenvue, which was also displayed there. We must have spent almost 3 hours there before we left, and I personally could spend another hour there (only because I really take my time when I go to museums).
After that we drove to La Petite Maison Blanche, the only house that survived a flood with pressure as strong as the Niagra Falls back in the day...so that pretty much made in the oldest house in the city. Unfortunately we couldn`t go in because it`s not open to the public in the winter, so we just took some photos and left.
We drove to the Jonquiere Katima-house for lunch, but we didn`t lunch with them because they were off in an excursion to Quebec City (which Maxime is working on, thank you very much!). So lunch happened...chickpea salad and one slice of bread (sometimes I feel like we are the orphaned kids in Oliver Twist with free labour and limited food)...but Valerie/Cheryl/Cynthia came back with pizza...yay! Then after I was done lunch (I was the last one as per usual) I offered to shovel the driveway in order for us to be able to clear out. I did that but I had to go back out again and shovel the driveway wider because Valerie doesn`t think she could get out...finally that was done and then we all left the house to go to our next destination...but not before Valerie had trouble backing out and we all had to get out and push the van out of the driveway...Katima-effort, I tell you!
So next we went to this art gallery with this exposition by a lady named Helene Roy...the art was interesting, abstract, a bit dark and mysterious...left a lot of space for us to question things. Zach/Rebecca/Me/Stephen kept trying to guess what we saw in the pictures and what it means. After half an hour, we left the exposition and originally we were supposed to go on a small hike at this park but because we were running late (it was already 5 pm when we left the exposition and we were supposed to head out at 5), we decided to skip that and go to a cafe in downtown Jonquiere instead. The cafe we went too was really cool, and although the ambiance is not like Cafe Sofa (it doesn't quite feel like a place you want to lounge in), their selection and prices are better and greater, plus the music was rather electic (they actually played a chinese pop song, hahaha). Everybody got tea (one tea selection for 3 people...the anglos chose Chocolate spice and St. Petersburg), and played games offered in the coffee shop (first it was UNO, then Dominos which Stephen taught me at home before...Zach picked up the game very quickly and now can kick Stephen's ass). And yay, the tea is covered by Katima-budget!
We left the cafe at 6 pm and drove him...while in the van in downtown Jonquiere we kept waving to random pedestrians, who were pleasantly surprised (for the most part, there are some that give us weird looks) and waved back. We got home around almost 7, and then we had tacos for dinner that night (courtesy of Rebecca and Charles). Originally I planned on tagging along with whoever had plans that night (watch some form of music performace, bar, dancing, whatever) since it's St. Patrick's day, and I really should party more and stay home less. But after finding out the cafe that usually has performances didn't have anything happening that night, plus rejecting Cheryl's invitation to the bar (I was planning to tag along with Rebecca/Cynthia/Mike/Zach to a bar/dance place) and after no one ended up going to the bar/dance...I just chilled at home and read a National Geographic, took a shower, and went to bed at 11 something...yes I know I am so boring, but might as well because I intended on waking up early...and I did! 6:30 pm...
So there...and now it's free time and I am just chilling in Cafe Sofa
1) Starting tomorrow, Stephen and I are house managers...should be fun and interesting, since we get along really well and we have different work styles
2) I can't believe it, starting this Thursday we are doing billeting. It's so early! And I think Valerie found a family for all of us already. So 2 weeks of billeting, then right after we take our 72 hours...I plan on going to Montreal to visit a friend of mine and just enjoy the city...ethnic foods...can't wait!
3) Oh yes, I have uploaded more pictures and even created a video account in Google Videos...I am not sure when you can see the videos but check them out! I probably need to do some clean up on them though...
Later days!
Overall, it was a pretty good day. We had an excursion to both Chicoutimi and Jonquiere (because both places are so close to each other) and we didn`t even need write an excursion plan because it was within our pentagon, according to Katimavik conduct. Anyways we were all supposed to leave at 9 am, but most of us (Zach, Rebecca, Cynthia, Rebecca, Cheryl, Charles, me) were a tad late with various reasons and when we got out of the house...that`s when we found out she drove away with Mike, Maxime, and Stephanie. We all waited for approximately 25 minutes before she came back and during the time we all thought she drove away to prove a point to us, because she is a stickler for punctuality and we thought she was doing that to give us a taste of our own medicine. Personally I thought she just went out to pick up some stuff...and if she really was then she is not using the right method, haha...because I didn`t feel punished in any way shape or form. But she came back...and we drove off into the distance, with gentle snow softly cascading the surroundings around the van...oh yes I found Maxime`s fake ID and bank card (she lost her wallet last Saturday) tucked in a pack of gum when I crawled into the back seat...I was like "Who the heck is Alexandria Cynthia Fortier?" loudly in the van, and Cheryl who was sitting next to me said "Psst, that`s Maxime`s fake ID" and immediately told Maxime that we found her ID, which made her happy (something she needs a lot of these days)...and I took 2 pieces of gum from her since I didn`t brush my teeth that morning, hahahaha
1 hour later - we arrived in Chicoutimi, and we first went to the look-out point where we can see a good part of the city. On this viewpoint there`s this giant white cross with a red heart in the center...kind of creepy in my opinion but the view itself was pretty cool. It`s basically trees, then houses, then buildings and churchs and other things plus a river and bridges...plus it was snowing which made it look like winter wonderland, although the cloud factor kind of ruined it.
We then went to La Pulperie de Chicoutimi, which is this old mechanical pulp factory back in the day turned into a museum of the city and region. It was pretty cool, and they featured things about the history of the city (the forestry and pulp industry), to architecture in Quebec (such as the Montreal City library, which I have been told is extremely cool looking), to artists in town (apparently this famous Canadian artist named Arthur Villenvue lived there...and he painted his whole house with his art...his whole house is in the museum and they showed how they transported his house into the museum, which was pretty cool. Although honestly, I am not a big fan of his art...I much prefer his son Michel Villenvue, which was also displayed there. We must have spent almost 3 hours there before we left, and I personally could spend another hour there (only because I really take my time when I go to museums).
After that we drove to La Petite Maison Blanche, the only house that survived a flood with pressure as strong as the Niagra Falls back in the day...so that pretty much made in the oldest house in the city. Unfortunately we couldn`t go in because it`s not open to the public in the winter, so we just took some photos and left.
We drove to the Jonquiere Katima-house for lunch, but we didn`t lunch with them because they were off in an excursion to Quebec City (which Maxime is working on, thank you very much!). So lunch happened...chickpea salad and one slice of bread (sometimes I feel like we are the orphaned kids in Oliver Twist with free labour and limited food)...but Valerie/Cheryl/Cynthia came back with pizza...yay! Then after I was done lunch (I was the last one as per usual) I offered to shovel the driveway in order for us to be able to clear out. I did that but I had to go back out again and shovel the driveway wider because Valerie doesn`t think she could get out...finally that was done and then we all left the house to go to our next destination...but not before Valerie had trouble backing out and we all had to get out and push the van out of the driveway...Katima-effort, I tell you!
So next we went to this art gallery with this exposition by a lady named Helene Roy...the art was interesting, abstract, a bit dark and mysterious...left a lot of space for us to question things. Zach/Rebecca/Me/Stephen kept trying to guess what we saw in the pictures and what it means. After half an hour, we left the exposition and originally we were supposed to go on a small hike at this park but because we were running late (it was already 5 pm when we left the exposition and we were supposed to head out at 5), we decided to skip that and go to a cafe in downtown Jonquiere instead. The cafe we went too was really cool, and although the ambiance is not like Cafe Sofa (it doesn't quite feel like a place you want to lounge in), their selection and prices are better and greater, plus the music was rather electic (they actually played a chinese pop song, hahaha). Everybody got tea (one tea selection for 3 people...the anglos chose Chocolate spice and St. Petersburg), and played games offered in the coffee shop (first it was UNO, then Dominos which Stephen taught me at home before...Zach picked up the game very quickly and now can kick Stephen's ass). And yay, the tea is covered by Katima-budget!
We left the cafe at 6 pm and drove him...while in the van in downtown Jonquiere we kept waving to random pedestrians, who were pleasantly surprised (for the most part, there are some that give us weird looks) and waved back. We got home around almost 7, and then we had tacos for dinner that night (courtesy of Rebecca and Charles). Originally I planned on tagging along with whoever had plans that night (watch some form of music performace, bar, dancing, whatever) since it's St. Patrick's day, and I really should party more and stay home less. But after finding out the cafe that usually has performances didn't have anything happening that night, plus rejecting Cheryl's invitation to the bar (I was planning to tag along with Rebecca/Cynthia/Mike/Zach to a bar/dance place) and after no one ended up going to the bar/dance...I just chilled at home and read a National Geographic, took a shower, and went to bed at 11 something...yes I know I am so boring, but might as well because I intended on waking up early...and I did! 6:30 pm...
So there...and now it's free time and I am just chilling in Cafe Sofa
1) Starting tomorrow, Stephen and I are house managers...should be fun and interesting, since we get along really well and we have different work styles
2) I can't believe it, starting this Thursday we are doing billeting. It's so early! And I think Valerie found a family for all of us already. So 2 weeks of billeting, then right after we take our 72 hours...I plan on going to Montreal to visit a friend of mine and just enjoy the city...ethnic foods...can't wait!
3) Oh yes, I have uploaded more pictures and even created a video account in Google Videos...I am not sure when you can see the videos but check them out! I probably need to do some clean up on them though...
Later days!
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Work and Other Fun Stuff
Anyways I am on "break" right now at work, so I figure I should work on this a bit...
Nothing much worth mentioning so far, except:
a) A "bad" incident happened at work on Tuesday, which I felt turned out for the better. Claudine was doing some admin work and after 2 hours of sheer boredom on her part, she asked me to help her fill up the rest with postal codes (she was working on labels to paste on envelopes). So anyways I did one page of that, and as I tried to continue on with the next page, I couldn`t find the next page anywhere. So I saved the work and closed the window, thinking perhaps if I reopen the file everything will be there, plus the work I saved. However it didn`t work and instead windows popped up (in French, no less) asking me if I was the admin and I need permission for things. Because the logical part of me is convinced that since I saved the work, it has to be somewhere within the computer. So I kept looking and Claudine pops by, asking how I was doing. I then explained to her what happened, and she immediately tried looking for the file, with no luck...so pretty much the files were lost (although I am still convinced it`s somewhere within the computer) and she was frustrated. This is totally understandable and I felt bad (because come on, we all know how it`s like losing an essay we worked on for hours) but this is where I felt the problem is. Instead of venting her frustrations to me in a healthy manner, she simply said, "ok Angel I will take care of it" and after half an hour or so she comes back to me and said everything is fine now. I know it sounds like I am thinking about this too much and I am complaining for nothing (which Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia said I am) but it feels like Claudine is being overly polite and patient with me...as if she is not very comfortable with showing herself with me. And I don`t want that to happen with people I work with constantly.
So despite Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia`s idea of ignoring the situation, I decided to talk to Claudine about it the next day as I was doing dishes. I explained to her what I felt, and she actually said that no, she was not being overly polite or patient with me at work, and she is very happy with the way I worked (some days I think otherwise). She just didn`t direct her frustrations with me because there was an obvious solution and there is no need for me to get those frustrations. On top of that, she said she is impressed enough with my work ability that she is trying to train me as "one of them" so when there are opportunities to serve 50+ meetings, she doesn`t need to get someone to come in and instead it could just be me and her...and at the end the tips will be split. This is quite a big deal and honor, so I was quite happy to hear that...although I am actually not allowed to take tips due to volunteering...but would that day of me taking tips ever come?
Oh speaking of work, today was a bit of an interesting day. 3 things happened:
1) I come in at 8 am, and I see a crowd of women (about 8) chatting. Then I say Claudine, who was feverishly preparing food...she was like "Angel I need your help, now...can you give me 6 fruit plates?" So for the next 15 minutes or so we were just working straight. After we were done she told me that she came in at almost 7 and unfortunately couldn`t open the door because it was frozen shut. So she had to go next door to Cafe du Clocher and ask for help (unfortunately no one was there). And then she drove to Annie`s house which was 8 minutes away, and they both had to go back and try to unfreeze the door, which they did by blowing water to the hinges...by that time the ladies were waiting outside the cafe and the rest is history...quite a little adventure she had.
2) Poor poor Aurelie...she came into work and I asked her how she was doing...she then told me that on Sunday, she was cleaning the toaster oven and a small piece of metal entered into her eye...first she was fine but Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday she had terrible headaches and she thinks the thing entered her optic nerve...and looking at light kills her (throughout the hour I was with her, she kept pulling down her tuque so it covered almost all of her eyes...it`s funny in a tragic way). And she finally decided to go home...hopefully she will feel better.
3) At the end of the day I was sent to do my usual grocery trips. This time it`s to La Maison du Pain (The House of Bread) and instead of having Annie call them in advance for food, I decided to go there and ask for items myself (Annie wrote me a list). I wanted to challenge myself and speak more French, and I was pumped to do it...however within 30 seconds of my talking the lady behind noticed I had a list and wanted to see it...and she starts packing me food based on the list. A bit disappointed...
4) One of my ideas for this blog/emails is to dedicate something especially for Mike, a "Mike moment" kind of thing where I talk about something he said that day that's extremely bizarre. Anyways...Yesterday night the group and I were in the cafe...they were doing a film event and we were watching a documentary by National Film Board called "Histoire de Sable"...anyways there's this scene where a bunch of African men are working hard...Rebecca told me that Mike turned to Rebecca at that moment and asked if those guys were slaves...just because they are "black and working"....oh my god...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
5) Oh yes before I forgot...I think I got invited by Aurelie to her art exposition. She says she is going to have a party for her art at Cafe du Clocher...should be fun. I saw some of her stuff and it's pretty cool.
Nothing much worth mentioning so far, except:
a) A "bad" incident happened at work on Tuesday, which I felt turned out for the better. Claudine was doing some admin work and after 2 hours of sheer boredom on her part, she asked me to help her fill up the rest with postal codes (she was working on labels to paste on envelopes). So anyways I did one page of that, and as I tried to continue on with the next page, I couldn`t find the next page anywhere. So I saved the work and closed the window, thinking perhaps if I reopen the file everything will be there, plus the work I saved. However it didn`t work and instead windows popped up (in French, no less) asking me if I was the admin and I need permission for things. Because the logical part of me is convinced that since I saved the work, it has to be somewhere within the computer. So I kept looking and Claudine pops by, asking how I was doing. I then explained to her what happened, and she immediately tried looking for the file, with no luck...so pretty much the files were lost (although I am still convinced it`s somewhere within the computer) and she was frustrated. This is totally understandable and I felt bad (because come on, we all know how it`s like losing an essay we worked on for hours) but this is where I felt the problem is. Instead of venting her frustrations to me in a healthy manner, she simply said, "ok Angel I will take care of it" and after half an hour or so she comes back to me and said everything is fine now. I know it sounds like I am thinking about this too much and I am complaining for nothing (which Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia said I am) but it feels like Claudine is being overly polite and patient with me...as if she is not very comfortable with showing herself with me. And I don`t want that to happen with people I work with constantly.
So despite Rebecca/Stephen/Cynthia`s idea of ignoring the situation, I decided to talk to Claudine about it the next day as I was doing dishes. I explained to her what I felt, and she actually said that no, she was not being overly polite or patient with me at work, and she is very happy with the way I worked (some days I think otherwise). She just didn`t direct her frustrations with me because there was an obvious solution and there is no need for me to get those frustrations. On top of that, she said she is impressed enough with my work ability that she is trying to train me as "one of them" so when there are opportunities to serve 50+ meetings, she doesn`t need to get someone to come in and instead it could just be me and her...and at the end the tips will be split. This is quite a big deal and honor, so I was quite happy to hear that...although I am actually not allowed to take tips due to volunteering...but would that day of me taking tips ever come?
Oh speaking of work, today was a bit of an interesting day. 3 things happened:
1) I come in at 8 am, and I see a crowd of women (about 8) chatting. Then I say Claudine, who was feverishly preparing food...she was like "Angel I need your help, now...can you give me 6 fruit plates?" So for the next 15 minutes or so we were just working straight. After we were done she told me that she came in at almost 7 and unfortunately couldn`t open the door because it was frozen shut. So she had to go next door to Cafe du Clocher and ask for help (unfortunately no one was there). And then she drove to Annie`s house which was 8 minutes away, and they both had to go back and try to unfreeze the door, which they did by blowing water to the hinges...by that time the ladies were waiting outside the cafe and the rest is history...quite a little adventure she had.
2) Poor poor Aurelie...she came into work and I asked her how she was doing...she then told me that on Sunday, she was cleaning the toaster oven and a small piece of metal entered into her eye...first she was fine but Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday she had terrible headaches and she thinks the thing entered her optic nerve...and looking at light kills her (throughout the hour I was with her, she kept pulling down her tuque so it covered almost all of her eyes...it`s funny in a tragic way). And she finally decided to go home...hopefully she will feel better.
3) At the end of the day I was sent to do my usual grocery trips. This time it`s to La Maison du Pain (The House of Bread) and instead of having Annie call them in advance for food, I decided to go there and ask for items myself (Annie wrote me a list). I wanted to challenge myself and speak more French, and I was pumped to do it...however within 30 seconds of my talking the lady behind noticed I had a list and wanted to see it...and she starts packing me food based on the list. A bit disappointed...
4) One of my ideas for this blog/emails is to dedicate something especially for Mike, a "Mike moment" kind of thing where I talk about something he said that day that's extremely bizarre. Anyways...Yesterday night the group and I were in the cafe...they were doing a film event and we were watching a documentary by National Film Board called "Histoire de Sable"...anyways there's this scene where a bunch of African men are working hard...Rebecca told me that Mike turned to Rebecca at that moment and asked if those guys were slaves...just because they are "black and working"....oh my god...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
5) Oh yes before I forgot...I think I got invited by Aurelie to her art exposition. She says she is going to have a party for her art at Cafe du Clocher...should be fun. I saw some of her stuff and it's pretty cool.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
A Chinese Girl in a Foreign Land
Sometimes being Chinese outside of populated cities brings some interesting "adventures". Here`s 2 stories that happened to me recently in Alma that I would like to share...
1) This happened on the first Saturday I was here (which was just last week, haha). I was walking down a street in downtown, trying to find the mall. I walked past a building where the entrance kind of dips inside, and it provided a little shelter for smokers to hang out (believe me when I say there are lots of smokers in Quebec...). There was this middle-aged man smoking, and as I walked past him he looked at me and started asking me something in French...I couldn`t fully understand what he is saying but I caught fragments such as "chinois" and "koreanne"...which I summed up to "What kind of asian are you? Chinese? Korean?" So I just quickly answered him "Je suis Chinois" and continued walking...he laughed and said something like "ah chinois! Le Chine!"...or something like that...he could have also said "la chienne" which pretty much means bitch, I cannot decide. But the idea of people stopping you and asking that is just strange...which brings me to my second story...
2) This happened yesterday after I got off work. Again I went to the mall and entered into a store called "Potpourri" which is like this kitcheware store that sells lots of funky kitchen gizmos (I am into stuff like that, haha). So I go in, and the lady was like (in French), "hello, how are you, can I help you with anything?" And I said, "no, I am good, I am just looking"...and she goes, "ok". But this is where it gets interesting (everything is pretty much said in French):
Lady: Just wondering, are you Chinese?
Me: Um, yes...
Lady: Excellent, can you help me with something?
Me: Um...sure...
(Lady drags me to almost the back of the store, which there is a bunch of cheap Chinese knives hanging. She pulls one out and flips to the back, which there is Chinese writing on what the knife is for)
Lady: Can you read this? And can you tell me what it means?
Me: Ok...(starts reading...I was done in 30 seconds)
(Me at this point is thinking how I can tell her the information with my lack of French)
Me: Can you speak English?
Lady: No, not at all...
Me: Ok that`s fine, I will try to explain...(whips out a English/French dictionary. Lady starts laughing)
Me: Yeah, I have to...(thinking how to say "stainless steel" in French)
Lady: (perhaps getting a bit impatient) Can you just tell me what this part of the knife does? (points to a funky blade on the knife)
Me: It`s for scaling fish (only I don`t know how to say "fish scales" in French, so I summed it up to fish skin instead)
Lady: Grubwejrk?
Me:....oui....(I have no idea what she said but it sounds about right, so yeah...then for verification I looked it up in the dictionary and showed her)
Lady: Oui, grubwejrk
Me: oui..
Lady: Ok, what about this? (points to something else)
Me: That`s for opening wine
Lady: This?
Me: For cutting open the chicken`s stomach (l`estomac de poulet, hahaha)
Lady: l`estomac de poulet???
Me: Oui (giggling)
Lady: And this?
Me: It`s for vegetables, fruits...
Lady: (Finally satisfied) Thank you very much
Me: Your welcome, it was...interesting...
- Fin - (for now, let`s see what happens in the future...)
1) This happened on the first Saturday I was here (which was just last week, haha). I was walking down a street in downtown, trying to find the mall. I walked past a building where the entrance kind of dips inside, and it provided a little shelter for smokers to hang out (believe me when I say there are lots of smokers in Quebec...). There was this middle-aged man smoking, and as I walked past him he looked at me and started asking me something in French...I couldn`t fully understand what he is saying but I caught fragments such as "chinois" and "koreanne"...which I summed up to "What kind of asian are you? Chinese? Korean?" So I just quickly answered him "Je suis Chinois" and continued walking...he laughed and said something like "ah chinois! Le Chine!"...or something like that...he could have also said "la chienne" which pretty much means bitch, I cannot decide. But the idea of people stopping you and asking that is just strange...which brings me to my second story...
2) This happened yesterday after I got off work. Again I went to the mall and entered into a store called "Potpourri" which is like this kitcheware store that sells lots of funky kitchen gizmos (I am into stuff like that, haha). So I go in, and the lady was like (in French), "hello, how are you, can I help you with anything?" And I said, "no, I am good, I am just looking"...and she goes, "ok". But this is where it gets interesting (everything is pretty much said in French):
Lady: Just wondering, are you Chinese?
Me: Um, yes...
Lady: Excellent, can you help me with something?
Me: Um...sure...
(Lady drags me to almost the back of the store, which there is a bunch of cheap Chinese knives hanging. She pulls one out and flips to the back, which there is Chinese writing on what the knife is for)
Lady: Can you read this? And can you tell me what it means?
Me: Ok...(starts reading...I was done in 30 seconds)
(Me at this point is thinking how I can tell her the information with my lack of French)
Me: Can you speak English?
Lady: No, not at all...
Me: Ok that`s fine, I will try to explain...(whips out a English/French dictionary. Lady starts laughing)
Me: Yeah, I have to...(thinking how to say "stainless steel" in French)
Lady: (perhaps getting a bit impatient) Can you just tell me what this part of the knife does? (points to a funky blade on the knife)
Me: It`s for scaling fish (only I don`t know how to say "fish scales" in French, so I summed it up to fish skin instead)
Lady: Grubwejrk?
Me:....oui....(I have no idea what she said but it sounds about right, so yeah...then for verification I looked it up in the dictionary and showed her)
Lady: Oui, grubwejrk
Me: oui..
Lady: Ok, what about this? (points to something else)
Me: That`s for opening wine
Lady: This?
Me: For cutting open the chicken`s stomach (l`estomac de poulet, hahaha)
Lady: l`estomac de poulet???
Me: Oui (giggling)
Lady: And this?
Me: It`s for vegetables, fruits...
Lady: (Finally satisfied) Thank you very much
Me: Your welcome, it was...interesting...
- Fin - (for now, let`s see what happens in the future...)
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Mar/8
Just want to share a short little something on today...
Work today was quiet...man this job really reminds me of IHOP...I was sent for groceries almost 3 times today (the only reason I didn`t need to go was because one of the places did not have what we want until tomorrow morning, which means I will have to brave the cold again tomorrow...-22, and including windchill -33). By the time I finished groceries my thighs are pretty much all rashed up from the cold...I have to start wearing 2 pairs of pants.
Today I met:
-Annie, one of the 3 people who works in cafe sofa. Therefore I met all the cafe sofa employees (not including the office people, which I am sure I will eventually). Like Aurelie, she pretty much only spoke to me in French.
Today I learnt:
-How to make cafe au lait, chocolate chaude, cafe viennoise, plus le croissant dore...
Learnt some French along the way...
Oh and I got off work and decided to deposit 2 cheques which I haven`t had the opportunity to do because there is no Bank of Montreal in Blind River...so went there today and prayed that either my French is good enough to do the job or someone there can speak some form of English...well neither of that happened and even though the money went into my account, the lady tried to explain in French that I will not get my money until March 19...which I understood no word of and after 3 minutes of blind confusion I figured out what`s going on...she gave me a bit of a scare...French + Bank = not good. Don`t you just love language barriers?
Oh yes last night the anglos finally got the first French class. The lady (Lucie Duval is her name) came over (thank god) and we had to write a multiple choice exam...I understood most of the exam but the last page on reading kind of stumped me...and after that Lucie got to know us in French (meaning we had to introduce ourselves in French). She is a really nice lady, and I think French class will be fun.
A bientot...Stephen is in the cafe right now with his laptop and he said dinner is at 5:30...it`s now 5:26 and we have meeting later.
Work today was quiet...man this job really reminds me of IHOP...I was sent for groceries almost 3 times today (the only reason I didn`t need to go was because one of the places did not have what we want until tomorrow morning, which means I will have to brave the cold again tomorrow...-22, and including windchill -33). By the time I finished groceries my thighs are pretty much all rashed up from the cold...I have to start wearing 2 pairs of pants.
Today I met:
-Annie, one of the 3 people who works in cafe sofa. Therefore I met all the cafe sofa employees (not including the office people, which I am sure I will eventually). Like Aurelie, she pretty much only spoke to me in French.
Today I learnt:
-How to make cafe au lait, chocolate chaude, cafe viennoise, plus le croissant dore...
Learnt some French along the way...
Oh and I got off work and decided to deposit 2 cheques which I haven`t had the opportunity to do because there is no Bank of Montreal in Blind River...so went there today and prayed that either my French is good enough to do the job or someone there can speak some form of English...well neither of that happened and even though the money went into my account, the lady tried to explain in French that I will not get my money until March 19...which I understood no word of and after 3 minutes of blind confusion I figured out what`s going on...she gave me a bit of a scare...French + Bank = not good. Don`t you just love language barriers?
Oh yes last night the anglos finally got the first French class. The lady (Lucie Duval is her name) came over (thank god) and we had to write a multiple choice exam...I understood most of the exam but the last page on reading kind of stumped me...and after that Lucie got to know us in French (meaning we had to introduce ourselves in French). She is a really nice lady, and I think French class will be fun.
A bientot...Stephen is in the cafe right now with his laptop and he said dinner is at 5:30...it`s now 5:26 and we have meeting later.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
New Job
Drum rolls, please...
I got the job in Cafe Sofa! So cool! Quite happy about that, since they strike me as a place that needs good French. But Valerie said the last girl who worked there was anglophone, and it worked out fine...as well I was one of their top choices during the interview, and they were rather impressed with my French, haha. I really am quite lucky, because a good number of people want to work there, including the frenchies...I seriously thought Cheryl would get the job...
Here`s the list of people and their jobs.
Zach - Youth Employment Center/Theatre
Rebecca - Thrift store
Mike - Farm
Stephen - Farm (I feel for him man)
Cynthia - Women`s Centre (grrrrrr....haha)
Maxime - Elementary school
Cheryl - Daycare (very surprised about that, I think there`s something going on there that I don`t know about)
Stephanie - Child/Pregnancy Place
Charles - CSI
In general, I think people got their first or second choice, which is good. Cheryl in a daycare still puzzles me...but whatever, this week Maxime and Cheryl are house managers because of their jobs. With the results of this I am going to take back what I said previously, that only the French kids can get the best jobs, because that`s not really true. And I am happy about that because that means we will learn French very quickly, yay. This gives hope to our existance here in Quebec...
So today was my first day at work, and it`s good...your typical barista/bartista job...reminds me a lot of IHOP, back in the good old days when I was a hostess. I met ma patronne Claudine...a nice lady who can speak English but we converse in a combination of franglais. As well, I actually got to work with the vraiment nice girl who gave me extra smoothie...her name is Aurelie and she pretty much only speak to me in French (even though she can speak English) which was tellement excellent pour moi, je prefere comme ca...she is an artist and some of her art is displayed in the cafe. She said perhaps I can visit her studio later on...tres fabuleux! Plus the job is quite chill...other than slight first-day mistakes (not cutting a croissant properly, ugly presentation of bananas), Claudine was tres impressionee avec moi, yay...I learnt how to make the arabian coffee and espresso today.
Oops it`s 17:24 now, and I am still in the cafe using the internet...I should go home now because they may be having dinner...plus it`s freaking cold outside.
I got the job in Cafe Sofa! So cool! Quite happy about that, since they strike me as a place that needs good French. But Valerie said the last girl who worked there was anglophone, and it worked out fine...as well I was one of their top choices during the interview, and they were rather impressed with my French, haha. I really am quite lucky, because a good number of people want to work there, including the frenchies...I seriously thought Cheryl would get the job...
Here`s the list of people and their jobs.
Zach - Youth Employment Center/Theatre
Rebecca - Thrift store
Mike - Farm
Stephen - Farm (I feel for him man)
Cynthia - Women`s Centre (grrrrrr....haha)
Maxime - Elementary school
Cheryl - Daycare (very surprised about that, I think there`s something going on there that I don`t know about)
Stephanie - Child/Pregnancy Place
Charles - CSI
In general, I think people got their first or second choice, which is good. Cheryl in a daycare still puzzles me...but whatever, this week Maxime and Cheryl are house managers because of their jobs. With the results of this I am going to take back what I said previously, that only the French kids can get the best jobs, because that`s not really true. And I am happy about that because that means we will learn French very quickly, yay. This gives hope to our existance here in Quebec...
So today was my first day at work, and it`s good...your typical barista/bartista job...reminds me a lot of IHOP, back in the good old days when I was a hostess. I met ma patronne Claudine...a nice lady who can speak English but we converse in a combination of franglais. As well, I actually got to work with the vraiment nice girl who gave me extra smoothie...her name is Aurelie and she pretty much only speak to me in French (even though she can speak English) which was tellement excellent pour moi, je prefere comme ca...she is an artist and some of her art is displayed in the cafe. She said perhaps I can visit her studio later on...tres fabuleux! Plus the job is quite chill...other than slight first-day mistakes (not cutting a croissant properly, ugly presentation of bananas), Claudine was tres impressionee avec moi, yay...I learnt how to make the arabian coffee and espresso today.
Oops it`s 17:24 now, and I am still in the cafe using the internet...I should go home now because they may be having dinner...plus it`s freaking cold outside.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Minor Frustrations
Little things that I learnt which is irking my quite a bit:
1) What do you say when Maxime tells you that she is going to use her $1000 from Katimavik to get a nosejob? For god`s sake she is not even 18.
2) Apparently Charles picked up smoking again...how sad.
3) I think Stephen is going to start drinking coffee again soon...but this I don`t blame him, it`s ridiculous for him to go from 9 cups a day to cold turkey forever...
Sigh...why are people so foolish?
1) What do you say when Maxime tells you that she is going to use her $1000 from Katimavik to get a nosejob? For god`s sake she is not even 18.
2) Apparently Charles picked up smoking again...how sad.
3) I think Stephen is going to start drinking coffee again soon...but this I don`t blame him, it`s ridiculous for him to go from 9 cups a day to cold turkey forever...
Sigh...why are people so foolish?
Work Tours
Anyways I should talk a bit about the work placements here in Alma. Selection-wise, it`s better than Blind River, in my opinion, just because the organizations are better aimed at "making the world a better place". However, the anglophones (myself included) are frustrated at the situation because the good work placements (the ones I am interested in) pretty much said they want French speakers...at the end of the day we kind of felt like shit for being English speakers.
So the work placements...
1) La nichee - a centre which provides services for newborns and pregnant mothers. May have some childcare involvement. They want French speaker
2) Cafe Sofa - the very hip fair trade coffee shop where I got my smoothie. English speaker allowed (although the boss would pretty much talk to you in English if you are an English speaker, which I don`t want)
3) CPE Les Picassas de ile - Child daycare centre, enough said (English speaker allowed, although I think it`s rather difficult)
4) CSI (Centre de solidarite internationale) - an organization that promotes fair trade and developement of 3rd world countries. A combination of office work and project developments (French Speaker)
5) Ecole Maria - an elementary school that promotes environmental issues and non-violence (English speaker allowed, but I don`t see how it`s possible)
6) Ferme du Couteau - an animal farm. Lots of dogs, chickens, ducks, horses...
7) A second-hand/recycling center/thrift store
8) Youth Employment Centre/Drama theater - data work, plus working in the theater (imagine high school plays)...French speaker
9) Women`s Center - a mix of many types of work. They have this really cool house that I want to work at...unfortunately they prefer French speaker.
So Valerie asked us for our top 5 choices...here`s mine:
1) Women`s Center 2) Cafe Sofa 3) CSI 4) Thrift store 5) Youth Employment Centre
Problem - most of the jobs I want require good French, plus I don`t fully understand what the job is like (try listening to 15-30 minutes of French, and you see what I mean)...plus everyone who knows me knows that I don`t like kids and animals...yikes
Well we just did the interviews this morning at Cafe Sofa, and although I really like how Valerie set up the interviews (she put a french person with an english person - eg. Me/Stephanie/Rebecca, plus we do rotations so we meet every employer), I don`t think I impressed the lady from the women`s center well enough with my mediocore French. On the other hand, I may have conveyed some incorrect information to the daycare lady and the school principal...goddamnit I don`t want to work there...oh well I did what I could with the amount of French I have, so hopefully things will work out.
We will see for tomorrow, because we start working tomorrow...
By the way, it`s Stephen and Cheryl`s birthday today! Happy 20. I made them a chocolate cheesecake and strawberry cheesecake last night, and I took the chocolate cheesecake out from the oven for cooling and specifically told Stephen not to let Cheryl have any, which also meant Stephen couldn`t have any. Well lo and behold this morning I found the cheesecake almost finished with a note next to it from Stephen, saying the cheesecake was awesome...that dick.
I should have known...this is like asking a fox to guard the chickens.
So the work placements...
1) La nichee - a centre which provides services for newborns and pregnant mothers. May have some childcare involvement. They want French speaker
2) Cafe Sofa - the very hip fair trade coffee shop where I got my smoothie. English speaker allowed (although the boss would pretty much talk to you in English if you are an English speaker, which I don`t want)
3) CPE Les Picassas de ile - Child daycare centre, enough said (English speaker allowed, although I think it`s rather difficult)
4) CSI (Centre de solidarite internationale) - an organization that promotes fair trade and developement of 3rd world countries. A combination of office work and project developments (French Speaker)
5) Ecole Maria - an elementary school that promotes environmental issues and non-violence (English speaker allowed, but I don`t see how it`s possible)
6) Ferme du Couteau - an animal farm. Lots of dogs, chickens, ducks, horses...
7) A second-hand/recycling center/thrift store
8) Youth Employment Centre/Drama theater - data work, plus working in the theater (imagine high school plays)...French speaker
9) Women`s Center - a mix of many types of work. They have this really cool house that I want to work at...unfortunately they prefer French speaker.
So Valerie asked us for our top 5 choices...here`s mine:
1) Women`s Center 2) Cafe Sofa 3) CSI 4) Thrift store 5) Youth Employment Centre
Problem - most of the jobs I want require good French, plus I don`t fully understand what the job is like (try listening to 15-30 minutes of French, and you see what I mean)...plus everyone who knows me knows that I don`t like kids and animals...yikes
Well we just did the interviews this morning at Cafe Sofa, and although I really like how Valerie set up the interviews (she put a french person with an english person - eg. Me/Stephanie/Rebecca, plus we do rotations so we meet every employer), I don`t think I impressed the lady from the women`s center well enough with my mediocore French. On the other hand, I may have conveyed some incorrect information to the daycare lady and the school principal...goddamnit I don`t want to work there...oh well I did what I could with the amount of French I have, so hopefully things will work out.
We will see for tomorrow, because we start working tomorrow...
By the way, it`s Stephen and Cheryl`s birthday today! Happy 20. I made them a chocolate cheesecake and strawberry cheesecake last night, and I took the chocolate cheesecake out from the oven for cooling and specifically told Stephen not to let Cheryl have any, which also meant Stephen couldn`t have any. Well lo and behold this morning I found the cheesecake almost finished with a note next to it from Stephen, saying the cheesecake was awesome...that dick.
I should have known...this is like asking a fox to guard the chickens.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
To or not...
Just came back from a rap performance...a bunch of kids (old Sault Ste Marie group and Zach and Rebecca) are going to the bar later...
To go or not to go...I should eh? But I don`t quite feel like it...
I have 15 minutes to decide...
To go or not...that`s the question.
To go or not to go...I should eh? But I don`t quite feel like it...
I have 15 minutes to decide...
To go or not...that`s the question.
Random quickie blog
Hey all
This is just a quickie (I promise!). I am now sitting in Cafe Sofa, an awesome free trade coffee shop by my house (I live in downtown Alma now) having a nice fruit smoothie (the girl behind the counter is so nice, she made extra and gave it to me in a tall tall glass) and using their free internet (and I am not talking about laptop, but actual computer)! This place is actually one of our work placements, and it would be awesome working here, although I doubt I would get the job because of my lack of French. Although the girl and I conversed in French, despite the fact that I don`t fully understand her and she can`t fully understand me, haha.
I think I gotta go...I suspect the cafe may have closed already but the girl just didn`t kick me out. Plus I gotta dash to the mall (MALL!) because I found this awesome CD store with a closing sale...going to buy the original Phantom of the Opera CD set for $12.99!!! What a steal!!!
[Edit] Apparently the CDs were an additional 50% off, so Phantom of the Opera costs me only $7 (not including tax of course). I went crazy and searched for CD for the next 30 minutes or so...at the end I bought:
Jewel - Spirit, The Phantom of the Opera - Original Cast, The Cranberries - Bury the Hatchet, Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Aqua - Aquarius, Mariah Carey - Music Box, Sarah Brightman - Time to Say Goodbye...all in the cost of $28!!!!!! There were more CDs that I wanted to buy, but I didn`t like them enough, I guess, and it`s hard to pack all these CDs...
Lisa the Sarah Brightman and Cranberries are for you...watch for it!
A bientot!
This is just a quickie (I promise!). I am now sitting in Cafe Sofa, an awesome free trade coffee shop by my house (I live in downtown Alma now) having a nice fruit smoothie (the girl behind the counter is so nice, she made extra and gave it to me in a tall tall glass) and using their free internet (and I am not talking about laptop, but actual computer)! This place is actually one of our work placements, and it would be awesome working here, although I doubt I would get the job because of my lack of French. Although the girl and I conversed in French, despite the fact that I don`t fully understand her and she can`t fully understand me, haha.
I think I gotta go...I suspect the cafe may have closed already but the girl just didn`t kick me out. Plus I gotta dash to the mall (MALL!) because I found this awesome CD store with a closing sale...going to buy the original Phantom of the Opera CD set for $12.99!!! What a steal!!!
[Edit] Apparently the CDs were an additional 50% off, so Phantom of the Opera costs me only $7 (not including tax of course). I went crazy and searched for CD for the next 30 minutes or so...at the end I bought:
Jewel - Spirit, The Phantom of the Opera - Original Cast, The Cranberries - Bury the Hatchet, Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Aqua - Aquarius, Mariah Carey - Music Box, Sarah Brightman - Time to Say Goodbye...all in the cost of $28!!!!!! There were more CDs that I wanted to buy, but I didn`t like them enough, I guess, and it`s hard to pack all these CDs...
Lisa the Sarah Brightman and Cranberries are for you...watch for it!
A bientot!
Friday, March 2, 2007
The Long Journey to Alma
Hmm...long or short? Let`s opt for short (the apostrophes just make me laugh).
So everyone had to wake up at 5:30 am for the 6:45 am charter bus which drives us to Sudbury (2 hours east of Blind River). From there, all 30 kids are split into 3 groups, and each group has a different way to get to Quebec City. After that we all meet in the airport of Quebec City, and a charter bus is supposed to pick us up at 5:45 pm and drop us off at Chicoutimi, then Jonquiere, then finally Alma...
My group: Stephen, Rebecca, Zach, Cynthia, Cheryl, Niki (Elliot Lake), Devon, (Elliot Lake)
My route: Blind River - Sudbury - Toronto - Montreal - Quebec City (Sudbury Toronto Montreal Quebec City via airplane...this is the first time in my life I took 3 plane rides on the same day)
Things went relatively smoothly, except for 2 things:
1) The first flight from Sudbury to Toronto was more than an hour late, which meant it caused another group to miss their next connecting flight. Fortunately our group`s flight from Toronto to Montreal is later than the other group, so that didn`t affect me. What affected me though:
2) Montreal - Quebec City. I didn`t get my 1 luggage (I head 2 plus one backpack). And guess what...that`s my luggage with all my clothes in it. Now the people in charge of luggages gave me a claim form, and promised that my bag will show up in Alma within 3 days...we will see about that. Meanwhile, I did something incredibly stupid that kind of bit me in the ass in this situation...let this be a lesson for you all.
- I did not put my new address on my bag. Instead it still has the old Blind River address on the Katimavik tag.
- I threw all my boarding passes away after I arrived in Quebec City. The boarding passes had a code plus information that I needed to track my bag down.
However, there is an upside to all this craziness, though. A couple of other people lost their baggages, too, ahnd Cheryl is in the same situation as I am. Only she isn`t so dumb and gave the people all the information. I merely told the people that I am in the same situation as her and Cheryl and I share the same information. Yes, how pathetic of me...but one has to find every silver lining possible, right?
The 5:45 pm charter bus was late by 20 minutes...what a surprise.
4 hours later - Alma, Quebec...super hungry, I was determined not to spend my $17 travel money given...I brought a huge bag of bread and pizza from camp but everyone kept snacking on it (I was left with 5 slices of bread and one slice of pizza). Good thing Valerie (my new PL) made a huge veggie platter and baked muffins.
Stephanie needs to talk to her hubby Ali online so I gotta dash...later!
So everyone had to wake up at 5:30 am for the 6:45 am charter bus which drives us to Sudbury (2 hours east of Blind River). From there, all 30 kids are split into 3 groups, and each group has a different way to get to Quebec City. After that we all meet in the airport of Quebec City, and a charter bus is supposed to pick us up at 5:45 pm and drop us off at Chicoutimi, then Jonquiere, then finally Alma...
My group: Stephen, Rebecca, Zach, Cynthia, Cheryl, Niki (Elliot Lake), Devon, (Elliot Lake)
My route: Blind River - Sudbury - Toronto - Montreal - Quebec City (Sudbury Toronto Montreal Quebec City via airplane...this is the first time in my life I took 3 plane rides on the same day)
Things went relatively smoothly, except for 2 things:
1) The first flight from Sudbury to Toronto was more than an hour late, which meant it caused another group to miss their next connecting flight. Fortunately our group`s flight from Toronto to Montreal is later than the other group, so that didn`t affect me. What affected me though:
2) Montreal - Quebec City. I didn`t get my 1 luggage (I head 2 plus one backpack). And guess what...that`s my luggage with all my clothes in it. Now the people in charge of luggages gave me a claim form, and promised that my bag will show up in Alma within 3 days...we will see about that. Meanwhile, I did something incredibly stupid that kind of bit me in the ass in this situation...let this be a lesson for you all.
- I did not put my new address on my bag. Instead it still has the old Blind River address on the Katimavik tag.
- I threw all my boarding passes away after I arrived in Quebec City. The boarding passes had a code plus information that I needed to track my bag down.
However, there is an upside to all this craziness, though. A couple of other people lost their baggages, too, ahnd Cheryl is in the same situation as I am. Only she isn`t so dumb and gave the people all the information. I merely told the people that I am in the same situation as her and Cheryl and I share the same information. Yes, how pathetic of me...but one has to find every silver lining possible, right?
The 5:45 pm charter bus was late by 20 minutes...what a surprise.
4 hours later - Alma, Quebec...super hungry, I was determined not to spend my $17 travel money given...I brought a huge bag of bread and pizza from camp but everyone kept snacking on it (I was left with 5 slices of bread and one slice of pizza). Good thing Valerie (my new PL) made a huge veggie platter and baked muffins.
Stephanie needs to talk to her hubby Ali online so I gotta dash...later!
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Rotation Camp
So, here I am...in Alma, Quebec
Changes are already occuring. For example, the keyboard I am using has a bunch of weird buttons and French accents. But hey, I am managing so far...apart from the fact that I can`t make apostrophes, haha.
On the plus side, the computer is now actually in a computer room, which means I don`t need peer over my shoulders everytime I write a blog.
However, the house in Alma still has the stupid CPU that the Blind River has...hopefully this computer doesn`t crash as easily as the other one...some things never change.
But before I indulge in my life in Alma (which hasn`t really started yet) I am going to try and quickly summarize the 2 days of Rotation Camp (by that I mean write 3-4 pages of things, haha).
The camp we went to (called Galiean Bible Camp, haha) is in the bushes of Blind River, which was convenient for us (hence the whole Blind River group decide to arrive late and sang our homemade Katimavik songs with Emilie as our last goodbye...
...Somthing on top of my head: that same day I was sitting in the kitchen, reading a magazine. Maxime was sitting in the kitchen, reading a magazine. Maxime came in and was like, "Angel why are you reading this old magazine? There are new magazines there. In fact she was so insistent with me reading the new magazines that I pretty much went with it just to please her...and I found a "Global Warming" magazine (a Playgirl magazine). Maxime had a great time looking for asian guys inside and asked me whether I was turned on by them...ew. So for you Castlegar (now the Blind River) kids, if you guys found that magazine this would explain why.
So anyways we get there, and we settle down. Originally I shared a room with Stephanie and Rebecca, but I decided to get a room all by myself (once I found out there are lots of empty frooms) because really, how often can I get a room to myself in Katimavik? Then Emilie had to leave for good, so we gathered around her and each of us gave her a long hug, then a group hug...we sang some more, and then we carried Emilie out to the van. Well to be precise we threw her into the snow, and then she got up and climbed into the van...we then form a human chain and blocked her from driving away...but eventually we let her go and she drove away...It was a bittersweet moment, and many of us had different degrees of sadness with the situation. Maxime and Cheryl were tearing for a little bit (although Maxime was more obvious about it). Which brings me to another event in the night...
The Elliot Lake group got lost coming to camp and their van broke down, so Beth (the PL from Sault Ste Marie) had to rescue them...this delayed dinner to around 7:00 pm, when everyone finally settled down for dinner (Pizza, pasta salad, bread, and assorted fruit juice by Blind River crew...I must say we did a great job). Beth and Brie (the two other PLs) stayed around for dinner, which is technically not allowed and our group were wondering "why are they allowed here when Emilie isn`t"...Maxime and Cheryl got rather upset and summoned Cara (the PC who was in charge of rotation camp) for explanation, which ended up with them venting their frustration with her (at one point Cara tried to explain something, and she said something like "do you understand what I am saying?"...and Cheryl was like, "yes I understand English perfectly fine" which I was kind of shocked by. Zach ended up going to Cara later and apologizing for Maxime and Cheryl and saying he understood that what happened was just bad luck and that both Brie and Bethany are tired and they need to eat something and say their goodbyes before they leave their groups for good. I think Cheryl and Maxime (Cheryl more so) were irritated that Zach did that, but deep down and later on they probably felt bad about what they did.
Hmm let me try to recap the major events that happened over the 2 days:
1) On the first night, each group had to present their final presentation and perform a skit on their PL. For our final presentation, because Maxime lost a lot of files and her moviemaker (which she made her slideshow) didn`t work properly, she ended up showing clips the kids doing the polar dip and whatever she had of the actual slideshow. Then we sang our song. I am going to type up the lyrics and post it here when I have time. We also made a skit on the way we see Emilie, and I must say it`s pretty good even though we only have 15 minutes to plan it. We jazzed ours up with props we found in a storage room...in my opinion (although I could be biased) our performances were the best, haha. Although I am slightly annoyed that Cara made us do so much performance while she just sit and relax and laugh...
Day 2: Each group had to lead a debriefing activity - something that makes us reflect on our experiences in the past 3 months. I liked the one Sault Ste. Marie had, although it was really simple (by the way I think Cara is rather harsh to the SSM group, she kept talking to them in a slightly fustrated tone when the kids have questions for her): each person has a sheet of paper where they write their name on top, and everyone in the group has to write a nice comment about the person. In the end, there will be a sheet of positive comments from everyone in the group (I will see if I have time to post mine up). The Elliot Lake one was ok...they gave each of us a sheet of questions which consists of things such as "How has Katimavik change you?", plus a ball of yarn which we were supposed to tie one end to a tree and bring it with us as we contemplate the answers of the questions. Meh. Our activity was probably the coolest of all, as we did it after dark and supper. What we did: a bonfire where we did meditation (in honor of Emilie), and then each person wrote something negative about their experience, and they threw the note into the fire. We end the night with roasted marshmallows and singing (although that was a bit difficult because there is the division between the French and English, and people weren`t very energetic about it).
The whole camp experience was ok...but I did re-learn an old lesson from this. You really can`t judge a book by its cover. What do I mean by that? I will take Thom (from Sault Ste. Marie) and Travis (from Elliot Lake) as examples. At the beginning, Thom strikes me as a pothead who isn`t very responsible, while Travis looks like a skinhead who could kill you if you do something wrong to him. However I kind of got to know them, and they are not really like that...they are quite interesting and easy to approach. If anything they could be nicer than some of the "normal" guys and girls there (i.e. Nina from Elliot Lake, very cute looking girl but carry a bitch vibe to her).
Moving on to the long journey to Alma, Quebec...
Emilie where are you? Leave some comments!
Changes are already occuring. For example, the keyboard I am using has a bunch of weird buttons and French accents. But hey, I am managing so far...apart from the fact that I can`t make apostrophes, haha.
On the plus side, the computer is now actually in a computer room, which means I don`t need peer over my shoulders everytime I write a blog.
However, the house in Alma still has the stupid CPU that the Blind River has...hopefully this computer doesn`t crash as easily as the other one...some things never change.
But before I indulge in my life in Alma (which hasn`t really started yet) I am going to try and quickly summarize the 2 days of Rotation Camp (by that I mean write 3-4 pages of things, haha).
The camp we went to (called Galiean Bible Camp, haha) is in the bushes of Blind River, which was convenient for us (hence the whole Blind River group decide to arrive late and sang our homemade Katimavik songs with Emilie as our last goodbye...
...Somthing on top of my head: that same day I was sitting in the kitchen, reading a magazine. Maxime was sitting in the kitchen, reading a magazine. Maxime came in and was like, "Angel why are you reading this old magazine? There are new magazines there. In fact she was so insistent with me reading the new magazines that I pretty much went with it just to please her...and I found a "Global Warming" magazine (a Playgirl magazine). Maxime had a great time looking for asian guys inside and asked me whether I was turned on by them...ew. So for you Castlegar (now the Blind River) kids, if you guys found that magazine this would explain why.
So anyways we get there, and we settle down. Originally I shared a room with Stephanie and Rebecca, but I decided to get a room all by myself (once I found out there are lots of empty frooms) because really, how often can I get a room to myself in Katimavik? Then Emilie had to leave for good, so we gathered around her and each of us gave her a long hug, then a group hug...we sang some more, and then we carried Emilie out to the van. Well to be precise we threw her into the snow, and then she got up and climbed into the van...we then form a human chain and blocked her from driving away...but eventually we let her go and she drove away...It was a bittersweet moment, and many of us had different degrees of sadness with the situation. Maxime and Cheryl were tearing for a little bit (although Maxime was more obvious about it). Which brings me to another event in the night...
The Elliot Lake group got lost coming to camp and their van broke down, so Beth (the PL from Sault Ste Marie) had to rescue them...this delayed dinner to around 7:00 pm, when everyone finally settled down for dinner (Pizza, pasta salad, bread, and assorted fruit juice by Blind River crew...I must say we did a great job). Beth and Brie (the two other PLs) stayed around for dinner, which is technically not allowed and our group were wondering "why are they allowed here when Emilie isn`t"...Maxime and Cheryl got rather upset and summoned Cara (the PC who was in charge of rotation camp) for explanation, which ended up with them venting their frustration with her (at one point Cara tried to explain something, and she said something like "do you understand what I am saying?"...and Cheryl was like, "yes I understand English perfectly fine" which I was kind of shocked by. Zach ended up going to Cara later and apologizing for Maxime and Cheryl and saying he understood that what happened was just bad luck and that both Brie and Bethany are tired and they need to eat something and say their goodbyes before they leave their groups for good. I think Cheryl and Maxime (Cheryl more so) were irritated that Zach did that, but deep down and later on they probably felt bad about what they did.
Hmm let me try to recap the major events that happened over the 2 days:
1) On the first night, each group had to present their final presentation and perform a skit on their PL. For our final presentation, because Maxime lost a lot of files and her moviemaker (which she made her slideshow) didn`t work properly, she ended up showing clips the kids doing the polar dip and whatever she had of the actual slideshow. Then we sang our song. I am going to type up the lyrics and post it here when I have time. We also made a skit on the way we see Emilie, and I must say it`s pretty good even though we only have 15 minutes to plan it. We jazzed ours up with props we found in a storage room...in my opinion (although I could be biased) our performances were the best, haha. Although I am slightly annoyed that Cara made us do so much performance while she just sit and relax and laugh...
Day 2: Each group had to lead a debriefing activity - something that makes us reflect on our experiences in the past 3 months. I liked the one Sault Ste. Marie had, although it was really simple (by the way I think Cara is rather harsh to the SSM group, she kept talking to them in a slightly fustrated tone when the kids have questions for her): each person has a sheet of paper where they write their name on top, and everyone in the group has to write a nice comment about the person. In the end, there will be a sheet of positive comments from everyone in the group (I will see if I have time to post mine up). The Elliot Lake one was ok...they gave each of us a sheet of questions which consists of things such as "How has Katimavik change you?", plus a ball of yarn which we were supposed to tie one end to a tree and bring it with us as we contemplate the answers of the questions. Meh. Our activity was probably the coolest of all, as we did it after dark and supper. What we did: a bonfire where we did meditation (in honor of Emilie), and then each person wrote something negative about their experience, and they threw the note into the fire. We end the night with roasted marshmallows and singing (although that was a bit difficult because there is the division between the French and English, and people weren`t very energetic about it).
The whole camp experience was ok...but I did re-learn an old lesson from this. You really can`t judge a book by its cover. What do I mean by that? I will take Thom (from Sault Ste. Marie) and Travis (from Elliot Lake) as examples. At the beginning, Thom strikes me as a pothead who isn`t very responsible, while Travis looks like a skinhead who could kill you if you do something wrong to him. However I kind of got to know them, and they are not really like that...they are quite interesting and easy to approach. If anything they could be nicer than some of the "normal" guys and girls there (i.e. Nina from Elliot Lake, very cute looking girl but carry a bitch vibe to her).
Moving on to the long journey to Alma, Quebec...
Emilie where are you? Leave some comments!
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