From Rotation Camp to Castlegar

So...I am officially back to Pacific Time Zone...and back to an English keyboard...

There is quite a lot to say about what happened between Rotation Camp to Castlegar, but because it is quite late (11:13 pm) and there are job interviews tomorrow (yes they are moving fast!), I am going to see if I can summarize, focus on the important things, etc (yeah right)

Before I start, I just want to mention that I am slightly worried about the blogging/computer situation here in Castlegar, because Alex (our new PL) seem to have strict rules about computer usage (no MSN/hogging the computer), so blogging/emails may become difficult. As well, I am keen on starting my navy package/Japanese learning (remember my 2007 resolution?). But we will see...where there's a will, there is a way...

So rotation camp...it was located in Mount Lac-Vert, in Hebertville (30 minutes away from Alma, and also where the awesome fromagerie is located at). We had supper, and at 7:00 pm drove to Mount Lac-Vert...so long, Alma and Valerie...but I was eager and ready for a new change. Overall there is really not that much to say about rotation camp, other than these points:
1) This time camp was shorter (good), but all the girls in the cluster (18) share one big room (bad). Last time camp was nicer looking and almost all the girls got their own room. The boys had to share room too but there are only 6 of them now (not including Mike because he wasn't there).
2) Things we did - reshowing our final presentation/farewell to PL/expectations of next PL/Rhythm exercise/gift to PL...overall the experience was relatively relaxed. Veronique (Quebec PC and a cool lady, I must add) and Cara (old ex-PC in Ontario) have quite different styles of doing things.
3) Got to know some people a bit better from the other clusters, and got to hang out with Robbie (whose grandfather passed away, so he left for a week to return home to the funeral), so that was cool. By this point cliques are forming in the cluster (and
me/Cynthia/Robbie/Devon..ish are kind of in a group...the nerdy under-the-stairs kids, haha).
4) Got confirmation from Veronique that Mike is indeed coming back...and he will be (he did) join us in the Kelowna airport. Unsurprising thing - people were disappointed. Surprising thing - Veronique indirectly encouraged us to find ways to get rid of him. She said we (especially Zach and Rebecca) know valuable information that is useful to the head office, and with enough of this information things can be done. We will see...

Travelling...man that was crrrraaaaazzzzy
Itinerary - bus arrives 11:00 pm, Tuesday night (the bus came at 10:20 pm)
- bus arrives at 5:30 am in Montreal (WHAT? but anyways the bus was earlier and fast...we got there at 4:00 am, and waited for an hour before the counters were open).
- plane leaves at 7:00 am, flies to Toronto and arrives at 8:05 am
- catch a connecting flight at 9:20 am, arrive Kelowna at 10:56 am (PST - which means 1:56 pm in CST = 4 hours)
- bus picks us up at 12 something, and drives us off from Kelowna to Trail/Castlegar/Nelson, respectively (4+ hour drive). I swear, Katimavik always tries to find a way to make the travel arrangements as difficult as possible...I don't know if anyone can beat this...
Important things to mention here:
- Things went relatively smoothly, but Stephanie's baggage got broken on the flight. Luckily, Westjet was willing to fix it and the lady who helped us had a spare suitcase, so we took that and she said Stephanie's old suitcase will be fixed and returned to her after a couple of weeks. In any case, things worked out...I am pretty impressed with Westjet's service.
- We saw Mike in the Kelowna airport. What can I say...he was the same old Mike, sans the colored mohawk (his grandmother cut it for him). Perhaps there are slight changes, because he was relatively distant to the group, especially Zach and Rebecca (apparently Rebecca waved hi to him, but he didn't wave back). Zach thinks someone in the head office talked to him about this and advised him to watch his behaviour if he still want to stay in the program. We will see how things fold out.

Bus ride - 5 hours long, and was spectacular. I always knew BC was gorgeous, but I did not realize the true meaning of the phrase "Beautiful British Columbia" until that bus ride. Luckily for us, our bus driver was a tour guide so pretty much he spent half of the trip talking about different things in the region and its history (Japanese concentration camps, Gold Rush, Doukhobours)...with pretty Okanagan farms and stunning mountains and rivers to boot. Needless to say I enjoyed my bus ride, despite the fact that a) I didn't really sleep well even though I would love some sleep from the long travelling b) in the airport I spilled iced tea on my new CD player, and it was acting funny on me...=( Anyhow seeing BC in its full splendor made me realize how lucky our group was to do our last 3 months in BC, with the stuff it offers.
So after a good couple of hours we arrived to Trail, which is where Sault Ste. Marie/Jonquiere is staying...they have the nicest house I have seen from Katimavik with lots of rooms and design a bit like an IKEA house...plus it's right by the river, and close to downtown...
Their PL is a guy (something I want just to mix things up) and apparently he is a replacement for the last PL who quit. That should be interesting.

Next - our house. Unfortunately, our house is not quite like theirs (back to Katimavik standards), and it is far from anything...the closest things (7-11, Dairy Queen) is a 25 minute walk, and downtown is like 1.5 hour walk...so you pretty much have to bike everywhere. Despite all this things are pretty cool still. The girls get to have 2 in one room (Maxime + me were assigned to one...the best room in the house) but the boys still had to stay in one room together. And our background is pretty sweet...a gorgeous view of the mountains and Columbia River, and nice and big with flowers and fruit trees and stuff that was planted previously. And our new PL Alex seems very nice, easygoing and sweet...more about her in the future.

Things are moving fast...Thursday is work tours, Friday is interview, work starts Monday.