I have decided to keep this blog titleless, just because I don't feel like thinking of one after sitting at the computer for a couple of hours working on my Creston day trip excursion protocol that Alex (PL) was supposed to have sent to Christine (PC) 2 weeks ago. Sigh...

Oh yes as you have noticed, once again I am at my billet family, healing from my injuries. This blog will be dedicated to the billet "drama" that has happened. Since I don't feel like sitting in front of the computer (perhaps switching to sitting in front of the TV instead) any longer, I am going to keep this short and simple (yeah I know, that's so unlike me).

1) Stephen - ever since 72 hours off, Stephen has developed something on his legs which is believed to be a very, very bad case of poison ivy reaction. It is pretty disgusting looking, all pus-sy like and comparable to a tree bark. He went into his billet family with that condition (although it seemed like he was getting better) but apparently Friday night he puked in his billet family and had to go to the hospital and stay there for a couple of days...

2) Maxime - she is billeting with one of her co-workers, and things were supposedly going well...until Christine got a phone call from Maxime's billeting family saying that they no longer want to billet Maxime. This is confusing because apparently Maxime didn't think there were problems, and didn't see it coming. Nevertheless, she is still living with her billet family...I think this is rather awkward, especially when Maxime and her billet mom are co-workers...let's see how that goes.

3) Cheryl - this has nothing to do with her billet family, instead it's about her work placements. So right now Cheryl works in BEAKS, a shelter where people send in injured birds and volunteers take care of them until they get better...then the volunteers release them. Sounds like an interesting job and a good cause and all, but Cheryl had trouble with that job ever since day 1...and it's all because of her boss Carol. Anyways apparently Carol is someone who is super-obsessed with her job...she would pretty much wake up, take care of her birds for the whole day, then go to bed. In other words, BEAKS is her life...and according to Cheryl she is extremely hard to deal with, super stubborn, high stressed (sounds like she has some mental issues) etc. Also BEAKS is highly unsanitary (there are dead bird carcasses/animals/worms/dirt everywhere)...with a combination of these things, plus the fact that Carol pretty much told Cheryl off (she indirectly "fired" Cheryl, if you know what I mean), Cheryl kind of lost her work placement. Which actually for Cheryl, isn't a big deal...she hated working there. So right now she is working in Blueberry Elementary School with Maxime for a week, and something will be decided once Alex returns. I personally think it would only be natural that Cheryl will take over Mike's positions, since...

4)...Mike is gone - Yes, you read right. Mike is officially kicked off the program. After months of edging towards that path, but never quite reaching it...and then gone but returning like cancer, Mike is forever gone in our group. So what exactly happened that brought on to this? Well on top of the 2 final warnings that he accumulated in the program (one for respect, one for participation), he did something during billeting that ticked off his billet family: apparently he went "snooping" in one of the daughter's bedrooms (if you guys kept up with all the blog entries then you would know that Mike knows no boundaries) and broke a cabinet door (well the week he was billeting with Stephen's boss he broke the shower handle, but she didn't complain). Anyways the family called Christine and told her they want Mike to get out of their house, so Christine spent her Saturday morning calling all the billet families and asked if they could take Mike in temporarily...and Mike got the boot officially on Monday (Irony - when I asked Mike what he did that got his billet family upset, he was very vague and muttered something quick like "oh I don't know I guess we don't get along...yeah I broke their door". Then he adds...and this is the golden part: "oh I am sure I won't be kicked off because of this, or else Christine wouldn't have called all the billet families to look for a place for me to stay". And boom, within a couple of hours he got the news that he is going home...
I am not going talk about my thoughts and feelings on this incident because a) I don't quite have time right now, I am quite sick of being in front of the computer for so long and b) Mike is a subject that is over-discussed ever since the beginning of the program. Perhaps another time.

5) And who can forget about me, my ordeal, my drama? Yes it has to be about me, as always...=)

TV time.

Blogging After My Accident

So I am now blogging in the afternoon...wow I haven't done that since in Alma. Since I can't do that at my museum job right now, this obviously means I am at "home" (billeting house to be exact). I am staying in for the day because of a "dramatic" event that happened to me yesterday...and since I have quite a bit of time right now I have decided to tell the story in the long format, for you unlucky people, hehe. And well, also because I haven't properly blogged for such a long time...I really should be more diligent with that, especially with all the stuff that has happened since our arrival in Castlegar, BC

So the story (long format). This goes back to Friday, after I wrote my blahgins blog. As per usual, I rode my borrowed bike to work, and as I was changing the gear while climbing uphill, the gear locked but so did the pedals..so I couldn't pedal. Luckily I wasn't that far away from the house, so I walked back, and called my boss. He offered to drive me to work but since I lived in a location that was relatively difficult to find, I told him to find me at the old Schoolhouse Restaurant (a known landmark in the area). But I didn't see him there, so I decided to continue walking on the highway and hopefully see him driving up. Well I must have walked 30 minutes (in muggy 30 something degrees, no less) on the highway before I see his car driving on the other side. He honked, I got into the air conditioned car, and all was well...except for the bus ride back home. Castlegar has only 1 bus route available and it takes an hour to do the whole route...and unfortunately the bus did not stop where I needed to get off (the bus driver told me I missed the last one that did) so I had to walk from downtown back to the little suburb in hot interior heat (ok it wasn't that bad...they only lived a 20 minute walk from downtown).

That night Jim (my billet dad) fixed my bike, and he noticed that my front tire was flat (which I was confused about since people pumped it for me during my bike-a-thon from Nelson to Castlegar only 2 weeks ago) so he added air for me. But it got flat again the next day so Karina (my billet mom) pumped it again and added a cover for the airhole (since my tire didn't have a cover for the hole). And yesterday we found out the tire got flat again so Karina decided that I should borrow Arija (my 11 year-old billet sister who is about my height ;P)'s bike instead, so I did that...here's where the story gets interesting.

Arija has a really good bike, with brakes that stop immediately after you press them...too good to be true. And that's was what happened to me after I got off work yesterday...I was biking on the highway in a bike owned my an 11 year old (I was pretty close to the house) and I was going downhill...I braked and it stopped immediately. Well if you can imagine those old cartoons, it looked exactly like that...I flew out of my bike and fell on to the pavement. I will give you a couple of seconds to imagine that...

...so I was on the pavement and I don't know...I was in shock at what just happened and I just started gasping. And before I know it, I see 2 ladies' faces asking me if I was ok, what my name is...then more faces appeared. Most of them were men who just got off work, and a good number asked me what happened and all that stuff...someone called 911 (I was thinking, oh no...the police will fine me for not wearing a helmet), while another person (who worked for construction or paramedics or something like that) had walkie-talkies and tried diverging traffic...everything felt so surreal, with all these people hurrying around me and me just lying on the ground...oh yes then out of nowhere Cheryl shows up with her billet family (they drove past and saw me) and she was like "Angel oh my god...". I got her to take the bike away and bring it back to the house, though, which was good...
Popular question amongst the crowd - Where's your helmet?

Then the ambulance shows up and the paramedics did the whole first-aid drill...one guy was pretty cute with blond hair and blue eyes, it was too bad I looked pretty disgusting at that point...then they put me in this stretcher bed and pushed me into the ambulance car...as they do that I saw blood on the concrete...man the surreal factor just goes up so much more...
During the ride the cute paramedic asked me a bunch of questions, ranging from where I was from and what happened and all that stuff...fortunately I felt fine enough that when he asked where my home is, I answered with "where the heart is, haha". And the question of the day, no less..."Where's your helmet?"

So the rest of the time was kind of anti-climatic, in my opinion. The nurse comes in, checks on me and asks a bunch of questions. Then the paramedic comes in, says goodbye (not before warning me to wear my helmet next time)...and I was alone for a little bit. Suddenly...

...the police shows up. I was thinking "darn is he going to fine me for not wearing my helmet" but it turns out he just needed to do a file on me since someone called 911. So he asks me a bunch of questions on where I am from and what happened. And finally he ends the whole thing by saying "wear your helmet next time". Haha apparently he handles around 100 cases of this on a daily basis...he must be so jaded about it.

Then Karina shows up (she looked rather worried) with Cheryl (which was quite a surprise). While I got bandaged by the nurse, Karina and Cheryl and I chatted and shared "katimavik-gossip"...quite a load of drama happened this week during billeting, it seems. Maybe I will talk about them at another time.
Finally I got driven home by Karina...Cheryl apparently contacted Christine (my PC) who contacted Karina so that's how she found out. Oh yes the nurse reminded me to wear my helmet. And that night, instead of watching Harry Potter with Arija and her little buddy and Karina, I indulged the evening vegging out in front of the TV, half dead from the medication while informing my mother very lightly what happened to me (she freaked out nevertheless).
So today I don't have to work...in a way it was good because I haven't been in an empty house free from work ever since...katimavik started? So that is why I can write all this stuff right now.
Yay silver lining!

Ok that's not it with the silver lining...the fact that I didn't sustain any head injury or break anything was really quite something (even my glasses weren't crushed). Plus I wasn't fined by the police, which is just great. Now I just need to check if my CD player is broken too (someone laughed when they find out that not only was I not wearing my helmet, I was also listening to music too...)

Moral of the story - Wear a helmet. And don't ride a bike owned by an 11 year old with glue-like tractions.

Injuries sustained - mildly scraped knees (good thing I was wearing jeans), scrape on right shoulder, various cuts and torn skins on both hands (especially right one), and a giant red gash on right cheekbone which needs icing. Plus I bit the inside of my mouth too. And who can forget my very tender left wrist...

Something interesting - 1) This is actually not the first bike accident I had in Castlegar. Last last Friday (the Friday before my 72 hours off) I fell of my bike at Kinnaird Bridge. But that's more with skills, and I just scrapped my right palm and my knees.
2) However, this is the first time in my life that I got into an ambulance, with the whole 911 and people crowding drama included. Katimavik makes a first for everything, doesn't it?

Bitching about UBC

Just finished registering for my courses in UBC...1 measly psychology course, haha. May I just add that planning and registering for courses is absolutely a pain in the butt; not until 5 minutes prior to my alloted time in UBC did I find out I needed to pay for non-refundable deposit (doesn't this smell like a scam to you?) and therefore my account was blocked from registration...what??

Good thing for credit cards and quick wit ;)...fixed everything and I was able to register for my course...now I owe UBC $716.55. Next thing they will tell me that I also owe them my future first-born.

The whole school situation this year is kind of tricky, because I have decided to study at 2 schools at once (UBC, good old Cap) and therefore had to balance my schedule between both places, as well as allotting time for navy training and a potential 2nd part-time job (which will happen, I guarantee it!)...certain courses had to be sacrificed (ie. Japanese) and in the end I could only take 4 courses, which was not what I had intended but things worked out for now...I had other schemes in my head to balance everything out...

Now that I finished my "breakfast" (two sausages...mmm haven't had that for a looong time), I will leave to bike to work...conquer the great big mountain on my 6 speed old-school bike...hopefully more later.

A Quick Blah

Hey, long time no blog...will try to write something good, very soon...lots of interesting stuff happened to me since I last wrote...

- Relay for Life
- St. Jean-Baptiste Day (drama, drama)
- Changes in work
- 72 hours off (fun fun fun)
- My week of house managing with Zach
- Billeting (this Friday!)

'Kay Night!