Betty Ann just dropped by with more things for me to update, and she gave me the final copy of my reference letter. I haven't read it yet, so I will read it as I type it...man I am actually a bit nervous, probably because she told me she made quite a bit of changes...
February 12, 2007
To Whom It May Concern:
This letter of reference is being provided for Angel Tang, a Katimavik participant who worked for the Blind River Chamber of Commerce from December 2006 through to February 2007 as my office assistant. It has been a rewarding experience working with Angel thse past few months.
Angel has good communication skills and presents herself well. She is keen to learn and is not afraid to provide interesting insights to the job at hand.
Angel works very well on her own. This was an important skill for the position with the Chamber as she spent most of her time at the Travel Centre on her own. Angel is organized and uses her time wisely as was evident in the work that was completed on various projects she was involved with. Angel takes instructions and suggestions well whether they be in person, email, or over the phone.
Overall, Angel was an asset for the chamber during the time we had with her. She possesses many traits that would be beneficial to any company. I would highly recommend her to any future employers.
Yours truly,
Betty Ann Dunbar
President
Blind River Chamber of Commerece
Well...that's wasn't so bad at all. However she just made me realize how bad my English grammar is...yikes...
Monday, February 12, 2007
Personality/Sex Quiz
Remember during New Year's Eve party/Coffee House, I said my performance was doing a quiz on everyone? Well I thought you guys may be interested to have it on the blog...here it is:
Dream House
Read the following questions, imagining the scenes in your mind, and write down the FIRST thing that you visualize. Do not think about the questions excessively. This is a relational psychology test and the answers given to the questions have been shown to have a relevance to values and ideals that we hold in our personal lives.
1. You are walking in the woods. Who are you walking with?
2. You are walking in the woods. You see an animal. What kind of animal is it?
3. What interaction takes place between you and the animal?
4. You walk deeper into the woods. You enter a clearing and before you is your dream house. Describe its size.
5. Is your dream house surrounded by a fence?
6. You enter the house. You walk to the dining area and see the dining room table. Describe what you see on and around the table.
7. You exit the house through the back door. Lying in the grass is a cup. What material is the cup made of (ceramic, glass, paper, etc.)?
8. What do you do with the cup?
9. You walk to the edge of the property, where you find yourself standing at the edge of body of water. What type of body of water is it (creek, river, ocean, etc...)
10. How will you cross the water?
Analysis
1. The person who you are walking with is the most important person in your life.
2. The size of the animal is representative of your perception of the size of your problems.
3. The severity of the interaction you have with the animal is representative of how you deal with your problems (passive, aggressive).
4. The size of your dream home is representative of the size of your ambition to resolve your problems.
5. No fence is indicative of an open personality. People are welcome at all times. The presence of a fence is more indicative of a closed personality. You'd prefer people to not drop by unannounced.
6. If your answer did not include food, people, or flowers then you are generally unhappy.
7. The durability of the material with which the cup is made is representative of the perceived durability of your relationship with, the person from number 1. For example, Styrofoam, plastic, and paper are disposable; Styrofoam, paper, and glass (ceramics) are not durable; and metal and plastic are durable.
8. Your disposition of the cup is representative of your attitude toward the person in number 1.
9. The size of the body of water is representative of the size of your sexual desire.
10. How wet you get in crossing the water is indicative of the relative importance of your sex life.
Dream House
Read the following questions, imagining the scenes in your mind, and write down the FIRST thing that you visualize. Do not think about the questions excessively. This is a relational psychology test and the answers given to the questions have been shown to have a relevance to values and ideals that we hold in our personal lives.
1. You are walking in the woods. Who are you walking with?
2. You are walking in the woods. You see an animal. What kind of animal is it?
3. What interaction takes place between you and the animal?
4. You walk deeper into the woods. You enter a clearing and before you is your dream house. Describe its size.
5. Is your dream house surrounded by a fence?
6. You enter the house. You walk to the dining area and see the dining room table. Describe what you see on and around the table.
7. You exit the house through the back door. Lying in the grass is a cup. What material is the cup made of (ceramic, glass, paper, etc.)?
8. What do you do with the cup?
9. You walk to the edge of the property, where you find yourself standing at the edge of body of water. What type of body of water is it (creek, river, ocean, etc...)
10. How will you cross the water?
Analysis
1. The person who you are walking with is the most important person in your life.
2. The size of the animal is representative of your perception of the size of your problems.
3. The severity of the interaction you have with the animal is representative of how you deal with your problems (passive, aggressive).
4. The size of your dream home is representative of the size of your ambition to resolve your problems.
5. No fence is indicative of an open personality. People are welcome at all times. The presence of a fence is more indicative of a closed personality. You'd prefer people to not drop by unannounced.
6. If your answer did not include food, people, or flowers then you are generally unhappy.
7. The durability of the material with which the cup is made is representative of the perceived durability of your relationship with, the person from number 1. For example, Styrofoam, plastic, and paper are disposable; Styrofoam, paper, and glass (ceramics) are not durable; and metal and plastic are durable.
8. Your disposition of the cup is representative of your attitude toward the person in number 1.
9. The size of the body of water is representative of the size of your sexual desire.
10. How wet you get in crossing the water is indicative of the relative importance of your sex life.
Reference letter
So anyways after the letter/lunch/photo maintenance I am back for more blogging...
Here's the reference I wrote for myself (what a strange concept):
February 12, 2007
To Whom It May Concern:
This reference letter is provided at the request by Angel Tang, a Katimavik participant who worked for me from December 2006 – February 2007 as my office assistant in Chamber of Commerce. My experience with her for these three months has been an interesting one, as I supervise her and learn about her personality and work habits.
At the beginning, Angel presented herself as a person with a good amount of work experience. She had good communication skills and was able to present herself well in the interview. As well, she seemed keen on learning and had interesting insights on her work position.
Through working with Angel, I found her to be someone who can work very well on her own. This is an important skill for her work position, for Angel was in charge of the Blind River Travel Center and she was alone most of the time there. As well, Angel is organized and efficient, as she helped me with several projects and these traits were inevitable in her work performance. Moreover, Angel handles my instructions and suggestions proficiently, despite the fact that I am not always with her in the office. This makes my role as a supervisor easier and simpler.
Overall, Angel was an asset for the Chamber during the time she was working for me. She possesses many traits that would be beneficial to other companies. I therefore would recommend her to future employments.
Yours truly,
Betty Ann Dunbar
PresidentBlind River Chamber of Commerce
I sent the letter to Betty Ann, and now I am just waiting for edits. Hopefully I achieved that fine balance between being a glowing letter for myself and not sounding too cocky, haha.
Here's the reference I wrote for myself (what a strange concept):
February 12, 2007
To Whom It May Concern:
This reference letter is provided at the request by Angel Tang, a Katimavik participant who worked for me from December 2006 – February 2007 as my office assistant in Chamber of Commerce. My experience with her for these three months has been an interesting one, as I supervise her and learn about her personality and work habits.
At the beginning, Angel presented herself as a person with a good amount of work experience. She had good communication skills and was able to present herself well in the interview. As well, she seemed keen on learning and had interesting insights on her work position.
Through working with Angel, I found her to be someone who can work very well on her own. This is an important skill for her work position, for Angel was in charge of the Blind River Travel Center and she was alone most of the time there. As well, Angel is organized and efficient, as she helped me with several projects and these traits were inevitable in her work performance. Moreover, Angel handles my instructions and suggestions proficiently, despite the fact that I am not always with her in the office. This makes my role as a supervisor easier and simpler.
Overall, Angel was an asset for the Chamber during the time she was working for me. She possesses many traits that would be beneficial to other companies. I therefore would recommend her to future employments.
Yours truly,
Betty Ann Dunbar
PresidentBlind River Chamber of Commerce
I sent the letter to Betty Ann, and now I am just waiting for edits. Hopefully I achieved that fine balance between being a glowing letter for myself and not sounding too cocky, haha.
Random Stuff
So...it's another day of "work"...
I am actually happy about all this freedom and free time I get at work. It really is a sweet deal, me getting to use the computer for 8 hours on almost whatever I want - emailing/msning/working on this blog. In fact if it is not for what I am doing right now, the blog would not be set up so quickly. Anyways not until today does it really hit me that I have only 4 days of work to go; my last day of work is this Thursday, since Betty Ann is going on vacation to Los Cabos (Mexico) next week, and Stephanie and I are the house managers next week. I also can't believe we are almost leaving Blind River. Two more weeks...time really does fly.
When each Katimavik participant finishes their work placement, they are supposed to get a letter of recommendation/reference from their employers. However because this is Betty Ann's first year in actually dealing with Katimavik kids directly (previously it was Ross MacDonald, who was the office manager of the Travel Center plus Betty Ann's assistant who dealt with stuff like this), she doesn't really have an idea of the Katimavik paperwork that she needs to do. Because I suspected that I will not get a letter if I don't say anything, I reminded her today about the letter plus the work portfolio that we have to work on, and I suggested that if she didn't have a letter ready for me, then I would write one and she can edit it. Hahaha, my suspicions were correct - she took my suggestion and asked me to write my own reference letter. So this is what I am going to do right now...and tomorrow morning we will talk about my work portfolio (again it's my idea).
How exactly should I write a reference letter so that I don't sound biased on my account, but still give me an excellent advantage? Moreover how strange it is to write my own reference letter to begin with...
I shall google for ideas...be back later.
I am actually happy about all this freedom and free time I get at work. It really is a sweet deal, me getting to use the computer for 8 hours on almost whatever I want - emailing/msning/working on this blog. In fact if it is not for what I am doing right now, the blog would not be set up so quickly. Anyways not until today does it really hit me that I have only 4 days of work to go; my last day of work is this Thursday, since Betty Ann is going on vacation to Los Cabos (Mexico) next week, and Stephanie and I are the house managers next week. I also can't believe we are almost leaving Blind River. Two more weeks...time really does fly.
When each Katimavik participant finishes their work placement, they are supposed to get a letter of recommendation/reference from their employers. However because this is Betty Ann's first year in actually dealing with Katimavik kids directly (previously it was Ross MacDonald, who was the office manager of the Travel Center plus Betty Ann's assistant who dealt with stuff like this), she doesn't really have an idea of the Katimavik paperwork that she needs to do. Because I suspected that I will not get a letter if I don't say anything, I reminded her today about the letter plus the work portfolio that we have to work on, and I suggested that if she didn't have a letter ready for me, then I would write one and she can edit it. Hahaha, my suspicions were correct - she took my suggestion and asked me to write my own reference letter. So this is what I am going to do right now...and tomorrow morning we will talk about my work portfolio (again it's my idea).
How exactly should I write a reference letter so that I don't sound biased on my account, but still give me an excellent advantage? Moreover how strange it is to write my own reference letter to begin with...
I shall google for ideas...be back later.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
First Day of Billeting - Jan 19
Hey guys...
Don't you just hate it when you finish writing an email, and as you are about to send it or do something with it, you just accidentally closes it? Well, that's what happened to me and the Jan 19 email yesterday (Jan 29). Guess I will have to start over...
Jan 19
Well, as far as I can remember, not much happened in the morning time and work, so I will just jump straight into the exciting part of the day, which was for me around 4 pm and everyone pretty much was feverishly packing and preparing themselves for the billeting family, which arrives to pick us all up at 5 pm. So pretty much I only have an hour to pack for 2 weeks, but it wasn't as bad as it seems. In fact, I put all the things I needed into a medium sized suitcase, and I was pretty much done in 30 minutes...although I thought I packed too much though. After I was done, I went to the living room where people who were done hung out, and chillaxed a bit before my billeting family comes to pick me up. Pretty soon the families started arriving...first it was Maxime's family, so she was the first one to go. Before she left, she gave everyone goodbye hugs and when she got to me, she started tearing up...I absolutely could not believe it. I was like "Maxime, why are you crying? It's only 2 weeks!" And Aaron (who is actually Stephen's billeting family) comforted her by saying that because the town is so small, pretty much she will see everyone everyday...
Next it was Zach's family, and then Mike's family and my family came at the same time. It was only Sister Dianne who came to pick me up, and she is this dumpy 60 something year old lady. I said my goodbyes, and off we go to her house...Sister Dianne and Sister Trina live in this nice 3 level house which is too big for them by the travel center (where I work, in case you guys don't remember ;), which is the biggest reason why I was chosen to live with them. When we enter the house, I was greeted by Sister Trina, Dianne's older sister (equally dumpy) who was cooking in the kitchen. And a little farther I could see the cat, a fat black-and-white thing hovering in the distance. (For your interest - the cat actually has no real name. Dianne calls him whatever she wants depending on her mood - aka "fur baby" to "CAT!!" Trina calls him "Maui" majority of the time).
So anyways Dianne shows me my bedroom, which is also Trina's office. It looked strangely like a bed-and-breakfast type of room. I dropped off my things and Dianne continues giving me a tour of the house. Here's what the house consists of:
- Basement: An open area with some old furniture, a laundry machine and dryer, and lots and lots and lots of old Christmas decorations which the ladies hasn't finished packing away yet. As well, this is where the cat sleeps, so there is also a litter box and food.
- Main floor: A big living room with 3 comfortable couch-chairs (think granny chairs), a big TV, fireplace, plus lots of plants
A small/medium kitchen, fully functional
A nice dining room plus another living room
A tiny washroom
Trina's office/my room
- Top floor: A bathroom
Two big bedrooms, one for Trina and one for Dianne
An actual prayer room, complete with bible, pedestal/lecture stand, and statue of Jesus. This room made me slightly queasy and iffy about the Sisters. But then again, they are nuns, so what can I say?
After the tour, I had some time to unpack, and pretty soon dinner was ready. As we ate our meat tarts, the Sisters grilled me with questions...which is different that what I am used to because it's usually me that asks the question instead of the other way around. As well, they told me about this concert that's happening in the French Catholic high school around 7 pm, and they had bought a ticket for me to go with them. So after dinner, that's where we went.
When we got to the concert, Trina and Dianne led me to this row close by the stage where all their friends were sitting (later I found out this row was affectionately dubbed "the nuns' row") and they introduced me to their friends, whom most were senior-aged nuns. As well, Dianne introduced me as the Katimavik student that they got in for billeting...I always find it so funny that people's eyes light up when they find out that I am doing Katimavik and I am from Vancouver...and it doesn't help that Dianne presented me as if I was the newest toy in the market and she is lucky enough to have it in possession. In the concert, I saw Cynthia, who is living with another nun named Sister Bernadette...unfortunately they sat pretty far away from us so the only thing I could do was wave to her. Apparently this concert is a "nuns' event", because the performers are regular church-goers and they are there to support them. The concert that night was to raise money for the Rotary Club, which apparently is an organization that is similar to Katimavik, except it's worldwide and the person is doing it for a year (I am going to look into it when I have time). The whole performance revolves around a band which is a knock-off of the Dixie Chicks, and the performers looks eerily creepy to the Dixie Chicks, except they are much older...in fact this is probably how the Dixie Chicks will look like in 15 years time (No I am not kidding either, there's so much resemblance). Of course, they have a band that plays drums/bango/harmonica at the background, and they are all men (hahaha). For the next 3 hours, the band played mostly country music, especially songs by the Dixie Chicks. Surprisingly, the concert was really really good, even though I don't listen to country music all that much. a) The ladies can really sing and perform b) Who would think this tiny town would have talent, especially from 3 middle-aged ladies? I also really appreciate the fact that the lead singer (Louis) told many many jokes throughout the whole evening. Let's see what I can remember:
1) When God created the first man (aka Adam), God told Adam to spread the human species. Since Adam didn't know how to do that, God gave him a set of instructions - walk through the forest, swim through the river, go down the valley, climb up the mountain, find the cave, enter into the cave, find the woman, and reproduce. Again, because Adam has never done any of these things, God had to explain everything to him, step by step. Finally, Adam was ready to go, and he walks through the forest, swims through the river, goes down the valleu, climbs up the mountain, finds the cave, enters into the cave, and finds the woman. However, something happens, and he turns around and returns to God. When God saw him, he was confused and asks Adam, "why did you return?" Adam then asks God, "What's a headache?"
2) Once there were two sisters/nuns (and Louis adds, "No, they are not Sister Dianne and Sister Trina, hahaha") who were doing grocery shopping. They saw the beer was on sale, and they very much wanted to buy it and drink it up. However, they are nuns, so this makes the situation complicated. "What should we do?" asks nun #1. Nun #2 thinks about the situation, then says, "don't worry about it, let me handle the situation." So she picks up a case of beer and walks to the cash aisle, where the cashier gave her a very weird look but still rang it in. The nun laughs and says, "no no, we are not going to drink the beer, God forbid...it's for washing our hair!" As soon as she finishes saying that, nun#1 comes in and tosses a bag of pretzels next to the beer. "And don't forget our hair curlers," declares nun#1.
3) There was a man who went on a business trip, and he wondered how his home was doing. So he calls home and an obedient servant answers the phone. "How is the house? And how's my wife?" asks the man. "The house is good, sir", answers the servant, "and your wife is good too...she is sleeping with another man upstairs." The man instantly got very furious. "What?? How dare she sleeps with another man other than me...why they both must die!" So the man told the servant to go get his gun and kill both of them, and then report back to him. The obedient servant obediently did exactly what she heard. "Sir, I did what you told me," said the servant. "Good, good...what did you do with the gun?" asks the man. "I got rid of it," said the servant. "Excellent, and what did you do with the bodies?" asks the man. "I threw both of them into the swimming pool," answered the servant. "Good...wait, I have no swimming pool in my house though!" exclaims the man. Then he realized that he did something very, very terrible..."Is this 543-27...???"
So overall, I had an excellent evening, and when the concert ended and we got home, it was around 10:20 ish. Pretty much we wounded down and just watched TV for a bit (20/20: Credit card debts and frauds), while the Sisters continued to grill me with their questions and made comments about the shows. Around 11:30 I started getting sleepy, so I bided the sisters goodnight, took a shower, and went to bed.
Don't you just hate it when you finish writing an email, and as you are about to send it or do something with it, you just accidentally closes it? Well, that's what happened to me and the Jan 19 email yesterday (Jan 29). Guess I will have to start over...
Jan 19
Well, as far as I can remember, not much happened in the morning time and work, so I will just jump straight into the exciting part of the day, which was for me around 4 pm and everyone pretty much was feverishly packing and preparing themselves for the billeting family, which arrives to pick us all up at 5 pm. So pretty much I only have an hour to pack for 2 weeks, but it wasn't as bad as it seems. In fact, I put all the things I needed into a medium sized suitcase, and I was pretty much done in 30 minutes...although I thought I packed too much though. After I was done, I went to the living room where people who were done hung out, and chillaxed a bit before my billeting family comes to pick me up. Pretty soon the families started arriving...first it was Maxime's family, so she was the first one to go. Before she left, she gave everyone goodbye hugs and when she got to me, she started tearing up...I absolutely could not believe it. I was like "Maxime, why are you crying? It's only 2 weeks!" And Aaron (who is actually Stephen's billeting family) comforted her by saying that because the town is so small, pretty much she will see everyone everyday...
Next it was Zach's family, and then Mike's family and my family came at the same time. It was only Sister Dianne who came to pick me up, and she is this dumpy 60 something year old lady. I said my goodbyes, and off we go to her house...Sister Dianne and Sister Trina live in this nice 3 level house which is too big for them by the travel center (where I work, in case you guys don't remember ;), which is the biggest reason why I was chosen to live with them. When we enter the house, I was greeted by Sister Trina, Dianne's older sister (equally dumpy) who was cooking in the kitchen. And a little farther I could see the cat, a fat black-and-white thing hovering in the distance. (For your interest - the cat actually has no real name. Dianne calls him whatever she wants depending on her mood - aka "fur baby" to "CAT!!" Trina calls him "Maui" majority of the time).
So anyways Dianne shows me my bedroom, which is also Trina's office. It looked strangely like a bed-and-breakfast type of room. I dropped off my things and Dianne continues giving me a tour of the house. Here's what the house consists of:
- Basement: An open area with some old furniture, a laundry machine and dryer, and lots and lots and lots of old Christmas decorations which the ladies hasn't finished packing away yet. As well, this is where the cat sleeps, so there is also a litter box and food.
- Main floor: A big living room with 3 comfortable couch-chairs (think granny chairs), a big TV, fireplace, plus lots of plants
A small/medium kitchen, fully functional
A nice dining room plus another living room
A tiny washroom
Trina's office/my room
- Top floor: A bathroom
Two big bedrooms, one for Trina and one for Dianne
An actual prayer room, complete with bible, pedestal/lecture stand, and statue of Jesus. This room made me slightly queasy and iffy about the Sisters. But then again, they are nuns, so what can I say?
After the tour, I had some time to unpack, and pretty soon dinner was ready. As we ate our meat tarts, the Sisters grilled me with questions...which is different that what I am used to because it's usually me that asks the question instead of the other way around. As well, they told me about this concert that's happening in the French Catholic high school around 7 pm, and they had bought a ticket for me to go with them. So after dinner, that's where we went.
When we got to the concert, Trina and Dianne led me to this row close by the stage where all their friends were sitting (later I found out this row was affectionately dubbed "the nuns' row") and they introduced me to their friends, whom most were senior-aged nuns. As well, Dianne introduced me as the Katimavik student that they got in for billeting...I always find it so funny that people's eyes light up when they find out that I am doing Katimavik and I am from Vancouver...and it doesn't help that Dianne presented me as if I was the newest toy in the market and she is lucky enough to have it in possession. In the concert, I saw Cynthia, who is living with another nun named Sister Bernadette...unfortunately they sat pretty far away from us so the only thing I could do was wave to her. Apparently this concert is a "nuns' event", because the performers are regular church-goers and they are there to support them. The concert that night was to raise money for the Rotary Club, which apparently is an organization that is similar to Katimavik, except it's worldwide and the person is doing it for a year (I am going to look into it when I have time). The whole performance revolves around a band which is a knock-off of the Dixie Chicks, and the performers looks eerily creepy to the Dixie Chicks, except they are much older...in fact this is probably how the Dixie Chicks will look like in 15 years time (No I am not kidding either, there's so much resemblance). Of course, they have a band that plays drums/bango/harmonica at the background, and they are all men (hahaha). For the next 3 hours, the band played mostly country music, especially songs by the Dixie Chicks. Surprisingly, the concert was really really good, even though I don't listen to country music all that much. a) The ladies can really sing and perform b) Who would think this tiny town would have talent, especially from 3 middle-aged ladies? I also really appreciate the fact that the lead singer (Louis) told many many jokes throughout the whole evening. Let's see what I can remember:
1) When God created the first man (aka Adam), God told Adam to spread the human species. Since Adam didn't know how to do that, God gave him a set of instructions - walk through the forest, swim through the river, go down the valley, climb up the mountain, find the cave, enter into the cave, find the woman, and reproduce. Again, because Adam has never done any of these things, God had to explain everything to him, step by step. Finally, Adam was ready to go, and he walks through the forest, swims through the river, goes down the valleu, climbs up the mountain, finds the cave, enters into the cave, and finds the woman. However, something happens, and he turns around and returns to God. When God saw him, he was confused and asks Adam, "why did you return?" Adam then asks God, "What's a headache?"
2) Once there were two sisters/nuns (and Louis adds, "No, they are not Sister Dianne and Sister Trina, hahaha") who were doing grocery shopping. They saw the beer was on sale, and they very much wanted to buy it and drink it up. However, they are nuns, so this makes the situation complicated. "What should we do?" asks nun #1. Nun #2 thinks about the situation, then says, "don't worry about it, let me handle the situation." So she picks up a case of beer and walks to the cash aisle, where the cashier gave her a very weird look but still rang it in. The nun laughs and says, "no no, we are not going to drink the beer, God forbid...it's for washing our hair!" As soon as she finishes saying that, nun#1 comes in and tosses a bag of pretzels next to the beer. "And don't forget our hair curlers," declares nun#1.
3) There was a man who went on a business trip, and he wondered how his home was doing. So he calls home and an obedient servant answers the phone. "How is the house? And how's my wife?" asks the man. "The house is good, sir", answers the servant, "and your wife is good too...she is sleeping with another man upstairs." The man instantly got very furious. "What?? How dare she sleeps with another man other than me...why they both must die!" So the man told the servant to go get his gun and kill both of them, and then report back to him. The obedient servant obediently did exactly what she heard. "Sir, I did what you told me," said the servant. "Good, good...what did you do with the gun?" asks the man. "I got rid of it," said the servant. "Excellent, and what did you do with the bodies?" asks the man. "I threw both of them into the swimming pool," answered the servant. "Good...wait, I have no swimming pool in my house though!" exclaims the man. Then he realized that he did something very, very terrible..."Is this 543-27...???"
So overall, I had an excellent evening, and when the concert ended and we got home, it was around 10:20 ish. Pretty much we wounded down and just watched TV for a bit (20/20: Credit card debts and frauds), while the Sisters continued to grill me with their questions and made comments about the shows. Around 11:30 I started getting sleepy, so I bided the sisters goodnight, took a shower, and went to bed.
Almost Billeting - Jan 18
Jan 18
Hmm...as per usual, I can't really think of what to say about the morning and work...same old same old I guess. So let us jump to after work...
The first thing I did as soon as I went home was to package my cookies that I baked the night before and try and hurry to the post office to send it out before the delivery truck leaves. Just as I thought...Mike and Charles ate a good number of my cookies, but good thing there are still a good number of them. As I was packing my cookies, Emilie was in the dining room preparing 10 packages of paperwork for us and our billeting family
(Ok guys here's a piece of information that you guys probably want to know about. In each trimester of the program, everyone in the group is assigned to a billeting family, whom he/she will live with for 2 weeks. The purpose of this is to allow us to know the local community and assimilate ourselves better, plus it is the only time where we are away from our group = privacy and alone time. This usually happens during the middle of each trimester, so for us it's from January 19 - February 2).
Emilie asked us to sign the paperwork that she prepared, and that's when I found out who my billeting family is - Sister Dianne and Trina, who are this pair of nuns and biological sisters, and they also have a fat cat in their house. I had actually met them a while ago in a party (I probably will write an email about that day, because surprisingly I still remember about it) and they seemed like pretty cool people. I am just not crazy about the fact that they have a cat and hopefully they are not going to try and convert me...
I went into "downtown" (cough cough) and into the post office...mailed the cookies (man, $8.24 for cookies which will take a week to arrive...or $18 something for 2-3 days...that's some expensive cookies), and went back home because apparently dinner will be early tonight since we have a workshop on leadership at Eckat High school. I can't remember much about dinner other than the fact that Zach actually made dessert and it was this chocolate mudslide thing that looks sickeningly sweet but everyone devoured it like there's no end to it...
Emilie couldn't come with us because she had to meet the billeting families for last minute details, so after dinner we ditched our dishes and walked to the high school, which was a 15-20 minute walk. As we walked, it was snowing and it was quite nice walking in the snow at night. Charles and Stephen were as per usual being their usual dickhead selves (haha)and pushed me around during the walk. So pretty much the walk there for me consisted of avoiding them and thinking of ways to revenge...I settled for powder face wash (throwing snow in their face) for both of them inside the building...needless to say I made myself a bigger target for them, but at least I was safe for now.
The person who was doing our workshop was this guy who used to be the principal of the high school, but is now retired. If I remember correctly his name was Jim. Well, let's call him Jim here, whatever...anyways he started off by having us play this game where we choose what animal (unfortunately we can only choose to be mammals, which I have no idea why) we want to be, and what animal we would not want to be. I chose to be the Sasquatch (because I like the privacy and the idea that I am a mystery), which everyone laughed at. Jim finds it interesting that I chose that answer, and that I chose to sit all the way at the back of the classroom. I told him that it's only because I have Stephen and Charles hunting me down (they both located themselves in the row next to me) and I must watch over them, haha. I chose the chicken as an animal I wouldn't want to be (I know that's not a mammal, but Maxime chose the rooster, so I felt I have a right to choose what I want too), because chickens are the most abused animal on earth right now. After he got everyone's answers, he asked "Why do you think I am doing this game and what does this have to do with leadership?"...which lead to his lecture on leadership.
So for the next hour (more like 45 minutes), he talked about what being a leader is about, and he told stories/drew diagrams/asked us questions/etc. I wasn't bored from his lecture, just because he is a charismatic speaker and had a lot of control with his words. As well, he analyzed certain people in the room (he said he bet Maxime is someone who gets going very easily in the morning, which we all laughed at because it's true), which was interesting. In a way, he reminded me a lot of Mr. Mackenzie, my old socials studies teacher in high school whom I had for 3 years and who is very popular in school. The only thing that I didn't agree with him was that a) he was a bit too Christian for me (in the lecture, he said that Jesus Christ is his leader and he is merely a follower, but he uses his power given from Christ to guide others) b) he thought Stephen Harper and Stephan Dion were excellent leaders (COUGH COUGH). But overall it was quite interesting. At the end, he wanted to do an activity of character analysis with us, but since we didn't have enough time (we were only supposed to be there until 8), he gave Rebecca the activity and told us to do it at home. And that's what we did. (The walk back home for me was interesting, because I walked all the way at the back of the group to avoid Stephen and Charles...but they didn't do anything to me, which may be the best revenge because the suspense kills, haha).
So anyways, back to the character analysis test. Pretty much the test is a questionnaire, with 11 questions and we have to pick one person in our group for each question. Now if I can remember what my test looks like (Unfortunately we can only choose one answer per question, no repeats...that sucks):
1) Who would you go to a party with - Zach
2) Who would you bring to your parents? - Rebecca
3) Who would you stay on a deserted island with - Stephanie
4) Who would you do hard work with - Charles
5) Who would you bring to a hospital - Maxime
6) Who would you choose as your best friend - Cheryl
7) Who would you study with - Cynthia
8) Who would you bring to a prison - Mike
9) Who would you have as a parent - Stephen
10) Who would you travel with - Me/Angel
11) Who would you have to teach you things - Emilie
Anyways, we all did that, and majority of the people chose Cheryl and Rebecca as "best friend", Maxime to "party", me and Stephen as "parent" (what???????), Cynthia as "study", Emilie to "teach you things", and me and someone else as "travel" (although that may not count on my part because I chose myself and apparently we are not allowed to do that, haha). Interesting test.
After that Emilie came back from the meeting and we had a little meeting about the billeting period. Pretty much the message is "have fun" and our code word if we were in danger/the family is "jeans" (eg. "How are you doing in the family?"..."My jeans are torn" - they are locking me up in the cellar). As soon as the meeting is done, I took a shower, and then had a loooooong phone conversation with a friend of mine. During the phone conversation Zach/Rebecca/Stephanie bugged me by dancing around me and chanting stupid things over the phone. As well, Cheryl/Charles/Maxime used Stephen's head to create a paper-maiche mohawk cap while I was talking on the phone...it was pretty funny to watch the creation of that as I was chatting, and poor Stephen...he is always used for projects like this. I remember the night where Charles/Stephen/Mike got haircuts and everyone had fun cutting his hair, haha (I didn't join in). Mike ended up getting it buzzed, haha.
I pretty much talked on the phone until almost everyone went to bed (it was 1:00 am?). I hung up the phone and saw Cheryl and Stephen are still in the living room. They must have been chatting and Cheryl ended up falling asleep on Stephen's lap, which was cute. I bided Stephen good night and went to bed.
My adventures with my billeting family starts tomorrow...
Hmm...as per usual, I can't really think of what to say about the morning and work...same old same old I guess. So let us jump to after work...
The first thing I did as soon as I went home was to package my cookies that I baked the night before and try and hurry to the post office to send it out before the delivery truck leaves. Just as I thought...Mike and Charles ate a good number of my cookies, but good thing there are still a good number of them. As I was packing my cookies, Emilie was in the dining room preparing 10 packages of paperwork for us and our billeting family
(Ok guys here's a piece of information that you guys probably want to know about. In each trimester of the program, everyone in the group is assigned to a billeting family, whom he/she will live with for 2 weeks. The purpose of this is to allow us to know the local community and assimilate ourselves better, plus it is the only time where we are away from our group = privacy and alone time. This usually happens during the middle of each trimester, so for us it's from January 19 - February 2).
Emilie asked us to sign the paperwork that she prepared, and that's when I found out who my billeting family is - Sister Dianne and Trina, who are this pair of nuns and biological sisters, and they also have a fat cat in their house. I had actually met them a while ago in a party (I probably will write an email about that day, because surprisingly I still remember about it) and they seemed like pretty cool people. I am just not crazy about the fact that they have a cat and hopefully they are not going to try and convert me...
I went into "downtown" (cough cough) and into the post office...mailed the cookies (man, $8.24 for cookies which will take a week to arrive...or $18 something for 2-3 days...that's some expensive cookies), and went back home because apparently dinner will be early tonight since we have a workshop on leadership at Eckat High school. I can't remember much about dinner other than the fact that Zach actually made dessert and it was this chocolate mudslide thing that looks sickeningly sweet but everyone devoured it like there's no end to it...
Emilie couldn't come with us because she had to meet the billeting families for last minute details, so after dinner we ditched our dishes and walked to the high school, which was a 15-20 minute walk. As we walked, it was snowing and it was quite nice walking in the snow at night. Charles and Stephen were as per usual being their usual dickhead selves (haha)and pushed me around during the walk. So pretty much the walk there for me consisted of avoiding them and thinking of ways to revenge...I settled for powder face wash (throwing snow in their face) for both of them inside the building...needless to say I made myself a bigger target for them, but at least I was safe for now.
The person who was doing our workshop was this guy who used to be the principal of the high school, but is now retired. If I remember correctly his name was Jim. Well, let's call him Jim here, whatever...anyways he started off by having us play this game where we choose what animal (unfortunately we can only choose to be mammals, which I have no idea why) we want to be, and what animal we would not want to be. I chose to be the Sasquatch (because I like the privacy and the idea that I am a mystery), which everyone laughed at. Jim finds it interesting that I chose that answer, and that I chose to sit all the way at the back of the classroom. I told him that it's only because I have Stephen and Charles hunting me down (they both located themselves in the row next to me) and I must watch over them, haha. I chose the chicken as an animal I wouldn't want to be (I know that's not a mammal, but Maxime chose the rooster, so I felt I have a right to choose what I want too), because chickens are the most abused animal on earth right now. After he got everyone's answers, he asked "Why do you think I am doing this game and what does this have to do with leadership?"...which lead to his lecture on leadership.
So for the next hour (more like 45 minutes), he talked about what being a leader is about, and he told stories/drew diagrams/asked us questions/etc. I wasn't bored from his lecture, just because he is a charismatic speaker and had a lot of control with his words. As well, he analyzed certain people in the room (he said he bet Maxime is someone who gets going very easily in the morning, which we all laughed at because it's true), which was interesting. In a way, he reminded me a lot of Mr. Mackenzie, my old socials studies teacher in high school whom I had for 3 years and who is very popular in school. The only thing that I didn't agree with him was that a) he was a bit too Christian for me (in the lecture, he said that Jesus Christ is his leader and he is merely a follower, but he uses his power given from Christ to guide others) b) he thought Stephen Harper and Stephan Dion were excellent leaders (COUGH COUGH). But overall it was quite interesting. At the end, he wanted to do an activity of character analysis with us, but since we didn't have enough time (we were only supposed to be there until 8), he gave Rebecca the activity and told us to do it at home. And that's what we did. (The walk back home for me was interesting, because I walked all the way at the back of the group to avoid Stephen and Charles...but they didn't do anything to me, which may be the best revenge because the suspense kills, haha).
So anyways, back to the character analysis test. Pretty much the test is a questionnaire, with 11 questions and we have to pick one person in our group for each question. Now if I can remember what my test looks like (Unfortunately we can only choose one answer per question, no repeats...that sucks):
1) Who would you go to a party with - Zach
2) Who would you bring to your parents? - Rebecca
3) Who would you stay on a deserted island with - Stephanie
4) Who would you do hard work with - Charles
5) Who would you bring to a hospital - Maxime
6) Who would you choose as your best friend - Cheryl
7) Who would you study with - Cynthia
8) Who would you bring to a prison - Mike
9) Who would you have as a parent - Stephen
10) Who would you travel with - Me/Angel
11) Who would you have to teach you things - Emilie
Anyways, we all did that, and majority of the people chose Cheryl and Rebecca as "best friend", Maxime to "party", me and Stephen as "parent" (what???????), Cynthia as "study", Emilie to "teach you things", and me and someone else as "travel" (although that may not count on my part because I chose myself and apparently we are not allowed to do that, haha). Interesting test.
After that Emilie came back from the meeting and we had a little meeting about the billeting period. Pretty much the message is "have fun" and our code word if we were in danger/the family is "jeans" (eg. "How are you doing in the family?"..."My jeans are torn" - they are locking me up in the cellar). As soon as the meeting is done, I took a shower, and then had a loooooong phone conversation with a friend of mine. During the phone conversation Zach/Rebecca/Stephanie bugged me by dancing around me and chanting stupid things over the phone. As well, Cheryl/Charles/Maxime used Stephen's head to create a paper-maiche mohawk cap while I was talking on the phone...it was pretty funny to watch the creation of that as I was chatting, and poor Stephen...he is always used for projects like this. I remember the night where Charles/Stephen/Mike got haircuts and everyone had fun cutting his hair, haha (I didn't join in). Mike ended up getting it buzzed, haha.
I pretty much talked on the phone until almost everyone went to bed (it was 1:00 am?). I hung up the phone and saw Cheryl and Stephen are still in the living room. They must have been chatting and Cheryl ended up falling asleep on Stephen's lap, which was cute. I bided Stephen good night and went to bed.
My adventures with my billeting family starts tomorrow...
After the "Storm" - Jan 17
Jan 17
As per usual, there's not much worth talking about in the morning time or work. So I will just quickly fast-forward to after work...
(sound of tape being fast-forwarded)
After work, I came home and the first thing I did was try and finish writing all my postcards so I can send them out before the post office closes/the truck to send them out leaves. So anyways, I did that, then kind of walked around town a little bit before I returned home. Once I went home the first thing I did (other than refolding my laundry) was to brush my teeth since I didn't do that in the morning because I was so rushed to go to work and the washroom was occupied by someone else showering (yes, the joys of living with 10 other people with only one washroom, haha). So anyways things were fine and dandy until I turned on the tap...that's when I noticed the water was a very murky shade of red/orange/yellow...quite disgusting I know. I filled up a cup of it and went downstairs, and firsted asked Zach about the water, who was in the kitchen doing some kind of great surprise meal for dinner that night and even found a giant cloth to cover the doorway so no one can get in...he said, "yeah the water was like that in the kitchen earlier...but it's better now...and that's the water we are drinking tonight, haHa!" With that, he disappeared behind the curtain and continued with his surprise dinner. I then went to the living room to look for Emilie, who was jamming with Stephen. I showed her the water, and told her that when I flushed the toilet upstairs, the water is the same murky shade of color. She makes a face and then said she will go out to get water for us. As for me, I decided to run the tap a bit longer to let the water clear up a bit, and then brushed my teeth in the same water. That's when I started thinking about Vancouver, because the water there is relatively clean.
Supper rolls around, and it's really quite an affair. Zach and Maxime designed this thing where it's like we are eating in a restaurant, but there's a huge twist. Let me explain this clearly...
So we enter into the "dining hall" (which really consists of a long plain table with two beaches and chairs), which was dark and lit with candles...like a restaurant. Music was played (this celtic flute thing that Cynthia owns and she bought the CD from a museum in Calgary), and then Rebecca turned on the overhead fan and silver strings of graffiti foil started flying around the room from the fan...well more like they dropped from the fan and a huge clump of them fell into my lap...it was quite funny, and Rebecca was like "oops, it was much cooler in my mind"...
Anyways dinner finally happens, and Zach and Maxime comes along with individual menus. The menus however are not your average menus, as there are 16 items and each of them have strange names such as "baked wolf's heart" or "cucumber ice-cream". They told us that we have to order all 16 items, but 4 items will come out per course and our job is to number off what 4 items we want per course. Well because I don't know and I can't even guess what is what, plus since I am so adventurous...I decided to do 1/1/1/1/2/2/2/2/3/3/3/3/4/4/4/4, as did Emilie, who accused me of copying her :P
So after 5 to 10 minutes, our first course arrives...different people have different combinations of different things, ranging from bread/cake/spoon/toothpick to salad/knife/butter/water. This makes things very, very interesting because people may only have a knife to drink their soup, so we see creative ways of eating such was scooping the vegetables with a knife or whatever. For me, first course was such a tease, because I got knife/spoon/fork/teaspoon with no food. Zach and Maxime said everyone has 10 to 15 minutes for a course, so for me it's 15 minutes of watching people eat or trying to eat with their methods...some people speared their food with a knife, while others were rubbing their bread on the amount of margarine they were given. The way Cynthia ate her spaghetti cracked me up, because she would kind of dunk her whole head into the plate of spaghetti and slurp up the spaghetti into her mouth. Mike had a bowl of soup, plus a knife/a cup of juice/toothpick (or something like that). Unfortunately, he wasn't very creative or willing to try eating differently, despite the fact that we were urging him and giving up tips on how he should have his soup. After some "attempts", he just gave up and declared that he had enough...(shakes head)...what a waste of food.
So anyways 2nd course rolls around, but before they came with my 2nd course they took away everyone's 1st course. My 2nd course consists of salad/juice/toothpick/candy...which was cool, except the fact that I had no utensils to eat with, since all my utensils came out on 1st course!! But nothing can stop me from eating my food, so I just ate my salad with my hand, and so did Emilie.
3rd course for me was spaghetti/bread/butter/water...I secretly hid the water under my table because I knew the drinks were done for the 3rd course and I would have nothing to drink for dessert...not something I like.
4th course was carrot cake/extra icing sauce/something/something. This is when I silently pulled out my water from underneath my table and sipped some. People around me were like "where did that water came from?"...they figured that I hid the water and freaking told Zach and Maxime what happened. So they came back and fought with me for my water, with the guys around me helping them...grrrrrr...damn them. And for the rest of my dessert my mouth was filled with a heavy and sickly lingering of sweet taste...yuck. But all in all, the dinner they planned was very good and very creative...(applause)
So after supper we did dishes and house chores (well not everyone) and Aaron comes along with Matt to see Stephen...Emile got really mad that Matt came by when he wasn't supposed to (there's a good story to that which I will tell you all another time) and Aaron talked to her about it. They brought House DVDs to watch on Stephen's laptop, and that's what most of the people did for the evening activity. Me, I went to the convenience store to buy candy chocolates after realizing there were no more chocolate chips in the house (Maxime used them all up for the carrot cake) and I wanted to bake a batch of cookies for my friend who was "malnourished", haha. So anyways I did that, and for a while it was just me in the kitchen baking...and then Zach comes along because he had to make us lunch for the next day. So the two of us were in the kitchen working and casually chatting together for a while...and that's when I decided to ask him "So Zach, are you feeling better now? Is everything ok?"
He started by saying that no, Cheryl and him are not really talking right now, but he doesn't have the anger that he had yesterday...and then he just started talking about his thoughts, his behaviour, how he is with people and in the group, etc. etc. Our conversation lasted almost 3 hours, with him doing most of the talking and me listening to him...I don't really remember everything he said but here are things we talked about:
- his up and down mood swings
- his life in high school...trying to fit in and how he hates high school
- why most his friends are girls rather than guys
- his commitment and trust issues (that's when i was analyzing him)
- him having no personal space in the house (he is not the only one with this problem)
- his relationships (that's when I found out his first boyfriend cheated on him...is that why he has trouble being close to people?)
- how he gets along with certain people in our house more than others...this is where it was really interesting because we talked about a "what if" situation where if the program was to end the next day, he said he probably would lose touch with people within a month...
- Charles...he told me how he and Charles don't really talk in the house and he found out why...Charles wrote him a letter on how he feels uncomfortable around him because of his humour/sarcasm, plus he just doesn't feel like he can click with him (this is one of the ways people in the house communicate with others if they are unhappy with them). He was kind of degrading himself about it (at least that's what I felt), so I argued with him that Charles doesn't mean that, and I can back myself up on that because I actually read the letter (Charles asked me to read it and check the grammar before handing it to Zach, haha)...somehow about discussing this some more, Zach started crying...and to tell you the truth I was glad he cried because he is finally unleashing his emotions in a more helpful way rather than lashing it out negatively
- so so so so much more...i can't remember anymore
Summary: I am sooooo glad Zach and I had this talk, because a) Zach is someone who puts out this showy, happy-go-lucky personality most of the time, but would not really let people get close to him and learn about his "secrets"...pretty much his personality, plus his sarcasm is his defense mechanism to prevent people from getting to know the real him. But he was willing to tell me all these things that even his best friend doesn't really know about, which makes me really sad because he doesn't have an actual friend he can or he is willing to connect to...it must be so lonely.
b) Because he doesn't open himself to people, when it happens...it's like watching a shooting star fly across the sky...a rare event.
c) With this conversation, everything becomes crystal-clear about him...his mood swings, his "talk-behind-people" ways, etc, etc. Cheesily enough, I am going to quote Tyra Banks with her saying "There's no bitch in the world, only people with hurt souls"...Zach is the perfect example of that because beneath his sarcasm and dramatic personality, he is just an insecure person who wants acceptance and change for the better, but it is just unfortunate for him that the one thing our group focus on the most - communication - is his worst problem. So this 9 months will be very interesting and challenging for him.
- The End -....?
As per usual, there's not much worth talking about in the morning time or work. So I will just quickly fast-forward to after work...
(sound of tape being fast-forwarded)
After work, I came home and the first thing I did was try and finish writing all my postcards so I can send them out before the post office closes/the truck to send them out leaves. So anyways, I did that, then kind of walked around town a little bit before I returned home. Once I went home the first thing I did (other than refolding my laundry) was to brush my teeth since I didn't do that in the morning because I was so rushed to go to work and the washroom was occupied by someone else showering (yes, the joys of living with 10 other people with only one washroom, haha). So anyways things were fine and dandy until I turned on the tap...that's when I noticed the water was a very murky shade of red/orange/yellow...quite disgusting I know. I filled up a cup of it and went downstairs, and firsted asked Zach about the water, who was in the kitchen doing some kind of great surprise meal for dinner that night and even found a giant cloth to cover the doorway so no one can get in...he said, "yeah the water was like that in the kitchen earlier...but it's better now...and that's the water we are drinking tonight, haHa!" With that, he disappeared behind the curtain and continued with his surprise dinner. I then went to the living room to look for Emilie, who was jamming with Stephen. I showed her the water, and told her that when I flushed the toilet upstairs, the water is the same murky shade of color. She makes a face and then said she will go out to get water for us. As for me, I decided to run the tap a bit longer to let the water clear up a bit, and then brushed my teeth in the same water. That's when I started thinking about Vancouver, because the water there is relatively clean.
Supper rolls around, and it's really quite an affair. Zach and Maxime designed this thing where it's like we are eating in a restaurant, but there's a huge twist. Let me explain this clearly...
So we enter into the "dining hall" (which really consists of a long plain table with two beaches and chairs), which was dark and lit with candles...like a restaurant. Music was played (this celtic flute thing that Cynthia owns and she bought the CD from a museum in Calgary), and then Rebecca turned on the overhead fan and silver strings of graffiti foil started flying around the room from the fan...well more like they dropped from the fan and a huge clump of them fell into my lap...it was quite funny, and Rebecca was like "oops, it was much cooler in my mind"...
Anyways dinner finally happens, and Zach and Maxime comes along with individual menus. The menus however are not your average menus, as there are 16 items and each of them have strange names such as "baked wolf's heart" or "cucumber ice-cream". They told us that we have to order all 16 items, but 4 items will come out per course and our job is to number off what 4 items we want per course. Well because I don't know and I can't even guess what is what, plus since I am so adventurous...I decided to do 1/1/1/1/2/2/2/2/3/3/3/3/4/4/4/4, as did Emilie, who accused me of copying her :P
So after 5 to 10 minutes, our first course arrives...different people have different combinations of different things, ranging from bread/cake/spoon/toothpick to salad/knife/butter/water. This makes things very, very interesting because people may only have a knife to drink their soup, so we see creative ways of eating such was scooping the vegetables with a knife or whatever. For me, first course was such a tease, because I got knife/spoon/fork/teaspoon with no food. Zach and Maxime said everyone has 10 to 15 minutes for a course, so for me it's 15 minutes of watching people eat or trying to eat with their methods...some people speared their food with a knife, while others were rubbing their bread on the amount of margarine they were given. The way Cynthia ate her spaghetti cracked me up, because she would kind of dunk her whole head into the plate of spaghetti and slurp up the spaghetti into her mouth. Mike had a bowl of soup, plus a knife/a cup of juice/toothpick (or something like that). Unfortunately, he wasn't very creative or willing to try eating differently, despite the fact that we were urging him and giving up tips on how he should have his soup. After some "attempts", he just gave up and declared that he had enough...(shakes head)...what a waste of food.
So anyways 2nd course rolls around, but before they came with my 2nd course they took away everyone's 1st course. My 2nd course consists of salad/juice/toothpick/candy...which was cool, except the fact that I had no utensils to eat with, since all my utensils came out on 1st course!! But nothing can stop me from eating my food, so I just ate my salad with my hand, and so did Emilie.
3rd course for me was spaghetti/bread/butter/water...I secretly hid the water under my table because I knew the drinks were done for the 3rd course and I would have nothing to drink for dessert...not something I like.
4th course was carrot cake/extra icing sauce/something/something. This is when I silently pulled out my water from underneath my table and sipped some. People around me were like "where did that water came from?"...they figured that I hid the water and freaking told Zach and Maxime what happened. So they came back and fought with me for my water, with the guys around me helping them...grrrrrr...damn them. And for the rest of my dessert my mouth was filled with a heavy and sickly lingering of sweet taste...yuck. But all in all, the dinner they planned was very good and very creative...(applause)
So after supper we did dishes and house chores (well not everyone) and Aaron comes along with Matt to see Stephen...Emile got really mad that Matt came by when he wasn't supposed to (there's a good story to that which I will tell you all another time) and Aaron talked to her about it. They brought House DVDs to watch on Stephen's laptop, and that's what most of the people did for the evening activity. Me, I went to the convenience store to buy candy chocolates after realizing there were no more chocolate chips in the house (Maxime used them all up for the carrot cake) and I wanted to bake a batch of cookies for my friend who was "malnourished", haha. So anyways I did that, and for a while it was just me in the kitchen baking...and then Zach comes along because he had to make us lunch for the next day. So the two of us were in the kitchen working and casually chatting together for a while...and that's when I decided to ask him "So Zach, are you feeling better now? Is everything ok?"
He started by saying that no, Cheryl and him are not really talking right now, but he doesn't have the anger that he had yesterday...and then he just started talking about his thoughts, his behaviour, how he is with people and in the group, etc. etc. Our conversation lasted almost 3 hours, with him doing most of the talking and me listening to him...I don't really remember everything he said but here are things we talked about:
- his up and down mood swings
- his life in high school...trying to fit in and how he hates high school
- why most his friends are girls rather than guys
- his commitment and trust issues (that's when i was analyzing him)
- him having no personal space in the house (he is not the only one with this problem)
- his relationships (that's when I found out his first boyfriend cheated on him...is that why he has trouble being close to people?)
- how he gets along with certain people in our house more than others...this is where it was really interesting because we talked about a "what if" situation where if the program was to end the next day, he said he probably would lose touch with people within a month...
- Charles...he told me how he and Charles don't really talk in the house and he found out why...Charles wrote him a letter on how he feels uncomfortable around him because of his humour/sarcasm, plus he just doesn't feel like he can click with him (this is one of the ways people in the house communicate with others if they are unhappy with them). He was kind of degrading himself about it (at least that's what I felt), so I argued with him that Charles doesn't mean that, and I can back myself up on that because I actually read the letter (Charles asked me to read it and check the grammar before handing it to Zach, haha)...somehow about discussing this some more, Zach started crying...and to tell you the truth I was glad he cried because he is finally unleashing his emotions in a more helpful way rather than lashing it out negatively
- so so so so much more...i can't remember anymore
Summary: I am sooooo glad Zach and I had this talk, because a) Zach is someone who puts out this showy, happy-go-lucky personality most of the time, but would not really let people get close to him and learn about his "secrets"...pretty much his personality, plus his sarcasm is his defense mechanism to prevent people from getting to know the real him. But he was willing to tell me all these things that even his best friend doesn't really know about, which makes me really sad because he doesn't have an actual friend he can or he is willing to connect to...it must be so lonely.
b) Because he doesn't open himself to people, when it happens...it's like watching a shooting star fly across the sky...a rare event.
c) With this conversation, everything becomes crystal-clear about him...his mood swings, his "talk-behind-people" ways, etc, etc. Cheesily enough, I am going to quote Tyra Banks with her saying "There's no bitch in the world, only people with hurt souls"...Zach is the perfect example of that because beneath his sarcasm and dramatic personality, he is just an insecure person who wants acceptance and change for the better, but it is just unfortunate for him that the one thing our group focus on the most - communication - is his worst problem. So this 9 months will be very interesting and challenging for him.
- The End -....?
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