Hay I’m alive!!

Ok, so this non-bloggie updating thing was getting a bit out of hand, especially considering I actually do have a fair bit of time to do it. >__> Fic distracts me, ok? :/

So we’ve made it to Amos in one piece. There’s been..well, a LOT going on. I missed amonth of posts… bad me. So i think I’ll make recap posts with pictures this time. Deal? let’s start at the beginning.. or rather, the END.

The last weekend we all went horseback riding in the blinding cold, and that was great. Also we cleaned a lot, and packed a lot. And clung to Stan a lot.
We got him a watch and got “Know your Limits” engraved on the back. He loves it~ ^0^

LEAVING THE SOO
Was kinda painful. We’d grown soo into that life, and we were really beginning to really settle in. Unrooting is always hard…
Leaving Stan and Lucy was probably the hardest part. I never liked saying goodbye, and saying goodbye to such a great, inspiring, supportive person is especially hard. My consolation is that I’d probably see him again in Montreal. He also lend me his Ishmael book so he HAS to come to MTL to get it back~ ;P

The morning before we left, Stan took us to Bellevue to watch the sunrise. Such a nice moment to remember.

Last Day in the Soo

Did I mention how much i will crazy miss CLA? Cause i Do. Everyday. Like crazy. I miss the people and the Staff and Karen and just everything about it.

JAN 26 -ROTATION!

Leaving for rotation Camp tomorrow at Noon.
Will be at Camp for two days without means of communication.
Will spend all of Wednesday in ridiculous succession of transit.

See yah in Amos!!!

(will catch up later. Too tired now. )

Jan 22 – Farewell Potluck

Thursday Jan 22
Went visiting a windfarm this morning. The kind sir who gave us a lil presentation and gave us a tour was really awesome. It’s one of those fun-loving people with a sense of easy humour and a love for their job that makes it look easy! I love meeting people who love life, they are so inspiring to be around
Taught us How Electricity is Made and Where Wind Comes From! 8D Do you know how electricity is made, kids? XD
We drove out to the windmills and visited the inside of one of them. It was wuite epic, and i have newfound love and respect for windmills. *_* They are soo soothing and nice and useful and generally great. Like Noah says: “They represent everything that is good”. ~

Went to work around noon. Today was the empowerment workshop giving by Anita and Pat, so we were helping people with that.
Sad sad story. My water bottle broke. Again. I will write out the sad story of the broken Wattle bottle another day. ;_;
Karen came and got us around 3 to go to the office and do a lil round of goodbyes, and drove us home.

Tonight is the farewell party! Lotsa people came, and lots didn’t (my billet mom ;_;), but we got great food, great company and the most fantastical cake in the world, courtesy of Searchmont (and Kevin)!
Anita and Sandra both brought yummy food, and a goodbye present from them all. It was a beautiful bit friendship ball (witchball, whatever, one of those big glass balls you hang *____*) I’ve always wanted one of those, so i absolutely love it!! These ladies are too good to me ;________________________________________;

We did the Final Presentation, which worked out very well. Charles did a much better job than i expected! We’re quite proud of him!

Terry came! 8D I went over the photoshoot powerpoint with Karen and Terry got all teary (haha very funny) again watching it. XD He’s soo great!
I’ll miss Karen soo much. And Terry. And Everybody at work. I love them all and don’t want to go away. ;_;
I finished my cards and presents for them at least. We’ll see how tomorrow goes, i will probably cling and cry a lot. >_< That’s all i can think about.. how much i DON’T want my time in CLA to be over.
I do promise to come back for visits. ;_;

Jan 15-17: In which we all hang out… a lot

Thursday Jan 15
NO TECH DAY BEGIN! Everything was fine and dandy until after supper when i got MORTALLY SICK. Like Yes i wanted to die kinda sick, with stomach pains and nausea and all that shitz. I think it was food poisoning. By a number of small things accumulated during the day. Spent a very awful awful night tossing and turning. X_X
Stan was all concerned and wanted to take me to the hospital, but i was pretty sure it’d pass.
He should know, it was not fun when he was sick. Poor Stan~

Friday Jan 16
Felt better and not dying anymore, but i didn’t dare go into work, so i called in sick and Sandra was all sweet and understanding ;__; *clings*
Took a hot shower(finally!), slept. and slept. And finished Johnny’s book “In the garden of men”
At night we went to the soup kitchen to do activities with the youth group. And so it happened that the kitchen was being repainted, so we all came over to out house to hang out in candle light and cook epic proportions of pasta. Then Elliot Lake showed up and it was quite a hang out party.
Went out and had tire races XD and really really froze. Ted and Sarah, the (cool art teachers) volunteers who manage the group were simply awesome, and the kids(not soo much) were all pretty interested by what Katimavik was all about.

Went to bed early because of epic tiredness. Ate nothing but porridge all day.

Saturday Jan 17
Went roadtripping with Elliot Lake. First to Chipewa falls, where we climbed up the hills on frozen ice or rock, we’ll never know. The end result was the same, we were all covered in snow. Twas quite the epic climb, and the surrounding were beautiful! Totally worth it!

Then we headed for Batchawana(?) bay and made a fire on the beach and burned our Xmas tree and had lunch huddled around the fire. Yeah… somehow we always end up setting something on fire XD
We also could walk on the frozen Lake Superior and discover the little ice caves that formed on the beach.
Somehow walking in snow was soo excruciatingly tiring that day. When i called mom she said it was probably because i haven’t eaten anything substantial for 2 days.. Duh >___> all i had is porridge.

We then stopped by this seemingly abandoned church and too a peak inside, to discover it was probably not quite as abandoned as it seemed, but not exactly in use either. Very interesting.

Came home, ate, hung out and went to bed early again due to very very tiredneszzzzzzz…..

Oh wait. Went out to Muio’s for Pie together while Elliot Lake was out for dinner. On Stan. Oh Stan
PIE! (Too bad i didn’t dare get any).

Jan 14 – Day of epic… argh

I hate PCs. I absolutely, deeply, passionately detest, abhor PCs.
AAAAAAAAAARGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…..

I’m working on an epic powerpont for Karen, which is fine in and of itself.
I hate having to upload 200+ pictures into pp and resize every single one, when i could have just clicked a few buttons in iphoto and gotten that set in seconds. I hate Kodak Easyshare picture CDs with their stupid software to install. I hate having to run around finding songs, copying them, sending them and converting them in .wav format. I hate not having ppt work, and waiting 10 minutes for the file to open, because, granted it’s a huge file.
I simply hate having to spend almost two entire days(one of them almost totally unproductive, what with just waiting for files to transfer all over the place) on a stupid thing that could have been done in about 30 minutes and probably better if I had a Mac.
*cri*

The good news is that i got to sleep in, got to see Karen’s house (her street is flooded and iced over from busted pipe and icy cold weather), hang out at her office, go out to lunch with her at Muio’s and got served by nice lil asian waitress who calls you ‘m’dear’, hang out with Lisa who has an awesome music selection, get helped a lot by Lisa who’s simply made of awesome, choose cool wall quote things to order online and just generally trying to be busy and productive when in fact nothing got done. :/
Is that how days in the office feel like? Cause i think i might just stab something. Or smash something against the wall. Something very heavy. 8D

Nah, i really had a great day, minus stupid technical problems. Karen is simply amazing (I can never cease to say it) and Lisa was just soo much fun, i’m just sad i didn’t get to interact more with her during my stay in the Soo ;_; (Well, most of CLA is awesome. I really want to just stay and work here.) It really motivates me to go finish my studies and get into this field, because I LOVE it!

Also had a drug and alcohol workshop, where this lady simply brought in a TV (a TV in a Katimahouse!? *legasp*) and showed us a tape about.. y’know, shit happens when you do drugs, so don’t do drugs kids! 8D
We watched it around the dinner table while eating too. Pretty cool!
Then she left us to our yummy chicken pot pie. yummy.

Oh yeah, and Sean is over. And Stan has off tomorrow, so they are planning day trip to Michigan.
Me: Why doesn’t he go with his girlfriend?
Hollie: Cause Sean IS his girlfriend! 8D
Me: *dontevengetmestarted*

Our house almost caught fire today.
Because Sonam accidentally threw her underwear onto the lamp.
And the underwear started to smoke.
And we all smelled it and were puzzled because there wasn’t any bread in the oven.
Until Christina saw the smoking underwear and rescued all of us from certain death by burning in a fire-hazardous house.
Then Stan-the-fireman came home and was all: *facepalm* I leave for an hour and you guys almost set the house on fire?
Us: BLAME TEH UNDERWEAR!

XD

Jan 12-13 yay for work

Monday Jan 12
Got up with no idea where I should be (wait for Karen or go to Cara?) at work. Apparently Karen called a minute after I left and Stan even wnet ti the bus stop to look for me. >_> Fail to get ride. But it was a good tranquil day at work, with only Anita and Mazie. I even won a whole half-dollar at Bingo! 8D I love Bingo and seeing everyone. I’ll miss CLA like crazy when i leave, i just know it. ;___; Karen is the kind of person that once you connect with, you never want to disconnect from. I know she’s going on my Xmas list from now on.
Evening was uneventful and we had free time. Good time to catch up on posting ;p

Also, there was stew for dinner. And butternut squash. And carrots and turnips. hum…

Tuesday Jan 13
Gave up on trying to wake up early and stayed in bed till Karen called. She told me to stay home and work on the big powerpoint presentation. (Does anybody else absolutely hate Windows and want Mac? Me. SO MUCH. MOSTE KEENLY FEELING MAC!DEPRIVATION. I could have finished this slideshow in 20 minutes instead of 3 hours if i had my mac. ;____; )
Waiting for Karen to get back to me about extra pictures and music…
*waits*

Apparently, NDP deputy Tony Martin is suppose to drop by the house tonight, and asked for dinner to be “at 5:30pm on the dot”. I have dubious feelings the punctuality of politicians, but whatever… >__>

We only have less than 2 weeks left in the Soo. I feel the parting anxiety starting to gnaw at me. I’ll miss CLA soo much, both the staff and the people.
Also Stan and Lucy. It will be extremely hard to give up this life we have finally grown familiar and comfortable with. Staaaaan ;___;
Others being uncooperative about what to get him as goodbye present, so i gave up and will just gather stuff on my own. meh.
Stan will also be on my list of Xmas Card people furthermore, he’s like the big bro i’ve always wanted. >_<

EDIT: So, as I have expected, Tony Martin never showed up. His loss, cause we had truly epic pizza!
(And they wonder why the youth is disillusioned with politics…)
We worked on the welcome package for the next group and went to Arcadia and played french pictionary.
On the way back, Christina (who went ahead to the van) came back to tell Stan that someone was looking to give him a ticket.
The way Stan just took off and ran was the most funny thing. He’s all limbs and flailiness, straight out of a cartoon. The thing is, he’s not even exaggerating. That’s just how he is~ XDXD We love Stan~ <3

PICSPAM! 8D

Snowshoeing for the first time~

CATCH UP POST?

So. Sudbury until now.

Dec 29 to Jan 10
Dec 29 – ROADTRIP TO SUDBURY!
Science North visit felt like going on a school field trip! We held bugs, fluttered with butterflies, learned about bats, laid on a bed of nails* and invaded the kiddie corner.
Sleep over at Elliot Lake that night. The Cochrane group was there too so we got to meet them. They were a pretty awesome bunch, with some… crazy people… but aren’t we all? We played WEREWOLF (See? It’s not mafia, it is werewolf. At least for us quebecois ) because Leon had his pack of cards, and it was truly epic. Devon makes a fantastic werewolf O_O
Also, got to see Marley’s art and stole his watercolors to paint a bit with him. I got soo woosy late that night so painted more after he went to bed (around 2am) and it turned out pretty good. 2am art is always the best Thx Marley! It was quite satisfying.~ Got home the next day at noon and Stan left again to drive his girlfriend back to her group. O_O So we did postcard making by candlelight and that was fun.
DEC 30 – Styrofoam packing with Don
Volunteered with DON (recycling dude) at his drop-off for Xmas trees, cardboard and styrofoam. Packing styro is fun as you can chop and punch and kick it to beat it into the bags. Quite a stress-relieving experience! XD

DEC 31 – Visit from St-Joes
St-Joes came over for supper and to hang out. We went skating at the Essar center, were i had a bit of a breakdown, partly due to the fact that Jaz announced that she was leaving. DO NOT WAN! But i understand. I had a good talk with them and Kristie promised to come see us in Montreal over the summer~
We went over to some beach around 10:30pm and lit a huge bonfire. ON THE BEACH. ON THE SNOW. AT MIDNIGHT! Then we did the countdown and lit a load of fireworks. *ahem* Including one out of Hollie’s butt. I’m not kidding, we have photographic evidence. XD
EPIC NEW YEAR’S EVE!

Jan 1st- Mailboxes
St-Joes left, we cleaned up, and we made ourselves mailboxes. Hee.
Mom, dad and lil bro got to the Soo around 7pm, so I went out to meet them. <3<3<3

Jan 2nd – Visit from my family!
I got to spend the day with my family. We took my brother to the Bushplane museum, which he adored, then went to the Locks. We had lunch at the mall were is saw tiny, adorable Brenda (CLA) and that just made my day, because I missed work soo badly by then. We then went shopping for dumpling ingredients and went back to the house for dinner. Mom and dad got to meet the people i live with and see the house~~ yay!~
Needless to say I was super clingy, because… well, mum.. ;_;

Jan 3rd
I woke up missing my mom like crazy, but we had stuff to do, and i couldn’t go to meet them. That was a strange, stressful morning. Funny how you don’t realize how much you miss something until you see it again. >__< We played street hockey, then my dad taught us how to do chinese style Bookbinding. Then we all sat and made dumplings with my mom! 8D DUMPLINGS!! *CRAVES*
We went Snowshoeing with Don that night and i brought my bro. We were in Hiawatha park hike trails. It was simply gorgeous, all the trees were covered with snow and the moon was really bright. Magical~ Just like Narnia! XD Leo was tired but he loved it ^_^
On the way back we stopped at Timmy’s and I had no money, so Leo bought me some tea and himself some donuts. Ha~ XD Good for him to be carrying his wallet!
I went back to the hotel with them to shower and we watched Titanic since it was playing on TV. Wow the memories~

Jan 4th
Spent the morning with mum and dad before they left around noon. I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day. Guess I was a bit distraught… >_>

Jan 5-9
WENT BACK TO WORK! HURRAH! I really missed it. Rose is off sick this week so really missed her. When they found out I made dumplings they insisted i teach them. So Sandra went for groceries while i went swimming with Anita, and the next day I taught them to make dumplings and wonton soup. They loved it, and love them! ^_^ <3
Stan was off most of the week. Nuff said. We missed him a lot. O_O
Friday was our Politics debate and it was fairly interesting. I was soo impressed by Noah (dressing up as catholic schoolboy) impersonating and arguing for concepts mostly opposite to his beliefs. It was hard to toe the line between our characters and our personal beliefs. Very instructive experience. THX STAN!!

Jan 10 – Mattress Toboganning with St-Joes
Stan’s brother Jonh came over with one of his participants (He’s also a PL in Manitouwadge). He’s soo cool and seeing the brothers interact was really interesting and adorable~ X3
St-Joes was over again with their cool new temporary PL. The first thing I thought when i saw him was that he was a new participant! XD He’s awesome, this chinese (yay!) guy Erin who was the former Elliot Lake PL. We went to the hill on Black road and used our mattresses to toboggan. BEST IDEA EVER! We found all sorts of crazy ways to pile up on them and crash down. Truly epic. Paul took some great vids~~
We decided to join St-Joes for their dinner at a chinese buffet that night, so we got more time to have fun together~
Epic day with two epic new PL to meet. Doesn’t get any better.

LOL catch up post?

Haven’t update since before New years O_O
I’m thinking of making some changes to my updating format and from now on put more focus on details rather than listing stuff we did… and also, PICTURES!
Waddya think?
And maybe daily food tab.

But for now. just today,Saturday- Jan 11. 09.

Woke up bright and early(meaning 8:00, but my poor sleep-deprived mind objected strongly) to go volunteer at Searchmont Ski resort for some event. Me and Cayley had a lil Craft session that was only partially useful. Only about 10 kids in total came, but at least they enjoyed it.

Snowboarded for the first time, fell on my ass a whole lot. Whole body is sore but was that fun or what! Also, we were on the bunny hill and they have not chairlifts but these strange pole things that you half sandwich between your thighs and it pulls you up.
FAIL! I was sometimes soo hard to stay on because we are still relying on our own balance. Yeesh!
Stan had skis on and he is the funniest thing coming downhill cause he’s all pole and flailing limbs XD He tried on Christina’s snowboard and tried to go up the pole-lift thing on it. My attempt at video-ing that was fail because I was laughing soo hard I couldn’t hold the camera steady… hahaha~~XD

Big recap from Sudbury to Jan 10 coming up!

DEC 25-28: 4 days that felt like much longer

Dec 25 – Xmas Day
Opened presents in the morning! 8D A lot of people gave us presents for the whole group. Stan got us each a candy baggie and a Survival board game for the group. _<
Karen gave me the yummiest apple cider drink mix She knows me so well <3
We then went volunteering at a toy distribution event. We were expecting underprivileged kids to show up, but instead a lot more adults came. The venue was a restaurant, so they got fed Xmas turkey and desert, and somehow still got presents. We were basically playing waiters, taking their drink orders and bringing them the meals. Mr. Awesome!photographer was also there, it was great to hang out with him.
In that kind of events, we can really meet a lot of interesting people. I had a good time

In the afternoon we were invited to the Dickson’s for Xmas dinner. They fed us yummy turkey and all the sides, and really fantastic deserts. *_____* Yay for food!

Dec 26 – Boxing Day
Went snowshoeing with Don. We we packing down hiking trails in the woods. It was great fun to trudge along, and often falling down hills and basically all over the place. XD We had a blast! <3

Came back, cooked, and had a scarf making workshop led by Cayley. We all made double sided fleece scarves, sown together with embroidery thread. It was slightly tedious, but very rewarding. Now we all have colorful handmade scarves!

Dec 27 – KATIMACUP
The epic can hardly be described in words. Which is why i’m resorting to point form again.
-Baked a shitload of yummy bread and impressed everyone with it ^-^
-Seeing Kristy and Jac and Paul again was a huge highlight *-*
-It was fantastic to see Elliot Lake, they are such a great group. I am infinitely jealous of Hayley’s colorfully awesome hippie pants.
-The games were a success and extreme fun, except maybe the blindfolded race, cause it was simply chaos.
-Air guitar competition rawked the world!
-My group fails at pictionary, but that may be just me and my fail mouth!skills.
-Stan the Man owned the tire race
-We totally owned Human Pyramid competition and snowman building. Ours was the biggest baddest and most colorful snowman of the lot! (Elliot Lake’s somehow ended up being vaguely phallic shaped >_>” )
-Went to take a long walk with Kristy, Jac and Paul Twas was very nice.
-Paul is my new manga buddy! 8D fwee~~~
-Met Stan’s cute girlfriend XD *squishes*

Overall had was a stupendous time.

Dec 28 – The day after
Everybody left. House was cleaned. House meeting was held in Muio’s restaurant over food. Stan declared “chill time” for the rest of the day, even if there were a thousand things we each still had to do >_>
Also, our shower is officially dead until further notice. Stan drove us to the YMCA for showering~
Dinner was epic stir fry.

Tomorrow we are roadtripping to Sudbury, then spending the night in Elliot Lake. Fwee~