9 days to go.

Last week was pretty busy. Started with a climate change module at work with a professor from Memorial. We went out into the forrest and measured the depths of organic soils and got some ground and air temperatures. While out in the forests we were looking out for all of the different kinds of vegetation in the area and weather or not they are starting to bud for the season.

Saw lots of wildlife last week too. 2 moose, 3 rabbits, 5 porcupine, 2 black bear cubs and a couple partridge.

Thursday was final presentation, kind of just winged it.

xx yy

Billeting was probably the best id had out of the three families.
On saturday May 30, i think was the date, their son had a free pass for a helicopter ride. I was pretty lucky to get the chance to do that. We went from goose bay and circled over top of sheshatshui. Pretty cool to see the landscape from above with the trees, river etc.
After the copter ride, Jack had called a friend who was in the sky on his plane and told Jack to meet him at a lake nearby where the plane was sitting in the water. So he and his son went for a ride around the area and then landed back on the water. He was low on fuel and had to head back to the airport so for the ride back to the airport he took along myslef and the other son. It was neat taking off from the water then landing on land.

After billeting i was house manager with phil. We made some good meals, my favorite being the pizzaghetti and the veggie burgers. Ill have to learn how to make the veggie burgers for at home.
Not too exciting week just regular i guess.
We were suppose to be prepared for our camping excursion which eventually was cancelled due to the Charles J Treatment centre. A little disapointing but we made up for it.
We called up the Goose Bay group and invited them for a trip to Muskrat falls with us which was alot of fun.
This day was probably the first day where I was actually hot and felt comfortable with shorts and T shirt. June 6! The hike to the falls was a bit muddy but definitly worth the walk. We had a picnic afterwards and just hung out for a bit before venturing off and stopping at 'Scenic Waterfalls' on the road home to NWR.
I feel like Ill always remember Labrador by the rushing waters. We have seen multiple spots containing rapids, and I have the pictures to show it!

June 6 was also the day I discovered my first geocache! along with the group of course. It was pretty exciting especially since we just stumbled upon it. I wrote it down in my book and will log it when I get the chance. I logged it online under my 'katimavik' account on www.geocaching.com

Well that was my exciting weekend!

This week at work we are doing a climate change module which is actually really exciting for me. I feel it will be the only thing I can take and learn from my work experience at the Environment Office in sheshatshui. A professor by the name of John Jacobs from Memorial University in St.Johns is giving the presentation where we will be going out into the fields to monitor a few things.
Today I learned that Labrador tea, when boiled(not steeped) can release poisons and cause you to be sick and possibly contain halucinogens. I would like to get some labrador tea to bring home for mom.
This evening, Vals friend Juliana Coffey came over for supper. She seemed really cool, she is a fisheries biologist who does different things with animals. She will be putting tags on seals up north soon. Such a cool job that Id love to have.

15 days left. coming down to the wire. Final presentation this week. CIP this weekend.

.

So i had a few pieces of chicken on Friday may 22

We were at Pizza Delight and ordered the buffet. Turns out they dont serve veggie pizzas at the buffet. So i resorted to having a chicken pasta.

This is just to keep track of the last time i ate meat.

Don't count the days, make them count.

3 weeks left of work.
Its going by pretty damn fast.

Im in billeting right now with a really cool family, Jack and Rena Penashue. Along with their kids Cree and baby Jack, we went out on churchill road to a place called Gull Island for a picnic on Sunday afternoon, The kids were riding their dirtbikes and ATVs. Jack brought his .22 and we were shooting it around, he was surprised that the prairie boy had a good shot. Despite the rain, it actually wasnt too bad.

The family im staying with his headed to St Johns from wednesday till saturday. Leaving me alone at the house, it will be nice to relax. NHL playoffs are on right now, hopefully the finals will start before he end of the week. At the house they have a nice satellite tv, i have a computer beside my bed which is pretty big and they give me access to any food in the house. Excellent coffee as well.

Last weekend we visited Churchill Falls! leaving at 7am saturday morning we hit the gravel road and drove for about 4 hours to the town. The road is really nice and scenic on the way, one section of the road has beautiful tall birch trees. When we arrived to the town we had no idea where to go, we needed to get to the fire and security building to pick up keys for the ski lodge we would stay at. My contact there failed to leave keys, but fortunately the guys there let us in.

We had alot of room to sleep and cook and I would say its a pretty comfortable place to fit 17 of us. Behind the lodge there was a hiking trail we were told about! Being spring still, it was pretty wet but the trail eventually led us to some flowing water down a dropoff. On our walk back to the ski lodge we also spotted a bear, I had it caught on video but somehow ended up deleted.

The town seemed really creepy to me, it was one of those company towns where everything is owned by own group of people. If you dont work for the powerplant, you cant live in the town. If you retire, you have to move out. I may have thought it was creepy because i had read a book just l ike this situation called "Nothing to Lose". They were performing some secret governmental activity where they melted down the tanks that were brought back from iraq and taking the Uranium to mechanic a giant bomb. I could easily see something like this happening in Churchill Falls.

A little run down at my last month in Katimavik.

Wednesday May 27. I work for 2 more days this week. Go home on Sunday from billeting
Monday June 1 - Friday June 5. I am house manager with phil.
Monday June 8 - Friday June 12. Climate change modual at work
Monday June 15 - Friday June 19. Last week of work, retreat at a christian camp.
Debriefing starts on Sunday and we head home Wednesday!
Not much time left at all.

crazy shit

WOW something pretty crazy happened last night.

When i got home from work Val came up to me and let me know that there is a guy who is travelling from Quebec and got lost on his way to St Johns and he needs a place to stay. When i got home he was in the shower. I figured he would probably sleep in our room because we have extra beds, so I made sure I didnt have any valuables laying around.
Anyways this guy had a shower, started to do his laundry and then joined us for supper.
Just after supper, 2 guys about the age of 25 maybe younger knocked on our door asking for a tall french guy. So Kailyn called 'Steve!' but the other guys said 'no no its joe!'. So he goes to the truck with these guys and we thought that was pretty strange.
Throughout the evening he was telling us different names, he told me STEVEN and he told Felixe his name was Joseph!
So we are tripping out, dont know whats goin on. Anyways these guys come back and when they get inside, the 2 guys are yelling at "Steven" saying 'Give me my fuckin laptop back', as well as alot of other cursing etc.

I guess this guy had stayed in their house the night before and when he left the next day, he stole his laptop, an ipod, and a bunch of their clothes. Who knows what else he stole.
It will make it hard to trust hitchhikers from now on. Even though I thought tourists would be fairly nice.

ttyn talk to you never

Friday after we left to Goose Bay for our 48 hours off. I got off work at about 1130 and landed in the goose by about 1 o clock. Andrew Val and I went to Jungle Jims restaurant. ACtually a really entertaining place, they even had a veggie section.

We started off by wandering around look for beer. Apparently labrador sells beer in convenient stores just like quebec.
We grad 12 molson dry and 12 canadian and headed back home.
Phil arrived at about 830 after his walk for 8 hours, just after we complained that our TV shut off right when the hockey game was about to start. they switched us to a better room

A few people from the goose bay group was staying here as well. Zak, emily, elodie and liz.
Fun group of kids, we spent the weekend watching strange reality shows and NHL playoffs.

Saturday we grabbed a 6 of Black Horse beer. because we were in newfoundland we had to try their beer.
It was alright. Have you heard of Canadian Light? and/or Kieths light? I thought it was strange.

Great weekend, 44 days.

50 days

Id hate to be the pessimistic one, but ONLY 50 DAYS until i'm back home in Brandon...or Clear Lake. I cant tell if time goes by slow or fast. I guess it seems to be going by fairly fast. Aside from the snow we are having right now! Just as it was all melting, we get another snowfall. Very disipointing. 2 degrees outside and it appears to be a blizzard.

Im back to work today after a pretty relaxed week as house manager. Made some calzones, african stew, chick pea curry and a few other things. As i type this, the snow gets worse.

Last night a very intelligent man named Ben Penashue came to our house and told us many stories about the Innu culture. He told us about how the world was formed. 7 stars with each type of people. they were restricted to their own regions etc. he also shared how he has turned to the cultural aspects of his life to guide him. very inspiring story.

Im detoxing this week, starting today. I will not eat for as long as i can. I will drink only a mixture of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. Along with alot of water.
This is intended to clean out my system and rid of all of the toxins in me.

Its more for the challenge but Im excited to see how it will all turn out.

Friendly reminder to myself. I have not eaten Beef, pork, chicken except once since April 1....Twice. Ive had caribou and rabbit several times. They come from reliable sources. I have not eaten any meat since Wednesday April 29.

an issue of trust

Were down to seven participants! Very crazy how fast that can happen!

Im so frustrated right now! There is one girl in our group who is a complete snitch and lies about the fact even though we know. Its her fault that Jon went home on Tuesday!
We tried to confront her last night, but she got angry and left the house! She went to our guardian angels house. They came back over and talked to the girls and decided she was going to stay at the guardian angles house for a couple nights.
According to Katimavik rules, you are suppose to be in your own bed each night. our PL is gone to a meeting in Goose Bay and when she gets home there will be more shit for her to deal with.

While the girls were getting a talking to, the boys took a trip over to other Katimavik house in our town and had a little visit. We invited them to come out with us at midnight go watch the stars. There was suppose to be a meteor shower. We went out to the beach and saw a few shooting stars, but nothing spectacular. But it was a fun evening spite of the little incident after supper.

We visited a sweatlodge on Sunday evening and Ive been sick ever since. The experience was really neat, Im not sure if i could go again though. who knows.

easter

This was our easter activity! I chose to paint an easter egg as the world! Im pretty proud of it, as I am not very artistic.

laaaame

Chillin at work, I think im the only one here. I havent seen one person in about an hour. Everybody goes home at like noon on paydays, or just doesnt show up at all. But im having fun on the computer here doin what i need to do. Even if the internet connection is horrible.

Im eating a veggie meatloaf with rice made by valorie. Very tasty, ground round, spinach, carrot, zucchini and egg i believe. I enjoy it along with my cup of coffee.

Big news on twitter! wooo
Oprah joined, and Ashton Kutcher beat CNN to have 1000000 followers. historical day!(sarcasm)

roughly 8 or 9 weeks until i hop on the plane and head home. i dream about this day. I feel like im bored alot of the time. No alcohol, no stores to visit, no bars. Im always sitting around doing fuck all. Im looking for a project. well see what happens.

no shock here

The last week in quebec was a really good wrap up. As house manager, it was rather relaxed aside from all of the cleaning. On our last night Veronique treated us to a traditional Quebec dinner. Different kinds of cheese, breads, crustations and a very good leek soup. The next day was my favorite! We visited un casse-croute en nord shawinigan. I think they had the best poutine in town. and trust me. I KNOW. I must have tried at least ten different places.

We left for rotation camp on the Monday morning. It was actually more fun than i thought it would be. Rotation camps seem to be pretty boring, or at least it was last time. We boarded a bus after a few April fools day jokes. Stopping at the trois riviere house and the victoriaville house we made our way to what we thought would be a town nearby. We ended up being in the middle of absoloute nowhere. A place called St. Ferdinand. It was a presbyterian, family member of the PC i guess. Anyways! We played alot of games and just had some fun sharing our experiences!
The bus arrived at 230 am Wednesday morning. I hadnt slept this night, it seemed rather pointless. Instead i stayed awake with the help of caffeine and a shower at 2am. Arriving at Montreal to watch the sunrise we had our breakfast and headed through security to meet with another group from the area taking the same flight. Which we found out would be our neighbors in NWR.
We arrived in Goose Bay at about 4 o clock...i believe...I really have no clue what time it was. I was rather out of it. very cool place! we were met by our PC dominic. Very cool guy, i learned alot from him.
Our house is pretty big, the boys got the big room this time so each of us have our own bunkbed. The house is located in NWR but we all work in SSS. I managed to get a job at the environment office called Innu Nation. Im learning alot about the effects of climate in Labrador as well as different aspects of environment in the area. trees, animals, plants etc. Right now im starting a prject where I will be analyzing the effects of weather change in the area. I will also be digitizing all of the pictures from the community just in case of fire, so these priceless photographs will not be lost.

Im learning alot about the innu culture here and even learning to understand a little bit of their language Innu-aimon. So far we have made bannock and hung out in a hunting cabin. But im sure more will come.

3rd leg

Almost three weeks since my last post.
It has been rather exciting I must say. We head to Labrador in about 6 days.

After all this time its hard to believe that the last leg of this adventure has already come.
My last day of work was on Thursday, nothing too exciting, I just sat around all day.
We had an open house, lots of people came which is a surprise for a katimavik house.

Felixe and myself are House managers this week. Its pretty chill, we have alot of cleaning to do so we can leave it in good order for the next group coming in. We also presented to the CEGEP today. It was a class of 60 kids whom were very attentive but didnt ask any questions. Sort of a bummer sometimes. Our last presentation went a little better then this one. But it was only have the people and entirely in French.

My coloring book has recently had more success. It has been chosen to be showcased on 3 of the websites for the 2010 olympics! I was really happy when I heard this news. It means that my book will eventually be promoted internationally.

Mother sent me a package today containing: a new pair of jeans, her old mp3 player with my brothers music, my favorite book THE LORAX, a bottle of tylenol, deodarant, body wash, gum, reese pieces and an earth that grows in water. I was very i mpressed with the gifts! thanks mom.

off to labrador maybe talk soon

winding down

Well its been a long time since I have written here. I really dislike how i dont really get the time to write a blog entry lately. So last week I was laying in my bed and thoughts and ideas were just cruising through my mind so I had to write them all down. Basically it was all stuff that Ive done in the past couple of weeks that i dont want to forget.

So this list I have is pretty random I guess the best way i can record them is explain about each.
Well we are suppose to do a volunteer activity as a group every monday morning. That hasnt really happened much except for the one time when we all went to a hostel and cleaned it with the creepiest guy ever. Not sure if he was all there. The week before billetting (I'll get to that) we were to each draw a name from a hat. A name of one of the other house....people? Anyways our duty was to treat this person nicely for the next week. It was a fun little event. Breakfast's and lunches were made for eachother. poems were written etc. Somebody went even as far as to purchase a fish for her special friend! All in all it was an ...interesting.. week.

OoO. While i was house manager with Andrew we did some crazy different things at dinner time. We made people eat with random utensils. like a whisk. It was fun. We had a "anything but clothes" party. and on the Saturday it was Valentines Day so we had a formal dinner. table cloth, candles, chicken, WINE....jk no wine, that would be against Katimavik rules. BUT we had fun which is all that matters. And since we were all so excited from this evening we had our french lesson from the francophones which went pretty well and after we had a foosball tournament organized by Jonathan. I came in second place. Veronique defeated me, yet again. But for the record I HAVE beaten her TWICE!!

My coloring book was sent to me last week sometime but i finally recieved it on tuesday. I was so excited to finally see the final copy. There was a few things changed from when i last saw it. But they were changed for the better. I handed one out to everyone is my house and my mom recieved a bunch at home. Maybe I will have to color it one day. Back In BC i guess big things are happening with the book. For national volunteer week they using the inspiration of the day for their theme "Colour Your Community" is the theme, which is also the title of the book. They plan to have a huge chalk festival. Im really excited to see how it turns out.

Alright and now for billetting. It ended last Sunday where I was pretty excited to get home. The family that was chosen to host my were from a town called St. Gerard just outside of Shawi on a farm. Dominique and Pierre were really nice people and they had a crazy old house. The house included an indoor pool, which i didnt swim in, and the heating was supplied by a huge stove outside which had to be fed every couple of hours. At times the house was freezing. The first weekend they took me skiing which was pretty cool, as well, the family of Pierre has alot of pilots so I was able to go in a little plane to check out the area. I also visited the church where their son Laurent was attending a religion class. Their children are also involved with Scouts so i watched some sort of ceremony. It was their oldest sons birthday on the weekend. Yacinthe was turning 17. I cooked a few pizzas for the occasion. It was interesting trying to communicate in half french half english. I also helped cook a few other meals throughout the week.
Other activites we did included travelling to trois riviere to have an interview. Where i saw a guy that had given us a workshop in the past. I found it strange. We visited their friends who own a dairy farm. Dominique took me to a local micro-brewery called la troududiable. which means the Devils Hole. They had really good beer. We also visited Dominiques high school where they had put together a fantastic show of all of their local talent. I was impressed even though I didnt know what was going on half the time. But it was cool! Over all I give my billeting experience a 5/8. maybe a few extra points for getting out of the house.

So i only have 6 more days of work left here in Quebec!!! Because i have today off of work and I have two weeks of house manager before the end of this trimester. In between my house manager tasks I am working for 5 days. Its coming really quick. Next week I have a presentation to give at CEGEP along side Jon and Vero. So i will have to prepare that today.
Thats just about everything I have to report.

You may hear from me again soon.

...spirit

Its been almost a month since i last posted.
Its hard to post when theres people always needing to use the computer.

Im house manager this week so it gives me a chance to write on here about the things we have been doing. The weather has warmed up today. Its a big change then what it has been.

I get a nice break from my job this week. Andrew and I have been cooking some food. We made spaghetti pizza and chimi changas so far. I also made a rice krispy cake and some bannock the next day.

Our group is down to 8 as a girl from Quebec went home a couple of fridays ago. 4 boys and 4 girls are left in the house. I like it its pretty chill.

We went on an excursion recently to Quebec where we visited the musee de la civilation. and Red Bull Crashed Ice which was insane. So many people in the streets. We also visited the observation tower which wasnt too special as well as the Aquarium which had polar bears and an owl as well as seals and walrus` . It Was a fun trip and were off to Montreal in a few weeks.

Not too much into the spirit of writing right now. But maybe ill have the motivation in a few days.

long story short...je fatigue

Its almost 1 in the morning and Im awake making bread.
Its been too long since ive posted so i may forget a few details.
Travelling from BC to Quebec was a heck of a long day especially going without sleep for two nights. But we finally made it. Some of us were missing a few suitcases but they arrived shortly after. Mine inluded.
The new PL is really nice and it seems like she knows her stuff. Im not too fond of the province right now but Im sure it will grow on me especailly with the new job im working at.
I will be travlling around the region collecting old recyclable appliances. So i get to driv ein a truck all day which shouldnt be too bad.
Ive got to cut it short but ill expand when i have more time!

so long british columbia...untill next time

As my last day of work comes to a close. I think back at all of the things i have learnt and it is such an honor to have been through it all.

This weekend will consist of packing and cleaning. Monday we head to Nanoose Bay for a debriefing camp before heading to Nanaimo at 4am Wednesday morning to catch a plane and continue the journey to Quebec.

My next post will be from a new time zone

true examples

I began volunteering at ValleyLinks at the end of September. When I first started they had just moved into their brand new office and were still in the middle of renovations. The staff did an excellent job of welcoming me to their team, and since it was a new start for them it kind of felt like I was starting right along with them. Over the 3 months I have spent my time with them, they have taught me so many new things. The growth of their community is so important in their minds and they do the best to ensure it. Their minds are full of ideas and dreaming up new ways to promote kindness and helping others in the community using technology and other methods. I would just like to take the time to thank each and every person from ValleyLinks for having me in their office.

Bev, Adda, Tyler, Sarah, Annie and the rest of the volunteers are true examples of what kindness is in our community.

200000009

whoa.. Happy New year i guess.....8 days later

Ive been busy actually working at work. My coloring book is coming to a close as i finish my last day tomorow.

New years eve we went to visit our jolly katimavik friends in Lake Cowichan. With all 3 groups there it made for an alright time. Maybe not the best New Years eve ive had but it was fun. Devon and myself had some interesting conversations throughout the night making it very eventful.

The weekend following we visited Mt washington to descend down a hill in a rubber tube. WOO
Standing in line for about 20 minutes then another 5 to get up the hill and about 30 seconds to come down I managed to fit in a whole 4 rides of this tube in a span of 3 hours... Likely wont be doing that again in the near future. I had fun anyways, probably the fact that some friends were there and it was a nice day outside.

I have no resolution. kind of sad. maybe i will recycle more...or... run a marathon.. or... write a book. Screw it. I have no new years resolution. Who needs it, ill do what i want :)

Its a beautiful day in the valley. liekly very cold in brandon which makes me greatful to be on a snowy west coast. But! im going to miss this place. In 6 days ill be boarding a plane to quebec. More snow. More coldness. More francophones.
My goal in Shawinigan is to find Jean Chretien. Wish me luck.