OK! So i've been in Northern Ontario for over 2 weeks now, and i really want to get this done and talk about this tiny FREEZING town, but before I ramble about it i want to get rid of the backlog of info that i have yet to type out. So i suppose the best thing would be to continue from where i left off, yes? yes. alright then. [side note: i'd like to defragment my brain. is there a way?] [other added side note: i've been working on this post for at least a week now, so even though i'm not done i'll still post it and elaborate on the last few points later.]
We returned to our little yellow house from our Vancouver excursion on december 29th.
-On the 30th, Gabrielle's billet dad came over and gave us a hard-core lesson on how to make authentic french baguettes.
-new years eve: Slumber party at the Penticton Katimavik house. We had hoped that the Vernon group would come too, but they decided it was too far to drive on very snowy roads. Fair enough, but it would've been great to have them with us. We started 2009 off with crepes and smoothies, then we took a walk in the snow through downtown penticton (that's also when we found the frozen children by the lake. you'll know what i'm talking about if you've seen my photos on fb).
-Jan 2nd: I organized a Spa Night, complete with homemade scrub, steam, mask and toner, as well as a relaxing spa playlist à la Sigur Ros and Feist. It was super awesome to have everyone participate willingly. I made sure to take photos of everyone with cucumbers on their eyes.
-Later that night, the Nelson BC katimavik group arrived at our house. When groups plan excursions to other cities/towns, they usually try to stay at the local katimavik house instead of paying to stay in a hostel. So, for two nights there were 10 extra people to trip over. We all went together to Croc Talk, a really cool exotic animal refuge. I pet a caiman!
-Jan 14th: final presentation (almost a disaster... yay improv!)(Ron's billet mom was field hockey coach for sands)
-last days of work: sadness
-Jan 16th: big white: 4 runs
-cleaned the dickens out of the house
-goodbye house: more sadness
-Jan 19th: drove to winfield camp arbuckle for rot.camp
-Jan 21st: ready at 3:30am to bus to airport and fly to MARATHON ONTARIO!

Oh sweet lord in the blueberry muffin, I haven't written in this in an OBSCENELY LONG TIME! ...*slaps self on the wrist*. [New Years Resolution: Post on Blog once per week. At least.]
I'm going to stop apologizing for my lack-of-posting though, b/c who at home has tried to keep up a blog? ITS HARD! As a general rule, Katima-life doesn't let me have very much free time, and when i do, I always seem to have a bazillion things to work on, so just know that I think about all you blog-reading fools A LOT, and I'm always thinking of things I'd like to tell you about or make you or send you, i just haven't yet figured out a system in which i can rid myself of all distractions and GIT R DONE! Yes, that was a run-on sentence.
*sigh*. I think I'll rock the point-form format in this one. Sooooo, starting from after billeting i suppose... oh gads. so much has happened.
-Dec 5th to 7th: 48 hours off!! (every trimester, the group gets 48 hours of time off from the program in which they can go do whatever the heck they want, but on their own money. We're not allowed to miss work, so the mini-vacation starts after work on Friday, and ends on Sunday at midnight. if there's a long weekend, we can apply to have 72 hours off, but it has to be approved by regional office). 2 peeps went to Vancouver, 2 went to stay with the Vernon katima-house, and the rest opted to stay and hang out in k-town. I didn't think it was worth it to spend a large portion of my time off travelling home, so i chose to stay. We had a grand old time crocheting, getting tattooed, watching movies on the computer, and cutting hair. Yup, i got myself a free haircut! Ali did most of the chopping, and i managed to snip away at my bangs until they looked reasonably reasonable. NO I DID NOT GET A TATTOO! (did your heart skip a beat?) Lisette did though, and Jon, Jeanette and I went with her. I was definitely the most nervous one in the room. It was a nice relaxing weekend, but this trimester methinks I'm going to try to organize something a bit more novel for myself.
-week of Dec 8th to 14th: Communication workshop, health & sexuality workshop, volunteered at the rec center for a huge dinner/dance for disabled people and their families (quite fun, we served food and washed dishes... i managed to horrify an autistic woman by reaching into garbage cans to fish out recyclable plastic cups. oops), and had an Open House, which wasn't nearly as disastrous as i had anticipated, but it was still pretty weak. Approximately 6 people showed up. At least it taught us that we had to improve our organizational skills!
-I have no idea what we did from the 15th to 21st, but there was definitely stuff in there. I definitely had a great week at work, b/c i always did. And i know it snowed like the dickens.
-Dec 22nd to 29th: A fabulous week! our last day of work before the holidays was the 23rd, which was a super exciting day pour moi, parce-que my Sister and Dad drove up to stay in Kelowna for a night! I had also organized a drum circle for my group to take place that evening, so after i went out for sushi with my fam, we all went back to the house for a crazy-awesome drum lesson/session. It was lead by a super cool man in the community who does drum circle facilitating all over the Okanagan. He brought over 12 or so assorted hand drums, plus a duffel bag full of interesting percussion instruments, explained the basics of hand drumming, and then we jammed for about 2 hours! I LOVED IT. I'm definitely getting myself a djembe when i get home. After the drum circle i gave my dad and Kirst a tour of my neighbourhood; we walked past my work placements and through part of downtown. I found it quite amusing that they thought it was extremely cold. It had been -20 something throughout the week before, so i had found homeostasis by that point. It was great to hang out with them, but it also felt a bit bizarre to have my katima-life and regular life collide.
on Xmas eve we volunteered at the Ki'lo'na Friendship Society for their Christmas lunch. They served an amazing meal of turkey, buffalo roast, mashed potatoes and veggies to about 200 homeless/disadvantaged people of Kelowna. The food was amazing, and it was a nice afternoon.
That evening we watched a couple movies, had a midnight visit from Santa, and toasted to Christmas with cups of very fine, very expensive "champagne" (...sparkling cider). In the morning we hung out in the living room and opened our homemade Secret Santa gifts, ate brunch, then went outside in the backyard to play in the snow! we watched The Rescuers, dressed up for a formal Christmas Dinner, ate a glorious turkey cooked lovingly by Ron, then played a round of Cranium. It was a fantastic Christmas Day, actually one of the best in a while. I got spoiled with cards and packages from friends/family, which was SO SPECIAL! T'was a wonderful Katima-Christmas.
Boxing Day!! I went over to my Great Aunt & Uncle's house for dinner and a lovely visit. I have such a great family! The visit reminded me of how important it is to stay in touch with family... I'm not doing the greatest right now, but I'm trying to work on it. Later that evening my group drove through the snow to one of the fire halls in town, and had a super-fun time. We got a tour of one of the firetrucks, then got to get all dressed up in full-on firefighter gear (oxygen tanks and all), and did simulations of firefighting/rescue situations. It was extremely cool. At the time, i felt like i could actually be a firefighter if i chose to.
On the 27th we all piled into the katima-van and road tripped to Vancouver! We only stayed for 2 nights, and we had to stay in the dump that is the Burnaby katimavik house, but we had a great time. we did Granville island, the aquarium, the Stanley Park Christmas train, Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, and Chinatown. The excursion was extra-awesome for me, b/c after our walk at the suspension bridge we all went over to my Dad's for lunch and played rockband for a bit, and i got to meet up with some friends downtown for dinner after the Christmas train. It was fantastic to see them, but it would've been fantastic-er to have more time to talk more and really catch up. [shout out to ace gang: I MISS HANGING OUT WITH YOU!] It was hard for me to have to go right back to my katima-life and be cut off from everyone and everything in Vancouver again. I think it was hard for my group too... i felt like there was some jealousy that i got to see some of "my people" during the holiday season, and so there was more homesickness than usual as a result.
Holy Guacamole, It's now 2:45am here in Marathon Ontario (yes, i survived the journey. I can't wait to tell you about this FREEZING COLD place, but it'll have to wait until tomorrow. or Monday. I'm HM this coming week, so I'll have some time to catch up on my blogging and emailing and facebook messaging and letter writing when I'm not cleaning the bejeeezus out of this house. oh so much to write about, oh how i ramble), SO, i should probs stop for now. My circadian rhythms are so messed up.

Happy December! Everyone is allowed to put up Christmas Decor now! And start listening to Christmas music! If it was up to me, people would receive a piece of black coal in their stocking for every day that they had their xmas stuff up prior to December 1st. [So if a person hauled out their fake tree on November 29th, they'd get 2 chunks o' coal].
Ok ok, i'm just kidding (sorry Heather!! lol). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! SO MUCH!! But starting in early November makes my head spin a bit. So hurray for December!

Alrighty then, so you're probs wondering about my billeting week. Overall it was pretty swell. Betty and Ramsie were very nice and hospitable. Ramsie (grade 8) was hilarious... one day he asked me, "So, where do you see yourself in 10 years?" I have no idea, so I wittily replied "I have no idea", and asked him the same question. He thought about it for a moment with a very serious, pensive look on his face, and said "I wanna be a professional skier and comedian". And that's a perfect answer, because while i was there he got new bindings for his skis, and he was so excited that he got all dressed up in his ski gear- goggles and all-and tromped around the house to break in his ski boots. On top of all of that, it had snowed for the first time that night, so skiing and snowfall and Big White was all he talked about for the rest of the evening. He was awesome. Betty was quite an interesting woman... after she graduated in Edmonton she went to live with her uncle in Venezuela for almost a year, and when she returned home she got a job in a small travel agency. When she wasn't practically running the place herself, the agency sent her on "Familiarization trips" all over the world. I asked her what her favorite place was, and she said that she'd move to the Mediterranean in a heartbeat, if Ramsie wasn't still in school. Also, she lived in Beirut in the early 80s, so during the Lebanese Civil war. At one point there were freaking snipers on their roof. As she was telling me a little bit about it, I couldn't do much but gape like a fool and say "oh. my. god.". But because of the fact that she's seen such crazy stuff and been through so much, she has no tolerance for laziness or ungratefulness for what one has. She's a very strong woman, and it was really cool to get to know her.
Their (large, clean) house is in Mission, which meant a 1 hour, 2 bus journey to and from work for me. And by the way, the bus system in Kelowna SUCKS. Compared to Vancouver. Its super unpredictable, so a few times I just decided to walk for 35mins uphill to their house instead of waiting 45 mins in the freezing cold for my transfer bus to come. arrrrrghh. It wasn't horrible though... I actually impressed myself with my navigational skills when I managed to find my way back to their house with only the crappy bus map to aid me.
I didn't do a whole heck of a lot while I was there... watched a lot of TV, so i'm all caught up on my commercials now. I watched an episode of The Hills and then wished i had a time machine so i could get back that wasted half hour of my life. The first weekend I was there I went with them to a Waldorf school craft/xmas fair, which was pretty cool. Waldorf schools are all over the world, and they're basically alternative private schools that base their teaching methods on the philosophy of some German dude 'Rudolf Steiner'. Google him if you want. They are seen as "Hippie schools" by the misinformed, but there's a reason for that stereotype because the craft fair was an excellent arena for people-watching. Anyway, this post is getting quite long, so I'll just list off the rest of the stuff I did: Ironed & vacuumed (to help get ready for the open house), hung around and explained Katimavik a frillion times at Betty's open house/jewellery party, practiced my crochet frogging, went to Wal-mart and tried on glasses with B and R, Went to see Australia with Betty's Australian neighbours but it was sold out so we saw the new James Bond instead, and did some more crochet frogging. It was nice to have a comfy double bed in my own room and only share a bathroom with one other person for a week, but I never felt completely relaxed b/c i was always trying to be polite and pleasant (an extremely difficult task for me... lol) and I harsh missed the Katima-House and the Katima-People. So i'm glad to be back!
Oh btw, I'm healthy again! I slammed Vitamin C and Echinacea for 9 days, and i tried to eat a lot of garlic. Also, I'm house manager again this week, avec Kara! Its been pretty awesome so far... We've made black bean soup w/ quesadillas, homemade perogies (Kara's moms recipe), 4 types of bread, and tonight is Spaghetti and rhubarb crisp. Good food, Hurrah! I miss work though. That's a pretty excellent thing isn't it? I think it's amazing.
So I have survived the first half of the first Trimester of Katimavik, and I'm glad to say that I'm pretty stoked on life.

In this edition of A&A of a K-V, The Diagnosis, a Journey through the Not-So-Secret-But-Really-Flippin-Awesome Passageway, and Assorted Other Photos.

So, the diagnosis was early sinusitis/ viral URTI. So basically just a cold. I feel a bit better today, plus I got my voice back, so it should be about 2 more days of misery until I am reasonably healthy once again. Hurray. At least I keep my roommates amused with my foghorn-esque nose blowing technique.
I'm in the midst of repacking my suitcase for billeting... I must say it is a trillion times easier to pack for 9 days than for 9 months.
Here's a few more photos:

The upstairs girls room (my room); viewed from the doorway.
That blur is Lisette going to attack Jeanette with a pillow. It happens quite often.

And here's the view from the back wall.
That is my bed, and on the right side of the photo next to the dresser you can see the small door to the secret passageway!!!

Here is Ali going through the door... (yes, she has super long hair in this photo, but she actually just cut 9 inches off for cancer a few days ago, so now it's shoulder-length)

and through the first part of the passage... (it's not normally that bright. It's much more creepy and mysterious without a camera flash)

This is a more realistic representation of the light. There's Lisette peeking in through the door...

Ali going down the stairs that lead down to the dining room...

here's the steep stairs, and the door to the dining room.

Jon, Simon and I

a sweet Polaroid that Kara took (she has to buy the film on ebay)

Everybody crowded around the bathroom door to watch Ali chop off her hair...

Ali w/ new shortish hair, Gabrielle, and Kara

Yikes, Betty my Billet "Mom" is coming to pick me up in 2 hours, and my stuff is still strewn about everywhere.
I'll post again asap w/ more details on Billeting.
I hope everyone back home is healthier than I am!

This is my third day in a row staying home from work, which really sucks because i really like my job, plus i'm going to live with my first billet family for 9 days starting tomorrow and i feel absolutely disgusting. All i've done the past few days is sleep as much as possible, guzzle tea & water, and use up an entire roll of toilet paper blowing my nose. It's more than likely a run-of-the-mill cold, but i'm going to walk down to the walk-in clinic in about 10 minutes just in case. But before i do, i'll tell more about my billet fam. I only met them briefly at the Katima-House last night b/c we had a "billetting party"; basically a meet and greet with the billeting families before we go to live with them after work tomorrow. Anyway their names are Betty and Ramsey, and they are Mother and 13 year old son of Lebanese origin. Betty makes jewellery and is "a designer"... i think interior decorating or something. Ramsey is in grade 8, and is pretty hilarious. They seem like nice people, but i'm actually more nervous now that i've met them than i was before. Mostly i'm worried about running out of things to talk about. Also, Betty didn't seem too impressed that i am ill with a cold, so I MUST GET BETTER ASAP.
So, off to the clinic i go. I'll write more whence i return, if the blasted wireless internet decides to work.

PHOTOS!!!!

This is the whole cluster about to leave Mass-O and finally move into our houses.


This is me in the living room of our amazing house... I know I look grouchy but I guess that's my "concentrating" face. (taken by Simon)


This my group (before Alison arrived) on one of the reconstructed trestle bridges of the Kettle Valley Railway. It was a cold but gorgeous day for an 11k hike/walk.



And here's the group again at Misson Creek park. From left to right, the names are *drumroll* Kara, Lisette, Moi, Gabrielle(aka Gab/Ranger), Ron (in the elf hat), Simon, Jeanette, and John.


As soon as someone takes a photo of our "new" group (with Ali) I shall post it.

So, by now I believe I have proven myself to be THE WORST CORRESPONDENT IN THE WORLD! I think we can all agree that I will never make it as a Journalist. I'll never be able to make the deadlines.
Quick Headline: A new participant, Alison, is joining our group today!! Maude is picking her up from the airport this afternoon, so we have to wait untill after work to meet her. She will be rooming with Lisette, Jeanette and I. So far all we know about her is that she's from Ontario, she was once a vegetarian, she likes playing sports, and her favorite meal is Burgers & Fries.
I started my job(s) last week, which was awesome b/c I got super sick of being a House Manager (sweeping, mopping, dusting, cooking, washing). I don't start work untill 10:30 on mondays and wednesdays, whereas everyone else leaves the house by 9. Plus, the House Managers go grocery shopping on Monday morning, so I actually have the house to myself!!! It's so weird!!!
Umm umm umm what else can i blabber about... I know i have a lot to explain, but It's hard to determine where to start. OOH i know, i'll post a picture of the group, so you can put faces to the names.
Blast, it's not working right now. Ok then, I'll explain about House Managers. Each week 2 people stay home from work and are in charge of cleaning house and cooking all the meals. It was actually very draining; I must've swept the kitchen floor at least 6 times a day. But I was HM with Ron, who is an amazing cook, so all of our meals were pretty fantastic.
About our jobs: We all volunteer at Non Profit Organizations here in Kelowna. These include the Rec Centre, The Foodbank, Community Gardens, CRIS (in a nutshell, it's an organization that takes disabled people on hikes and bike rides), CNIB (provides resources and services to people with blindness or near blindness), the YMCA daycare program, and Boys and Girls Clubs (that's Me!) Everyone works about 7 hours a day, 5 days a week.
oh shoot, i have to go to work, and the internet crapped out (as usual) so i'll post this later.

~~~~~~~~ ....LATER.... ~~~~~~~~
Ok, so it's now 5:54pm, I'm back home after a fantastic day at work (I mostly chased the KinderCare kids around... they are speedy!!), I have met Alison (she seems super awesome), and I'm going to finally post this so i can go eat dinner. I also just realized i don't have any pictures of the whole group on my laptop, so I'll have to post a photo using the house computer.