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.