Haircut.

So I have a lot of things to blog about, really, a lot of things, but I think what most people have been demanding are a before and after picture of the haircut...

I guess it is a pretty major thing, as I haven't cut my hair in a really, really, really long time.

Here goes:

The before...

And the after.

Oh, and the blue suit was on sale for ONE DOLLAR AT LIQUIDATION WORLD. :D

Real blogging to come very soon (with pictures! my new camera rules),

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How could this happen to me?

I've made my mistakesssss, got nowhere to run, the night goes on as I'm fading away, I'm sick of this life, I just want to screaaaaam, how could this happen to meeeeeeee.

So that was fun, cruising down Vancouver blasting this song through the windows to passersby while ridin' the Katimavan..

Today was an alright Katimaday.

Went to go see a movie on homelessness in BC.

I love my job! I'm in the process of building their facebook page, I'll be doing some web design soon, and the blogging on their website continues! www.tbvets.org/blog wooohoo!

So I finally ordered a new camera, it'll be coming in soon so that I can take sweet pictures of the best and worst that Vancouver has to offer - and who knows, maybe videoblogs (or a return of my not-so-infamous audiologs).

We'll see!

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Vancouver, Junos, and my travel hat

So here I am.

IN VANCOUVER.

I actually have a pretty sweet city view from behind this computer screen, all the lights and the police sirens and the lack of stars and condensed houses make me feel at home again! The most I've felt at home since I've left for Katimavik.

I live in a West Indian neighbourhood, there's a Sikh temple just around the corner that offers free suppers every day for anyone!

The entire neighbourhood smells like CURRY sometimes, SWEET!

My work placement?
My 1st choice this time, TB Vets!
http://www.tbvets.org/

I'm hoping to be doing some of their blogging work, video camera, computer, website design etc. there among all the other jobs that are there!

To get to work, I have to take a bus and take the SKYTRAIN, yay! I love public transit! Plus they give me a free pass, and it's unlimited, so I can use it out of work hours to go anywhere I want!

Tomorrow, I'll be with my Katimavik cluster attending the Junos! We're seat fillers, so we might sit next to famous people or something! Not allowed to ask for autographs though.

But it's gonna be a blast!

You might see me on TV.

Hi mom!

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Goodbye to Ste-Marie

So this will be the final blog I will ever write while in Ste-Marie.

I`ve finished packing everything, as we leave tomorrow for l'île d'Orléans, an island close to Québec City, for rotation camp, which means that I will be with two other groups (the ones who form our cluster of Ste-Marie, Québec, Lévis).

We shall do debriefing activities and mentally prepare ourselves for our last rotation.

In retrospect, I don`t think that my rotation in Ste-Marie was nearly as cool as the one in Strathroy.

Billeting sucked here.
My work placements were pretty horrible here.
I actually miss working at Search in Strathroy, the people were great, and I learned a lot more than I did here.

I`m pretty sure I`ll have a better time in Vancouver.

You know what tastes good, Kraft Dinner with the cheese and everything, WITH pesto sauce WITH hot sauce. Delicious!

Bars of Quebec

So lately I`ve been into going to bars (well, the one good one in Ste-Marie, Freddy`s) all alone, without friends, without Katimavik buddies.

When people find out (especially my Katimafriends), they think it is somewhat loser-ish behaviour.

Truth it, that`s one thing I really don`t care what they think about!

I go to the bar to escape from them, not to go hang out with them!

So yeah, they go to bars when it`s really really noisy and you can`t talk to anyone, just dance and stuff.

I like going to bars to relax and just have a nice drink, not necessarily get drunk, but that`s definitely a possibility now.

So last Wednesday I went to Freddy`s, and I met the nicest bartender I`ve ever met!

Her name is Sonya, and we talked for hours and hours about anything and everything!
She told me about her trips to Vancouver, Ireland and Egypt.
I told her alllll about the Katimalife and why I was there that night.

So I practically didn`t have to pay for anything, she paid for most of my drinks (cool bartenders are cool like that).

And then a guy, who was probably just done his shift joined in on the long conversation, and we all got along really well. And he bought me a beer (yes, I know it sounds weird, maybe, but it was all in friendship), and we all continued talking about life.

Where else would you meet such cool people?

I`m really really sad that I`ll never get to see them again, especially Sonya.

I`m gone for Vancouver this Wednesday.

I bought a camera, then returned it for a refund.

So a new camera is in order.

That is all.

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Woes of house managing

So last week I was house manager with Dan.

My fifth week as house manager, and it was my worst.

Firstly, because Dan takes absolutely no initiative for anything.
He`s always asking me what to do, it`s ridiculous.
Stop bothering me! Ahhh!

Secondly, because people like bitching and complaining about a lot of things.
Especially a certain someone who thinks that just because snacks aren`t laid out on a silver platter for him (when he gets home starving because he was too lazy to pack himself a lunch), there is no food to eat.

Apparently, people also don`t like to eat whole carrots. They must be chopped into bite size pieces.

AAAAAAGH.

I am also proceeding with my coping mechanism to deal with whom I believe is one of the biggest assholes I have ever met.

Harsh words, I know, but really, I think it`s true.

Bahahaha you better get your filthy hands off my desert!

What do you want to do tonight?

The same thing we do every night, try and take over the world!

Narf!

Gwahahahahaa!

Picture yourself in a boat in an alley, with black abyss trees, and a silver grey sky.
A lurker calls you with a voice so deadly, a girl with bloodshot red eyes.

I will walk through the shadows and the streets of Vancouver so that I may finally see the very best side of this world, a world of mystery and secrecy, of problems and misery, all within the confines of my unconscious Mind.

Wherever this Mind wishes to go, I will be led.
Whatever this Mind wishes to see, I shall be fed.
Whoever this Mind wishes to meet, I shall be with instead.

It`s time to break free, and the only real limit I have is curfew.
This will be the time to do things I would never dare to do.

So much to do.

Oops.

So tonight I had the irresistible urge to throw chocolate milk at Jessie`s face.

... I feel bad.

It was awful.

I`m sorry Jessie.

It was really weird.

Billetting in a medium nutshell

So I spent the last week and a bit at l'écovillage Mont Radar, to work and sleep there, among other things, instead of being at the Katimavik house.

On Saturday, there was this thing called Le Jam des Neiges where about 12 musicians came up to Mont Radar to have a jam. There was an organ, a drum set, three djembes (including mine), two flutes, an electric and acoustic guitar and a couple singers.

Anyways, it was a fantastic night, the sounds and melodies we made sounded really good, and Philippe recorded the entire night! I hope I can get a copy of our little orchestra, because I`d like to hear it again.

I ended the night by getting high with a couple of the musicians, and we smoked what they described as ``le bon pot des motards de la Beauce``, which means that the pot they had was from a biker gang or something, which is supposed to mean that the pot was really good quality? Well, I did get a nice high, so that`s that. There was good music all around and so on.

The next morning, two other musicians offered me and Dan some more pot (Dan was the other Katimavik participant who was billeting at Mont Radar with me, for the record, and he was asleep the first time I smoked up...). Dan immediately refused, and gave them what I can describe as a ``shameful`` look of scorn on his face. I openly wanted to try their pot, but Dan insisted I shouldn`t because ``it was against Katimavik rules``.

I ended up refusing too, because I was afraid that Dan was going to tell on me back when we got home, which made me quite mad... Ugh...

Other than that, the week was... Pretty bad.

On Wednesday, we were told to go into the barn and shovel a shitload of horse crap from the stall. It was frozen crap, and in some places, it was knee high. The stench was awful. It took the entire day.

The very next day, I woke up with a fever, and I was bed ridden for two days. I think it was the fumes.

I still have a cold now.

And otherwise, the week was very, very boring. It didn`t feel like billeting, because there was no one around, ever, we just lived in our little hovel, and listened to internet radio, and that was about it.

Back at the Katimavik house now, and work continues.

Only three weeks of work left for me at Mont Radar before we move to Vancouver!

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So I applied.

To Sociology & Urban Studies @ UofT, St. George Campus.

I like studying groups of people, as evidenced by my social experiments (which, despite the lack of updates, have been continuing in this house).

I love cities, especially Toronto.

Put those two together, and I get exactly what I`m looking to study at University.

Very doubtful I`ll get in this round, but when I don`t get in I`ll just work for a while and rack up some money for my tuition and upgrade all my marks so that I can get into UofT later. That`s really the only university I want to go to.

---

Because of unspeakable drama at two work places (including mine), I`m switching work placements!

I take T`s place at Mont Radar, an eco-village that was once an old military base (during the cold war).

I`m also billeting there starting tomorrow - it`s gonna be really awesome.

One of the two owners of the place has this big recording studio, a full drum kit, and the bunkers provide amazing acoustics.

Also, on Tuesday, there`s this big party happening, the Jam des neiges, which is just that, a big music jam. It`s going to be awesome.

Oh and the place has a few animals, most notably: elk, horses, chickens, roosters, goats and probably some others I don`t know about.

Because it is an eco-village, everything we do has to be environmentally responsible, obviously no wasting, and the food that we have to make ourselves for a week has to be ``eco-friendly``.

I wanted to buy 50 boxes of KD with the 100 dollars we get for the groceries for the week, but apparently that`s not very eco-friendly.

:(

Oh I won`t have much internet at all for the week, so uh, yeah.

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48 and 4070

So I had my 48 hours off this weekend, which I spent at my eldest uncle`s apartment. I didn`t have an amazing time by any sorts, I much preferred my 48 that I spent last trimester in Toronto.

We did go to the Winter Carnival in Québec City, it was pretty cool, snow sculptures and giant ice castles and the such.

My uncle is a little -senile-, among other things.
To get to the carnival, we parked at a mall. And well, to park at this mall (with a few hundred parking spaces), there are a few signs that say you have to be a shopper at the mall. Makes sense right?

Well, my uncle took it a -bit- too seriously. We went around the mall in stores to collect business cards, which we then neatly placed on the dashboard of his car. We also put a few receipts to show that we were paying customers.

After the carnival, we returned promptly to the shopping mall, and my uncle sort of panicked when he saw a tow truck just randomly in the parking lot.

After having calmed him and buying a few more random thingies (I bought an 8 gig USB key, to keep whatever I want with me) and displaying the receipts on the dashboard, we went for dinner at Mike`s.

Then we headed home because it was starting to hail.
He offered me some non-alcoholic beer, but I stuck with my glass of water.

Strange, strange uncle.

I`m house manager this week. Because the house is so small, there isn`t much cleaning to do.
Though I have to start supper really early because, well, our stove really sucks. Out of the four electric elements, only two work, and at that, one of them only works at half capacity. The only element that works fully also happens to be the smallest one.

Cheap. Quality.

Yesterday I made a sort of middle-eastern soup-dinner, with rutabagas, parsnips, sweet potatoes, plenty of spices (curry of course!) etc.

Then I made two batches, one spicy, one not.

The spicy was too spicy for some people who thought spicy would be good. It was fun to see their faces go red. I like spicy, and so I enjoyed my dinner.

Oh, and the regional director came the other day, we`re not moving houses after all. Sigh.

On Friday I move into my billet family`s house for a week and a half, I had a blast last time in Strathroy, hope it`s going to be the same.

Hmm, I`m also applying to UofT, but the stupid OUAC website is failing again.
If I don`t get in (I doubt I will), I`m going to come back home, fix up some grades, get a job somewhere and store up some money so I can apply for next semester. I really, really want to go to UofT, maybe for the international relations program or some sort of social science, so I don`t mind waiting. And neither do my parents.

Celery rules.
4070 reppin` Loblaws.

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Deception and recondition

So it`s the first time that I`ve blogged from my work in Québec - I would rarely get the chance anyway, as I`m usually in the forest.

Saturday night wasn`t bad at all - I`m the most persistant dancer. I danced for like 3 hours straight.

I`m not terrible at dancing actually, by myself, I do just fine. Really!

Put me with another person and things just get awkward. Real fast.

Even if I wasn`t in a social mood, I managed to find my own little bubble, my own little state of trance-like dancing clarity and had a good night. As you can see from this rather embarassing snapshot of me during one of my dancing epiphanies, it mattered not who or where I was, for at that moment, I was a being in my own world.

Interesting highlights of the night:

• A bunch of different people wanted to take pictures with me because they thought I looked like John Lennon. They were probably quite drunk.
• Asshole at the coat check in on my way home politely said ``Ladies first!`` to me
• Pascalou`s (Project Leader) dancing
• Two dancers who were pretty good on stage

And then I had to escort a couple drunkies home, back to the Katimahouse.

Sunday was a relaxing day. One of my uncles who lives in Québec City took me out to dinner at a local Ste-Marie restaurant. It was a bit awkward, he`s a little senile at times... For my 48 hours off next week I`ll be at his apartment. We`ll probably go to the Carnaval.

I`m so hungry.

I was anticipating going to the only restaurant in Ste-Marguerite, but I forgot it was closed on Mondays. Raaaah. Maybe I`ll go steal food from the kitchen in the municipality building, which I`m in currently.

I just tried calling N for the hell of it on the phones here, but I can`t figure out the long distance code-thingy. She thinks I`m ignoring her on Facebook, heehee.

I want to sleep sometimes.

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Fairy lust

Day 2 of Laura.

Perhaps I should explain myself better.

Laura happens when all the little negative things that happen daily to me, that I shove back somewhere, resurface and present themselves. When Laura leaves, I also believe that these negative things leave with her. So I think I need Laura. What if Laura never presented herself? Would this negative space that I have keep getting bigger and bigger? No, I think this space has a limit.
Maybe what I need is a different remedy than Laura.
Laura funnels the negatives out just once in a while, but what about... a different form of Laura, something that maybe doesn`t present itself as clearly as Laura, but still gets the job done?
Mary Jane? I don`t know.

Today we went volunteering - we started building the decor for a play (Annie) that the local high school is presenting sometime in April.

I`m not going to complain about the job that I had (it was cutting strips of tinfoil and twisting them into long rope things) because I got my peace and zen.

Zen twisting aluminium foil. What do you know.

Tonight, we`re going to the bar (Freddy`s) with our Project Leader, for it is his last week with us. I`d feel like a loser if I didn`t go, and if I stayed at home tonight as Laura, so I kind of have to go.

Saturday is Ladies` Night at Freddy`s, so the gals pay like 8 bucks and get unlimited beer, or coupons for a bunch, one of the two. It changes.

As such, I only pay three bucks for the coat check, and I can mooch for the night.

If you don`t know me enough, I never get myself drunk, because I`d hate to rely on other people to get home safe, or I just don`t want to deal with all the troubles that inebriety entails, and also to keep my hair safe. Countless stories about shaved eyebrows when you wake up in the morning have kept me wary.

I like the taste of most beers, and I can drink quite a lot without getting drunk, which suits me just fine. There`s also loud dancing music, but I`m not sure if I`ll dance, because I don`t think Laura can dance.

Will I just lurk in a corner and look all shady for the night?

Who knows.

Pixie rust

Another Laura day.
Ha, ha.

You know, the frequency of these little mood swings of sorts is increasing.

Why can`t I just smile and be outgoing and whatnot and make Laura disappear?

Can`t I?

I don`t know, I don`t think I can, because then my outside does not coincide with my inside.

Work blows.

Almost got a CTI for sleeping on the job.

I had worked all morning in six feet of snow, and even with snowshoes, it really drains you. So by the afternoon, I was really exhausted, so I kind of dozed off during lunchtime, and woke up later. My ``boss`` was rather unhappy.

Now I need to make a little schedule of sorts to follow.

I really do work, it`s just, cutting branches over and over again is just awful. Also considering the fact that the work could be done four times as fast with an axe or chainsaw or something.

Baaaah.

Going out to the bar tomorrow with our PL, who is, very sadly, leaving us for greener pastures. :(

We get to meet our new PL, Patrick, sometime soon. He`s supposed to be just as cool as Pascalou.

Doing some big volunteer thing at a high school all day tomorrow.

See ya.
Actually, I might not see ya.

Crashed Ice and Caffeine Cliffs

So on Friday and Saturday, my Katimagroup and six others (five of which were only there on Saturday) volunteered at the massive Red Bull Crashed Ice event in Québec City.

If you didn`t know, for the last few years, this event has been happening in Québec where they build a gargantuan slide of ice with twists, turns, bumps & jumps down which skate four competitors, trying to reach the finish line first.

On Friday, we were assigned to be security-ish people with official-looking uniforms going around to stop people climbing onto the slide. We then snow-shovelled the sidewalks. There were only about 20,000 people (because Friday is only the qualification rounds) , whereas on Saturday there were more than 80,000 people.

On Saturday, we got to see the finals (it was a bloody cold day...), and it was really friggin`cool. I managed to snag a spot really close to the slide, got to see the action right up front. Really exciting stuff. Hung out with a bunch of other Katimagroups too.

Then, when the event was over, oh god, it felt like we were in some sort of landfill. Beer cans/bottles, LOTS of Red Bull cans, and other various recyclables which we were assigned to pick up. It actually went surprisingly fast, with around 70 Katima-victims cleaning up Le Vieux-Québec, it only took about an hour to have bags and bags filled with stuff to recyle.

The hardest part was fending off all the drunkies who were somewhat hindering our tasks. There were a couple assholes who staggered up to us and threw their beer cans into the snow banks, laughing at us while we were cleaning up.

I`m not a violent person, as such, I didn`t feel the need to punch them in the face like so many other people would have. I contented myself with humbly passing by and ignoring them.

Being a massive Red Bull-sponsored event, free Red Bull cans all around.

Terrible, terrible idea for me.

I know I`m not supposed to ingest caffeine, but I kinda like the Red Bull taste, and it`s completely free, so I couldn`t help but take four Red Bulls. I also finished half a beer can before the ride home to Ste-Marie because I was so thirsty.

Definitely one of the stupidest choices I`ve done in Katimavik.

Hyper-ventilation, buzzing, vibrating eyesight etc.

And since I know you like to spy on my blog, K, thank you for that magic potion and that peanut-butter-bread-thing (it tasted awful, but er, that`s beside the point).

Didn`t get much sleep either.

Back to work tomorrow, oh joy.

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The Arctic

Today was a very windy day.

My work consists of taking this giant pole thing and cutting tree limbs off. Really, really repetitive and boring. The smile on my face on the picture below is deceptive. It's boring.

The picture is also deceptive in that I work with J. I`m not alone in wielding this beastly tool. Our system is that I`ll either adjust the hook thing at the end onto a branch, and J will pull the string to cut, or vice-versa.

So, since we get bored of that work quickly (we`ve been doing it since Monday - many more weeks to come...) we decided to drop the tool and go off to explore the forest, not following a path or anything. It was really cool, we found a clearing with a little hill surrounded by trees, and we ended up at a field, pictured below, and the wind is very strong. And it sounds just like that classic arctic wind (although it wasn`t particularily cold), a strong wooooooosh sound.

To warm up, a nice hearty lunch at the local restaurant (I work at the municipality of Ste. Marguerite - 1000 people or so, it`s not in Ste. Marie).

Oh, and at the end of the day today, I got to drive around on this ATV-with-snowtreads, it was a lot of fun. It`s almost like a tank, it can plow through anything.

After a hard day`s work, J and I relaxed on the ATV, and J`s camera is always snapping pictures...

Good times in Québec.

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