Katima-Christmas Part Two!!

So I survived Christmasss! On Christmas Eve, we either ferried or drove to Levis. (I drove). We baked and cooked and cleaned before hand and then all met at the Levis house. It was cute and small and all decorated for Christmas. (:

What I love about the houses in Quebec is that they're just downright funkyyy! They all have little ladders, or stairways or are painted random colours, they're always really cute. For instance, would you not want to live in a house painted in these colours??

And just to get into the levis house, you had to climb these little stairs. So cute!

Christmas eve was cool, we ate supper which was provided by our own groups for our own groups but me and Sarah ate bean salad from Beauport group because Brandon forgot all the left over food we were supposed to eat over the two days except or meat pie...
Afterwards we went to an outdoor french catholic mass. It was really interesting to watch, also very cold, and the priest's microphone had techniqual difficulties so he'd randomly cut in and out, usually cut in during prayers etc.

Afterwards we went into the Patro and played games with some French elderly from the community. This was a really interesting experience because they weren't used to the games we were playing like "if you're wearing blue switch chairs with someone else" or the celebrity on your back game and you guess by yes or no questions, so some of them were quite unhappy. They were also not overly happy with the amount of English we were speaking and some left because they were so angry, and others said some not very positive things. So they switched to a game where they draw tickets and if they get your ticket, you get a prize, and I won something!! Two glass bakers that you fill with spices, which I conviently left on the windowsill at the levis house because they may make more use out of it than me. :P Afterwards was a supper where Katimavik youth had the chance to disperse themselves and sit with people from the community. I wasn't feeling well so I had a few bites off of Kate's plate, but the man beside me asked me why I wasn't eating and so I told him all in French because I was feeling sick, etc etc. He asked where I'm from and I said Edmonton, and then he switched right to sports. I find it interesting here, as soon as I mention Edmonton they go, are you a fan of the Oilers? When I say no they ask if I'm a fan of the Eskimo's, and I say in French I do not like sports and they go 'Oh' and stop talking to me. Is Edmonton really that well known for sports?
After I served the dessert, (cake logs) and didn't even eat any, I know right? I must have felt really sick, and then we were free to go wherever. I just chilled at the house and half of the people went to the bar which was closed, Christmas eve, duh. It got pretty late pretty fast however, and people started dropping like flies so Santa could come, and I fell asleep too, got to sleep on a matt on the floor in between two Levis girls bunk beds. :P
Christmas morning I slept in for one million years, to the point where people not from my group made statements like, "Omg, she's still sleeping?" ahaha. I got up eventually for the daily announcements which were, free time until 8pm. So we took a walk which is where I took the picture of the epic houses. And we saw this church, which church bell rang in Christmas Carols at one point.

We returned home where about 6 boys were in an intense risk board game battle. It was intense and they played for about 5 hours straight.

Me and Sarah and Sara, and Kate and Jared for part the time took a different approach and we ate chips and pop and vegged out on my singular mattress in one of the Levis girls bedroom and then took a nap. This however did not create a certain happy camper who could not get any alone time.. aha. Whatever, it's Christmas, spread the cheer. At one point I was able to call my parents with a bad connection from the shoe closet.. that was good. The smell was slightly overwhelming but it was worth it to talk to my parents on Christmas.
Christmas dinner persued, at 830 with copious amounts of food, pictured below.

This is my shared plate of Christmas dinner with Sarah.

It consisted of Quiche, steamed veggies, and carrot salad if you were vegetarian. :P And tips, sharing a plate is always easier because you don't end up eating as much plus you can leave the other person to wash the plate. <3


Afterwards we were free and a bunch of us walked down to the St.Lawrence to get some fresh air. From levis you can see the whole skyline of old Quebec and it was quite a pretty site to see on Christmas Day night.

The rest of Christmas day was spent vegged out in various locations of the house like so,

with French movies downstairs, English movies upstairs, and story sharing in the kitchen. Then I slept in the mainroom with Kate and Zoe and Sarah because I didn't want to wake anyone... :P (CoughDragonCough)
This morning we awoke at about 10 am, and headed out. Heading out however required a 20 minute walk through a sleeping Levis, a 1/2 hour gorgeous Ferry ride, a ride in an ecobus (21 passengers max), a quick stop in subway when we missed our city bus, then a half an hour ride on the number 7.
The ferry was gorgeous though. How could drifting through ice from one side of the St.Lawrence from Levis to the other side in Old Quebec be anything but?



The eco bus was super cute and was really our saving grace because I don't think any of us wanted to walk up the hugeee hills which are necessary to navigate if one wants to get from downtown into uptown Quebec to catch the bus, especially with a backpack, sleeping bag and pillow. It was cute, and could barely make it up the hill with about 15 Katimavik and all our stuff.

When we finally got home, we could not believe it. Anywhere feels like home as long as it's reducing the amount of people in one building and sleeping in your own bed again. Me and Katelyn uprouted right away and headed to the local mall to take advantage of boxing day specials. Gotta admit, it was pretty busy, and me and Kate were in the mood to shop if the definition of mood was having all the nice things in the store fly into our hands and knowing they fit us perfectly. Having to actually move around, and try things on was just too much effort so we escape with only two purchases of my own, sort of Ugg looking boots, and epic purple nailpolish. Neither of which were on boxing day sales.. aha. Whateves. Then I took the bus and bought a calling card and called Cally from back home from a payphone located in a dunkin donuts and it was amazing to hear a friends voice again after such a long time. <3
Christmas was certainly, really, really, different this year, but it's a Christmas I'll never be able to have again.
This year it consisted of junk food and sporadically placed mattresses, hard cookies, lots of laughs, late walks, pretty scenery, multiple modes of transportation, and realizing the unity that exists between a group of teenagers all away from their families during the holiday season.
Merry Christmas. <3

Katima-Christmas Part One!!

Hey Everyone!!!
So last night's PJ party was a blast! We ate supper, and then we each wrote one nice thing about each person in the group and gave it to them so each person had 11 nice things written about them. They were all so sweet, and since we've lived with eachother for 4 months we could still tell who they were all from without signing our names, but it was super sweet regardless. <3
Afterwards we played games like Taboo and the Wolf Game. Evelyne threw Sara's ipod and it hit me in the face which seems to be a common occurance in this house (for instance isaac throwing bread at my face during supper times..) and Evelyne also fell behind the couch at one point in the game. Things got rowdy and that's when Katima-Club Eau was created.
Question: What do you get when you combine an Ipod dock, a Katima living room, coloured plastic over lights and some crazy participants? A night club. Dancing competitions and laughter and dancing trains ensued and it was an amazing night!! Marc-Andre also took to putting many feathers in his hair and we all were wearing PJs and it was just a great night all together!
Evidence?




The whole time the lights were intense christmas colours but the camera flash killed it in most photos. But enough said, I can tell you all could see how epic it was!!
Then this morning we woke up and had fake Christmas because it was our last day with Stephane before we leave for Levis so it was secret Santa time!!!
I LOVE secret santa, seriouslyyy...
Jared had Ryan and gave him timmies coffee and a mug.

Ryan had Jared and gave him a scarf and chocolates.

Eve had Sara and gave her hair products and a hat.
Sarah had Isaac and gave him a leather wrist band and dark chocolate.

Brandon had Kate and gave her copious amounts of chocolate.

Isaac had Stephane and gave him a teddy bear and monster energy drink.

Stephane had MA and gave him chocolate and Edgar Allan Poe poetry.

Sara had Zoe and gave her a toque.
Zoe had Evelyne and gave her a shirt.
I had Brandon and gave him a necklace and wreck this journal.

And MA had.. ME!! SOOO HAPPY!! Ahaha. (:
He gave me four pairs of earrings and a French childrens book to help me learn French with a long message written inside. It SERIOUSLY melted my heart.

My rents also sent Kinder surpises for everyone, and it was so cute, everyone put an arm in and helped to unwrap it. And come on.. no matter how old you are.. kindersurprises bring a smile to your face. Thanks rents. <3


After we volunteered at the old folks home katey worked and brought the elderly to a 6 person accapela christmas choir. They were supppppppper good!!

After they rewarded us with pop and chocolate as Isaac serenaded us with beautiful Piano.

So Merry Christmas everyone!
Tomorrow we're going to cook and clean like psychos, and then go to Levis until the afternoon on boxing day. I have to admit it's going to be hard to be away from my family for Christmas, especially not even being in my own Katimavik house, but in another one in our cluster... with 35 people... WOW. I kind of wish it could just be our group for Christmas, but the other groups are a good time and it should be a fun Christmas eve and Christmas day and boxing day with them.
I haven't decided if I'm bringing my laptop to levis or not, but otherwise I'll update next on the 26th or the 27th.
Thanks for reading, love you all, and happy holidays. Appreciate your families. <3

Falls!

As you can all see, I'm getting more and more creative with my titles. Ahaha.
I just came back from the falls and they were absolutely gorgeous! For real!
We met up with our Resident Tour Guide Stephane our PL, because he grew up in the area so he took us to all the best spots. There's not much to say in this blog, so just intake the beauty. <3


These colours reminded me of you mom!
And these roots are like, mega intense. They are real, I swear.






Tonight we have a PJ party, so that's going to be a ton of fun and I will have to take even more photos! I've hit the 60 post mark btw!! Thanks for reading and I'll try to update again before Christmas!!
xoxox!

It's Christmas Timeee in the Q-Cityyy...

Hey folks, this is gonna be a little bit of a random, odds and ends kinda post.
I will start it will a little tid-bit that will obviously intrest almost all my many readers, check out these gorgeous earrings I bought myself from Urban Outfitters!
Merry Christmas to me! <3

Since Christmas is obviously coming, we had to decorate our Katima-house. This is not too difficult when one of your living room wall is red, and the other green, all year round, but we set up a little fake Christmas tree by the door. Katelyn the reindeer helped Zoe and Ryan to spread Christmas cheer while MA, and Isaac and Jared played risk. (Not even in the risk room!!)



Then today we ventured into downtown old Quebec to the Museum of Civilization. It was super interesting. My favourite exhibits were.. almost all of them, but in paticular there was a huge one set up about religion which was really interesting, because everything was surrounded with white flowy seperations and spiritual questions were projected on the floor and tons of religions around the world were represented. The music exhibition was cool as well and you were given a headset upon entering and when you passed a famous artists concert clothing or instruments it would play music by them, and it was completely automatic and would switch songs without you having to push buttons or anything, super cool. One of Micheal Jackson's jackets from a concert from the 80's was there and we stood in front of it and danced while thriller played through our headsets.
Another cool one was a picture of different families all over the world and the food they eat in a week, and how much money they spend. It may have been a little bit biased, for instance, the USA's was ALL fast food, and I understand there is a lot of fast food being consumed in the united states, but I think they found a family who was really busy and had two teenaged boys and therefore swayed the stats a bit, and as well as this, Canada was represented by a family in Iqualit, so.. I don't know but it's interesting to see what families eat in different countries. Some places in South America consume a lot of Coca Cola! ahaha.

After feeding our eyes and minds with interesting things we were just starving so we found a place called Pizza Mag / Pizza shop and settled down for some AMAZING pizza.
I got greek style which = a lot of feta-y goodness. And if you know me, I LOVE feta. My goodness, why.. oh why.. is it so amazing? Can you see how happy I am, can you?




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After me, Katey and Sarah shopped and on the way passed by some pretty sights, including my place of work, shown below.




And on the 23rd, we get to open our secret santa presents, and the presents my rents sent the katima-family! Look how pretty I wrapped it mom!!!


And also... HUGE shout out to Katelyn's rents in Yarmouth!!
Thanks for the Christmas baking. I know everytime Katey eats one because there is icing sugar all over her face!! And thanks for reading my blog, ahaha, I know why too, me and Katelyn are such good friends that she's in every post at least once! Have a good Christmas, I'll take good care of Katey this year. (:

Anyhow thanks for reading, tomorrow we are going to the 'falls' and that's all I know, but I also know we're incredibly close to the St.Laurence River soo.. it's gonna be spectacular. I promise to take photos and update soon!!
xoxox!

Don't be such a turkey.

Hey folks, so before you start reading this one, caution and warning, if you are easily sick by extensive repulsive details, avoid reading, and also if you're a vegetarian you may not want to read, however you may want to read if you're vegetarian because you could probably relate to this experience.

Alright, so at the homeless shelter I do laundry in the mornings and then work in the kitchen in the afternoons. I've already had pleasureable jobs to do such as peeling potatoes for 6 hours, cutting 10 pounds of onions etc etc.. but the other day I was presented with multiple turkeys and was required to debone them/take the meat off of them etc etc. I've been a vegetarian my whole life with the exception of the past 2 years, and since coming to Quebec I've been a vegetarian again, and even when I did eat meat it was rare, and even rarer that I'd actually enjoy it. Anyhow, I told them I was vegetarian and that was probably not the best job for me, plus I'd never done it before and was unsure of the process or how to do good job but they just dismissed that. So I did it for two hours, was slightly repulsed etc but forced myself to do it because it was part of my job and a new experience and for the homeless and I used whatever justification I could come up with.
However, I returned the next afternoon and presented with the same job only worse. Not only were these turkeys bigger, but they sat in a huge container halfway filled with solidified jello fat, random feathers were still connected to it's body, in one handful of meat I'd pick up there would be a section of it's like spinal bones, in another, a random organ (I think it was a liver)one of it's necks laid curled and disconnected lodged in the layer of fat and with everywhere I touched a bone would snap and break, and this paired with the stench made me absolutely sick, and I felt so bad for doing this again to an animal so I feel like throwing up, and tears are running down my face and I understand the two chefs and they're talking about 'content' and how I don't seem happy with my job.. so before I know it, my boss is in the kitchen and pulled me aside and I told him how that is not a suitable job, for even a non-vegetarian and although I realize when you're vegetarian you still have to deal with meat at your job there is a huge difference between the state of that turkey, and like cutting a turkey breast on a cutting board you know? Anyhow he sent me home two hours early because I was upset, and so I went home to sleep where I was woken up by a phone call from my PC so I had to explain to her because my boss called her and told her I was upset that day. By the time supper came around 4 hours later, I still had no appetite but forced myself to eat. And right now too, I'm reading Sarah's book about vegetarianism called eating animals and it was kinda like a case study, right there in front of me, dead proof of why I hate meat again.
Anyhow so that was my traumatic event of the week.
On Friday afternoon we volunteered at L'arche the center for disabilitied adults. Each year they make clay bowls and paint and decorate them and then the public come in and pay them to have a bowl of soup, and it pays for the soup plus they get to keep the handmade bowl it came in, and its a really popular fundraising event for them, so we came after and moved tables and chairs and I swept and mopped the floor.
For personal competencies I chose number 8 or this rotation so that I can finally make up my mind about what to do after Katimavik, my plan was to move to Montreal but it's changed recently and my mind keeps flipping back and forth so I'm going to do some research and come up with a plan I really want to stick to.
I'm also super excited for the 7-9 of Jan because it's our 48 hours off and I'm going to visit Jessica from Encounters in Montreal!! It's going to be amazing.
Even this shows me how much Katimavik has changed me, because I would never imagine 4 months ago having the courgage to bus from a city I just moved to, to another city I've never been for a few days alone, but now, I think nothing of it.
We arranged to have a secret Santa exchange and I'm excited to see who has me and for my person to open what I got them. I'm sure it's going to be great because we all know eachother pretty well so I suspect the presents will be great and personalized.
Anyhow, that's all for now. I'm sure many pictures and updates will happen in the next two weeks as they are completely booked with wintery bonding activities.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been knee deep in stress and drama, so dun worry about it.
I miss all of you guys, and happy early christmas, I wish you the best in the season.