The Usual

Hey folks, this update I admit is quite overdo, there just hasn't been THAT much going on. But cool little tidbit, my blog has made the blogroll on www.goKatimavik.com, so I'm super happy about that!!
This week, like I mentioned was slightly uneventful. I went back to my job, but instead of doing the laundry for half the day and kitchen for the rest I've been sorting donations. The homeless shelter I work at gets donations every year around Christmas but never this much, and they almost don't know what to do with it all. And there are so many winter coats! But here's just a little insight to what I'm dealing with for 7 hours a day..



So far unique donation finds have been leather pants, a man thong, and a tiny tank top that says 'F.B.I - Fabulous Body Inside'.
This week for our French lesson, our french teacher Marie-Christen gave us a unique challenge, a french scanvenger hunt. Me and Sarah were together and we kicked butt and found all our clues and won!


Then today, we all went skating and for a walk. The 'walk' however more closely resembaled a slippery mountain of death, but that's okay because I like those.




And lately, I've been seeing some pretty places in Quebec and been trying to take lots of photos. It is actually really pretty here.




And Sara's birthday was last Sunday on our 48 hours off, so I left her a present for everyday I was gone in Montreal. First day two of her favourite chocolate bars, second day pink nail polish and on her birthday a card, a poem in an oragami heart, and purple button earrings. But on Sunday we all came home at different days and what not and in our group we have the tradition to always make a cake on someones birthday so on tuesday I think it was, Marc and Jared surprised Sara with two little french birthday cakes! Uber cute. Happy B-day Sara loveee!


Annnd that's about it. Tomorrow if I don't blog anymore, it's because I died. We're tubing down a mountain. ahahah. Sounds safe I know.
Next week is house managing, and then billeting, DUH DUH DUH. 6 weeks until I'm done Katimavik forever. Pretty crazy, you don't even have to tell me. Stay sweet, thanks for reading. Promise next post will be better!!
LOOK a SARA(H)SANDWICH!!

Montreal!!!

So our 48 hours was this weekend and putting it out right now, it was the absolute best break I could have ever have asked for!!

Friday me and Sarah cleaned the house spick and span and made pudding, trailmix, salad, salad dressing, bread, and banana chocolate chip muffins and then she left to go see her mom who was visiting and I went to Couche Tard to get change for the metros in Montreal. The only issue with this apparently was my french. I asked the guy in french could I want all change for the bus please, and he thought I was asking for a lotto ticket so after some slight confusion, I finally got my change and felt like a failure. Aahaha some days... I got home and then Steph drove Ryan to the airport to fly to toronto to visit his fam jam and then drove me and MA through 45 min of traffic to the train station. MA stayed on the train with me for the first two hours and got off near his home and I continued on to Montreal where my friend Jessica who I met two years ago at a conference came to pick me up.

The metro was pretty crazy, it was long and fast and intense and very city like. Right away I noticed how much more bilingual and multicultural Montreal was. When we arrived we got a brilliant meal of salad and yummy yummy soup,I met Jess's Cousin, and we watched a movie then crashed.
Sleeping in until 1 pm was a beautiful feeling I wil try to remember especially when waking up early tomorrow. They took me to the local market to show me where they do some of their grocery shopping. It was super cute and there were SOOO many fruit and veggies! And Cheese! And Bread!

They bought really great apple juice for super cheap whose only ingredients was apples, it was the real stuff!

They also took me to this great little place in the market to get gelato and I got spanish caramel flavour it was seriously tastey.


After the market we went back to the apartment and Jessica made the best asian cuisine I have tasted in my entire life. Noodles and veggies and tofu, it was seriously amazing. Afterwards we played board games into the wee hours of the night with Jess's boyfriend, cousin and friend from school. This morning we slept in again and went to the single most amazing breakfast place I've been in my entire life! It's called Cosmo and it's greek breakfast diner but it is seriously insane, and belongs in the movie or really good book somewhere. You walk in and it's this tiny tiny place, with exactly 11 seats, all along one counter. Behind the counter is one waitress, and two chefs and I tiny kitchen. All 11 chairs are almost always full, so when you come in you stand in line and they give you free coffee and take your order while you wait for people to finish eating and to vacate a seat. But it's so funny, if you want cream of sugar in your coffee the waitress will pass it to someone of the random 11 people eating who will pass it behind them to someone in the line. Everyone who eats there is super friendly and jokes around with everyone else and it feels like you're eating breakfast in a giant family! 3 seats were vacated for us but they weren't together so the waitress literally told everyone to move over one spot and they all did! Everyone just slid their breakfast's over, and they do it all the time! They give you copious amounts of food, I had a whole plate of delicious hashbrowns which didn't even require ketchup to taste good, and a veggie BLT with an egg in it. It was SO amazing, the waitress was SOO funny and snappy, and it only cost me $6 dollars. I know right, sounds like the coolest thing ever, because it was the coolest thing ever.
After we went to a small bakery and got chocolate croissants, and then headed to the mountain, which is really an amazing look out point that is of Montreals downtown. It was gorgeous and we got hot chocolate from a vending machine and sat there and ate our croissants and hot chocolate.



After they took me back to the train station and currently I am on a train on my way back to Quebec City.
Montreal was seriously soooo amazing. There was sooo much graffiti, but it looked so cool, and it had a serious big city feel. I really like it there and I intend on living there for some amount of time in the future, completely serious about that.
It was so nice being able to see Jess again and to see such an interesting city. Having a break away from the house and the group was really nice, and quiet and peaceful. Although the idea of taking a train from Quebec and going to Montreal where I have never been before was slightly intimidating it was even more rewarding and I am so grateful I went through with it! THANK YOU SO MUCH JESS and BRYCE!!
I am slightly dreading the idea of getting up early for work tomorrow and returning to my volunteer placement as I have not had to work for the past 3 weeks, but I work for a week and then house manage again with Ryan and then it's billeting.
I'm excited to see my Katima family again and sleep and a shower will be great upon my return. Ahaha, thanks for reading, and stay updated!!! xooxoxoxoxxoxox.

Late night ponderings.

Me and Sarah and Stephane just had a great talk about... life.
We talked about how lucky we are to be in Katimavik, and the many life experiences we'll gain here that we may never encounter again. We spoke of how lucky we are that we are able to experience a part of Canada so rich with culture. Stephane said we'll miss Quebec when we're gone, and I know it's true. He told us about the Hotel Frontanac, and how the British built it after they defeated the French. He told us how the British burnt all of the French's wheat until the only thing that was left was useful for only making beer, so one night the French all had a party and got drunk and they were really tired because the British would randomly set off Cannons at night because the noise prevented the French from sleeping, and then they snuck in, in the middle of the night up a hill behind the French and killed them all. We talked about vegetarianism and how people should only be able to eat meat if they are willing to kill it themselves, and how people will hopefully have a turn around and realize the cruelty against animals they've been supporting.
We spoke about the rarety that is water. And it's 1 am in the morning. I <3 Katimavik, when can such marvelous conversations happen at such random times about such important topics. It reminds me of my conversations with you Mother. (: Always willing to talk with me late into the night.

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we cannot eat money." ~Cree Indian Proverb

http://www.onedrop.org/

Managing This House Fools, Veggie Style!

Hey!! I am back by popular demand, also known as my mother expecting regular updates! I hope all of you are doing well, happy Birthday to my Aunty Abby!!
This week I'm house managing with Sarah, my fellow vegetarian. We both find it ironic how we're both from Alberta and supposed to be advocating Alberta Beef, and are somehow both vegetarians instead. (: We decided every meal was to be vegetarian this week but Stephane could not go 4 suppers without meat, so we let Evelyne cook some meat at one of the meals. Our meals this week have been super interesting and delicious and have consisted of Mushroom Pasta, Mushroom Lentil Burgers, Peanut Butter Bok Choy and Fajitas! We also learnt how to make a new type of bread, volcano/fetus style!!

Vegan Apple Banana Cinnamon Bars and Popcorn

Vegan Chocolate Sauce for trail mix for 48 hours off!!

Sarah chopping onions with style. But for realsies, the onions here are mad intense. Agggh I can feel my eyes watering, seriously.

Fetus Bread

Me and the Volcano. Seriously the most intense way of making bread I ever saw. Wanna try?

1. Sprinkle some salt on the table, and then put down 7 cups of flour.
2. Form the flour into a volcano.
3. Mix one cup of water with 10 teaspoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of yeast and mix.
4. Pour the water mixture into the middle of the volcano.
5. Take little bits of flour from the sides and put it in the volcano and mix it with your fingers gradually adding more and more flour until eventually its all mixed.
6. Knead for quite a while until you have a nice fetus looking bread.
7. Leave to rise for an hour.
8. After an hour cut the dough into three, slap the air out of it and put it into greased pans and let it rise for half an hour.
9. After half an hour put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 20-30 min and TADA KATIMABREAD!

Sarah's AMAZING Vegan Brownies. Oh my, you don't even know.

That't right, Pita Chips with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and basil, and sundried tomato hummus. For snack. No big. MA said it was the best snack he ever had. (:

Me and Sarah also cleaned and organized the fridge and the pantry. I seriously wish I had before and after pictures, because then you could realize our full awesomeness. But regardless of this, let me just say, THROW AWAY LEFTOVERS IF YOU DON'T EAT THEM. To imagine how bad it was, just think about this, all those containers of yogert did not have yogert in them.... duh duh duh.

Tomorrow is our 48 hours off! I am super excited as I'm visiting my friend Jessica in Montreal! eeeee! I am also taking a train for the first time ever in my life! Intense craziness I know, right? Anyhow I will for sure update you on all that greatness as it happens, perhaps like a type of play by play. Or, maybe when I get back. On Monday it's back to work for me, sigh, but the week after I house manage again with Rye-Rye, and then the week after that I'm back at work but then living with a French host family! I know, I can't even comprehend how apprehensive I am about the things coming up in my life.
I've also applied to two different programish things, so I will tell you guys of my next adventures if I get accepted to any of them.
Also if any of you like poetry or black and white photography check out my other blog. Thanks for staying tuned, sorry for not updating sooner, but my next post will be uber awesome, I promise. Lots of loveeee!

Bon Annee!

Happy New Years Everyone!! I hope it was all great + safe for all of you!
My New Years was pretty much exceptionally awesome. (:
We prepared Pasta, Greek salad and cheese bread for the potluck dinner and then bussed it over to Beauport.

We enjoyed bountious amounts of good food and then took up 1/2 a bus because there were 30 of us in one, and went to the Grande Allee which is this crazy street in Old Quebec which is covered in Resteraunts and bars and clubs and on New Years they basically block off the entire street and set up huge DJ platforms have tons of lights and basically it's a crazy dance party that stretches across an entire street!





It was a great night and we got to hear some traditional quebec music mixed with party beats ahaha.

The countdown happened pretty suddenly, it was in French and really fast and said by a crowd so I like didn't even know what number we were at, however a lot of screaming, confetti, fireworks and maybe a smooch was a good indicator that the new year had arrived.



It was so amazing, because Christmas didn't really feel like Christmas but new years totally felt like new years. Right after the countdown it was a crazy push through the crowd to hug everyone and wish them a happy new year and tell them how much you loved them, and then random people were like hi-fiving me and screaming Bon Annee, and everyone was happy and screaming and it was crazy and awesome and wild!
After we made a huge line of Katimavikers and held hands to try and get through the crowd and back home.
When we returned to the beauport house (after a stop at Ashton's) there was a rave that was supposed to last until 4 30 am but kinda crashed at about 3ish because of some intense drama etc...
BUT all in all it was a great night and a happy new year. (:

More fun in the snow!

Yesterday Stephane took us to his friend property which had a hugeeee hilly road to slide down. It was ton of fun and it was super pretty. We get pretty cold near the end of the day and we left just in time before we froze. :P


These trees are all maple trees, and apparently the massive elastic bands are the modern way of getting maple syrup! You learn something new everyday!





As well as this, I think I'm getting a phone again!! I have not had a phone for the last 4 months of Katimavik and I think it's been amazing! There are the times where you wish you could just grab your cell and texting something to someone quickly, or you need to have the whereabouts of a certain person or whatever, but not having a phone has really made me more concious of how rude people can be with their phones. You really start to notice when people are texting when visiting with a group of people, or at work, or volunteering and it's eye opening and you can really see how rude it is. So I'm going to try to be really concious about it and be the most respectful texter. But I am going to love my phone for during billeting when I'm all lonely. :P
New years eve is tomorrow and theres cool stuff planned! We are with Beauport and Levis again and we are going downtown where all the bars and clubs are, and apparently they all heat their patios and the whole street is filled with people like one massive party. We can stay out until 2am, and then at 2am at Beauport there is going to be a rave until 430am that is white themed because they're getting black lights so it should be extra awesome and I am actually excited. I'm just not excited for helping to make all the food and like lugging our mattresses aross Quebec again, but whatever, it's gonna be a great time.
As well I decided this year instead of New Years Resolutions that never actually get achieved I'm going to instead write a list of goals and objectives for my life and work on completing them across the span of my entire life. (:
Thanks for reading, and btw my blog is at 1,999 views. One more!! (: Happy New Years!

Tourist Time!!

Yesterday we did Quebecadabra or something like this, and you wander the streets of Old Quebec to see Christmas past, present and future. The day consisted more of wandering arouund being tourists as Christmas past and present seemed impossible to find, and Christmas future presenting a good dancing area. This was my day. This church was absolutely beatiful inside. I asked MA how old it was and he figured it out for me and said 340 years!!
This wall I have seen in many the postcard, and it was really cool to actually see the actual thing in real life aha.
This is the market of old Quebec. It's huge and gorgeous and I'm going to go back and get this beautiful ring I wanted.

This is just a beautiful view of old Quebec, no big.
We met up with Beauport, and Levis, but BEAUPORT, at the market and proceeded to the Chistmas Laborynth, clearly made for children or short people like myself, as one could see through and above all the christmas trees which created the maze. :P Oh well. Good times all around.
At the end of the laborynth we found my midget house! Look how happy I am to be home!
And this folks, is apparently our Christmas future, riding stationary bikes to create energy to light our recycled metal tree... we were discussing the issues surrounding this for instance a grandfathers desire to light the christmas tree and biking past is capabilities and getting a heart attack. Bad idea we think. So instead we ran around in dramatic circles around the tree but stopped pretty soon as the security was getting uptight. Especially since Brandon climbed into an empty swimming pool and was threatened with a call to the police... ahaha.
We later discovered that on the 3rd floor of this building there was free hot chocolate and fidding music. A few of the boys let go of their festive side and showed us some dance moves. Ahaha wasn't really my cup of tea :P

This was awesome, the typical maple syrup and snow, but rolled up on a stick!!! Almost everyone got one! (: It was really cool to watch how they made them.
Katelyn claims to be the queen of chocolate/sugary things, but she couldn't even finish her stick, such a poser! ahaha. And we ended this amazing touristy day with the ultimate touristy activity! BEAVERTAILS! Thank goodness I shared with Katelyn because I would have died if I ate a whole one. That's right folks, (and mom plug your ears, or eyes or whatever... ) this is deepfried goodness with icing and crushed oreos..
Later that night me and Katelyn got creative and designed Monday nights with KK/K squared and we ate chocolate, and applied face masks. Don't be jealous.
And then today we get to watch a french movie at the movie theatre! Woooo! Hope I don't fall asleep! JK JK JK JK It's a learning experience I know!!
XoXo Thanks for reading, stay tuned, (50 hits off of 2000 views!) (: