Lordy, lordy, lordy. It's been....well, not entirely BUSY. Although after todays cramming of events into the calendar, I may be surprised to have rest, which I could really go for.
Sunday was quite the day. I went to Heathers house with some others to watch the Grey Cup. I don't usually watch sports, but I just wanted to hang out. It was fun though. Everyone got in it, rooting for Saskatchewan, all except Heather, a true Winnipegger. Boy was she pissed when Rough Riders won! We were hooting and hollering. It was a great game. We stayed for supper and played a board game after.
So I didn't work on Monday, AGAIN. Monday's are just weird I tells ya! I went to work and it was if they never met me before. My would-be boss wasn't there right away. I talked to her over the phone and she thought that because we hadn't shown up for four weeks, that we didn't like the job the first time we were there. Wrong! It's just been shitty scheduling; Thanksgiving, Remembrance Day, Mid-Project camp, and last week, they just didn't have work for us! They had no work for me that day either. I read the newspaper, cutting out articles about the "arts" and I moved two boxes. After that, I kinda called it quits. They had nothing else. I squandered the afternoon, waiting for Heather to return my bike after getting a ride from her host dad. I never found her and went home. Turns out, her counterpart, Jack, got into an accident. He fell off his bike and broke his wrist. But things are getting better. He's getting surgery tomorrow and we'll be seeing him in a few days. We're all pretty worried and sending him cards and such. Such a caring group.
Tuesday was pretty relaxed. We had a guest speaker, a girl from last year's Beijing program. She told us stories of when she was in the program, described some forms of culture shock to us and prepared us for living there. It was an important guest speaker. Because we're going through some segregation issues, she talked to the Chinese and Canadians and was a sort of mediator for the two. You see, we split up so naturally, just casually sitting next to our own people. It's not really a concious thought, it's just "oh, look, all Canadians" But it's been happening a lot lately. It's a bit of cultural differences and a bit of personal issues, yet to be dealt with. Emma, the past participant, stressed how important our counterparts are going to be and how the culture shock will still be hitting them, even though they're returning home. However, they're are still technically in the program, despite some of their work places possibly thinking they're home and should just go back to work. Work is extremely important to them it seems, so it will be quite the rumble when we got to China. We're trying to deal with this, but it will be during an extreme circle check. Sooooo, aside from that happening in the morning, we went to Parkinson Recreation Center for a good ol game of basketball and soccer. The games were pretty intense. Lots of sweat and fun. And I forgot about my love for indoor soccer, bouncing off the walls. I did this cool slide kick and double spin on my side. Looked pretty bitchin! Me and some girls hit the steam room and hot tub after, just chatting. I was so tired that night. But the good kind of tired.
Wednesday was busy at the food bank, as per usual. They need volunteers like all the time. There's always something to do. And there's Devon, out of the blue! It was the first time walking there in a while, because we got snow and have been advised against biking. Sigh. I miss biking already. I need my speed. GOD I want to go snowboarding. Oh, right, work. Yeah, it was work. Sort this, move that. They love me. Only like 3 or 4 days of work left! That is unless I decide to go on Mondays as well. But I need Monday next week to work on my EAD on community.
Thurday (or today I guess) It was Stephane and Andy's EAD on Social Services. And once again, the Friendship Center (ironic name) screwed us over again! A group of Guatamalean's stayed the night in our board room, despite Maxime warning the center we needed that room, kinda like how we've been using it every Tuesday and/or Thursday! So they let us in their main building for the morning. The EAD was pretty standard I found. Well done, but the info was kind of what I expected. Although 3 guest speakers were a nice touch. We had our classic Thursday night dinner at Mad Mango Cafe before going to our Mandarin lesson. It went by fairly fast. I was pretty tired and out of it though. I need some sleep. But the internet duties call! This blog being one of them. Monday's gonna be a day "off" for me!
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