JAPAN! JAPAN! The apparent powerhouse of Risk.

Well lordy, I'm falling behind here! Got some catch up to do. Nay, a lot of catch up. Just need some hot dog buns OOOOOOOOOH SNAP! No? Nothing? Damn. So, we had a EAD on religion two Thursdays ago, hosted by Lyndsay and Lilly. It was very well prepared. They had a guest speaker, a christian pastor. Although we did learn about other religions around the Kelowna area, we learned a lot of christianity, because it is the largest religion. He was very open about discussing other religions. Even though he was very young, he was very mature and presented himself openly. I was impressed. Although I'm not very religious, he did make some good points that added some questions on my already large list about religion. We dreaded the Mandarin test we had that night. Our teacher, Anna, had us write down the pinyin letters, phrases and such. It was a throw back to high school, splitting everyone to write the test. We were all pretty stressed, but it wasn't that bad and we didn't do as bad as we thought. It was mainly a review. The weekend was pretty boring as far as I can remember. I did not work AGAIN, on Monday. Wendy arrived before me and told me our supervisor said there wasn't much to do, to just take a day off. So we did. But because I had to go to a city council meeting in the afternoon, I gave some hours to the food bank anyway. The council meeting was alright. Sharon Sheppard, the mayor, met us and talked with us a tiny bit. Mainly, when participants go, we just take notes about what was discussed, so we can share with our group later that week. It keeps us involved with the community, what's going, being part of politics, etc. Some of the topics are pretty boring, but some were kinda interesting. But it does get tiresome sitting down so much. On Tuesday, we had a guest speaker on AIDS and the political controversy the disease can have on people. It was an eye opener. Although I personally think the speaker was a little biased due to his close experience with this disease, he made some very good points and opened up a lot of external forms of thought around this disease that I’m sure not many of us had considered before. After lunch, we sat down and planned our last Canadian phase calendar, squeezing events into the little crevasses of time we have left. The two months have gone by so fast. I’m sure the last one will too, before we head off to Beijing. Expected events include our final other language lessons, skating, a powwow, a hopeful sweat lodge attending, and party party party! And for a final activity for Tuesday, as part of our movie committee, (we do, indeed, have committees for like everything!) we watched Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, An Inconvienient Truth. As with most documentaries, it was to be taken with a grain of salt, but quite the eye opener. I personally, found it quite easy to understand and follow, for the part that I was awake for. Wednesday, work at the Food Bank. I went back to giving food out at the front line that day. Good ol' dessert time! Still like making people happy! Thursdays EAD (reminder, educational activity day) was from Felix and Anthony, getting back from a trip to Calgary with their host family. Guess they had a lot of time on their hands in the car. The power point presentation helped. I especially like the Warner Bros. and Star Wars style intros. Very classy. It was helpful to be reminded about the long and tenuous system that is democracy and how it works. We also discussed a heat topic down here, the possible amalgamation or seperation of West Bank into it's own city. There's ups and downs, so it'll be intriguing to see how it turns out. Our Mandarin lesson that night was another review mainly. Reminder: don't snicker when your teacher says she thinks you've improved. It only leads to you standing in front. However, I have retained more, so it wasn't uber embarrasing. Expect me to be using common phrases when I get back home, such as ni hao, di buqi, meiguanxi, and xie xie. I won't translate just yet. Friday was an ODD day. Not a bad day, necessarily. Just an odd day. One of those days you could just feel it. I forgot my glove in the morning, but took the bus. It was on time. THAT was unusual in itself! Time was just stretched. Things took longer. Things at the Food Bank were the same. Everyone seemed just a little off. One guy was kinda sick, my supervisor kept forgetting to put dairy and meat into bags for people, and I had to remind an old volunteer to write down the boxes he finished. Also, I spilled another one of those ever loathsome spaghetti boxes. I'm sure people at the front could hear me swearing. I hate those things! I refused to touch them for awhile. But even another guy spilled one! I got over this and just began to be VERY, very careful. Despite it seeming like time was going by slow, we got a lot of boxes done. And I saw that cat that hides in the warehouse. It had this weird Cheshire cat look to it, looking at me, then at this other woman, and back at me. The weather is colder, and there was a bunch of broken ice near the fountain, which had frozen over, even though I couldn't see any broken spots. But it may have been in the back, behind the clock. But still, weird! And the clincher was a phone call from a friend who was mad at me. I finished the day off on a good note; drinking and playing Risk at another participants house. Note: Always have a french guy playing Risk. It just adds a fun element. This afternoon was great! We got to see the Vernon group, whom we haven't seen for a good two months! We attended a native powwoww. It was a good atmosphere for our energetic group. It was all, "Omg! How's your group? Where do you work? How's your Mandarin?" Lots of smiles. There was also lots of dancing! They even acknowledge our presence there, and we introduced ourselves. The powwoww held a honor dance for us, which we were really...well...honored by! And we danced! It seemed to short a powwoww. But luckily we get to see everyone in Vancouver again. So it was great seeing them again. Phew. And THAT'S what I've been up to.