My sarcasm is through the roof these days...

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!

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.

Crash, flash, bash and ....stash? Mash? Bah, damn clever titles are hard

So it's been a very simple week. Not one of stress or extreme schedules. Well, there was stress; personal and group.

Sunday morn, Gary, Brenda and I went to the Remembrance Day ceremony down town. I had a lot on my mind and being silent out of respect gave me a lot of focus. Plus, I wanted to pay my respects. One hour out of a year is nothing. Afterwards, Brenda, Gary and Dylan searched for a geocache I gave them the location of. Heather and I were late getting there, so they already found it. But we couldn't! I had to phone Brenda, who was then home, thinking they took it or whatever. Turns out the geocache was just extremely well hidden. Just clever. My friends, Dylan, Anthony and myself went to lazer tag! It was pretty extreme. Real relaxed on the rules, so we ran and jump and screamed. There was so much fog and lights, it was like I was on acid. So many black lights making the neon room spin; boggled the freakin' mind, man! And my friends cheated the last round! But it was fun. I went to the Mandarin study session on Monday with the Canadians. I need to try to crack down more on that. It's still somewhat difficult. The words aren't like French, where I find so many of them like synonyms to English words. They are completely new. But the way they list things, like the months, colors, or days are easy. We got distracted and started screwing around, jumping on everyone and just chatting. It really opened up our side of the group and brought out some very important issues that may rear their ugly heads later on in the future. It was an eye opening afternoon. I was quite tired upon returning home. And Tuesday, we had our own participant made CAD. It was a photo scavenger hunt, where we brought items and got to be a bit creative. It was a sunny, but cold day, so it was nice to get out and see downtown again. After lunch, we volunteered at the Food Bank, so to thank them for donating food for our mid-project camp. It was an intense 2 and a half hours. There was a lot of "Devon! Where does this go?" or "Devon, I need a job" or "Devon, what the heck is this?" or "Devon, this is leaking!" I handled it alright, but I can't handle that many people that well. "In that bin," "go do that," "thats pie filling," "take that to the kitchen." But we got so much done. I was very impressed. We did so much work, I don't have to go tomorrow! HA! I WISH! (Oh, how I wish) We went back to the Friendship Center and watched a Chinese movie called Shower. It was about a son visiting his father and handicapped son who ran a bath house. Quite good. And surprisingly, no nudity, thankfully. I came home to be whisked away to volleyball with Brenda. And immediately after, I went bowling with my friends. I saw them off tonight. Going to miss them. Things are gonna be different now. But I still have 4 months here to go!

Paranoia of happiness? Yeah, sounds like me...

So yes, a bit of my old self popping up this week....damn't.

We were at our mid-project camp this week. That means we are half way done this term, or semester, or phase or whatever. MEANING we are 1/4 done the program. I have no doubts in my mind that the last 3/4 are going to fly by. It was a quick jump into "camp" mode. First, I forgot to pick up the frozen meat from the Food Bank on Friday, and because it was being handed out that day, we got frozen Spam. Just thought I'd throw that little tid bit out there. We were gone for 4 days at Camp Owaissi, about a 15 minute up West Bank. Not quite in the wilderness, but you felt away. We first started the week with a little game. Two actually, we worked well together. The first was called Gotcha. It's all about stealth! You are assigned a person you have to "get" You "get" this person by putting your hand on said person's shoulder and saying "gotcha" at a regular toned voice. No one else can see or hear you do this. If they do, you are not out, your person merely knows who you are now, making it more difficult to get them. Some people were so good they could still get their victims amidst a crowd, with people talking and being busy. The Chinese participants loved this game I think and a few really got into it. I thought it was great, except for the fact that it made me really paranoid. Having Yuchan being vengeful and helping Andy try to get me never helped. But then again, she was acting like she was on crack most of the week (I swear, it was the tea!!!) The other game was a secret friend game. You were assigned a person, again. Only this time, they were your secret friend. You were assigned to do nice things for them, like give them food, hugs, compliments, notes, poems, etc. but without them knowing. Some of the participants didn't quite understand and just told people they were their special friend, while some were quite clever and/or very creative. Poems were indeed on the list, along with notes and special treats. I myself, wrote my special friends name on the grass in pine cones, until I turned around and there she was. But she appreciated it, as we all did. My secret friend happened to write "Devon rocks!" and "Devon rocks more!" on the flip chart, to which I was yelled at when we found out. And I was given a foot massage when I was sleeping. Hey, you can't knock a good foot massage! So yes, those were the games. But we did a lot of reflection and learning, as per the camp. We also had a workshop on the difference in womens rights between China and Canada, another on body image and the differences in THAT between China and Canada, and a Water EAD. All very enlightening. We were always so tired at the end of the day though! Even though most of what we did was sit, we were exhausted! After the workshops and activities, it was straight to teh kitchen for some to make supper. We had to make and clean up all of our meals. I was in the kitchen almost every meal, helping. Mostly because people needed the help. Who knew my meagre food industry experience, such as dish washing and 3 days at Boston Pizza, would come in so handy? It really did though. The food was good, especially the hot pot dinner we had one night. Very fun and delicious. God we were so tired and full!!! We had a good time at camp I think, even though it went by so fast. Most of us had work on Friday, but that zoomed by for me, being busy and excited for my friends coming to visit. They showed up later that night. I took them downtown to Mad Mangoes, a CWY fav Chinese restaurant now. Then we saw a double feature at the movies. Today we went shopping for some bike equipment. I bought some panniers, a rack and a bike shirt, along with doing some price checking. I'm glad I got to introduce them to my friends whom we ran into when we left the lingerie shop (please, don't ask) And yes, I believe we are now up-to-date. But come on, these blogs and words I type can only explain so much of the story

GASP! What's that around the corner? The wind!

And the insanity "vortex" as it were, continues. Yes, Erika, I'm stealing your word! The weekend was a welcomed calm one. Well, more Sunday than Saturday. But lets rewind for a second.

Bloop. That's the rewind sound. We were right back at Summerhill, sitting in that same Sailish hut, this time discussing the first nations, as part of Heather and Jack's EAD. It was very standard, but very well put together as well, might I add. One of the best EAD's planned. We got out late though, and hence, along with the shitty bus system, got home quite late. Another early night, but good sleep for work the next day. Naturally I biked, cuz, come on! And I'm training for my bike trip still. I still like working at the food bank, believe it or not. I was moving stuff around all morning. I was surprised to see there were actually a lot of volunteers that Friday! However, most of them still left in the afternoon. But by that point, I had a mission! It was my job to gather donated food from the food bank for our mid-project camp this week. Snacks, meat, chick peas, oatmeal, noodles, a lot! Our project supervisors practically shat themselves when they saw how much food we had donated. They thought I was awesome and did an amazing job and were really impressed. I found that funny because I didn't do anything. I just put the food together, the food bank donated it. What I didn't gather, I helped Maxime and Heather buy at the grocery store the next day. Man, we are gonna have a lot of food! Speaking of food, there was a big ass lunch when I pedaled my...um.....ass home. Gary and EVERY other chinese participant were busy in the kitchen making a late lunch of like, EVERY chinese dish (capitals are fun!) From what I understood, they were thanking Brenda for hosting his birthday party and me for planning it. Gary also felt bad that during his birthday party, we didn't get to try any of the chinese food that was prepared. They made a feast. And then they stayed, played poker and we rocked the house with ping pong. When everyone left, Brenda and I went to Saw 4. It was good to have a fellow movie buff whom I could have a good conversation with. We even snuck into We Are The Night (SHHHH! Don't tell!!!) Both were alright. I was tired at the end of the night, as I usually am. Sunday was a day of .....um....sun? Bah, being clever is hard! No, just a good day in which I got some things done. Brenda and I went to Bear Creek trail, took some pictures along the creek and had a lovely old time while Gary napped at home. I found out my friends are visiting THIS weekend, so I'm in a panic just to arrange times, dates, etc. But we're all very excited. I really want them to meet my CWY friends. Then they'll realize "Ohhh...these are the weirdoes Devon gets it from"