I am ninja, hear me roar! Actually, you hear nothing, CUZ I AM NINJA!!!

So the busy days continue, but Maxime still thinks we're not doing enough. Sorry if we miss so many dinners at our host families and are late because many of us are tired. Geez.

So Saturdays business. I found myself at the Farmer's Market once again, only this time with group members. We had homework, that is, to find ingredients for a salmon / salad dish. We were split into 4 groups; two were at the Farmer's Market finding ingredients either local or local and organic, and the other two groups were at Safeway finding the same, all groups finding the cheapest. After, a few of us went to Parkinson Rec Center to volunteer and help set up for a little kids Halloween Howl event. Met a girl with an interesting name: Bogey, short for Boglarka. Cute. We got dressed for Leah and Kassie's halloween party after. I went as the ever-stealthy Canadian ninja (I say Canadian because, well, I AM, and I wore my black long johns) Gary went as the fearful Chinese pirate. His ARGH could use some work though. The party was sweet! Great food, good costumes. The Chinese participants got right into it. It was a party, so a few of us were drinking. It was so much fun, lots of us, all of the Canadians as well, decided to stay the night. We stayed up late, watched Candyman; it was one big spoon fest in that tiny basement. So, in my opinion, a good night! Some of us went for breakfast the next morning. I returned home to find the damage from my host sisters halloween party. Apparently some; stolen shoes, mysterious water damage to xbox, lost cell phone. But I felt way better after I made an after-party mondo burger! Sunday was just recharging. No, I was not hungover. Monday, I started my new volunteer job at the Rotary Center for the Arts. Wendy and I helped put together straight wreaths for a very posh Christmas party of sorts that we haven't heard much about. I spray painted Christmas decorations gold for the morning and then helped assemble the wreaths. It was a pretty basic day. Very little excitement, but nice people. The hour lunch wasn't bad either. And then there's today. We went to a Bed and Breakfast run by a communist organic farmer. His views on todays farming methods and forms of selling produce were a little pessimistic, but seemed very accurate as far as I thought and believe myself. But he wasn't our CAD. Actually, his B & B was just the hosting place for a small discussion from a woman. We brought up our two homework assignments (the other one being to stand in a room and list absolutely every object we could see: book, alarm clock, deodorant, table, MP3, everything!) We listed that and the ingredients and we discussed how we really don't need all of those things. We labelled them as necessary, useful but not necessary, making us happy or comfortable, or useless. We found a good few necessary, most useful but not necessary and lots for comfort, but could label next to none useless. We discussed the reasoning for this, exceptions, and just how society dictates and provides the situation for us to call these things useful or necessary or just for comfort. It was a very enlightening conversation. Although I'm sure none of us will just give up our consumeristic lifestyle like that, it was an eye opener just doing the excercise. It was a good bike ride back to the Friendship Center where we watched Beijing Bicycle, a good movie about 4 lives interconnected through a bike. Those asian bike gangs sure can deliver one hell of a beat down, but that's nothing that a good ol' brick to the back of the head won't fix! They sure love their bikes! Worth renting. And by a series of misevents, I missed volleyball. Damn't. I love volleyball! Ugh. Tomorrow's another EAD, at Summerhill Winery again actually. So that means getting up early. Another pillow on the bus. Sigh.

Irony...we meet again....have at thee! En guarde!

Stupid irony. So, if you haven't read the last post, I suggest it to find the irony of this one. Gary was being late, as usual. He told me what time we should leave by: 8:15. There I am, yelling at the bottom of the stairs for him to get his down there. But he had to check his email and shave and tie his shoes. He SAID he would be out by 8:12. Guess not! I didn't think we were gonna make the 97 bus, so he suggested we take the South Rutland bus, which would come earlier, but would make it to down town at the same time. So we took that one. And waited...and waited. It was 5 minutes late. I had been told previously that it's prone to be late, having to pick up disabled people and almost everyone at bus stops. I was quite pissed. Not only at Gary, but just because of the fact that that morning I was going to tell my group how I felt about them being late for meeting for lunch for Tuesday's Community Activity Day. Hows that gonna make me look, showing up late and then giving them shit? So I was seething on the bus. I hauled ass as soon as we got off the bus. We were a few minutes late, but most everyone was there. Jamie told me to do a lap around the building. I gave him the finger and was about to, but he was joking. I just wasn't in the mood. So, during the circle check, I brought up my issue AND pointed out that I was well aware of the irony of my being late in accordance with the issue at hand. Maxime agreed with me, saying he did put me in charge. No one else really said anything. It hasn't been brought up again. I don't know if people just didn't think it was important or were really reflecting on it. Either way, I did my part. So, for Thursdays Environment EAD, hosted by Jamie and Jonathon, we did a few discussion in the morning about environment impacts and issues, and watched a movie on companies responses to these issues. So far, it seemed a little disappointing. Disappointing in that the worlds going to hell in a hand basket and it's seriously seeming like it's a losing battle, despite so many efforts. Don't consider this as depressing as it sounds. We went to Mission Creek Park (ironically waiting for the South Rutland bus, that JUST happened to be late as well.) So we were given a small tour around the forest, went on a small scavenger hunt and returned to center. Afterwards, most of us showed up at Value Village to find Halloween costumes for Leah's party on Saturday night. I decided to go as a ninja or robber, just so I could dress in all black (and it was cheap) I AM trying to save money for my bike trip. And most of those costumes were like 30 or 40$! I don't think so! Not at Value Village! The bastards! Today I got off work, yay! I'm on the mid-project retreat committee, so I, along with some others went with Maxime in his tiny car to the Owaissi Camp on West Bank to check out a camp for our...um....mid-project retreat. Not much to say. It was a nice camp. Standard. Right by the water. We'll take it! When we returned, Felix, Heather, Kassie and I discussed and planned a menu and the ingredients to buy and hopefully get donated from the Food Bank. And then, I'm back home, listening to the ramblings and muffled yells of young tweens downstairs for Dylan (my host brothers) Halloween party. We just finished doing the whole hand-in-spaghetti thing, grabbing plastic eyeballs. The kids were right into it. So into it, it was almost like they were about to start throwing spaghetti at eachother. Little monsters! I don't even remember what I was like at that age. As Brenda pointed out, one of the kids is like a mini-Devon, hyper and incoherently babbling. I suppose that's KIND of like me. But I don't know. My past is still just flashes. I should read through my old journals again.

Impact over intent...

So it's still kinda busy and gonna get even more busy. Every day I get a couple of emails, about upcoming Educational Activity Days or Community Activity Days or volunteer opportunities. Much more busy than Katimavik. But it also seems like I don't have time to catch up mentally. I can do a lot of these activities, but when it comes to planning, I'm just gonna be "...ughhhhhhhh....huh?" Hopefully it won't be like that.

I can't remember what happened on Saturday. Oh wait, yes I can. Haha, I suck. I went to the Farmers Market with Yuchan. She had been to larger ones in Montreal, but this still seemed like a treat for her. Too bad no one else went. Oh well. I bought her a candied apple as she had never had one before. We checked out all the little shops of food or knick knacks being sold. It was a fun afternoon. Then we went to Leah's and caught up with Stephane who came with us to buy groceries for a hot pot we later cooked at Leah's house with and for about 4 other people. It was a really good hot pot, and I made tempura! Delicious. Some people drank a bit and it got kind of zany. Not bad zany, energetic, dancing, taking-off-your-shirt-in-a-funny-matter zany. But I wasn't having that good of a time later and left early. Imagine, me not having a good time when clothes are being taken off. Weird, huh? And no, I wasn't the first to take off my shirt. Again, weird. Maybe pants next time. ANYWAY!

So that was Saturday. Sunday we went for a hike with half the group up to the Kettle Valley Trestles. It was quite cold, and even snowed a faint bit up there. I had been on big trestles before, and personally, these weren't amazing. But they did have some history to them and the hike up in the mountains was appreciated, along with just hanging out with the group. Plus we got to see a big tunnel!

Monday, I spent most of the day on the computer. Believe it or not, I can actually get a lot of work done on the computer I'll have you know. I spent the morning (after emails and such) finding new work placements for Wendy and myself as the Parkinson Recreation Center didn't work for reasons I'm too lazy to describe. There was a great website with lots of places. I chose those with decent interest and phoned, left messages, or emailed about becoming a volunteer there. I had a few responses, one being Maxime. I directed calls to him as well and he was quite impressed on how busy and productive I was. He somewhat chose on our behalf for us to work at the Rotary Center for the Arts, a theatre or sorts. I'm happy about that! After the morning phone calls, I cleaned that bathroom. Brenda has this way of making me say things and then going AHA! GOTCHA! As it turns out, she got me to clean the bathroom. But I think I might as well do more then do dishes (which I do often and do a good job, I'll have you know!)

Today was a great sunny day, actually a rare sight, even though it shouldn't be. Figures. We volunteered at a community garden today. Two actually. This was right up my alley and brought back memories of working at the community garden back home. I think because of that, Maxime made me in charge of everyone. Even though there were two women there directing us, I was to direct my group. The work went well; we moved compost, bagged weeds, stringed up sun flower and corn stalks and put in a grass guard. Half of us biked to the Orchard Park Mall while the rest of us bussed. It's a good city to bike in! Biking, I found, is way the hell faster then the stupid bus! Plus, I can use some training. I had everyone go for half an hour lunch (half the people had started eating at the first garden anyway) We would meet in the front of Future Shop at 12:30. Only 3 people were on time! Most of the rest of the group were about 20 minutes late. Let me put this into perspective: Future Shop was across the street from the mall! I was not impressed. And two hadn't heard correct and were waiting for us at the second garden (which I chalk up to miscommunication; shit happens) But still. I even told people we could eat lunch at the garden as well. When I mentioned that it was kind of unnacceptable to be that late, people kind of pawned it off, not caring much about it. This may not seem like much to some people, but it struck a cord with me; I consider myself to have leadership issues. Some people consider me one, and then there's people like today. Again, some of you may only see this as, "Oh Devon, they were just busy trying to get food, get over it." I see it as, "...I tried to be as straight about this as I could, but not too bossy, and people didn't respect me. I don't appreciate this." It's not something I plan to pout about, but I strongly feel it's not something I should let slide. People should know that even something that simple, as being late, is disrespectful. We, as a group, should know that. Especially considering how hard it is to organize a group this size to begin with. So next circle check, I'm going to respectfully bring this up. But getting past that, after helping out at the second garden, we watched Sicko, by Michael Moore. As most of his movies, a bit of an eye opener, but one to be taken with a grain of salt. We had to volunteer at the casino, as per contracted by the French Cultural Center (don't ask) but only Sadie and I went! I got lost biking there, given directions to the wrong casino. I showed up just on time to do nothing. There was a guy helping us write down bingo calls. Sadie did most of the writing, to which I really appreciated. I freeze when I hear multiple numbers and couldn't write things like that without freaking out. I basically followed Sadie and that guy around. Never did get his name. But he did have a lot of stories about losing his arm, hardships of the work force and whatnot. Some were definitely worth a listen. So although they didn't even really need us, I think I lent some company tonight which was better than not showing up. Plus, the bike ride home was good.

But now I'm tired. And tomorrow, at the Food Bank, I have to give out potatoes that I picked today from the community garden. Haha, irony :P

Yeah, my sarcasms is gonna get me in trouble one day

The crazyness has toned down a bit.....AHAHA! Don't be silly! It never tones down with me around! The last two days have been good, but a rest, I think, is well deserved. Which, surprisingly enough, means I can catch up on other Devon projects, such as re-writing the english/mandarin labels around the house, updating my blog (ahem) catching up on my journals (ugh, not tonight either I don't think) looking into pawn shops to sell some DS games, looking into bike shops and writing the list of bike equipment I need to buy for my bike trip when I go shopping with the girls when they come and visit me. Always something to do.

Thursday was quite exuberant (it seems like that word would fit, but I don't know) It was the economy EAD, led by Leah and Kassie. We started off getting up REALLY early, like 6am, and having Brenda, my host mom, drive Gary and I to the bus stop because he has this insessant need to shave every two days. I keep telling him he has to shave in a month, I have to shave in a week, MOVE YOUR CHINESE ASS, or something to that effect. I brought my pillow with good reason that day; It was intended for a pillow fight at a night club that I was going to later that night. I didn't know if I would return home, so I brought it then. Turns out, I used it on the bus, sleeping on the heads of other tired CWY participants. The silly bus driver thought we got off and didn't see us, and didn't tell us when our stop was. How the bloody fuck do you miss 15 CWY participants on a bus for 40 minutes!!!! Amazingly, we were barely late still for our tour at the Summer Hill Winery, the largest organic winery with a pyramid no less! http://www.summerhill.bc.ca/ We did the circle check in a Seylish (spelling) replica hut, or home, or something in the ground. We spent most of our day there. We were given a tour by a CWY AND Katimavik alumni (rare breed they are) The tour was pretty cool. We got to try some grapes, but not the wine. I didn't want to anyway. I asked about some purple stuff on the roof. It surprised me when Nathan, the guide, told me it was actually was an explosion, as I imagined! The hoses blew, whilst the president of the company was there, in front of the media! Man, that must have been hilarious. It was almost a year ago, but he said they couldn't get it any cleaner and the rest of the goo was stuck up there. Now THAT'S a work story! We wrapped up the EAD with some activities, debriefing, etc. Afterwards, we ate supper down town and had our language lessons. I'm actually picking Mandarin up fairly fast I'd say. I just have to apply myself I think. More then I did for French in Katimavik anyway. But also, Mandarin does seem easier. Not so many exceptions to rules, like some language I won't mention (collis!) We all are picking it up. I can almost understand when people talk to me! After our lesson, I went to Gotcha's where they had the pillow fight. Turns out it was an attempt to break a world record for the largest pillow fight, in addition to a Coors Light Mansion party promotions. Free pillow and beer with registration. It took a long time to start up though, because they needed a certain amount of people. So no records were broken, but I did get to have pillow-pound some lovely Coors girls dressed in maid and cop uniforms. So yeah, I don't think the night was a total waste. I'd much rather have went there with my friends, but everyone was tired and I can't miss these things just because I'm going alone!

Today was a bit different though, and no early wake up, which was nice. We went to a conference about why there's homeless people in Kelowna. It was a small, but very intellectual conference held by one woman. People asked very good questions and she made strong points, offering knowledge I'd never thought of relating the reasons of homelessness. I guess I have it a bit figured out when she said "Bang on! That's my presentation right there (referring to me after commenting that homelessness seems to be a cycle that's very difficult to break out of) But I'm sure I'm missing a lot more then that. Big problems call for big solutions which are never easy and never fast. When that was done, we had a small pumpkin carving contest between the Canadians and the Chinese. It's hard to feel pride when you know the other team has never carved a pumpkin before. But both were good. Ours was a CWY symbol/jack'o'lantern, while theirs was a typical face. Most of us returned to work for the afternoon, as did I. But I came with troops. Anthony, Sadie, Jamie, Nancy and Wendy came with me this time and we were put to work, boxing cereal, then rice chips, then throwing away bread, and other small things. T'was an easy afternoon and I got to show my friends where I work. But I still have to look for another job on Monday, but I have no time to phone volunteer placements (another job on my 'to-do' list. See, always busy!) Tonight I had some "me" time, and by "me" time, I mean, I went to the movies with a few people. 30 Days of Night was a lot better then I thought. Go people, go!

My feet are KILLING ME!

Man, this whole freakin week has been busy. Maybe this is that whole being "active" part of these damn volunteer programs. So updates haven been hard to do. But I'll try. My journals gonna have to wait.

Gary's birthday was great! I didn't have to go to work for complicated reasons, so I got to stay at home and set up for it. Tis was good. Everyone showed up periodically and the party got jumping. It was quite energetic, for me anyway. People were yelling my name every 10 minutes, if they could use this pot to cook that, where should they put the chips, where can they leave their shoes, when was the cake was coming out, etc. But it settled well. I had planned for everyone to go mini-golfing, but so many people were tired at the end of the night, it dwindled down to like 3 people wanting to go. We said screw it and just watched Knocked Up. Easy end to the night. The next day we all bussed out to a nut farm. Yes, a nut farm! And trust me, I hit every nut joke I could there. It was on West Bank, and was very scenic. The tour was pretty simple and not that exhilarating, but worth it still. Some walnuts had some super spiny shells which were fun to throw. That day, everyone got their bikes from a bike-repaired work place thingy that handicap people fix bikes at. I already had one, from my billet family. But everyone else was happy as peaches. This Sunday, we're going to a tressle for a picnic and bike ride. Today was pretty hectic. I was on my feet all day, which is why they are hurtin' so bad. It was really busy at the food bank. I kept up pretty well. But I found out I was giving some people food they weren't supposed to be getting and not giving food to some people who were supposed to get it. Whoops. My bad. Next time! Heather showed up, so we put her to work and we put together more hampers. We ran out of a few bags! The food bank was nice enough to give us some semi-expired desserts to sell at our bake sale we were holding at the Stand Up For Poverty/Make Poverty History event held at the libary today. More standing, yay! The rain put a small damper on it though. But I might be in the newspaper, which is cool. I'll try to look for it for you guys. I chatted with one of the planners, a young girl, for awhile and got her phone number. In case of those days where I just want to hang with someone new who isn't in my group. It happens. But for now, I have to go to bed early and catch up!

Gotta keep busy! Gotta keep busy! OH GOD!

Yeah, I wanna be out and about. Today was good for that though. This weekend................meh. Actually, it was good. Friday I worked at the good ol' food bank where I gave single mothers some lots of goodies. I mean LOTS. They wanted me to give out like 3 or 4 at a time! We don't only feed hungry people, we make em fat! After work, I came home, but didn't want to stay home. I met Stephane and we hung out with a few people at Lyndsay's boyfriends house. The next day, we went to the garbage pick up as invited by the cute girl. It was slow going at first, but everyone there was getting ready and set up. There was a BIG group of people, like 200-300, all ready and rarin' to go. The plan was to pick up garbage, litter, wash windows, clean corners of buildings (grass buildup and whatnot) clean graffitti and have a BBQ for the homeless down there. About half the group showed up and we did a good job for an hour and a half. We took a small break, which ended up being the end of our job. However, it wasn't without result! We breaked, because going up the street were other volunteers coming back from cleaning up! From what we saw, every alley way and street had garbage picked up from the designated area. They were still washing windows and cleaning grass, but still! The effort was amazing! I really was surprised. It really made me see the result of "many hands making light work!" It showed that if everyone did a little bit, everyone would only HAVE to do a little bit. And with that, we decided to finish our rest in the park. Although I wanted to do a bit more, my group was done, and I still think that we contributed. After the chinese participants left, it was Felix, Heather, Jamie and I. Some Christian teenagers came over and gave us fake million dollar bills. Before I could say "HAHA! I'M A MILLIONAIRE! I CAN BUY YOUR SORRY FRENCH ASS FELIX!" the guy explained the "million dollar question" He was selling Jesus, but none of us were buying. He gave his speech, we poked a few holes in it, he said that's okay. None of us seemed that religious and we sorta agreed to disagree. By the way, did you know it's considered adultery to even THINK of those naughty thoughts of the opposite sex? I am SO going to hell. But I will be grinning. When they left, we did too, to Heather's house in West Bank, along with Jonathon and Jack. We just chilled for awhile, watched a bit of television (something you take for granted in Katimavik I'll tell you that!) and then made PEROGIES!!! Home made! From scratch! Apparently, Heather and Jamie, both supposed experts, had different views. But everyones turned out awesome! Especially Jonathons. Damn Chinese sure know how to deep fry! They were good. It was late, but Jamies host-sister, Kelsea, was nice enough to give Felix and I a ride to Queensway station. Quite a night.

And today wasn't half bad either. We received an email a few days ago from Maxime, our supervisor, asking us what we should do for Gary's birthday. He's my counterpart by the way.

We haven't done much in planning. With Brenda's ideas, I shot some suggestions to everyone over email, but talking to Maxime on msn, he was saying I should get on it, poking how I had mentioned in my interview I'm a go-getter, and should get going. It really hit my personal pride. I like to think I am, but I guess he took it another way. I've been a little wavering in my leadership department; kind of pondering my own, others, and just the idea of it. My Project Leader in Katimavik once tried to explain her point of view of my leadership, that I'm one from the shadows. I appear when needed it seemed. I don't want to be like that. It's just pleasing everyone. I'm the kind of leader who asks everyone what they think, what we should do, trying to get their opinions and hence form my own after hearing views from everyone. Especially because I have this tendency to be wrong, of have the wrong idea, misconstrued. I'm eager, but not prepared. Needless to say, it irked me. So I cranked the adrenergy tunes (that's what I call the music that gets you all pumped) and I went at it preparing Gary's birthday party. It was an intense....hour and a half. I'm fast! I emailed everyone details from what bus to take to our house, to bring a potluck dinner, what time, that we'd go mini-golfing after, how much, for how long. And after, I phoned them all to confirm, because although almost all of us have internet, it doesn't seem to be the best form of communication. Everyone accepted it. I think having something actually planned and ready to go was good for most people, so they accepted it. Maxime agreed, it works best with this style of group. Waiting around doesn't work. You really have to step up and take it upon yourself to say, "this is gonna happen!" I'm really out of my comfort zone here. But I think it's something I'll be working on for the duration of the program. I was still in that mindset afterwards, so I decided to go geocache hunting. I grabbed my bike and rode, rode, rode. I found THREE today! I was quite proud of myself. Got to be out and about on a gorgeous sunny Sunday afternoon. I was happy. I'm just gonna keep searching. But soon, I'm really gonna need a GPS. But until then, WOO!

Kelowna means grizzly?

We've had our first EAD, educational activity day. It was history themed and ran by Yuchan and Nancy. The entire day was focused on learning about Kelowna's history. We did various activities, including quizzes, timelines, and tours. It was well ran and although it was a lot to take in, we learned quite a bit.

Today, I worked at the food bank. I still got that same satisfying feeling from giving people (single mothers today) food. Especially desserts again! Because they're 1 or 2 day expired, we had to get rid of them; therefore, I was giving out like 3, 4, or 5 boxes of donuts, ecclairs, muffins, cakes, cupcakes, croissants, pies and other desserts. I also learned how to seperate incoming food in the warehouse and sort it. So it was an easy day. I talked to my friend today back home. I'm a little home sick and am missing them a lot. But luckily, they're going to visit in November, so I'm excited. I'll get to show them my new friends and host family, unlike what I would have in Katimavik.

An now, because I have time, photos! They're also on my facebook.