Into my second week of billeting now... I'm definitely looking forward to living with the group again, but not to leaving the fort. As much as I'm not a city girl, that stuck in the woods thing starts to get to anyone after awhile.
So, for now, I have my hour commute with Randy everyday. He's half deaf, so does most of the talking. Which he doesn't mind, so probably would anyway. And then there's the evening news with Rose. I can't shake the feeling that I'll never quite live up to her expectations, no matter what I do right. She talks about a Japanese student she's had in the past who was "just wonderful".
But today I took off for the day. Which has been nice. Weekends would get awfully long if I spent all day in that house. So, judo tournament, and walking downtown. I was pretty lucky that the provincials are here this weekend...
Phone converstions help to break things up too. I talked to Meg for a really long time last night since she was in bed already. And, of course, I can look forward to my seventy-two straight after. Where I'll go down to Redeer and meet up with my family. Coincidentely, something I'm really looking forward to. It will be so nice to be able to celebrate Easter with them as well.
And then, back to the woods.

Whew. And here I was a little worried that I'd miss a whole month without a blog update. That hasn't happened since I started this beast.
Thing is, I just wrote a group e-mail too. And I'm a little out of the update spirit. Plus, those of you who read this will already have read that. Anyway, Elk Island is o.k. Ask questions if you have 'em...
Mom:
Tell you why I friended you- Hmm. I don't know if this one applies. Still, we're related =).
Assosiate you with a song movie- "I love you up to the moon" by Kim...whatever her name is.
Tell a random fact about you- Man, what to pick. You went to art school.
A first memory- Oh man. Umm, One of my earliest memories is you telling me that if I didnt eat my cupcake I'd never get another one. Which was rather scary, thinking of a whole life without cupcakes...
Assosiate you with an animal or fruit-Orange
Ask something I always wanted to know about you- Heheh. Not much that I'm willing to post on the internet.
Ess:
Why I friended you- 'Cause you started pming, seemed cool, and wouldn't leave me alone =).
Song or Movie- Seventies disco music. Don't really know why.
Tell a random fact-she loves dark chocolate, and drinks a lot of mountain dew energy and red bull. Hang on...Caffine addict! *G*
A first memory-Elly is more defined as the other all Canadian girl. You were her little sister.
Animal or Fruit- one of those white baby seals from the artic.
Something I've always wanted to know-Umm. Nothing particular. Are you glad you were homeschooled?
Cor (I don't know if I should do you since you're not passing it on...=):
Why I friended you-Because I tended to befriend other little girls. Especially if they were nice (early years *G*) and homeschooled tended to up the chances as well.
Song or movie- Oh brother. Can I skip this one? I don't know.
Random fact-She doesn't like people to hear her sing on her own.
First memory- That tobogganing hill when you untangled my snowsuit from the thorns. See, told you that you were nice. And then that picnic at the park...
Animal or fruit-o.k. Somebody has to be a kiwi...
Something I've always wanted to know- once again, I might've asked. Why?
That's all for now folks.

Comment on this entry and I will:
1. Tell you why I friended you
2. Associate you with a song/movie
3. Tell a random fact about you
4. Tell a first memory about you
5. Associate you with an animal or fruit.
6. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you
7. In response, you must spread this disease in your blog (if you have one).
O.k. That`s that. This house is insane. We`re ''packed''. Hard to believe we`re leaving. Saying goodbye to the school was hard. The Cegep, not so much. I`m glad to anounce that I did manage to finish my movie. And then I was talking to my host mom (who works there), and she said it was good and that she`s using it for recruiting next year.
I think the group is ready to move on. Even I am definitely getting excited about the next stop. There are both good and bad things to anticipate. I think a lot of us will be taking advantage at the chance of a new start. We won`t be able walk everywhere, like we can here. No more Tim Hortons, or Rafiot. We`ll pretty much double the population where we`re going to be at. Like I said, both good and bad.
It`ll be interesting. It always is. Goodbye to Val d'Or. It`s time, I think.

Meet my group. Top picture, top bunk L to R: Elyse, Clara, Rosie. Bottom bunk Tim, yours truly, Cass, and Tom.

Middle picture. Starting far left and clockwise: Jess, Laura, Elyse, Tim, Big Thom, Clara, Cass, Little Tom, and me again.

Bottom picture. Snowboarding baby! L to R, Me (surprize!), Elyse, Tim, Clara, Rosie.

Big Thom`s home! Things are starting to look up!

It's times like this that I hate Katimavik. I love the group, I just hate the way we operate. Why the heck do we have to do a final pres anyway? Where is it going to get anyone? No one will even care next week. Least of all me. I'll just be glad it's over. Why are we having open house? Who'll really come? Why all this planning, stress, and organizing for something that's gonna bomb anyway?
Why don't we get things done when we know we have to? Guess what, I'm the organized one right now. Can you imagine that? Last night in the middle of trying to get something together There was a nice blow-up over Clara's dreadlocks. Yup, the only good thing is that I was proud of Rosie for (mostly) keeping her head and actually staying in the room (most of the time).
Then one of the guys went and stuck his penis with a safety pin, since his fly was broken. It was the only funny part of last night ("It must be a sign when you stab your own penis on Valentines Day."). Then Jess made him clean up the blood in the bathroom. Other then that we had issues with pictures, French, decorations (Laura and Rosie), and just about everything else.
Plus, Big Thom is in Montreal. No gurantees that he'll be back in time, and we need his laptop. We also need a projector, which we also don't have .
And life is good.
In twenty four hours it'll be over and I'll have half a days proofreading (at $1.50 wage) for the highschool English teacher until we begin our fourty eight hours (where I'll do whatever the heck I want). Ask me then. I might strongly recommend Katimavik again at that point.

Who am I? how do I express that? How can I let you know? I`m so much more then my blue-jeans, sneakers, and t-shirt. So much for then the way I observe you from underneath my layered bangs. More then my hazel-brown eyes, even, or the shape of my lips.
Aren`t you more then what you first seem to be?
I can`t explain myself to you. If you want to know me you`ll have to try. You`ll have to care. Ask me, talk to me, get to know me. It`s a long process, I know. It`ll have to be. Everytime you learn something it`ll open up ten more possibilities. You`ll have to watch me react a thousand times before you can even consider predicting. But the discovery can be fun.
Won`t it be that way with you?
I`m interesting too. Aren`t we all? don`t we all have different experiances, something new to teach, if we`re open to learning? I want to live your story as well. If you`ll let me. There`s something about me. Start with that.

I went skating by myself last night. I needed it. Yet at the same time I felt discouraged, lonely, and nostalgic. I like feeling stuff. And I loved it. The cold wind in my face. I forgot the feeling of spinning on skates. The rush of pushing yourself across the surface with your own power. If I closed my eyes, or squinted at least, I could pretend I was on a pond back home. I wanted a stick, and a puck, and an opposing team. I revelled in being on my own and then desperately wanted my family and friends.
I lay down in the snow. And watched the tiny needle flakes flying past the flood lights about my head. It was time to go home. Singing the whole way to my mp3. Just because that's what I wanted to do.

It is so bloody cold out there. I walk two blocks to work and I can hardly move when I get in. Apparently it got to -39 with the windchill. O.k. That`s cold. I don`t know how dairy farmers here keep on working through that.
Enough complaining? Life is exciting. I`m done at Cegep for the week. This makes me glad. And I`m getting a schedule at Golden Valley. Which also makes me glad.
I get to meet my billet family tonight. Hmmm. Thom won`t tell me anything about who they are except for that I`ll really like where I`m going. He won`t even tell me why he apparently knows this. And Cass apparently told him to send me there. So we`ll see. Updates will be forthcoming.
Meanwhile, group life is fun. Group life is always fun. It`s been a good couple weeks, actually. I think we`re moving on. Which is good.

I`m in the middle of making bread. Guess what. I`m like the bread guru of the house because I`ve made three good batches. I`m actually the only one in the house that`s made much so far. This week I`m house manager. So it`s actually my job this time. I`m thinking it`s about time I screwed a batch up so that people stop counting on me so much.
Listening to beachboys over our cheap speakers. They`re singing about Kokomo, and I`m in Val d`Or. Which is good enough. It really is good enough.
This week was pretty much the first week where we had much conflict of any kind. But we also had the rest of the cluster in our house for four days. And, comparatively, I think we`re still doing pretty good. In some ways my group didn`t get the coolest participants. Especially guywise. But we also haven`t got a single cti, which isn`t bad. Since I bet some of the other participants will be kicked out by the end of trimester.
I talked to my family yesterday. It seemed like a long time since I`d called. Mostly because it was. It was good.
And now, I have to check my bread. And help explain to Jess that there`s no way she saw a cockroach in the house.