Agony. Excitement. Enthusiasm. My carefully selected words for "the waiting". Yup, it's well past my ideal sleeping hour and I am wide awake. I've been reading just about everything on the Katimavik website, I read the Facebook stuff, the twitter stuff, watched tonnes of videos from past groups, read blogs from current groups, and most recently I read the Wikipedia article. After reading it over one part stuck out to me:
"When the Conservative government of Stephen Harper was elected, the organization was instructed that its funding was under review and that it was to cease recruitment activities. A letter-writing campaign was organized by Katimavik and funding levels were maintained until October 2010 when the government announced 3 year funding in the sum of $15 million per year, a reduction of approximately 25% from previous funding levels ($19.7 million)"
Ouch, Stephen. I don't want to get too political here, but now I have someone other than myself to blame for the wait list. Endless nights of me thinking "Why must I be a generic white girl from BC?!" I figure it must be that my socio-demographic category is so common and that there is this flood of white girls from BC applying to Katimavik and I just don't stand a chance. Whether that's true or not I'm blaming Stephen. LALALALALALA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!
On to the matter at hand. I have lai out my finest winter ware for Montreal. Sorels snow boots, Columbia snow pants, fleece lined mittens, and and arctic weather coat that's about as tall as a preteen boy. My personal favourite is the fleece lined jeans, all the style you get with jeans, but keeping in the warmth. The truth is, style or not I hardly ever wear jeans (although I'm wearing them now) mostly because it's either to hot or too cold from jeans. In Vancouver they can only truely be worn in late August September, and May. But lordy, these fleece lined jeans! They are fantastic.
I've spent a good deal of time agonizing about little things, like "Where did I put that French-English English-French Dictionary?" "What if there's no one at the airport when I get there?" "What if I pack two bags and everyone else only packs one? Or worse, what if I pack one and everyone else packs two?!". 've also tried practising my French, attempting to read all the names of products only in French. Those who known me will be saying "Niki, you speak French, don't be silly". It's true I was in French Immersion for Kindergarten until the end of grade 2, then I started French from the begging again in grade 5 and continued that until grade 7. At the begging of High school in grade 8 I had a chance to start all over again, so I started again. That carried on until grade 12, when I stopped taking French. So I actually learned French three times, and I know the words, and even some of the verbs. I am awful at formulating a sentence, and to a certain extent, comprehending a sentence. But worst of all, I lost my beautiful French accent. No matter how bad I messed up those verbs my teacher would always tell me I had such a prefect French accent. It's true, years of general humour have given me a multinational assortment of accents, from my delightful Borat Kazakh, the gruff old Englishmen, the humble Irish women, the friendly German, the respectful Mexican, and of course the American (need I say more). Most recently I've had the chance to add a little Newfie to the mix thanks to my East Coast Brother. In my past venture to Mexico I even took a little "Learn Spanish in 6 Weeks", and I quickly learned how similar French and Spanish are. My Spanish was brilliant, I fully understood the police officer who pulled us over saying "Muy Cero" about the ticket, very expensive. The downside to this was the destruction of my French accent, now it's this horrible mess of Spanish and French, which sounds worse that your average "West Coast Canadian French". Banjoor. Murcy. Or V-wa.
Despite the French, and the packing, and the Harper government, I think things will be great. The French will come back over time. I can get some pointer on packing. And for Stephen, he will see the error of his ways some day. You see the problem here is that he is 51 year old, that means he was born in 1959, and Katimavik started in 1977. He was almost 18 years old, the perfect age, and he missed his chance. I'm guessing he didn't go of course, because if he had, he wouldn't have cut the funding. Well, I'm gonna go on Katimavik, and I'm gonna have a blast, and if I ever become Prime Minster, Oh, I have some ideas....
Friday, December 31, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Introduction
Hi there. I'm writing this from my desktop computer in North Vancouver, British Columbia and I have only 1 hour until I have to leave for work. More importantly I have 1 week until I embark on Katimavik, a volunteer program for Canadian youth. So I'm starting this blog for a couple reasons. First off as an outlet to fill in my friends and family back home, I really don't want to have to call to relay the whole day to each and everyone one of you, or else I'd never have time to do anything fun. Secondly, as some insight to people who may consider applying to Katimavik. Hopefully friends reading this will consider applying too. And finally as a way to keep memories, because I plan on doing so reminiscing.
Now, for those of you who don't know my journey to find a Katimavik started a year ago when I was in grade 12. It seemed as though every school in the world had come to visit to remind my planning class that we were prefect for their school. Of course in my graduating year of school I was more excited to leave then to find a new school. Then there was the issue of "what would I even study". The whole ordeal was unappealing, but school counselors, and teachers, and parents all want to know what's next for Niki. My dear sweet mother who I owe all this too suggested Katimavik. Which she knew little to nothing about. My interest grew drastically over the next few months leading up to my sign up. Katimavik even visited my school and always was going swimmingly. I graduated happy as a clam ready to get going. Then came the speed bump, yes, it seemed Katimavik sounded fun to a lot of people. That summer I received my first taste of the real world: a sad e-mail stating that there was no room for me on the September 2010, 9 month program. Ouch.
So, at this point I'm breaking all the "break in case of emergency" cabinets, and hoping that some other person from my socio-demographic was accepted to the school of their dream so that there could be a spot for me. Shook up from this I quickly signed up for the 6 month themed program starting in January. By September I received and e-mail letting me know I was on the wait list. So, I made myself busy, I signed up to do Chemistry 12 online, I started cooking dinner for my mum so she'd let me stay in the house, and I started looking for a job. This is my low point. Lucky for me, when things get bad, we go on vacation! So in October we left for Mexico! What a great distraction! We went to isolated beaches, and zip-line into a cenote (google that word, I didn't know what it meant either), and ate fantastic food, and then as I was walk back to our shack from the beach I heard a quiet sound coming from the bushes, and it was a baby sea turtle I directed him to the water and let him take over, you just can't buy memories like that. When I got back I was just typing up would would later become my most liked status on facebook, when I decided to check my e-mail. There is was, my e-mail, the one I need most:
"Niki, we have a place for you"
-Katimavik
I responded in an enthusiastic fury, "This is the best e-mail I ever received!", "I can't wait to go!", "When can I go?", "Where am I going?". My unavoidable mistake was that I mentioned I wouldn't be back from Mexico until October 15th, woops, because they wanted me to leave October 18th. The response was little more than "no". It turned out I was being accepted for the 9 month program that was already well under way, not the 6 month program that gave me at least two months until the start. Then that was it I had my chance and I lost it. All I could think is "At least I held that baby turtle."
When I got back it was time, time to start sending out those resumes, and this was something I had no clue on how to do. I never applied for jobs during high school, mostly to focus on my school work, but this left my resume looking incredibly bare. I had done so much volunteer work, oh so much volunteer work, but they were only really interested in if I had a job before. I had an interview with Pizza Hut, and they never even called back (Pizza Hut if your reading this, I'm still waiting). I had an interview with EB Games a little later on, which went really well, but then they hired someone else, and I was back to waiting. Then I eventually found season employment at Michaels Arts and Crafts Store. I liked it there, actually, I had nothing to complain about. Then on December 16th I received this email:
"Hello Nicole,
We are happy to inform you that you have been selected for the Cultural Discovery and Civic Engagement program and that you will be a member of group 22143. Your program will begin on January 5th 2011 in Montréal-Ville Émard, QC and end in Sioux Lookout, ON on June 22nd 2011."
I imploded. A couple days after frantic calls and paper work I had to hand in my two weeks notice, which was really embarrassing because they keep season safe on until January 15th, and I would be leaving January 5th. But I can't pass up the opportunity I had been waiting all year for.
So here I am, a 40 minute until I have to get on that bus and go to work, and it's not so bad. Because I know that Michaels is going to continue having sales and supplying paintbrushes and flower arrangements, but I'm going to Montreal. I'm going to meet new people, speak french, an bake bread. Only one week to go.
Now, for those of you who don't know my journey to find a Katimavik started a year ago when I was in grade 12. It seemed as though every school in the world had come to visit to remind my planning class that we were prefect for their school. Of course in my graduating year of school I was more excited to leave then to find a new school. Then there was the issue of "what would I even study". The whole ordeal was unappealing, but school counselors, and teachers, and parents all want to know what's next for Niki. My dear sweet mother who I owe all this too suggested Katimavik. Which she knew little to nothing about. My interest grew drastically over the next few months leading up to my sign up. Katimavik even visited my school and always was going swimmingly. I graduated happy as a clam ready to get going. Then came the speed bump, yes, it seemed Katimavik sounded fun to a lot of people. That summer I received my first taste of the real world: a sad e-mail stating that there was no room for me on the September 2010, 9 month program. Ouch.
So, at this point I'm breaking all the "break in case of emergency" cabinets, and hoping that some other person from my socio-demographic was accepted to the school of their dream so that there could be a spot for me. Shook up from this I quickly signed up for the 6 month themed program starting in January. By September I received and e-mail letting me know I was on the wait list. So, I made myself busy, I signed up to do Chemistry 12 online, I started cooking dinner for my mum so she'd let me stay in the house, and I started looking for a job. This is my low point. Lucky for me, when things get bad, we go on vacation! So in October we left for Mexico! What a great distraction! We went to isolated beaches, and zip-line into a cenote (google that word, I didn't know what it meant either), and ate fantastic food, and then as I was walk back to our shack from the beach I heard a quiet sound coming from the bushes, and it was a baby sea turtle I directed him to the water and let him take over, you just can't buy memories like that. When I got back I was just typing up would would later become my most liked status on facebook, when I decided to check my e-mail. There is was, my e-mail, the one I need most:
"Niki, we have a place for you"
-Katimavik
I responded in an enthusiastic fury, "This is the best e-mail I ever received!", "I can't wait to go!", "When can I go?", "Where am I going?". My unavoidable mistake was that I mentioned I wouldn't be back from Mexico until October 15th, woops, because they wanted me to leave October 18th. The response was little more than "no". It turned out I was being accepted for the 9 month program that was already well under way, not the 6 month program that gave me at least two months until the start. Then that was it I had my chance and I lost it. All I could think is "At least I held that baby turtle."
When I got back it was time, time to start sending out those resumes, and this was something I had no clue on how to do. I never applied for jobs during high school, mostly to focus on my school work, but this left my resume looking incredibly bare. I had done so much volunteer work, oh so much volunteer work, but they were only really interested in if I had a job before. I had an interview with Pizza Hut, and they never even called back (Pizza Hut if your reading this, I'm still waiting). I had an interview with EB Games a little later on, which went really well, but then they hired someone else, and I was back to waiting. Then I eventually found season employment at Michaels Arts and Crafts Store. I liked it there, actually, I had nothing to complain about. Then on December 16th I received this email:
"Hello Nicole,
We are happy to inform you that you have been selected for the Cultural Discovery and Civic Engagement program and that you will be a member of group 22143. Your program will begin on January 5th 2011 in Montréal-Ville Émard, QC and end in Sioux Lookout, ON on June 22nd 2011."
I imploded. A couple days after frantic calls and paper work I had to hand in my two weeks notice, which was really embarrassing because they keep season safe on until January 15th, and I would be leaving January 5th. But I can't pass up the opportunity I had been waiting all year for.
So here I am, a 40 minute until I have to get on that bus and go to work, and it's not so bad. Because I know that Michaels is going to continue having sales and supplying paintbrushes and flower arrangements, but I'm going to Montreal. I'm going to meet new people, speak french, an bake bread. Only one week to go.
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