In no time at all this portion of the adventure is coming to a close. This week has been tough, the last week in Montreal.
The last week with all my pals at Eco-Quartier NDG, I'm gonna miss my car rides with Billy, my workshops with Giulietta, running through the streets of NDG, stickers in hand, with Qamara, and every great moment at the office with Adina, Nika, and Nikki. I will miss them. My last day at work we had a great potluck party, and it was pretty difficult to not know when I will return, but it helps to know I will, someday.
This was the last week to see my wondrous billet sister, Arianne. I had the fortune of getting to see her on Monday for a bit of time, just enough to get the hugs out, and share this very blog with her (HI, ARIANNE!). I wish her luck in Malawi!
Sadly, this was also the last week with Etienne. It's like loosing a big piece of the group. Etienne was a real asset to life in the Katimavik house and he played a big role in making this experience as wonderful as it was. On Sunday we held our Katimaoscars were we voted for special people in the group, and Etienne created categories for everyone. Marie-France won most improved language. Francois, best cook. Val most creative. Andrew won most engaged and best quote. I won best sense of humour. The categories Etienne made were really cute, I won "Best Friend of the Stairs" along with some muscle relaxant cream. Andrew won "most Italian". Tiffany won "Best hugs". Cody won "biggest Hockey fan". Kyle, most obviously, won "Best Bread".
After the Oscars we had a big bowling party with Etienne, our last night with Etienne. He had to leave us later that night. Wow, "Visage Triste". There were a lot of tears. Esspecially when we watched him walk out the door with all his belongs on his back. Etienne will come back to see the card we worked on. It's the paper cut outs of us, each has a speech bubble where we wrote a little message to Etienne. So sweet. Etienne was, is, and will continue to be a really great guy. I think Katimavik as a corporation should feel particularity privileged to have him as part of their staff.
I was reading one of my early posts fretting about French, seems really silly looking back on it. The group communicates in a nice mash-up of franglais, and we really make the effort to be understood in both languages. I've had my facebook language set to francais for over two months now, no plans to change it either. Marie-France and Jessica help to keep the French language alive and efficient.
A picked up a long-time longed-for Montreal souvenir this weekend. On the way to our last big French class at Ville-Ray I got of at Saint-Laurent Metro to buy a really special T-shirt. In the old blog "Katimaparty", I mentioned it took us far too long to find a bar and we got a little lost. On this journey I walked past a store with a T-Shirt displayed in the window. It was black with the Montreal Metro map, and the train going by at the bottom. It was for sure the sounvir I wanted, but I lost the store like a balloon at Lynn Valley Days. The thing about those balloons is, you know which direction they went, but you can't get it back. Oddly enough, by Saturday night of this week we were once again trying to agree on a bar, when we found the wrong on. At Saint-Laurent, we found Foufouns Electrique, where we were supposed to meet the rest of the group. That was, until a drunken monster began to pick a fight with Andrew in the bathroom downstairs. So we left quickly. Two doors down from the evil place was Le Rock, and in the window of this store was my shirt, the very same store. The special part about it was the metro train displayed on the bottom left hand corner was going in the direction of Angrignon, the metro that take me home.
There's a lot I'm gonna miss from Montreal. Obviously the smoked meat at Schwartz's, and Yagel Bagel Curry near work. I'll miss riding the metro with my Katimafamily, especially when were acting weird, or in our pajamas. The economic freedom to buy what you needed. The social freedom to join the others at the bar. The people here are remarkable friendly, not exactly Nova-Scotia-Friendly, but very welcoming. I think a lot of people will write-off Quebec as a place full of angry French people who won't listen to your English, as least those are the naive assumptions I heard a lot of before Katimavik. There was the guy at Foufouns who was a hot headed jerk, there was a couple bad apples on the metro, there were some crazy McGill students, but I wouldn't let that tarnish the beauty of Montreal. Looking back on my original thoughts on the city, I'm glad I didn't know what I know now, because the surprise was the best part.
And tomorrow we fly out of here. We fly to Toronto and then to Thunderbay and then we take Bear Skin Airlines to Sioux Lookout, Ontario. I know it's the right time to leave. The house walls have been stripped, and the stuff has been packed up, and the tears have fallen and dried. It's sad to leave this behind, but at the same time we need to give Sioux Lookout a fair chance, and we need to go in with an open attitude. So tomorrow morning at 9:00am we leave our newest home, to fly blindly all day into a community we hardly know. It's an adventure.
Now that I've bought fresh batteries for my camera I can be sure to update these blogs with much more picture that weren't just stolen of facebook.
Finally, I have some update on the Apathy is Boring event. My picture and hug with Michaellle Jean is proudly displayed on their website:
http://www.apathyisboring.com/fr/the_facts/news/thank_you_call_to_action_montreal_2011
My speech is also up there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2-XDvbcY_s&feature=related
and...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpupfT1mGAA&feature=related
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Quebec, Quebec
Niki and The Ankle: The Struggle
Act One: Scene 1
Ankle: You better just hangout at home, you can hardly walk.
Niki: No, that's- that's not true, I just need to try.
Ankle: No, you're just a worthless pile of guts, there's no way you'll make it to Quebec City!
Niki: Shut up! You're just a worthless talking ankle, I don't have to listen to you, you big fat grapefruit!
Ankle: (Ankle gasps and seems offended) Do not bring my size into this! This is about you and your inability to walk! Don't try and blame this on me!
Niki: Of course I blame this on you, you're the one who gave way at the metro, this is your fault! (Niki appears storm off but her ankle is attached to her)
Ankle: Wait! We can work things out, listen to me!!
Niki: It's not about you, it's about living life to the fullest! Jumping in the lake one more time! Dammit, I'm going to Quebec City! And another thing-
Katimahousemate: Niki! Stop talking to your ankle and pack for Quebec City already!
Niki: Ok, cool.
[end scene]
How about we catch up a little more. This week not much happened due to the ankle, but I can share with you an most enjoyable highlight. Wednesday, we packed up to visit the Ville-Ray house for an evening of murder mystery, and a potluck! We brought sandwiches and salad, while they had made Chinese pancakes, stir-fry, and spring rolls. Yum. There was the obvious difficulty of getting there, naturally we had to take the metro, but the real problem was getting in and out of the metro, and for that matter getting to the Ville-Ray house. By 5 minutes out the door with the crutches I was exhausted. After the first stair case at Monk metro Etienne took on the ultimate supportive role a PL can have, which was in physically supporting me. He piggy backed me to the metro, and off the metro, and to Ville-Ray house. And a special thanks to Kyle who piggy backed me back to the metro. And another special thanks to Francois who carried me at Lionel-Groulx so we would miss our metro. The struggle of getting there was worth it when we discovered the sheer size and luxury of the house. It's more than double the size of our house. Dining room, two living rooms, giant kitchen, spare bed rooms and storage rooms, three bathrooms, and a laundry room. The had three dining room tables and enough seats, plate and cutlery for everyone. This could never happen in the Ville-Emard house. The event itself was a resounding success. Nicole from Nova Scotia in the Ville-Ray group had written a murder mystery ad assigned everyone a name, persona, and objective. We socialized, negotiated, interrogated, and made up total lies for over an hour. Until our police had narrowed it down to two suspects, both turned our to be innocent. We had a lot of fun.
On Friday there was brief excitement for the house managers and myself while the new CEO of Katimavik, Daniel Lapoint, paid us a visit to ask some questions to us about what we thought of the program. I made sure to mention to both him and Guilluame, our Project Coordinator, what a great Project Leader Etienne is, and I mentioned how grateful I was for the piggy backs.
Now for the chaos! Cody and I going to Quebec City. Cody bought the bus tickets earlier in the week and the plan was to get on the bus with Marie-France and she'd get off just outside of Quebec and we would get off in Old Quebec on Friday Night. This took a turn for the worse when I casually asked the ticket collector if I should have a return ticket, because I only had three tickets, and two of them were receipts. It's good I cleared up this up in Montreal and not in Quebec City, it did cost me an extra 21$ but I was too excited about Quebec City to care. If the ankle can't hold me back, no way is this ticket thing gonna hold me back. So Marie-France boarded the 5:00pm and never figured out why we didn't follow her on. The ticket confusion meant we got on the 6:00 pm bus. Subsequently we had to find the hostel in the dark. However this was a stoke of brilliant navigation for us, the directions Cody had printed off worked perfectly. We would guess more or less which direction the street was in, and we got it right every time! The hostel was very accommodating, in fact we got a private room for the first night for the same price as the dorms. Now for some cool pics of the hostel:
The private room number.
The private room.
My double bed, how I miss it so.
For dinner on that first night, we went to Chez Ashton, home of the sausage poutine. It was love.
We had a nice sleep and then got up for 8 the next morning because we had some living to do. We switched into a dorm room on the second floor which was a little better for my big fat ankle. We ate our free breakfast and took off for The Plains of Abraham. Here's a lower part of old Quebec City known as "Le Petit Champlain"
After this it was a significant walk over and up a massive flight of stairs to the Plains of Abraham and the citadel. The plains themselves were rather plain, namely because the historical glory had been coated with thick wet slush.
Those of you who don't remember early Canadian history are probably a little confused about "the Plain of Abraham". No, it is Canadian history this has nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln to the South. During the 7 years war there was a British attack on Quebec City headed by General Wolfe. Despite the defensive measures off the French, the English were triumphant. Now you may indulge in this humourous sticker that I discovered just outside of Old Quebec City.
I took on the role of Samuel Champlain himself as I trekked through the snow in search of spices. Unlike Sam, I eventually found my spices, a long walk took us to Cosmos Cafe, a place you should visit if you visit Quebec City. This is me and my apple and Maple syrup burger. Yes, I know what you're thinking and I'll have you know it was magic.
That day was finished off by a little meal at St. Patricks Pub and a little music down stairs. My ankle was done by the end of the day, so when we woke up the next morning it was a little tourist shopping and a walk to the bus terminal. Now it was Cody's turn to loose his ticket. Advice for any future Katimavictim planning a trip to Quebec City, DO NOT LOOSE YOUR TICKET. It is expensive.
The bus ride was long but worth it, returning to see my katimafamily was more than heart warming.
That week we met a Katimavik Alumni who invited us to an improv show at her school. We treated her to dinner, she treated us to ice cream, and we all left for Berri-UQAM to watch what was probably way funnier than I was aware of. The comedy was all in French, but humour is not bound by languages. This blurry shot was from some of the hilarity.
On the Thursday of cette semaine we were invited to an event at the YWCA through Jessica's workplace. It was in eco-craft sort of thing were we created rugs by cutting up t-shirts. Mum already knows I love this sort of thing. Right now she's thinking of all the socks I cut up. Yeah....
Then came Manic Monday Friday. After a long day of work, I left to see 4 text messages waiting for me, all the messages were the same:
Dining room Living room.
The six person room.
The Rec-room.
The haunted basement of no return.
For dinner on that first night, we went to Chez Ashton, home of the sausage poutine. It was love.
We had a nice sleep and then got up for 8 the next morning because we had some living to do. We switched into a dorm room on the second floor which was a little better for my big fat ankle. We ate our free breakfast and took off for The Plains of Abraham. Here's a lower part of old Quebec City known as "Le Petit Champlain"
After this it was a significant walk over and up a massive flight of stairs to the Plains of Abraham and the citadel. The plains themselves were rather plain, namely because the historical glory had been coated with thick wet slush.
Those of you who don't remember early Canadian history are probably a little confused about "the Plain of Abraham". No, it is Canadian history this has nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln to the South. During the 7 years war there was a British attack on Quebec City headed by General Wolfe. Despite the defensive measures off the French, the English were triumphant. Now you may indulge in this humourous sticker that I discovered just outside of Old Quebec City.
I took on the role of Samuel Champlain himself as I trekked through the snow in search of spices. Unlike Sam, I eventually found my spices, a long walk took us to Cosmos Cafe, a place you should visit if you visit Quebec City. This is me and my apple and Maple syrup burger. Yes, I know what you're thinking and I'll have you know it was magic.
That day was finished off by a little meal at St. Patricks Pub and a little music down stairs. My ankle was done by the end of the day, so when we woke up the next morning it was a little tourist shopping and a walk to the bus terminal. Now it was Cody's turn to loose his ticket. Advice for any future Katimavictim planning a trip to Quebec City, DO NOT LOOSE YOUR TICKET. It is expensive.
The bus ride was long but worth it, returning to see my katimafamily was more than heart warming.
That week we met a Katimavik Alumni who invited us to an improv show at her school. We treated her to dinner, she treated us to ice cream, and we all left for Berri-UQAM to watch what was probably way funnier than I was aware of. The comedy was all in French, but humour is not bound by languages. This blurry shot was from some of the hilarity.
On the Thursday of cette semaine we were invited to an event at the YWCA through Jessica's workplace. It was in eco-craft sort of thing were we created rugs by cutting up t-shirts. Mum already knows I love this sort of thing. Right now she's thinking of all the socks I cut up. Yeah....
Then came Manic M
"where r u?"
Apparently we were supposed to be home by 4, and I was leaving work at 5. This was for the trip to Quebec City and Volunteering at Red Bull Crashed Ice, a project we'd been planning for far too long. Tabernoosh. So, I texted Francois what I needed, Andrew packed it, and everyone jumped in the van to pick me up at Lionel-Groulx. All that panic but we actually arrived on time to see our movie at the Quebec City IMAX. Usually Katimavik wouldn't pay for something like this, if it wasn't that we saw "Mars Needs Moms" in French. On that note: I love you, mum.
Afterwards there was a quick journey to the Katimamansion of Quebec City. This was possibly one of the largest house in Katimavik. Not entirely a good thing for group dynamics, and honestly this house was pretty creepy. The first floor was quite livable. Big front hall, big dining room, living room, a cool room with an organ (creepy) and a fuse ball table, a giant kitchen, a bathroom which had a separate room for the toilet and a separate room for the shower and two sinks, A two person bedroom, a three person bedroom, a six person bedroom, a humongous room for the PL, and an attached bathroom. The down stairs was where is got creepy, there's a storage garage basement, an empty room with dolls hung up in the corner, a garage sort of thing with power tools and beer bottles, a bathroom in the hall way, a couple clean empty rooms, and an entirely normal laundry room. The house was huge, there was even a scooter there so you could scoot through the halls. There were countless scary things and a lot of us actually had a difficult time sleeping. Here's some pictures of Chateau Scary:
Marie-France demonstrating how simple it is to just scoot through the hallways.
The next day it was time to see Quebec City. We started out with a surprise from Etienne, the Montmorency Chutes. Which was an incredibly majestic waterfall, and it was especially beautiful to see it partly frozen as if if winter was only bothering it a little. Etienne wanted to be in the group picture, so this took some skill.
After we expressed our enjoyment of this activity Etienne offered to show us another of his favourite spots. In case I forgot to mention this, Etienne lives in Quebec City, so we got a real tour of the place. This was one of his "Hang-out spots". If it weren't for the great people in the way you might see a great picture of Quebec City skyline.
The next step in the journey was a mini-tour of Quebec City provided by Etienne himself. Then we made our way to the volunteer center for Red Bull Crashed Ice. We were divided in between Francophones and Anglophones. The Francophone got to work in the VIP area. As for the Anglophones it was our job to get the skaters back to the start line. They get in a small vechicle that takes the to a funicular which takes them back to the top. However the streets are full of people and it take some effort to get people out of the way for the vehicles. So that was our job. To blow a whistle and shout "Desplacez-vous, sil-vous-plait!" and if they don't listen "Tassez-vous!" and when we have to take out the big guns "Deguage.". The really cool part of this is I got hugs, high-fives, handshakes, and nods from the athletes. The job had a walking component and by the end of the night I was pretty beat in the ankle. So, Francois and Etienne decided to lend me a hand, literally.
....And another trip highlight is born.
The next day we started with a trip to the Quebec City aquarium, where I met a lovely seal named Nicky.
The Aquarium itself was very interesting, it showcased local species, ranging from salmon, to polarbears, to shrimp, to an octopus, to a walrus. Check out these species:
Then the munchies set in and we went to a Quebec City Classic, yes, I returned to Chez Ashton. This time Katimavik is paying, they cover 11$ of a cultural meal, so bring of the largest poutine money can buy. I finished it. "J'ai fini, mais maitenent, je suis fini."
I'm so proud of this.
That pretty much wraps up my trip to Quebec, Quebec, and my trip t Quebec, Quebec. What a great time, what a great city...
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The Tragic Incident of Inconcievable Pain, and The Proceeding Fun
Arrete! Before you start asking questions about the title and frantically trying to call me, read the whole blog, please. I'm just being silly with the title, in reality it just proves nothings is wrong. Niki would do something like that, and she did, so she's fine. YAY. On with the story.
I wrapped up a wonderful week in billeting by attending La Nuit Blanche, an all night party in Montreal. My most fantastic billeting sister, Arianne, and I headed off to this event with high expectations. Then I discovered my expectations were not as big as the line ups, I mean, wow.
The Ferris wheel was free, this translates to a two and a half hour line up, so no, I did not go on. There were lots of neat things as La Nuit Blanche that you can read about here. I'm sure mum has already looked over this picture with a great leaping of joy in her heart. Yes, that's right Aunt B, I did it! I'm am right that standing next to a real live horse, and I wasn't scared! I'm very happy about that one. For those who don't know, I had a fear of horses. Had. This little devil was hanging around La Nuit Blanche and I was thinking "I've gotta get in on this".
So, Arianne is saving up to volunteer in Malawi (buy some chocolates from her!), and since Katimavik she been really passionate about making sure everything gets recycled. Naturally, we started picking up bottles, lots of bottles. So many bottles we started picking up bags and boxes to carry them. Then while I making my way to the metro paddling awkwardly through this stream of people I hear the sound of glass tickling pavement. This makes me veer off to the side to get out of way (Degage en francais, which is also the Katimavik slogan in French, kind of cruel really). For those of you Vancouverites who were downtown for the Olympics, you'll remember how pedestrian traffic moves, quick, and erratic. This was the same, and of course there was a police presence. One of the three police officers at the metro spotted the bottle and stopped traffic to pick it up. He turns to see where he's gonna put that troublesome bottle, and he sees me. Then he walks over smiles, and puts a full unopened bottle of Corona in my box. I thank him and he starts picking up other bottles for me, the box filled up so I asked him to put the rest in a bag in the corner. Turns out the bag had a full , unopened bottle of Heineken Beer. I never heard of the Montreal custom were by police officers give beer away without asking for age or identification. Oh well! After I caught up with Arianne we were heading for the metro when the janitor saw us and asked if we wanted a bag for the cans and bottles. He brought back two industrial strength garbage bags, so we had a chance to go out and collect even more. This is our army of bottles and cans. The picture looks pretty suspicious without an adequate explanation. This was about 7 or 8 dollars worth of cans and bottles, I think.
That was billeting, awesome. It was a great chance to be sick and recover and still have time to have fun. When I arrived back at the katimahouse, I was greeted with hugs and a chorus of "NIKI!". I gave Arianne a little tour and she gave me a little, lovely, gift. A card (which was one of the one's she was selling to fund raise for Malawi), a tin of organic fair trade hot chocolate (again a fund raiser), and her very own Katimavik toque. Katimavik doesn't give out toques anymore, so it's beyond special to me. Thank you very much to my marvelous billet family (if you ever read this).
That night Marie-France and I learned that we were set up to be house managers for the week, surprise! But no rush come Monday, because we had an activity with our Collective Projects Committee. It was work at the shelter handing out food for the day. So instead of going to work we all went out for the day to lend a hand.
That evening Marie-France and I went shopping and planned a bit of a menu. The weeks started out with Vietnamese noodle wraps, a recipe from Rachelle, my billeting mother. During the week we enjoyed, curry, stir-fry, breakfast dinner, quesadillas, and pizza!
On Tuesday we visited a city council meeting, met some big wigs. The meeting was all in French so I think most of the group found it pretty un-interesting.
Fast forward to Saturday! We actually had a busy day for a change. We had an adventure to The Biodome of Montreal, and for the first time since the airprot we saw the Potton group! Apparently Potton is just south of Montreal, and by "just" I mean like 3 hours, so they're closer to the American border. So, Potton explored the Biodome with us. The Biodome was incredible, it was a little bit of everything. You start out at the tropic zone, then there's the deciduous forest area, gulf of saint Lawrence, and finally, the polar region. There was a lynx, and a penguin, and and... oh! oh! and a Capybara! You can read more about it here. Now for a mildly amusing picture of us at the Biodome.
We had a really short break before we took off again. This time we were walk to Fort Angrignon (info here). This is unbearably difficult to explain exactly what this was, which is why the website might actually be better at explaining it. It was like a confidence course, team building competition thingy. There were several teams participating, obviously us, Ville-Ray, Potton, a team of PLs and staff, and three teams not associated with Katimavik. We were warned the PL team would win, and they did. Now I can't supply any pictures of this event, because as a team we needed some sort of theme, kind of like a jersey. To set the standard the PLs were a team of mimes, and Ville-Ray was the "Register Sex Offenders", and they were dressed as such. So, our team was "I Just Had Sex" (based of this song), we were beyond ridiculous. Everyone had messed up hair and flies undone, and yeah.... We had lot's of fun with it, but were not going to be putting those pictures up.
After leaving Fort Angrignon, I was a little late getting my bus pass out for the metro and I was running in time to see the rest of the group on the metro, already sitting down. I scrambled down the stairs and jumped down the last few steps. It was like my bone was a piece of spaghetti and the tremor of the landing shook up through my body as I collapsed to one side. I looked at the metro, the door was still open, so I crawled on my hands and knees and crashed on to the floor of the metro with a great deal of pain in my body. Sure enough that night I inspected the ankle and it was comme un pamplemoose, if you will. I attempted to take it easy on Sunday, which wasn't hard because the only thing we did all days was clean and have our CCK. By Monday it was time to hit the hospital. I hung around all day to find out it was a really bad sprain and it was gotten swell up further. Subsequently, I won't be going to work this week. That's actually why I'm writing this. It really sucks. However my group has been more than accomodating! Francois has been consistently changing my hot and cold packs, and monitoring my ankle, this is because he has some experience with broken bones and the like. Andrew was my crutch before I got crutchs and he made his best attempt to deliver my dinner to the hospital (If only he could find the right one). Tiffany has cooked for me and cleaned for me when I need it, and most importantly helped me dress. Marie-France is always aware of where my crutchs are and when I need them. The rest of the group has been really good to me for opening and closing doors, and picking things up of the floor for me. I love my group.
This morning was the last of the big surprises, as 6:30 this morning the gentlemen of the Katimavik house were all awake, why? Why indeed? Well, today March 8th is International Womens Day, something I really didn't know about until it was briefly brought up at the CCK on Sunday. Cody, Andrew, Francois, Landen, and Kyle took it upon themselves to make the ladies breakfast in bed. Yes, that is sweet. So this is what I woke up to...
That's Andrew with two strawberry pancakes (The handy work of Francois), a fruit salad, syrup, and a cup of orange juice. Kyle came in about 2 minutes later with a cup of tea. So today had been the definition of relaxation*. There is no reason to worry about me.
*See "Laziness" for definition
I wrapped up a wonderful week in billeting by attending La Nuit Blanche, an all night party in Montreal. My most fantastic billeting sister, Arianne, and I headed off to this event with high expectations. Then I discovered my expectations were not as big as the line ups, I mean, wow.
The Ferris wheel was free, this translates to a two and a half hour line up, so no, I did not go on. There were lots of neat things as La Nuit Blanche that you can read about here. I'm sure mum has already looked over this picture with a great leaping of joy in her heart. Yes, that's right Aunt B, I did it! I'm am right that standing next to a real live horse, and I wasn't scared! I'm very happy about that one. For those who don't know, I had a fear of horses. Had. This little devil was hanging around La Nuit Blanche and I was thinking "I've gotta get in on this".
So, Arianne is saving up to volunteer in Malawi (buy some chocolates from her!), and since Katimavik she been really passionate about making sure everything gets recycled. Naturally, we started picking up bottles, lots of bottles. So many bottles we started picking up bags and boxes to carry them. Then while I making my way to the metro paddling awkwardly through this stream of people I hear the sound of glass tickling pavement. This makes me veer off to the side to get out of way (Degage en francais, which is also the Katimavik slogan in French, kind of cruel really). For those of you Vancouverites who were downtown for the Olympics, you'll remember how pedestrian traffic moves, quick, and erratic. This was the same, and of course there was a police presence. One of the three police officers at the metro spotted the bottle and stopped traffic to pick it up. He turns to see where he's gonna put that troublesome bottle, and he sees me. Then he walks over smiles, and puts a full unopened bottle of Corona in my box. I thank him and he starts picking up other bottles for me, the box filled up so I asked him to put the rest in a bag in the corner. Turns out the bag had a full , unopened bottle of Heineken Beer. I never heard of the Montreal custom were by police officers give beer away without asking for age or identification. Oh well! After I caught up with Arianne we were heading for the metro when the janitor saw us and asked if we wanted a bag for the cans and bottles. He brought back two industrial strength garbage bags, so we had a chance to go out and collect even more. This is our army of bottles and cans. The picture looks pretty suspicious without an adequate explanation. This was about 7 or 8 dollars worth of cans and bottles, I think.
That was billeting, awesome. It was a great chance to be sick and recover and still have time to have fun. When I arrived back at the katimahouse, I was greeted with hugs and a chorus of "NIKI!". I gave Arianne a little tour and she gave me a little, lovely, gift. A card (which was one of the one's she was selling to fund raise for Malawi), a tin of organic fair trade hot chocolate (again a fund raiser), and her very own Katimavik toque. Katimavik doesn't give out toques anymore, so it's beyond special to me. Thank you very much to my marvelous billet family (if you ever read this).
That night Marie-France and I learned that we were set up to be house managers for the week, surprise! But no rush come Monday, because we had an activity with our Collective Projects Committee. It was work at the shelter handing out food for the day. So instead of going to work we all went out for the day to lend a hand.
That evening Marie-France and I went shopping and planned a bit of a menu. The weeks started out with Vietnamese noodle wraps, a recipe from Rachelle, my billeting mother. During the week we enjoyed, curry, stir-fry, breakfast dinner, quesadillas, and pizza!
On Tuesday we visited a city council meeting, met some big wigs. The meeting was all in French so I think most of the group found it pretty un-interesting.
Fast forward to Saturday! We actually had a busy day for a change. We had an adventure to The Biodome of Montreal, and for the first time since the airprot we saw the Potton group! Apparently Potton is just south of Montreal, and by "just" I mean like 3 hours, so they're closer to the American border. So, Potton explored the Biodome with us. The Biodome was incredible, it was a little bit of everything. You start out at the tropic zone, then there's the deciduous forest area, gulf of saint Lawrence, and finally, the polar region. There was a lynx, and a penguin, and and... oh! oh! and a Capybara! You can read more about it here. Now for a mildly amusing picture of us at the Biodome.
We had a really short break before we took off again. This time we were walk to Fort Angrignon (info here). This is unbearably difficult to explain exactly what this was, which is why the website might actually be better at explaining it. It was like a confidence course, team building competition thingy. There were several teams participating, obviously us, Ville-Ray, Potton, a team of PLs and staff, and three teams not associated with Katimavik. We were warned the PL team would win, and they did. Now I can't supply any pictures of this event, because as a team we needed some sort of theme, kind of like a jersey. To set the standard the PLs were a team of mimes, and Ville-Ray was the "Register Sex Offenders", and they were dressed as such. So, our team was "I Just Had Sex" (based of this song), we were beyond ridiculous. Everyone had messed up hair and flies undone, and yeah.... We had lot's of fun with it, but were not going to be putting those pictures up.
After leaving Fort Angrignon, I was a little late getting my bus pass out for the metro and I was running in time to see the rest of the group on the metro, already sitting down. I scrambled down the stairs and jumped down the last few steps. It was like my bone was a piece of spaghetti and the tremor of the landing shook up through my body as I collapsed to one side. I looked at the metro, the door was still open, so I crawled on my hands and knees and crashed on to the floor of the metro with a great deal of pain in my body. Sure enough that night I inspected the ankle and it was comme un pamplemoose, if you will. I attempted to take it easy on Sunday, which wasn't hard because the only thing we did all days was clean and have our CCK. By Monday it was time to hit the hospital. I hung around all day to find out it was a really bad sprain and it was gotten swell up further. Subsequently, I won't be going to work this week. That's actually why I'm writing this. It really sucks. However my group has been more than accomodating! Francois has been consistently changing my hot and cold packs, and monitoring my ankle, this is because he has some experience with broken bones and the like. Andrew was my crutch before I got crutchs and he made his best attempt to deliver my dinner to the hospital (If only he could find the right one). Tiffany has cooked for me and cleaned for me when I need it, and most importantly helped me dress. Marie-France is always aware of where my crutchs are and when I need them. The rest of the group has been really good to me for opening and closing doors, and picking things up of the floor for me. I love my group.
This morning was the last of the big surprises, as 6:30 this morning the gentlemen of the Katimavik house were all awake, why? Why indeed? Well, today March 8th is International Womens Day, something I really didn't know about until it was briefly brought up at the CCK on Sunday. Cody, Andrew, Francois, Landen, and Kyle took it upon themselves to make the ladies breakfast in bed. Yes, that is sweet. So this is what I woke up to...
That's Andrew with two strawberry pancakes (The handy work of Francois), a fruit salad, syrup, and a cup of orange juice. Kyle came in about 2 minutes later with a cup of tea. So today had been the definition of relaxation*. There is no reason to worry about me.
*See "Laziness" for definition
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