Call Me 'Kitchki Genoojay'

I would love to use the words "winding down into the last quarter of the program" to begin, but that only sounds good in my head, it's not necessarily true. While this is the last quarter of the program coming up, some say "it's gonna fly by" but are calendar is full, we are unbelievably busy in every aspect of life. There is much to be done.

The past week or so has been another interesting one, every week seems to have a different set of moods associated with it. This past week included my being house manager, the menu included ribs, shisk kabobs, and a turkey dinner.

On Saturday the 23rd we met with  local historian and night owl, Peggy Sanders. Peggy is the person you go to to learn everything about Sioux Lookout. Once a  librarian her home still reflects her old career with wall to wall books. When Peggy speaks, people listen, so this was an interesting evening. Peggy is famed in the community for this and her ability to stay up past 2am. She loves to remind us that, in her words, "Katimavik is a dream come true." When she was young she join the air force and was station in Victoria, where she met other young women from around Canada and they used to discuss how they needed a program that could introduce young people to their country during the peace time. Now every time Peggy spends time with a Katimavik group, she likes to call her friend in Vancouver, and her friend in New Brunswick to remind them of the dream come true.

On Monday the 26th there was great excitement for the women of the house who had the unique opportunity to receive their name. But not just any name, your spirit name. Again Victor and Charles brought over the drum, and their friend Nick, to lead us in a Receiving Ceremony. In addition to several songs we each took a few moments to speak about the connections we have with nature and animals. We also made offerings of tobacco and fruit to give to the spirits in our lives. I was given the name "Kitchki Genoojay" which is  Ojicree for Whale, the literal translation being, "Big Fish" because they don't have a lot of whales out here. The Ojicree language has no set spelling, it's all phonetics, and Ks and Gs are interchangeable, same with Ps and Bs. So I might actually be "Gitchki Kenoojay". My clan is the MaHingan Clan, or Wolf Clan. This is based on the idea that spirits go west to die. There was a story of an old wolf spirit who travel west to die, and when he reached the Pacific Ocean he stepped out and became a whale, the last paw mark is left on the Orca whale. Part of the ceremony came into play afterwards, where you go to make your offering. Nick told us that in times where you feel troubled you should go into nature and offer tobacco to an animal. He told us amazing stories of interactions with bears and wolves and eagles. But when you're really lost, scared, or troubled, you should go into the forest and call you name out in each direction and the spirits will come find us. So, I laid down my bark basket of oranges and tobacco and called out "Kitchki Genoojay Iquay Indigo MaHingan Dodem" in each direction. It's gonna be a while until the whales get here, they got a long way to go and there's a lot of land in the way.

Thursday the 28th was the final installment of the entertainment series at Queen Elizabeth High School. We help set up and take down for the concert, and we got to actually watch it too! Andrew Craig Trio was playing and it was a real treat, I would encourage you all to see what you can find out about it music, he is an excellent performer.

During this week I also received a wonderful package from Gma and Gpa along with a postcard from Oma. To my G-parents, thank you, you had the rest of the group hungering after my Nanaimo Bars.

That weekend we attended a Pow-wow at Pelican High School, about an hour outside of Sioux Lookout. There was drumming virtually the whole time we were there. They may have stopped when the food came out, but I didn't know I was too busy eating. Then I got to add a new item to my list of 'Weird Things I've Consumed': Moose Tongue.

On the way back this moose stopped are Katimavan. Didn't say much to us, maybe he lost his tongue?

On Monday night I was homesick. Homesick for Montreal that is. We had a Skype date with Etienne to catch up. He got a job as a PC in Moncton, New Brunswick. When we were writing his performance review we all made sure to add "would make an excellent Project Coordinator" in the comments section. Guillaume had mentioned that Etienne was applying for a job as PC and that they'd be reading our comments. I'm glad they did.

Again in group news, we've lost another. That's right on Wednesday the 27th Val boarded a train to take her home to Guelph. This was easier to handle because she'd been talking about it since Montreal, she's traveling to Ireland this fall and she needs to get some money for the trip. Val was a great part of the group, especially musically, it's still really weird to not hear her mandolin. We'll miss you, Val!

Therefore testosterone takes over as our girl count drops to four, including Sarah and myself. No changes have been made to the houses so far as Tiffany rules the attic at Prince. It will be awhile until any of that is taken care of, cause were going into BILLETING! Yes, on Tuesday we met with our billet families for a little tea and cookie evening before we move in on Thursday night. I'm more than thankful for my family, Lynn and Allen, in addition to their 48 inch television and 5 minute commute to work, they are very friendly and welcoming. We're going out for Chinese food this week, I am so happy. I've grown more and more tired of Katmalife here. We work all day, there's hardly any food, were constantly worrying about protocols,meetings, calendars, competencies, applications, projects, and paperwork, and to top it off my room is SO cold at night, I don't even sleep. So, billeting? Bring it on!

Sioux Me

Let's play catch up! Today we worked on some PFE forms for our Katimavik Activities. Usually this is a boring task but we have a way of making each activity entirely over dramatic. So, here's a bit of what happened through PFE documents:

Friday 16th, Welcome Party in Shakespearean by Kyle:
"Mark my words Katima lords and worships. Thee shall see what our festivites brought to this town. Fain some of the town people attended. Misfortune was brought upon us, sadley thy efforts did not impress thees people. Hark! thy worships my story is not finished. Even though not to many people attended we galloped and sang great wonders till the beautiful lunar light faded over the horizen. Jesters, pranksters and musicians played for the few people who showed. Great feast were made by the clever Tiffany. Feasting was a wonderful activity."

Make sure to read about it in the Sioux Lookout Bulletin, page 18.

Saturday 17th, Election Preparation in Fantasy by Niki:
"Francois acted as a brilliant leader in this heroic display of telephoning election Canada to ask about our unique and complex situation (namely the cruel distance between us and our individual ridings). Then this spry gentleman jumped vigorously into the difficult task of printing the forms that would eventually rock our political world. Then the caps came off the pens an like an army of bureaucrats we filled out that barbaric form, just another step closer to ...BEING REGISTERED TO VOTE!

The group was challenged at first, even to the extent of having to reprint a form due to an error permanently cast in ink. We learned that the applicant process can be treacherous and unforgiving, especially for those out casted from their dwelling space.
While many of us found the next quest to be impossible, time and team work lead us each to find the great and gloriously powerful piece of ID with address and picture. Truly a heroic feat.
Looking back on the adventures of this wondrous activity it was a sucess with only minor casualties"

 Tuesday 19th, All Candidates Debate in Fantasy by Niki:
"Our clan of mighty warriors and mysterious magicians had come to find an invitation to a meeting of the powerful lords that battle to control this Land of Sioux. Each lord spoke on behalf of their clan, in an attempt to please the people of the land to gain their most incredible power: a vote.
First there was The Fiery Lord Roger Valley of the Liberal Clan. His rage towards the blue Conservative Clan was clear as he viciously attacked the apathetic opposition.
Then there was The Lord of Resounding Power and Beauty of Tania Camron of the New Democratic Clan. Her non-threatening approach managed to be surprisingly intimidating to the other candidates. She used her magic powers to portray love and care, something the people of The Land of the Sioux appeared to yearn for.
Last but not least was The Furiously Content lord Greg Rickford of the Conservative Clan. He is the current ruler of the majestic lands. He claims people our satisfied with his ruling, but the people are not so sure.
Each lord will be powerless without the collectivized votes, and thus, they thirst for the votes of the masses. However the wondering Knight at the back of the room suggests otherwise, he speaks for the ABC Clan "Anyone But Conservative". He strikes a strong blow to the ego of Lord Rickford. "Gahhh!! I summon thee, Beast of Darkness Harper!". In an attempt to consume more votes he called upon with Legislative Monster, but what he didn't account for was the lowering popularity of the beast. And sure enough, without the confidence of the people to back him up the Harper Beast was no more powerful then a kitten.
Lord Valley used this opportunity to continue to strike at Lord Rickford, but his dirty verbal tactics only damaged himself, leaving Lord Camron to absorb more potential votes.
The Great Hockey Warrior Cody brought it upon himself to command an answer from the lords "My Lords, wish ye to acquire my vote? Then answer me this: Do you plan to aid funding to Volunteer Programs like Katimavik?" Then the battle broke out between the lords: who is more superior at not answering the question? Or, better yet, who is more superior at blaming it on someone else?

Valiant Violinist Warrior Andrew went to question the bitter fighting of the lords, but nay, the blood battle had ended: no further questions. "Yay!" called our a towns person "Ye claim that the youth doth not be engaged, and that yay, this young warrior doth wait too many sun downs to command ye a question, and nay, ye listen not!" The candidates claimed to care with the depth of their equivalent hearts, but no answers were given.
Our Clan left with only information, a grand loot. We discovered that the honesty and power of the lords is something to be questioned, and that the great strength of our vote requires much thought."

Other important Activities to mention include the Ropes Course on Sunday, and the Smudging Ceremony on Wednesday.

The ropes course was done through Jessica's work place, New Vision. The course was designed as a team building exercise. We took on four challenges in a variety of difficulties, each one taught us something that would help us in the next. By the last challenge we'd learned so much that we finished the exercise in
about 7 minutes. Which was impressive because they often allocate about a half hour for it.

The Smudging Ceremony took place at the King House after work. Most of you are wondering what I'm talking about, no it's doesn't involve pastel or face paint. A Smudging Ceremony: http://www.asunam.com/smudge_ceremony.html
Two gentlemen, Victor and Charles came over with a large drum and the supplies for the ceremony. It's a cleansing Ceremony to refresh your self of anything negative, and to be in touch with spirits. It's a powerful ceremony, and I found myself whizzing through thoughts and emotions, and then I got a powerful nosebleed. Victor told me he'd experienced this before, and it was a way of cleansing the blood, and that this was likely brought on by the ceremony, very powerful.

In group related news, this week has been very different since the lost of our dear friend Marie-France. I'm still not sure why she left but I said goodbye to her at lunch on Tuesday, and she wasn't there when I got home. The goodbye was particularly painful, because the bus was listed as full and it wasn't certain there was a space for her, if there wasn't a space on Tuesday, she'd leave Thursday. So I must've said goodbye six or seven times. I'll really miss her. She was my room mate all through most of our time in Montreal and she's been on of my closest friends. She was proud too be the first Francophone I'd ever met, and I'm proud to know her. Right now I'm sure she's drinking Tim Hortons Ice Caps with her boyfriend in Quebec. I want to see her again some day, and the worst part is it will never be convenient.

 Je t'aime.

The ugly side of Katimavik is that you meet the greatest life long friends at a time in your life when everything is changing. When will I get to see these friends who travel, or work, or leave for school? Blocked off by the rockies I feel like life with them is limited to now, so it's important to make the most of this. But don't get me wrong, Kyle lives a short 10 minute walk from my house, we'll probably hang out and make bread. The series of goodbyes with Marie-France was once again a reminder of how the end of this is going to be a very very sad time for us. Val is off to Ireland in the Fall. Cody wants to join the Armed Forces, or maybe go to Vancouver Island University. Francois will probably go back to work, or anywhere really, he's that kind of guy. Tiffany is starting right back at her old job the day she returns. Andrew was accepted at Trent University in the Philosophy course. Jessica might spend sometime in Vancouver this summer, but I believe she's also going to school in Autumn. Landen might be working or schooling, or somethinging. Kyle wants to join the RCMP, or maybe move to Gatineau to learn some more French. We made an unofficial agreement about meeting in Montreal in 8 years, a year to work on each competency. I like to think I'll manage to stay close, I want to have these people closer than just Facebook. Don't know where my life with take me, but when I find myself in St. Georges De Beauce I will find Marie-France and in her words "We will take a coffee."

Life and Why I Love It So Much

The Title: once again stresses how amazing it is to be Niki. I'm not being cocky. I'm not trying to make you jealous (it's normal if you are). I'm not overreacting. I'm not trying to rub anything in your face. I'm just feeling really fortunate. So let's go into the "Why are you so fortunate, Niki?"

WELL!

1. I am the chairperson of the group.
2. I have a fantastic job.
3. We're in the paper
4. I am a certified in Nonviolent Crisis Management.
5. We had curry for dinner on April 13th, 2011
6. The Simplest Joys
7. Package from Mum

1) I should first clarify the role of Chairperson for those of you who don't know or don't remember. If Katimavik was a human body, the brain would be the CCK (also known as the KCC). It stands for something, something we never remember. It's a collective meeting where we discuss the week, activities, rules, and house managers. The group is divided into three commitees, with a fourth executive committee which oversees the meeting. In Montreal, there was the Activities Committee, the Collective Projects Committee, and the Second Language Committee. Here our committees are based on the Katimavik Competencies which we are working on. Katimavik has 8 competencies, here in Sioux Lookout, we named them:
          1. Mudkipz: To interact with others in a variety of situations.
          2. KSLARC: To adopt an open attitude towards the diversity of social and              multicultural realities.
          3. Yes, No, Toaster: To communicate in both official languages.
          4. Whorin' Orange (Whorange): To engage in diverse work experiences.
          5. Don't Stop: To apply habits that favour a healthy lifestyle.
          6. It's Not Easy Being Green: To develop an integrated vision of
              environmental protection and sustainable development.
          7. Yo, Degage: To engage as a citizen.
          8. Que Sera, Sera: To prepare to integrate, as a citizen, into the job
              market, school or other life event.
Our targeted competencies in Montreal were: 1,2, 3 and 7, I think.  Here we have 2,7, and 8. My committee is Yo, Degage. However, I was also nominated and unanimously elected to be chairman of the executive committee. Yay, for me! I really wanted that role so I can work on my leadership, which I feel is always lacking.

2) Meno-Ya-Win Health Center is so cool! I play bingo, and test desserts and it is just a fun place to be. I feel that saying  "I'm going to work" has such a negative connotation associated with it, I can't use that sentence. I enjoy my every waking minute at that place. Gift store, extended care, patient wing, or just being lost in the hospital.

3) Page 15 of the Sioux Lookout Bulletin April 13th edition.

4) My wonderful boss, Sharon, managed to get me a spot in the Nonviolent Crisis Management course. Sharon, if you're reading this, thank you very much.  So, an extra little addition to my katima-beautified resume. The course was fun, useful, and all around a very good use of time. I'm proud of my little certificate.

5) There was curry for dinner. A much needed curry. I've been like a drug addict going through withdrawal, I miss my curry so much. Unlike drugs, curry is good for you, so this was a much needed indulgence.

6) Simple joys have kept me abnormally happy since I've been here. If you could see me right now, you'd be the slightest bit worried. Exhibit A, the bicycle: When we got here there was one token bicycle. I managed to uncover a bicycle from the snow with the help of Cody. The epic saga was written out in our PFE form:

"Driven by a boundless passion for a bicycle, Niki ventured through the vicious tundra that is the backyard in search of shy handle bars, just peeking out from the snow. Once the victim was spotted, Niki fixated all her efforts on the target. The bike never stood a chance. The great warrior summoned Cody to help with the intensive digging to rescue the metal contraption. Water was boiled to combat the ice, and after a good 4 hours of valiant labour, the bicycle was rescued. However it was broken ....but that's another story."

Later, other bikes were donated, and sadly, a selection of them were broken. Despite the quality of the bikes, there's something really special about riding my bike through the sun rise in the morning and listening to music. The sunshine hits the water tower and I think, almost every morning, "I will never forget this".

During this week, while I was speaking to G-ma and G-pa, I ran down to the train tracks while the train had stopped, and I laid a variety of coins on the track and then I stuck around to watch them be smushed.

There was also the fancy crackers and blue cheese, I brought at Johnny's (the local grocery store). Simple and joyous.

7) The package from mum was a real highlight. When I got back from work on Friday, there was a wonderful package from mum! My glasses, Vidaela Onion Fig Sauce, Mini Eggs, and Tic-Tacs. So much good stuff. There was a string of canoe christmas light that we put up in the living room. Then there was the Canucks Jersey, don't forget your roots right? Don't worry, mum, I'm not a total Habs fans. I wore it until we won the game, an all around good night. THANK YOU, MUMMY!!

I actually wore that jersey to our welcome party on Friday Night. Our self-hosted quaint  party. It was fun though. We had music and food, and we socialized with some members of the community. We had microphones set up for impromptu Karoke, and the musical stylings of Francois the guitarist, Andrew the violinist, and Valerie the mandolinist.

Other stuff happened too:

Saturday's Ice Fishing brought fun times and no fish. Here's our group out on the frozen lake, smiling hopefully for fishies.

 Later we found that using the fishing stools as ice sleds was a good idea. This is Sarah and I traveling wheel barrow style across the ice.

On Monday we volunteered at the legion for a hockey banquet. The highlight of the night was shoving cupcakes in one another's faces.

 Francois demonstrates the activity of the night.

The next night we split up, half went to help out at another banquet at the legion. The other half went to the volunteer appreciation night at the Extended Care Facility. Val and Francois played music and the rest of us handed out desserts, and of course, ate a few along the way.

We have a lot of fun.

Coming up next time ... the katimavikians try to vote, will they register in time? Snow fell, what will happen to the beloved bikes? Bonfire story time scheduled for Saturday night, will everyone find a story in time? Find out, next time, on Niki's Blog!

Katima Siouxp for The Soul

The first week of work is up and it's time for a blog!

We are like fish taken out of water, cleaned, descaled, cooked, eaten, and some how return to the water alive. This bizarre analogy refers to the adapting and the fact that we are going ice fishing today.

For those of you who keep asking me "well. what do you do in Sioux Lookout?" Simple. WE DO EVERYTHING. We don't have the time to worry about what stores and restaurants are and are not here, there's too much other stuff going on!

Sarah, our new PL, really likes to keep us busy. For instance, my sleeping in this morning really feels like the first time I've had a break. Even our free time is busy! Don't get me wrong, I love it, but this whole thing has been a tidal wave of life in a week. Work, contracts, meeting, the youth forum with Greg Rickford, Van tag, finding time for groceries, meals, cleaning, bouncing between two houses, French Class, and trying to find time to say "hi" the group.

I have found an easy way to update you on our day to day lives here, we have a blog that is (supposed to be) updated daily. It's a group blog that is written in part by everyone, including the past group who remembers the password. To read this blog (and I recommend you do), check for updates here:

http://katimaviksiouxlookout.wordpress.com/

Right now the pictures at the top are of the last group, but we'll likely be changing that soon.

I hope to keep you all updated in one form or another! But for now ....ICE FISHING!

Sioux Lookout: Hub of the North

The beginning of the beginning. Here we are in Sioux Lookout, Ontario. After an exhausting 11 hours in planes and lay overs, we made it. When we landed in Thunder Bay we found  a surprise. The Sioux Lookout group going to Montreal, past the Montreal group going to Sioux Lookout. We spoke for about 20 minutes and talked about what awaits us.

The next surprise was our little plane, our little bear skin plane. Yes, we all played way too much to get our bags on board, and let that be a lesson for anyone else traveling to Sioux Lookout with Katimavik. Unless you have 1 check bag, and 1 carry on where the total weight is 50 pounds, you're going to pay a lot of money. Worst part is Katimavik isn't gonna refund you that money. Not cool.

When we got to Sioux Lookout we were greeted by more than just our new PL, Sarah, but actually members of the community, there to help us to our houses. That's the other thing, we have two houses as of now. Kyle, Landen, Andrew, Marie-France, Val, and Tiffany, are at the "Prince House", named because it's on Prince Street. Or Prince Road. I don't really know because I'm in the "King House", named for the same reasons,  I'm here with Cody, Francois, Jessica, and Sarah. The King house is where we have dinner, and for the most part hang out.

Those people at the Prince house came down to us for a brief snack time and orientation. The walk between the two house is about 10-15 minutes. It was long until ten jet-lagged youth desperately needed bed time.

Whatever sleep we got wasn't enough for the next day.  Our work place tours were all done in one day. To make matters worse that's 13 work placements and most of them are part time. We toured:

The Salvation Army:
The local Sally Ann, gave us a cute little tour, and we all got to take one thing from the store for free! The majority of the work consisted of using the cash register and sorting clothes in the back.

Cedar Bay:
Here we toured the local house ranch, which had a variety of horses. My new horse-savvy-self even petted a couple of the stallions. The work focused around maintenance and feeding.

The Rec Center:
We visited the Rec Center which was particularly neat because were all going to receive free gym passes. So, we'll probably be back there rather soon.

Wawatay Television:
This was the headquarters of a broadcasting company that has a couple shows being featured on Aboriginal Peoples Television right now. However one of there major projects was put on hold due to political troubles, as a result they were later taken out of the volunteer pool.

The Aboriginal Womens Circle:
This was an organization was devoted to bettering the lives of women, so it had a lot of baby sitting style components . There was also a lot of administrative work, xerox, shredding documents and what not.

Meno Ya Win Health Center:
The brand new state of the art medical center that fuses new medicine with aboriginal tradition. The volunteer work was on a broad spectrum of different things, naturally, it became my preference.

Three Day Cares (Biidabin, Norah Love, and Sioux Mountain):
Each consisted of young kids, and SK and JK. For Kyle and I, this was confusing, SK is not Saskatchewan, it's Secondary Kindergarten, and at JK is not "Just Kidding", it's Junior Kindergarten.

Out Of The Cold:
This place was a regular looking building which happened to be both a shelter and a food bank. The previous volunteer had painted an incredible mural on the wall of the womens room. Most of the works seemed like cleaning or maintenance.

Sioux Lookout Anti Racism Committee:
SLARC has been around for a long time in the community, it started to combat racism but has turned into more of a community involvement movement.

Chamber of Commerce:
This was a real unique workplace, working in the tourism center for Sioux Lookout. The real local culture center of Sioux Lookout, they really like their blue berries here.

New Vision:
This was another unique workplace, with a variety of multi-media, maintaince, design, community projects.

All that in one day. Wow. Worst part was the interviews were the very next day. So at 8am we woke up to meet at The Rec Center for 9am to do some interviews. Unlike the way we did this in Montreal, we only interview our top 5 or 6 depending. So I met with Meno Ya Win, Chamber of Commerce, Out of The Cold, The Daycares, SLARC, and Salvation Army. Then we all went home while the workk placements fought it out for who they wanted with Sarah.

Later that day Sarah came home shortly after lunch to announce the news:
Cody is part time at Cedar Bay, part time Out of the Cold. Francois is part time Cedar Bay, part time Meno Ya Win. Jessica got full time at New Vision. Marie-France got full time at Norah Love Daycare. Tiffany is working at Salvation Army and Cedar Bay, very appropriate for Manitoba's cow girl. Val got Women's Circle and SLARC. Landen will be at the Chamber of Commerce and Out of The Cold. Kyle will be working at The Rec Center Full time. As for me, I got my very first choice as full time at the Meno Ya Win health center. YAY!

Later that night Sarah mentioned there was a Ladies Auction Night at the Legion. Since is was a ladies night, the guys were asked to stay behind at the house to work on another project. Val was too sick to go, so Marie-France, Jessica, Tiffany, Sarah and myself left for the evening to help out at the event. The proceeds when to the Sioux Lookout Blue Berry festival, which is apparently this HUGE ten day festival at the beginning of August. My job was to sell drink tickets, very similar to my work with G-pa and Rotary at West Vancouver Community Day. As things go more hectic it became my job to ring the bell for "shooters". This was interesting because now that were in Ontario, Tiffany and I are no longer of legal drinking age, but by the end of the night we were serving the shooters. Which was insignificant to Sarah and Jessica who were mixing the drinks at the bar. The highlight of the evening was Marie-France show casing the items as they went up for bid.

After this evening we, the ladies, went to the Prince house for a while to hang out and brag about our cool volunteer work. Then we had our first taste of running home to beat the curfew. We made it.

On Saturday we took a big hike to the top of Sioux Mountain, where Sarah told us the story of how Sioux Lookout got it's name. If you think I'm gonna recite the story, you're wrong. I'm too tried from the hike to write anymore.

Montreal Wrap Up

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

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:

"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:

 Dining room Living room.

The six person room.

 The Rec-room.

The haunted basement of no return.

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...