goinggoinggone.

Wow, this trimester has gone by so. freaking. quickly. (although the morning sickness made it drag a bit at first)

It seems like only yesterday (haha) that we were at Mass-O, listening to the behavioural standards, playing icebreaker games, and writing our group mission statements.

I can't really remember all of our mission statement, haha, but I do recall that we wanted to leave a legacy in Vanderhoof, since we were the first Katimavik group there in about 20 years. I think we did pretty well. Tristan said he's heard nothing but good feedback, and I feel like I did my best to make a good impression. AND, LA and I painted a mural in D-Pod to camoflage the door so that certain residents would stop trying to escape (HAHA, NOT AS BAD AS IT SOUNDS). I don't think it actually works, 'cause as soon as Alice (Steve McQueen of D-pod) sees someone going out or coming in, she accelerates to a hasty shuffle to try to slip through the door into the main hallway. She'll shove sometimes too, and I know it's hard to take violent old women seriously, but she's pretty strong, haha.


Bow to our mural skills.

I'm going to miss Vanderhoof, Tristan (best PL I've had so far.), and my work placemeeennnnttttt but I'm so stoked for Newmarket at the same time. Tomorrow we leave for rotation camp at 1 PM! Wednesday, we fly out of Prince George to Calgary, then to Toronto, and bus to our house with the Collingwood group (new people to alienate with my placenta story!)

Wish me luck!

(and start mailing things to my new address!)

mice at the manor.

Today at work, I walked over to an old lady in a wheel chair who was looking a bit agitated as she tried to wheel away from her spot at the table.

Me: Hey, how's it going?
Her: There's a-a-a mouse, down over there.
Me: Really?

I went to look where she had been sitting, crouched down to look under the table, and resurfaced holding... a bit of raisin toast.

Me: Honey, this is raisin toast.
Her: Oh.  It looked like a mouse.

I am going to miss my job so much it's not funny.

smithers in 3D on ice.

This last weekend, we ventured outside our little town of Bethlehem Vanderhoof.

Our mission: Traverse the 3-hour distance to Smithers for a family-fun-filled weekend of cross-country skiing, hiking, foreign films, non-foreign films, and nut-awareness.

Shazam.

saturday:
 I broke my fast in the van because of poor time management.  It consisted of two really good banana muffins, courtesy of Jessica.  Those were amazing muffins.  I still dream about them.  As far as I know the drive there was uneventful, but as I was busy counting moutons on Anthony's shoulder (arm, really.  I would have to be significantly taller to actually dormir on his epaule).  I woke up as we were passing through Houston, and therefore passing THE WORLD'S LARGEST FLY FISHING POLE.   "SAAJSFHSDJPULLOVERPULLOVEROHMAN!" we cried.  Tristan said we'd stop on the way back.  Relative silence resumed within the Katimabus once more.

Our accomodations in Smithers were this:  PE mats on the gym floor of St. Joseph's catholic school.  I have always dreamed of sleeping over in a school.  Thusly, I was stoked.  My stoked-ness was somewhat lessened yesterday, when LA enlightened me that things like hockey teams stayed there all the time, and so there was probably all manner of undesireable bodily fluids steeped into what had been my mattress. Oh well.  We got settled, had lunch, synchronized all 6 oven clocks in the home ec room, and headed for Bulkey Valley Nordic Center for some skiing of the cross-country variety.


Gearin' uuuuuuuppp.

I had been expecting to spend most of my x-country time kissing neige, but it was not so: We were on an extremely easy trail (one for dogs, actually), and I ended up only falling 4 times in my entire 11km.  The count was only 3 all the way until we were on our way back to the van:

Jordan: I only fell four times!
Me: Awesome!  ...But I only fell three times.

And then I fell.

Having successfully humbled me, God then went back to ruling the universe.  We went back to the school to change, vegetate, re-synchronize the oven clocks, and snack a bit.  Now, we had brought a huge bag of trailmix with us to eat, but when we arrived, we discovered that the walls of the school were plastered in posters reading "WE ARE A NUT-FREE SCHOOL" and "BE NUT-AWARE"; to eat our nuts, dried fruit, and m&ms, Jordan and I had to stand outside the front doors like francophones smoking.


The gravity inside the gym was reversed for a more engaging workout.

The school had multiple TVs we were allowed to use, so we made a quick stop at Movie Gallery. The group rented Amelie and The Hangover, and Jordan and I bought Stranger Than Fiction (HAHAHA DAD YOU CAN'T CONFISCATE IT NOWWWWW.), Dreamgirls, and Atonement to take advantage of their 3 for $15 deal on previously viewed DVDs.  We are so money-savvy.  After that, we raced to Masayama, that is to say, I GOT TO EAT JAPANESE FOOD.


Udon-saaaan~  Ohisashiburi desu neeeeee~

It was a bit of a let down, 'cause there was like, one asian in the whole staff. and they didn't have ikura on the menu, but it was still okay for this far north haha.  I miss japanese food so dang much haha.  They don't sell much in the way of ingredients up here, so it's hard to even make it.  We stuffed ourselves at dinner, then went back to St. Joseph's for movies!  I hung with the francophones/Jordan/Tristan and watched Amelie, while Jazmin, LA and Jessica watched The Hangover on the other side of the gym.  Amelie was really cute, but I wish I could understand french well enough to dispense with subtitles, since I know captions suck at communicating anything but basic meaning.  ONE DAY.  BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY.  THIS DAY, WE FIGHT! (I miss watching LotR with your mum.)

sunday:
After another sexily muffin-filled breakfast and some more creative oven clock synchronization, we headed over to Malkow Lookout for some hiking (sans Jazmin, cause she said she was sick).


On the way, we saw MEESE.  This is only a picture of one of them, but trust me, there were two.

While hiking, our fearless leader took the wrong trail and we ended up at the bottom of the hill instead of at the lookout.  Thanks, Tristan.  Some peeps decided they would run up the hill to get to the top, and convinced me to come, even though it was steep and covered in untouched, powdery snow.  I started last, and definitely finished last too, but I made it, beeyatches!  (6 km of hiking in total. take that, sedentary north american lifestyle.)


Photographic proof that I can roll with the cool kids.

We returned to the school to lunch, pack-up, and pick up Jazmin haha.  And we did stop at Houston to document the fishing pole.


Tristan thinks that things like The World's Biggest Fly-Fishing Pole (I almost typed 'flying-fish pole' haha) should have to be functional, but who the eff is big enough to go fishing with that thing?


"It was THIS big!"  That's what she said.



It was a good weekend.

i love my ant. (and grandma.) (and uncle.)

I remember writing in my journal at, like, age 4, that my 'ant and uncle' were coming to visit.

My aunt acted hurt that I couldn't spell 'aunt', whilst 'uncle' was no problem, but in hindsight, I'm pretty sure she just found it cute. Four-year-old me felt pretty bad about it though.

Anyway, this 'ant' of mine has been sending me care packages in my time away. I was going to take some pictures and do a blog about the one I got right before billeting, but I ate everything before I got around to it.She sent me another one after Christmas, which I received last week, stuffed full of edible lovin' from my ant, uncle, and extremely sexy grandma  (love you guys!).  So uh, just be jealous that I am so loved.



Soooo much goodnesssss.....

a long video of two people eating.

So, LA and I filmed ourselves trying to eat a pack of melba toast each as fast as we could.  It felt so epic while we were eating, but the video is kind of uneventful, haha.  Trust me though, my mouth is ripped to shreds on the inside.  If you're pressed for time, skip to like 2:20.  Watch for when LA sneakily throws half a melba toast at me, and I think it's mine, so I eat it.

GYAHADSFGR. also entitled: shoshana goes skiing.

This tragesty (for the uninitiated: tragesty is a mash-up of travesty and tragedy that some of my friends started using in high school) took place on December 30, 2009.  This is a true story.


A mini snowman I made for the scavenger hunt-esque thing PG had us do during New Years.  The snow was SO powdery, so I had to do creepy phone breathing on it before it would stick.  I thought I'd insert something happy before you read my story, haha.
 
We set out early in the morning.  I was immensely excited at the prospect of my first day of downhill skiing, and danced to my ipod in the back seat nearly the entire way there.  Our early departure time found us at the ski hill just as the lodge doors were opening.  The sun was shining brightly on the groomed snow; the crisp air was refreshing; the day looked promising.

After setting down our gear and food inside, we were led into the rentals room, where our boots, skiis, and snowboards had been set aside for us.  I grabbed my stuff, walked over to our table, and shoved my feet into my ski boots.  It took a couple tries to tighten them properly, but I welcomed this opportunity to expand my horizons, and eventually I worked it out.  With the rest of the group, I carried my skiis over to the bunny hill, put them on with LA's help, and grabbed hold of the lift that took me up to the top of the hill.

I surveyed my surroundings, hungry for adventure.  The bunny hill would only be the first of my many conquests to be made that day.  Jessica was my elected instructor, and with her help, I began to snowplow my way down the hill.  Under her watchful eye, I practiced this technique until it felt natural; until Jessica felt I was ready to try an easy run that began partway up the hill.

Getting to that run involved using the T-Bar lift, which was mildly terrifying, but as I had remembered to wear my Depends, I had courage enough to ascend the mountain of snow.  While I didn't actually fall off the lift, I more collapsed into the snow at the correct exit point than anything else.  It is all part of the experience, I thought, dusting myself off and shakily rising from the ground.

Yeah, yeah, I can't talk like that anymore.  It all went downhill from there (punny, I know).  On my first run, I wiped out once, and screamed the rest of the way to the bottom, completely unable to control my speed or direction (luckily it just went straight).  The second time, I fell twice, then did the uncontrolled speeding/screaming.  After that, I went into the lodge for a break, and when I came back out, returned to the bunny hill.  I practiced for a long time there, not really getting any better, until LA suggested that I go up to the very top with her:

"Shoshana, you wanna?"
"Unghh, okay..."


The path up Mt. Doom.  I swear I passed Frodo on the way up, and I think he yelled at me to turn around.

It took like, 15 minutes to get to the top, and by that time, I was super cold and regretting my decision not a little.  I also forgot to wear a hat, and I think I got a bit of frostbite in the top of my left ear, because even now, almost a week later, I still can't feel it.  Anyway, back to our story.  I convinced LA that we should do the very easiest run, internally wishing that there was just a T-Bar that went back down the hill.  It started off okay: flat enough that I couldn't pick up any speed.  Then it actually started.  I fell.  LA grabbed my ski, helped me get it on, stand up, and off I went again.  Biffed it.  LA found my ski again, helped me get back to my feet, and I tried again.  I made it a bit farther this time, screaming my lungs out as I picked up speed, lost all control/ability to think, went over a bump, and flipped.  LA came over the horizon laughing, holding both my skiis, and we repeated our new ritual.  I fell again. And again.  And again.  It was funny at first, but then I started falling harder and harder, culminating in pro-skiier me hitting my head twice in a row. (I also managed to knock LA over once by accidentally sliding into her as I was kissing the powder.  That was the only time she fell, haha)  At this point, I was a little disoriented, and my neck and head hurt.  LA suggested I take off my skiis and walk down.  I liked that idea. 

I was tottering down the hill when Tristan and Fred caught up with us on their snowboards.  Curious as to why I was walking down a ski hill, they stopped, and after finding out what happened, made me sit down and rest.  While we were waiting there, the ski patrol showed up.  They offered to call a ski-doo for me, which I refused, but after asking me a few questions, they radioed for one anyway.  The guy who was running them was about to go home, so one of them was going to have to go get it themselves, and I was going to have to sit in the snow for half an hour. 

"It's cool; seriously.  I can just walk down." I insisted.
"You can walk?  Really.  Show me." The one with the moustache sounded dubious.

At this point, I thought I got up and walked in an admirably straight line, but according to LA, Tristan, and Fred, I was veering right off into the trees like a boss.  I guess it was good enough for the ski patrol guy though, 'cause he decided it would be okay to just teach me how to ski properly so I could get back to civilization.  Moustache guy introduced himself as Alex, Level II Ski Instructor.  I told him my name repeatedly, but prolonged exposure to the cold mountain air must have screwed up his hearing; he was still calling me 'Joshana' when he left me at the bottom of the hill.  He had me do something he called 'the falling leaf', which was just zig-zagging back and forth without having to turn at all, and when he thought I'd gotten the hang of that, he started teaching me how to turn.  Apparently, I'd been putting my weight on the wrong foot every time I turned, and that was why I kept falling.  Thanks, Jessica.  (kidding, haha)  Anyway, I made it down the hill without any further mishaps, and even got to see wolf tracks and pee.

When I finally got back to the lodge (LA and I were on that hill for 1.5 hours), I was covered in snow.  My bangs were sticking out all over the place because of all the ice in them.  My black fleece wasn't black anymore.  A woman in the rentals room asked me if I had left any snow back on the hill.  I told her I wasn't sure.  I hurt all over, and taking off my boots was like pulling your mom off of a box of doughnuts.  Most of my clothing was soaked, and LA had to lend me some of hers, which was really awesome, cause cold, wet clothes suck.

I can't wait to go skiing again.


Me after I thawed a bit.

In other news:


My sexy hat.  It's sooooo big, haha, but I love it.  Even if it does make me look like a deranged milkmaid.

long time, no steamy internet rendez-vous.

Stuff has been busy lately, with Christmas and New Years and other plausible excuses I cannot bring to mind at the moment, and so I have a lot to catch up on.  To warn you, this is probably going to be longer than IB History Paper 3 (ie: long, though not Extended Essay long). In my humble opinion, I believe that this presents us with an excellent opportunity to use--and deeply appreciate--sub-headings. Ahem.

so, christmas.
I just realized that I've been telling people this was my first Christmas away from home, but it's actually my second--my first was spent in foster care when I was 8, but I guess because it's not something I think about a whole lot, I forget. However, Noel '09 is what we're here to talk about, biznatches. Hmmm, the use of subheadings makes me want to use bullets as well.

how katima-christmas is different:
•  people listen to Billy Talent instead of Bing Crosby.  (however, Devil at a Midnight Mass could be construed as a Christmas reference)  This threw me off a bit, but the thoughts of how much I enjoyed Try Honesty in grade 7 melted away any hard feelings I may have had.
•  we watched The Hulk (yeah, the one with Eric Bana and the killer poodle), instead of It's A Wonderful Life, which the video store here doesn't even have.
•  our tree looked like the Charlie Brown tree's tall, gangly cousin who doesn't talk much at parties.  in its defense though, it was super cute, real, and allowed for us to see through it into the computer room (and, as every good driver knows: visibility is key).

how katima-christmas is awesome:
•  see 'how katima-christmas is different'
•  butt-tons of food.  we had a 25 lb turkey, meat pies, meat balls, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, brussel sprouts, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and your mum (that was just me, about an hour after dinner, when i had digested a bit).
•  getting M&M (the candy, not the frozen food store) earbuds, among manymanymany other cool things from Andreanne for Secret Santa.  My ipod is now so much sexier.  But, as the headphone packaging stated repeatedly, still not edible.
•  recieving sweet gifts from Alex's Mom, the Santiagos, and my work partner.  (dear family, I guess know where your allegiances lie.)  (no, I'm kidding; dad sent me money.)
•  being able to wear nothing but a sprig of holly and tassles without being reprimanded my my parents.
•  ...hahaha....

I did feel homesick, but only on days containing the letter 'Q'.

popping my (downhill) skiing cherry.
On the 30th, we went skiing/snowboarding at Murray Ridge.  For free, of course, thanks to our formidable powers of negotiation--we were supposed to work for them all day on the 27th, but they had so little for us to do, we were gone within 2 hours.  shazam.  I actually have a fairly dramatic story to tell about my first time doing a double black diamond run, so I'll do another post about that after this one is finished.

bringing in the new year with hypnotism, exploding kneecaps, and a full house.
Through the hard work and careful-ish planning of many others (c'est-a-dire, pas moi), our entire Katimavik district was able to meet in the Hoof for some most excellent New Years festivities.

day one (31st) :
Quesnel showed up first, while we were eating lunch.  Having not taken the time to mentally prepare for the massive amounts of human set to pour in that day, we began panicking and screaming 'LOCK THE DOOR OHMANOHMANOHMAN'.  We had to let them in eventually though, and so it began.  Prince George arrived a bit later, followed by William's Lake (and Robbie came! yeaahhhh~).  At one point, LA and I hid in the bathroom and commiserated about the overcrowding, haha.  Bill's Puddle had planned some 'team-building exercises' for us to do, like the Human Knot, and afterwards, Jordan and I passed out on the basement floor--he was sick, I was just too lazy to walk back upstairs.

I awoke to Maude asking me if I thought her outfit for the dance was good.  I groggily looked up, mumbled 'mmyeahhmghmmm' and closed my eyes again, but after reevaluating my situtation, I decided to get up so I could eat and get ready for the dance.  Normally, I am not the type of girl to change my outfit 4 million times before a dance, but I believe the upcoming meteor shower threw off my inner body mechanics, and so LA and Ryan's snuggling sesh was frequently interrupted by me showing them a different ensemble.  I settled on this really unattractive Amish-looking dress I found in a bag of clothes we picked up at Murray Ridge while cleaning the storage room (no offence to the Amish--they've got some sick style), that I pinned and belted into something that looked kind of cute (I hope).

The dance was preceded by a hypnotist, and I, along with a lot of other Katimesclaves, ran up to be volunteers.  Now, I was a bit skeptical before the show, and I still am.  For me, it was like doing improv with my eyes closed while forcing myself to look stoned, because I didn't want the hypnotist to realize I was faking and send me off the stage like he did some of the others.  Talking to some of the other peeps who went up, some had done the same thing as me, while others felt that they were there sometimes, and gone others.  I will say, however, that it was a bit surreal, consciously doing crazy things in front of a bunch of people who thought I was hypnotized.  I mean, I'm fairly outgoing anyways, but this was a bit different.  After that, we busted a move on the dance floor to such hits as the Cha Cha Slide, hugged everyone and their mother at midnight, kept dancing, and then I watched Anders, Michael and Anthony suck helium out of the decorations.  Overall, a pretty decent night.

day two:
We did a lil blitz clean in the late morning, then went to the arena to skate.  I was super pro that day, skating for what probably amounted to 20 minutes, since I kept falling on my knees (hence the kneecap explosion) and I was too wimpy to keep going, haha.  After that, we trickled up to the mezzanine to play cards and board games, and then have lunch, which was a spicy, but quite nice, chili.  In the Hoof, we don't eat spicy food, so I found myself frequently running to the kitchen to drink water out of the tap.  I did, however, champ that sucker in the end. 

The evening featured a most prime talent show.  Andreanne and I opened with a moving arrangement of the Pokemon themesong in both official languages, while wearing large cardboard Pokeballs we taped to our stomachs.  The whole show was awesome, but as my memory is not what it used to be, and I can't find the list of who performed, I'll just give you some highlights:

•  Jordan singing Springtime For Hitler, from The Producers, with blonde hair he dyed especially for the performance.
•  The Quesnel boys' reading/dramatic interpretation of The Journey of the Noble Gnarble. Never have I found fictional sea creatures so accessible.
•  The Quesnel girls' dance to Deceptacon by Le Tigre, continuing even after Saki's face contorted, exclaiming 'CALF CRAMP' mid-dance. That sentence is awkward, because it sounds like Saki's face is what got the calf cramp.
•  Micheal and Scott's rendition of Light My Candle, from Rent. The song was funny on its own, but somehow, two guys--one of them in drag--makes it that much better.
•  Robbie's many improv games. One of my favourite parts was when Harry ran in, replacing one of two people carrying another like they were dead, and asked "Do you think we'll get a Final Warning for this?".
•  Eric singing a song that I can't remember the name of, but it was really cute, and ended the show with much warm fuzziness. 

day three:
PG and WL left during the course of the morning, leaving the house feeling very empty and quiet, even though we still had Q-town with us.  I know I felt uncomfortable on the first day, but after the dance I was used having everybody around, and it was really fun.  Uber bummer = our group is about 7 hours away from the rest of our District when we get to Ontario.

Epic tobogganing followed the exodus, and then we went to a local church to play some sports.  Athletics, especially competitive sports, are my forte, so this was quite fun, and not embarrassing at all.  Actually, it was fun, but I often get the feeling that the people I am playing with would rather I sat on the side, though they are too nice to say it, haha.

day four:
The four house managers put out a sweet butt-ton pancakes and waffles for brunch, we cleaned house, and Quesnel packed up and left.  All quiet on the northern front.

I regret the lack of pictures, but I've gotten lazy.  Once people upload some to facebook, I steal some.


You may un-glaze your eyes now.



What did you guys do for New Year's?