fso yo

HOly schmoly!
It's been a wacky week. Just the kind I like.

Friday night, I went over to these peoples house with Galya and Masha. This couple is Russian, but the guy lived in the Congo and France for a long time, so he speaks french and Russian. I spoke only with him in French and Galya and Masha spoke only in Russian to his wife. There's something very cool about english-free parties in Canada, I have to say. Partly cause it's an indication that English hasn't quite fully dominated everything and everybody and partly because I only understand about 73% of what's actually going on, which makes it a bit more riveting.

The only problem with them being Russian.. is that they pulled out the shot glasses and the vodka.. and.. well, my month long break from alcohol which has just ended did not help me cope with this Russian style drinking tradition.
Toast after toast after toast.. left my stomach.. not a very happy camper. Plus, the russian style of this celebration meant that there was pickles, tomatoes and cheese.. which.. also wasn't a positive experience. Just looking at it all made me want to throw up.. So I decided I would throw up.. so I get up to try to find my way to the bathroom.. and suddenly I notice a police officer in the living room telling me that our partying was just too loud.. it was all very surreal, partly because I almost threw up on a police officer and partly because there was really not alot of noise at all.

Saturday we sold Russian name-tags (we wrote peoples names in the russian alphabet) at the mall. It was a fundraiser for AIDS-PEI. My days spend promoting the IKEA credit card really payed off. I convinced people at the mall that they really wanted to see their names written in Russian and that they wanted to give money to AIDS-PEI. We made a few hundred bucks and I worked on my manipulation skills. Cheslav, the Russian supervisor had some debatable tactics. When people ignored his sales pitch, he would muffle something really cruel under his breath. He called one guy a capitalist (is that really an insult though) The guy came back and thew $20 at us, without even getting a name tag.
One lady indicated very sternly that she doesn't care about Russia, and therefore wasn't interested in what we were doing.
One lady sped up and turned around to yell (in an english accent) "I'm russian" and pouted of.. she must have thought I asked "where are you from?" and not, "would you like a russian name tag and to support AIDS-PEI"
If they responded: "no thanks, I'm good, I don't want to donate" Cheslav would reply "It's nice to see that YOU'RE GOOD, but some people AREN't good!! have some compassion!!"
People watching is always very thrilling.

Last night, one of the host families hosted a turkey dinner for our entire group. It was very thanksgivinglike.. complete with grace and a everybody says something they are thankful for moment. I did my thanks in German, because I thought it would add a nice spice to the mix and everybody was very uncreative and thankful for all the same things..
including me.. so I though if I just looked at the right people at the right time and smiled appropriately, the main idea would get through..

Then, Galya and I embarked on our pathetic incessant "search for a party" quest. We found a house party that was okay, except for the latin music that just wouldn't end.. which forced us to go to another one.... with some drunken hip hoppers (one who is half-newfie even) making up some very clever depressing rhymes.. eventually we found our way home, into our beds, safe and sound.

I rose for Sunday brunch, and some fun chat about Canada.
My host family informed me that there are 2 islands near Newfoundland that are actually french! Like part of France kind of french. And there was an exchange student that went there from Mexico and was just so confused.. she thought she was traveling to Canada and she ended up in France. Somebody should have really explained that to her.

I've decided that Canada is a very cool place and when I get home, I plan on putting up a map of Canada somewhere. Maybe next to my quote wall.