Armand Van Helden is one of the cooler americans..

MOnday morning. I got to work 15 minutes early. It's actually very peaceful here so early. Nobody else has arrived, and I haven't had the opportunity to mess up my desk yet, so I can enjoy looking at my empty desk.. it's actually a really pretty wood, I never really noticed before cause of my messiness problem..

Well the weekend was pretty good I think. I don't really remember.. I saw an awesome movie called Up and Down (I think) and it was from the Czech Republic, and it totally reminded me of Russia. My host mom in Russia was alot like the mom in this movie. They both wear wigs cause they want to look pretty, but their wigs are actually uglier than their natural hair. I could even follow what was going on for the entire time, even though it wasn't in english, which is pretty exciting cause I often have a hard time following english movies.

I was walking past Jenn's apartment last night and I wanted to go up to visit her.. and sure enough.. King Ralph was getting back too .. and we rode the elevator together. The reason this was memorable was because he was eating a hamburger and fries.. and it smelled up the elevator.. like fries.. and I hadn't eaten supper and was really hungry. So I went to try and find a hamburger and any place that sold hamburgers was closed! There should be some sort of rule.. like hamburgers should be available for as long as the sun is up.. I had to settle for Tim Hortons, which was not quite the same thing.. Jenn and I hung out at the Tim Hortons.. the guy working there gave us a free donut cause he said I look like a "good person." He started jabbing at the till pretending to aim for the "donut" button, and purposely missing it every time. It was refreshing to see somebody in the service industry who is alert, cheerful, has a sense of humour and doesn't despise the customers.. well maybe he had just been there too long and was dilusional. Hard to say. OH yeah back to the King Ralph, I think I should leave some DJ David Suzuki books outside of his door.. probably wouldn't do much good though..reading is probably bad for the economy.. and I'd have to get them simplified into a grade 8 reading level..

I walked all the way to the Italian Grocery store which is by the way really far and in a really freaky part of town. But it was a great walk. Edmonton is so weird.. you walk for one block, and it's pretty old trees and neat old houses with kids running around.. and I feel totally safe. Then you turn the corner and it's mobs of sketchy homeless people who are dancing on the street..
Both add alot of character to the city, but it always throws me off how the city is divided into these weird little subsections... one block of hookers, then one block of churches, then a nice safeway shopping complex, then a beautiful park, then an empty field of mud that looks like it should have landminds in it, then a run-down ghost town block with about 80% of the businesses closed.. maybe all cities are like this, i've just never payed that close attention..

High Noon or The Phat Conductor

It's already Saturday, and this last week was a huge blur..
Last Friday. Jesse, my middle little brother had his high school grad. He dressed up really pretty in a spiffy tux, and I pulled out the.. thing in the pocket.. napkin? whatever, it's folded really neatly and he said you're not supposed to touch it cause it's hard to fold. It can't be that hard.

My grandparents even came down, and it was really nice to see them. They came over to my apartment and my grandma wasn't even disgusted! (as she normally is when she sees where I live) My grandpa commented that my room was quite messy, and I replied by saying "A clean room is the sign of a wasted life" He was impressed I could tell.
I'm not sure if this validates my messy room or not, but either way, at least it gave him something to think about and distracted him from the messiness.
My cousin landon drove them up which was a nice surprise. He's either really shy or just can't stand my existence. He's going to school in Edmonton in the fall. I think he's one of those people that moves to a big city to go to school and then actually focuses all their energy on school. I should try that.. put school as a top priority... above all else....nah.

Ah yes, how could I forget? I work as a banquet server for some reason, which I can talk about now withoout being bitter because I have the weekend off for once. But Tuesday, the queen and her posse and the PM and the President of Alberta all came and ate a bunch of expensive food. This is the first time that I've ever:
1. seen people drink so much wine in 3hr.45 min.
2. spilt an entire bottle of wine all over the floor.. (a lady at one of the tables turned around and yelled "are you drunk already?" It made me want to stab her with her salad fork. But I didn't. I should have.

I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. The Queen E tried to speak french, but kind of butchered it, and the Prime Minister made a lame speech about nothing. I've never heard him speak before (what kind of canadian am i??) and I just assumed that he would be moderately witty/and or have a sense of humour/have a point to what he was saying or that at least his speech writers would be.. NOPE. What's the point of speeches? Are they meant to inform? entertain? give a nice amount of time for banquet servers to spill wine ont he floor? I'm confused.

Speaking of the queen.. (or am I?) I saw HOtel Rwanda. It shook me up! (in a bad way) made me cry, made me unable to sleep and made me ashamed to be white. Does that mean it's a good movie?

I say it's time for swimming.

Originally uploaded by AKey.

Urban Style in Regina,Saskatchewan

Originally uploaded by maladiets.

IF tea drinkers and coffee drinkers were to battle it out, who would win???????

Jenn and I recently purchased one ticket each to Shambhala music festival which will be held in Salmo BC in August. Recruitment starts now for an extremely crazy party, complete with hippies and ravers and just regular people looking to have a good time (or weird people looking to have a good time--like us for example)
There's a hologram on the ticket, which is kind of cool and cheesy all at the same time. Hopefully before or after I'll make it out to Vancity to terrorize the locals.

107 Ave has signs on it that say "avenue of nations" and this morning, I think I finally figured out why it's called "avenue of nations" There's tons of people from all over the place! I met a lady from Eritrea, and I didn't even know that was a country. This is very exciting, it's like being in Toronto! Except for there's no H & M. And no Lake Ontario. Gay. We should have a Lake Ontario here, that would be awesome. It could be used for drinking water, sewage disposal and swimming! Okay, I thought I could slow down the the sarcastic remarks on my environmental perspectives, but I can't help myself.
Now that I've already ruined this post, I might as well go all the way. It's time for an ENVIRONMENTAL JOKE!!

What did the baby light bulb say to the mommy lightbulb? "I love you watts and watts"
Okay, it's more of an "energy" joke, but still..

Yesterday i was waiting in line at the money exchange place downtown (Krzesinski is going away, not me..) and there was a couple with a baby in front.. taking forever by the way.... Then, i was in a car crossing the bridge a little while later, and this same couple was in the car next to us...
then 2 hours later, i was in a store on whyte and we bumped into the SAME COUPLE with their baby. It was wacky wild. wacky wacky wild.

Democracy Being Held Hostage or I'm Wide Awake, it's Evening

Today, the Carbon Busters team drove down to Calgary to visit an ecohouse/sustainable blah blah I don't remember what it's called. Composting toilet, solar collectors, almost all daylighting, solar oven, LED's, a solar dryer. They use rainwater only, and just filter it a couple times...the guy that built it/lives in it/gave the tour thinks it's a bit silly that only 10% of our water needs to be drinkable, yet 100% of it is treated to be drinkable. It was very cool. In the middle of Calgary's urban sprawl, sits this little house that looks very similar to the rest of the houses. If you're even in Calgary.. I recommend it..

My blog has become an ode to Environmentalism.. but really, anybody who lives in the environment and breaths in stuff like air for example and drinks stuff like water for example..should really consider these things.. but then again, I am an arts student, so what do I know? I only took one science class and considered jumping out of the window of 7th floor Tory, just cause the brief flight to the ground would have been less painful than a lab about rocks, dirt or weather.

Rebellion (Lies) or Cascades of Colour

yesterday i was lucky enough to see dj david suzuki live!!
he did some great remixes and even played some of his old stuff..

no really though, it was serious stuff. my favourite part was when he explained how it's ridiculous to think that the economy is more important than the environment. cause .. you can't buy nature.. and if you could it wouuld be worth like 33 trillion dollars, which is alot more than the GDP of.. Canada for example.
He made his point (for me anyways) quite well when he said if the Darlington nuclear power plant, (which is apparantly really massive and near Canada's largest city) were to release any of radioactive materials, then that would be awesome for the economy! The GDP would go through the roof. People would be sick and they would need ambulances, doctors, nurses, new hospitals, band-aids, drugs.. and also people would die, would would be great for funeral homes, flower shops, gravediggers, lawyers and .. the list goes on. So, really, if Canada wants the GDP to go UP, we just have to have plant operators be a little bit less careful, have tests done a little less frequently and have staff that's a little less qualified, maybe summer students? (They'll work for next to nothing.. again, an opportunity to save some cash)

He swore alot, too, which I wasn't expecting. It's not like he had to use harsh language to preach to the converted crowd who payed $30 to see him blab on about the extinction of humanity. Chuck D did the same thing, they must have read the same "how to talk like an activist" guide. Or maybe, Edmonton just makes people wanna swear.

Also, check out Anna’s artwork on Das picture page which is linked at like 2 o'clock.

....LEFT BEHIND.....

Saturday night 2:40am. Amy is sleeping in her comfortable bed after many days without a good nights rest. She hears sounds outside, like drunks yelling, hitting something metal, climbing. She ignores it.. probably it will stop soon, she thinks. Ten minutes later, she can no longer ignore the souds. They are nearer and nearer, it almost sounds like they are right outside her window. She lays awake panicking, wondering what to do. She wishes she had been more proactive in getting herself a phone. Alas, she wasn't, and is phoneless and terrified. She is too frightened to go and look out the window, but suddenly, the voices are no longer outside, but rather inside. She peeks out her window and sees some legs, hanging out her roomates window.. followed by another body climbing inside. All she knows now is that there are several people within the confines of her apartment, and they were not invited. The roomate is at work still, and she can only hear the intruder voices yelling to hurry.

I got dressed and went out to see what the commotion was in my state of shock and fear, and.. it was my brother and 6 of his friends. I went into the bathroom and couldn't control myself from sobbing. My heart was in my throat, and I wanted to vomit.

So, when Descartes said "I think, therefore I am," do you think there was any chance that this also meant "If you don't think, you don't exist?" Cause in that case, I'm sorry to say it, but my oldest little brother doesn't exist.

They turn on music (my music at least, so it was good music) and ordered pizza. Amy's place is the party place?!? My brother did used to live in this apartment, and his friend (who wasn't home) does live here. I used to live in alot of places too, but that old sweet suite on 76th ave and my big old white house on 114th street don't come to mind when I need somewhere to crash after a quality night at the bar.

I guess occasions like these are good, because they make you feel very alive. It's good to experience a full range of emotion as often as possible, just so all your reactions are well exercised..

Moon is the Oldest Television

just a quick update from the office of the flying daggers. i found this really funny thing on the internet.
i'm not sure if IT is serious or not, but either way, IT is lustig lustig tralalalala.. (lustig = funny)

speaking of awesome, This is making me cry.. and by cry i mean laugh so hard i cry, so I have to share it. SNOop doooooooog ooooooooooohhhhhyeeeaaaaahhhh you've probably all seen it before.. but just in case..

jessie you would love it

La guitaristic house organisation

Friday night's alright for fighting, and i've decided that my ear hurts. Maybe I have an ear infection. I remember having an ear infection when I was a wee lad.. oh wait I wasn't a wee lad, but when I was younger than I am now, I think I remember my ear hurting like it does now. And I had an ear infection then.

So I'm at work, and my mom just called me and said she would be very very late picking me up. So I'm stranded here until traffic gets moving and she can come rescue me.

Yesterday, I travelled to Mayerthorpe for my job. I used my bosses vehicle cause I don't have one, and hoped to get everything done there in one day, and it all went well except that I decided it would be a good idea to combine my city-instincts of locking the doors with my country-girl insticts which involve leaving the keys in the car. This was instict combining gone wrong, let me tell ya. Cause my keys were locked in the car, along with my jacket, wallet, camera (I thought I could make some nifty photos of my stupidity) and any phone numbers which might have been useful in fixing my predicament. Luckily, there was a very nice man who helped me break into my car. In 2 hours. I was glad that I had my clipboard with me outside the car, so i could look very professional while wanting to start crying like a baby.. I am very grateful fo their kindness..

So, I finally start driving home. I got about 45 minutes away, and stopped to get a coffee.. and you'll never guess what I found in my purse, but the keys to the Mayerthorpe swimming pool. And, to be perfectly honest, I didn't really need the keys to the Mayerthorpe Swimming pool. I mean, it's empty, and it's only open June-August, so there's really no need for keys. Plus, the town of mayerthorpe probably might think they're important. So, I turned around and drove them back. Energy savings right there..

Anyways, in other news, it's snowing outside. I still, despite having lived in Edmonton my whole life, am not familiar with Edmonton weather patterns. Is this normal? Something about May long weekend and wearing tights after labour day seems to be sticking in my mind as some sort of basis for something.. but overall I'm just confused as I sit here, listening to Four Tet, wondering if my mom will make it through the storm.

go e-town! aka earth town!

on a happy note

HAPPY EARTH DAY

It is Earth Day today.. and I just want to focus your attention on the US governments sincere love for our dear earth. They built a great webpage to show off. Read about how the US federal government is "cleaning the air, promoting land conservation, and improving water quality" all because of earth day! This is why earth day is so great.

In case you were wondering, Walmart is not evil. They built a great webpage to show off how much they care. Apparantly they buy paper and enveloppes and donate them to soldiers overseas. If that's not civil service at its finest (by 5 people tied for title of 6th richest person in the world) then I don't know what is.

I should consider joining the army so I can get some freeee stationary. wheeeeeeee.

On a more sad note, Germany closed another nuclear power plant. Apparantly, nuclear energy cannot find acceptance with Germans because the plants have a huge potential for catastrophe and they produce toxic waste for all of eternity...

AND.. we couldn't find any evidence of Germans celebrating Earth Day!! (unlike the americanos) No webpage! Man they are lazy. Germany takes up space on the earth, they should really be more appreciative.

epinephrine

"do you know why I like chocolate chip cookies?"

no, why?

"They have chocolate chips in them"

oh

"Do you know why I like chocolate chips?"

no, why?

"they have chocolate in them"

Children are the future, and that's why I love this logical discussion between a 4 year old playschooler named George and myself which happened on Friday afternoon.

This past weekend, I baby-sat my cousins in Calgary. Friday I got to be the "special helper" and kick it old school with 12 playschoolers.. one thing that I was a bit perplexed about was that 5/12 of them have deathly allergies. So they have to be quarantined during snack time so they don't die or something. I know nuts have always been an issue, but this class cummulatively is allergic to strawberries, dairy, soy products, tomatoes, carrots, meat products and of course nuts.. why is this? Was this always the case and I just don't remember? Somebody please clue me in.

My cousins are adorable, and I know that everybody says that about every kid, but it's cause it's true. I brought them to Chinatown in Calgary and they kept calling it Chinese-city. Georgia had a metal coffee travel mug and 4 stuffed dogs with her as we cruised around on the C-Train. She was a little slow, with all her loot, but she was in no rush at all.. she kept singing and bopping her head.. and talking to her 4 puppies; megan, boomer, browner and rosie. Laura has grown about 2 feet since I saw her last and has picked up a novel skill: reading. She's also developped the ability to foresee consequences and clean up after herself. I was impressed.

In Calgary, I was also able to meet up with Ryan, one of my CWY Big bro's. He brought us to Peter's Drive In and we had a good chat. It's cool that he lives so close, I think this weekend encounter was the first reunion within our whole group. Honestly, spending the whole afternoon with him made me miss everybody...

A clever boy once told me that people are like composts, and you should just take all your experiences and put them in your compost and let them decompose and use whatever is leftover to grow and prepare for future experiences. My compost scheme was working quite efficiently.. but this reunion business is slowing down the process. I guess it's not a bad thing..

Last Thursday I went to Stammtisch, which is always an enjoyable time.. German + beer. It's really the perfect combination. I somehow managed to become the President of the German club for the upcoming school year. I didn't get voted in or anything, so I guess I'm actually the Dictator of the German club for the upcoming school year. Nowadays, I hear they're the same thing..

My dad has turned into Mr. Fitness and woke me up at 5:30am so I could go to the gym with him this morning. Yet another opportunity for me to confirm that I am not a morning person.

I'm very proud of myself, because I finally finished cd's for Galya and Ricky.. and stuck them into the mailbox headed for RUSSIYA!!! It only took me 3 months for Ricky's. But he is just a Swede stuck in a Russian exclave.

time for a coffee break and instead of drinking coffee, i put together a page for pictures. almost as good as coffee. check it!

ATTENTION ALL FRUIT FLIES: Please leave me alone

Ah, yes, a lovely Tuesday morning. I sit here staring at my screen wondering what to do. Some technical difficulties with my computer are preventing me from doing the work that I would like to be doing. I considered consulting the office Tech Support to see if they could fix it, but then I remembered that I am the office Tech Support and I have no clue how to fix my problem.
So, this problem will go unfixed until I dream up a solution. I'm feeling a touch guilty that it's not quite lunchtime and I'm already freeling blogging away. So I'll do some advertising. My company is called Carbon Busters, or Öko-Smart in Deutschland, and we do energy audits and environmental education of/in schools and municipal buildings in Canada and Germany. Our goal is to decrease CO2 emissions and provide a healthy liveable environment for future generations.

In other news, we have fruit flies!!! They are flying around the office all over the place and I want to stab them all. With daggers perhaps. Anybody know how to get rid of them? Other than rid your surroundings from all dust, food, moisture and smells or attempting to smother them all??

And, I leave you with some words of wisdom from my idol:

"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat."

--Mr. Themostpowerfulmanintheworld

office of flying daggers

THEY (who the heck is they?) say the blog was kinda interesting while I was in RUSSIA.. and once I got to PEI it went down a significant notch and now.. well, it's downhill, and there's no turning back.

Do you REALLY have to be "OUT OF TOWN" to keep up your blog? Probably not.

I've been THINKING about this whole blogging business/entertainment/notion/idea and well, it seems to me that it's quite complicating. There's alot of WACKY stuff I could write about, but the readership is QUITE broad. Not necessarily large, but broad. As in broad ages and broad walks of life and broad relationships with me. So not everything I wanna say is going to be appropriate for everybody. Which leaves me to write really shallow crap about NOTHING. Or to just NOT CARE and write what I want. My fellow young short-attention span-ADD-or-maybe-ADHD-i wanna ride my bike-over-stimulated-de-sensitized- fellow internet surfers can appreciate it either way..

I'm back at work at CARBON BUSTERS. I found my old desk covered in random BOXES and old PRINTERS and DEAD PLANTS, so until I feel energetic enough to deal with it, I've migrated across the office to sit with Anna, or the SPUNKMEISTER as I like the call her (she doesn't know about this nickname yet either). So far, things are going A OKAY. I'm dealing with the usual computer problems and communication problems that existed 6 months ago, but CHALLENGES are always important for personal growth, right? And jobs are helpful for.. money.. and money.. helpful for living.. etc.. etc..

Last week, I went to Stammtisch for some German speaking madness which was awesome. Then I went to Whyte for some pub action and remembered that Edmonton is a very vibrant city. And it has a damn high bar/club/restaurant turnover rate.

I learnt today that the Chinese ideogram for "CRISIS" is the character for "DANGER" and "OPPORTUNITY" put together, which I thought was very cool. This makes me feel much better about the global eco-crisis. Anna said she met a lady on the bus who was asking where global warming was cause it was still so damn cold outside.

I'm living with my parents, which has been quite nice. My dad and I watched this wacky video called "ROCK AND ROLL CIRCUS" last night. John Lennon, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Taj Mahal, Jethro Tull and a bunch of other musically inclined wacked out on drugs individuals dressed up like they were at a frickin CIRCUS and put on a wacky concert somewhere in England in what looks like a circus tent. Some dude came to play the violin and Yoko Ono is standing in front of him for half the song staring at him. (he's looking quite confused at this point) Then all of a sudden she starts YELLING at the top of her lungs.. TO THE BEAT.. if that's possible.. and this guy was totally caught off guard and had this strange look on his face, kind of a cross between FEAR and EMBARASSMENT. The audience (which is really small) are all wearing YELLOW rain jackets and appear to be randomly swaying BACK and FOURTH in a space-cakey- trance for 30 hours. Sometimes I wish I would have been alive in 1968. This is the image I had in my head as I drifted off to sleep. That may explain the random YELLING throughout this post.

back to reality oop there goes gravity-you know you're a loser when you start quoting eminem..probably incorrectly too

I miss Galya and the rest of my big disfunctional CWY extended family and host family. Just thought I'd get that out of the way. The canadian government organizes things up really nicely so you're forced to get along with 14 random people from across the world. and then once you all bond and become a big disfunctional cwy extended family, they break the whole thing up. I should write a letter and complain.

I'm in Lethbridge visiting my grandparents/extended blood family at the moment. Everybody came over to my grandparents for Easter dinner, and it was delicious of course. But it was strange to see so many people I hadn't seen in so long in such a short period of time. I got made fun of for not cutting cake properly, not having a job, having holes in my socks (which clearly related to not having a job) not enjoying the sport of curling (unlike EVERYBODY else in the family), and being so messed up that I'm prolonging graduating from University. Alas, it feels good to be home. In all honesty, though, my family does keep me grounded. It's good to be around people that question what you do.. it keeps you on your feet and forces you to think about what the heck you actually are doing.

I've been reading some books my grandpa has about alternative medicines and home remedies.. it seems everybody has some sort of health issue, so while they talk about the various ailments and I reflect about my own ailments, namely caffeine addiction and insomnia (or inability to get off of PEI time), I read about what the hell causes all these things and what you can do to help.. and the one theme running throughout the entire book is to eat a healthy diet, exercise, and listen to your body. Who knew? Did anybody know this? And also keep lavender oil (but don't put it in your eyes) handy. The VERY best cure I found was called the "2 hat method" to cure colds. You sit at the table and take off your hat. Then you start drinking whiskey. Keep drinking whiskey until you see 2 hats instead of one. Once 2 hats are visible, go to your bed and sleep. If you don't have a hat handy, you could use a scarf or a salt shaker.

My aunt is taking a class in Sustainable Community Development at the U of C and it pretty much sounds like the coolest class ever and I want to take it RIGHT NOW!

Well, I'm gonna be back in Edmonton in a few days and I'm really really looking forward to seeing a bunch of folks and catching up..

goodbye east coast, hello prairies

Well, it's my last day on the program. I am physically and emotionally exhausted. I've decided that crying and laughing simultaneously is the best feeling in the world. I decided that on St. Patrick's Day in an Irish Pub after too much green beer. Everybody kept asking me why I was crying.. and I pointed to them and said "I'M CRYING FOR YOU! BECAUSE YOU CAN'T CRY!!" and "I'M CRYING FOR YOU BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO FASHION SENSE!" It was very therapeutic and not to mention fun. People are so uncomfortable with crying.. it's good to get them out of their comfort zones..

We said bye to the Russians this morning, and it's just starting to hit me. Right now, I'm supposed to be doing a resume workshop.. working on my resume.. which Cecylia sent to me.. cause I'm not as organized as I should be.. really we should all be carrying our resumes around with us at all times. What was I thinking?

Resumes/employment future aside, it's been a great last couple weeks. Toronto was a good time. Caught up with Lena and Paul which was better than I had expected. Galya and them got along devinely.. and the city provided an abundance of stimulation and entertainment.
The radio thing went awesome. It was such a rush. I got to interview lots of interesting folks. Farewell went well. On our last day we made Sushi for our host mom Kate and have been debriefing (not ripping off eachothers underwear..contrary to what you might think..) in Halifax.

I'll be back in E-town on Wednesday night.. which I am actually really looking forward to.
Hopefully I'll get some sleep before then.. get out of this funk brought on by sheer exhaustion..
High Five to Canada World Youth and to Jacques Hebert and Pierre Trudeau for starting the whole thing!

tune in on THURSDAY!!!!

CWY Participants in the field - Live from Charlottetown, PE March 16
>

>Would you like to catch up with what’s happening with current
>participants in the field? "Beyond Our Culture" Is a special
>presentation organized by this years Netcorps Kaliningrad/ PEI - Canada
>World Youth team. Join the crew on March 16th at the Confederation Court
>Mall as they broadcast live or tune in to 95.1 FM in Charlottetown. You
>can also join on the fun by web at www.ryakuga.org
> .
>>Listen to new kinds of music, learn about Russian culture and relive the
>program!
>
>For more information visit www.ryakuga.org/netcorps/index.html
Happy listening everyone!
>

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.

"The only things worth learning cannot be taught"

oh wow i'm a bit wound up at the moment. Galya and I just went with the boss of the human rights commision to cbc radio cause he was doing an interview about gay marriage/gay adoption and the reporter asked galya and I to do an interview with him after and we got a tour of the radio/tv building!

This reporter guy introduced us to everybody working there. one lady was updating her blog..on "blogger" and I innocently said under my breath "wow, blogger" and she totally heard me and gave me a stare tha burnt through the side of my head. she closed the window and started to plot my death in her mind.. I was just so excited that middle-aged reporters on islands use blogger to divulge all the juicy details of their lives just like me that I had to put my shock into words.. She probably wrote about this nosy little punk from Edmonton who was spying on her at work. Just as I write about her... Maybe my advanced nosiness is a sign that I should be a reporter.. wait a minute.. she's a reporter.. you'd think she'd understand..

We were joking about taking over the building using force so we could come on the evening news and say "hi" to friends and family. That would be pretty cool if my grandparents are just innocently watching cbc evening news when I pop up and start waving like a lunatic..
We told him about how people think Galya and I are lesbians and one guy stopped us on the street to ask us if we were reallly lesbians.

I'm a bit nervous about our interview.. I think he'll cut and paste and make us look like eco-terrorists lesbians. Whatever, if people are gonna be gossiping about us, I might as well give them something juicy to gossip about.

Work and Play and everything in between

okay, so it feels like it's the final hill coming up before this whole canada world youth thing is over. There's like 3 more weeks about before we leave our host families. Time flies when you're... old. (or having fun as some like to say)

So, now I have the task of planning out my life from when I get home. And I don't say this as if
I'm the only person in the world that has ever had to think about their future, I just say this as somebody who is a touch excited/scared/stressed.. to sum it all up in a really complicating way.

But, I'm sure I'll blab on later about my withdrawal of the Canada World Youther life, but right now, I'm not experiencing any withdrawal, I'm still fully immersed in it all.

Our group will be doing a live radio broadcast on March 16th. Mark this on your calenders, folks! The planning is a touch behind, and our theme is a little underdevelopped, but we're hoping to make it something related to global experience, global perspectives, etc etc and global future for youth and with youth etc etc blah blah.. Not just youth I hope,but our group is made up of young people, so we're probably gonna have a youth bias no matter what.

Anybody have any ideas about what might be interesting to put on a radio show? I'm considering just playing my favourite music, but probably the rest of the world would be largely disapointed.

This is my new favourite news source--check it out!

I think Phil the Dog would really like it here

Does he get out much anymore? Galya painted my nails and they look like Chinese flags..I wanted USSR flags, but she ran out of hammer and sickle decals so I was forced to use starts instead. I like to wave them around and call them my revolution nails..


PS galya never had hammer and sickle decals for nails but OH how I wish she did.

"Judging from your blog, your life must be pretty boring honey"

said the caring mother to her boring daughther.
Despite the fact that her tact can be mildly offensive, she is honest. There's no russian onion in the nose drunken taxi driver bribing border police fiascos on Prince Edward Island, but there are some cool things that have been happening around here. Unfortunately, many I don't feel comfortable sharing on the blog, because they are a) embarassing b) illegal (just kidding!)
c) offensive d) generally don't fall under the "things you want about you on the internet" category

That said, CULTURAMA 2005 was a huge success. It was Friday night and was huge celebration of different cultures and foods and blah blah blah get together and party it up. Galia choreographed a wonderful dance for our group. We were amateur Russian acrobat red-lipsticked dancers and we had a great time. I want to post some pictures when I can. And there was some singing and some Sri Lankan dude that I've seen play before and it just doesn't move me.. but also some lovely columbian dancers..
It was a fundraiser for CUSO and CWY and WUSC and Newcommers Association. It was cool to mingle with all the people that came out to support the event, and I was surprisingly able to recognize alot of the people. This place isn't very big, and the group of people that get involved in things seems to be involved in EVERYthing which is super cool. Plus as a CWYer I have a strange status.. we have our own little weirdo sub-culture/connection to the community.

(I just realized that when we talk about our group, we sound like a cult or an addictions treatment group.. "yeah, so like Saturday night I got together with my group and we sang some folk songs and did some group building activities and debriefed about it all and now I'm like totally feeling like I'm growing within the group and as an individual")
I say that in the nicest way possible, because I'm Canadian, and therefore inherently "nice". (Sorry about that. No, really I'm sorry. Really sorry. Thanks for listening though. Sorry I keep saying sorry. It's just so hard not to when I'm this nice.)

Saturday night was a pot-luck at the supervisors house. I've decided that all pot-lucks taste the same.. all the good tastes of the variety of food are cancelled out by the shear abundance of it all. Did you know that pot-lucks in Switzerland are called Canadian suppers?

Sunday, we went to.. HALIFAX. Our host dad had a meeting there on Monday, so they stayed in a super zany hotel (I point this out only because Oscar Wilde stayed there which compelled me to steal a pen) and we stayed in the super youthful exciting hostel across the street. Same staff as when I was there in January. Same staff as when I was there in October. We met a guy from Jamaica/England/Vancouver.. and he was really interesting to chat with. Kingston Jamaica has more murders than all of Canada. who knew?
He said that he thinks Canadians are more similar to Europeans than they are to Americans, and I disagreed.. trust me I didn't want to, but I felt it was necessary to point out that he'd been living in Vancouver. (The East side, but he doesn't know the Swollen Members. It's a pity, because I was depending on them to be leading any future revolutions)

So yeah, we saw the Alexander Keith's Brewery, the ocean, the shops, the Archive centre (Galia's into the historic archives scene..and oh what a scene it is) We went to the lower deck and saw signall hill. Same thing I did the first time I went to Halifax. Deja Vu in a very literal sense.

We stopped at Wendy's in Truro and everybody made fun of me because I knew my way around Wendy's so well. I knew what was in all salads, where to get cream for my coffee, what a "frosty" was. I guess Wendy's is just part of my identity.

One last thing for Steve, just to make this post extra long. Galya and I gave up alcohol for lent. I'm anticipating us giving up lent for alcohol in the future, but so far, we've been doing awesome.

It's common knowledge that convenient stores should be convenient

Okay, here's a blob of blog for you all. (I was tempted to say "for you's" but I stopped myself)

Convenience stores. Charlottetown needs some convenience stores. There's one near our work that's called a convenient store. Except it opens at 9:30am and closes at 10pm. I would call this an inconvenient store. Very inconvenient store.

Liquor stores are also very inconvenient here, because they close at like an early time that I can't remember that I think it is silly. Supply and Demand! Whatever happened to supply and demand? Not that I'm really demanding alcohol, but if I was, it probably wouldn't be between 9 to 6.

Oh yeah, just a note about common knowledge. Did you know there's no such thing as common knowledge?
For example, the Russians (well the few I've asked) don't know who Nelson Mandela is, and they have no idea about the AIDS pandemic in Africa or anywhere else..

Some people claim it's necessary to rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, and some people claim it's necessary to NOT rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Both sides are pretty adamant that their way is better for time management, economical and environmental reasons.

Should you let your car idle when it's cold outside? "too much pollution" if you do, "bad for your engine if you don't.

Should bananas and oranges (the outside of them or any part for that matter) be washed? In Russia, I heard claims that it's absolutely necessary or you will die a horrible painful death. Can brocoli and mushrooms be eaten raw? (apparantly not within the boundaries of Germany or Russia, but if you fly across the ocean, it's perfectly safe under almost ALL circumstances)

I always thought a cup was about 250ml and 250ml is 250g, Regardless of what's inside. Did I make this up? (maybe this explains why I have the "black thumb" in the kitchen?)

And who won the second world war?

If I was President

Another week has passed, and I've decided the time has come to make yet another update to my blog. How exciting!?!!???

Monday, another snowed-in day. We slept most of the day and played "10 days in Africa," this really cool board game with our Kenyan host brother, Wycliff (also the name of the man who translated the bible into english in the 16th century my host mom just informed me).

Then Tuesday (after the big storm) our host dad gave us the idea to take the day off work and just go around shoveling people's walks who were snowed in (like the elderly and disabled for example) So we organized our group to come out and help. It was alot of fun being outside for most of the day, and we even made some money (which we won't keep, don't worry) and one team got some tea with a nice old lady. It was alot of snow, let me tell ya! (I can't believe I'm talking about the weather) Sorry Steve, I don't have any pictures yet but I'll take some for you.

Wednesday was work. We went with Mary Joan to a Human Rights presentation to single moms. They were a pretty spunky group, and it was interesting to spend an entire afternoon with them. They're like.. all you need to join our group is to have lots of kids, be between 19-35 and hate men. By the end of the presentation, they figured out that their rights have been violated over and over again because they 1. are women 2. have lots of babies 3. are poor 4. are un-educated. I learned why people always rambling stay-in-school-wear-a-condom-look-both-ways-before-crossing-the-street-drink-milk-don't-take-no-for-an-answer..

It's illegal in PEI to refuse someone housing becaue they have kids, unless your building is a registered seniors home.. but it's impossible for the majority of these women to find places to live. Okay, I admit, kids can be messy and loud and obnoxious, but last time I checked, so can adults, but their messiness, loudness and obnoxiousness is on a much larger scale.
And where would our society be without kids? People need to accept the reality that "childhood" and all the frightening things related to it cannot be avoided. Buy earplugs and stop making the lives of those less fortunate than you a living hell. Or not. Whatever.

Thursday I don't remember.. probably not that great I guess..
Oh wait, I went to Baba's Lounge, which is a quaint little pub with a live band. The place feels kinda like a house party.. It was fun. Met an interesting guy who works with "YEN" the Youth Environmental Network or something. I'm just wondering why decided to point out that the acronym for their name is actually the japanese currency. Secret link?

Friday was EAD on Health. I learned to floss my teeth more and that the Canadian Health care System is in need of some renovations. We had an amazing guest speaker. He's an AIDS activist/comedian/ person living with AIDS in PEI. He talked about the Healthcare system in PEI and was really really bitter for many many reasons, but he was absolutely hilarious. In his opinion, people with AIDS are put on the back burner because.. well.. they're gonna die anyways..(this man has been HIV positive for 14 years and looks fit and healthy) the sooner the better..(too bad the amount of people with aids is increasing in most parts of the world) it's better that all the gays especially die anyways..so they won't reproduce (gay mean won't necessarily produce GAY CHILDREN)
I wanted to laugh and hug the guy and cry and leave the room all within the course of an hour. He went in a few years ago to talk to the Health Minister and the minister said "aren't you dead yet?" Imagine how you'd feel after that. And this guy thought about responding.."OH NO I'M STILL ALIVE. And your son says hi" which some people might not find funny, but I found absolutely hilarioius.

Saturday, menu committee (which probably due to some bad-karma mix-up I managed to be a part of) had to plan the meals for our Mid-project. 3 days. 14 people. $280. It's the first time I've spend 4 hours in a grocery store. So how many loaves of bread do you think we need?

We just got back from skating and toboganning with the YEN dude. It was -3 out, so it was perfect weather for frolicking in the snow. Mid-Project is this week. We're staying at a boy scout camp for the e next 3 days (sans boyscouts I'm assuming) Maybe I'll have less venting about social issues in my next post. Only time will tell I guess.

Bad Root Canal

OK so Galia is standing here and isn't helping give me any ideas on what to write about.
But she does have a cool shirt that says "Good girls go nowhere and bad girls go to Toronto" which makes up for it. (Lena, what do you think?) I walked in Galia READING yesterday..A NOVEL! I just had to make fun of her for that. Her reply was "maybe I will kill somebody?" in a very innocent tone. I'm not sure who she wanted to kill, but presumably it wasn't me.

Tonight I'm going to Masha's birthday. It's a Russian pot-luck. Which is a new thing.. because Russian's don't do the whole pot-luck thing, it's kind of a Canadian thing. But we've just created something very new and very exciting that will change the face of social gatherings forever.. The Russian Pot-Luck.

We went to the Conferation Centre yesterday for a tour, which was AWESOME! This building is where Canada BECAME A COUNTRY!!! Isn't that exciting? Johnny A. McD and some other dudes from upper and lower canada got together and drank alot of brandy and ate alot of lobsters and decided how to build a country. They had a picture of Queen Victoria and one of Prince Albert. Seeing Prince Albert made me think about why a Prince Albert was named a Prince Albert. Maybe this ugly british monarch was the first to get it done? I definately saw some rebeliousness under all that unfashionable clothing.

We had a guest speaker to our presentation yesterday which was about history. The speaker dude was supposed to talk about the history of PEI. how fascinating!(sarcasm font) He kind of (not really kind of but, more really really alot) went off on a tangent about the biases in history and history is just story from one perspective telling tiny tiny piece of the truth (which doesn't exist anyways apparantly). So basically history is a big bag full of lies. LIES LIES LIES. He pointd out that HISTORY Is like the word HIS and STORY.. coincidence?

He also talked about how religion is outdated, and depending on what religion is, I guess I can agree with that. But to say such a bold statement about the entire planet is a little much for me to wrap my head around. He said love is natural and hate is taught. He claims that hate is driven by fear..fear of everything pretty much.

It's not very often that you hear somebody with such non-mainstream views of everything and anything but with the ability to speak about them so well. He encouraged everybody to throw out history books and go into the forest to learn about nature. THen he showed us some history books he wrote that were for sale. If you ask me (which you probably wouldn't) he kind of shot himself in the foot. But maybe that was part of his plan..

Nobody seems to know who Prince Edward or Charlotte is. I find this somewhat distressing

Thanks grandpa for the birthday card!!

cheeky lou fortnight zany severe robust gobsmacked

Why have these words been filtered out of daily use in Canadian english? (except for a few people who make a point to use a few of these, Lena? they are not especially common) The majority of Canada is unilingual, and seeing how most people use only one language on a day to day basis, you might think that they would keep their one language with as many words as possible, so things wouldn't get too dull. It seems the opposite has happened. Although young people do contribute a large amount of descriptive slang words, which replace a few, there's still remains the lost english words.. slowly forgotten. And why do the quebecois take english verbs and make them french when the french way far away in europe take english nouns and make them french?
English is influencing french everywhere, but why in such different ways. Probably for the same reason they eat souper in Quebec and dinner in France. To confuse the hell out of me.

There's apparantly a warning out for a storm to take place tonight. I've heard stories of past storms on the island, and now I'm quite excited. For one thing, work would likely be cancelled.
Just to clarify, I like my job, and (unlike in Russia) we have a coffee maker in the office, and toilet paper, soap and hot water in the bathrooms which makes it a much more comfortable place to spend the day. Plus I work 9-4 with an hour lunch, which are reasonable hours for me. People have to come and say "it's 4 o'clock!" (but the expression on their face means "time to leave, I'm the last one here and I want to get home and lock up and why on earth haven't you gotten the heck out of here already? You're a volunteer for crying out loud. We don't even pay you, and you still won't leave") To me, this is an indication that I kind of like my job. I like working with Galia, and I like our supervisor, Mary Joan. She's young enough to be hip but old enough to be responsible and experienced. Despite my current
job-satisfaction I:
a) think the term "job-satisfaction" is an oxymoron
b) like the idea of not going to work because you're on a little island which is the victim of freak storms and snow up to your waist and 0 visibility and winds gusting up to 400km/hr. Except for the wind part. That's a huge lie. I'm not actually sure how fast it will go, but it's pretty darn fast.

I better knock on wood. Probably because I've bragged about the possibility that we will be snowed in and work will be cancelled, the storm will skip over PEI and hit only New Brunswick or something. I hear Edmonton is like -49 or something crazy like that. Is work there cancelled?

Serious, who the heck is Prince Edward? And who is Charlotte?

I overslept today, and I'm feeling a big brain-dead.. like I'm groggy and tired even though I slept for 9 hrs so I have no reason to feel tired. I guess this is what it's like to be old. I understand why old people are up so early.

I found out where I'm working, and it will be at the Human Rights Commission. First day is tomorrow. I'm working with Galia, so that's good. I hope, anyways. I'll be seeing her aaaaallll the time, which maybe isn't good. And it's near the water and right downtown, which is good. (so basically, I'm deviding up everything into categories.. good vs. not good. Who says you can't use simple words to describe complex ideas??)
I use the term "downtown" very losely, mostly because this place is only 40 000 people so downtown is about 2 streets. THe best part is that despite the fact that there's only like 10 people in the city, I still manage to get lost.

Today we're going out to one of the host families house to maybe do some snowpeople building/pot luck supper/music playing. It seems that people here are really good at entertaining themselves/eachother. Lots of people are into guitar playing and snowshoeing and that sort of thing. I think there's a strong music tradition, which is pretty cool.

My address is:
Amy Mireault
1 Churchill Ave
Charlottetown PEI
C1A 1Y6
CANADA

One other way that people here entertain themselves is something called "Community Schools" Pretty much every school opens up in the evening and offers courses on everything and anything. I've narrowed my choice down to Cake Decorating or Swedish Weaving. Most people that hear my choices think that I'm joking and that I really will enroll in something honourable and educational like Japanese or Yoga. Little do they know I'm serious. I figure I'll make alot of cakes in my lifetime, and having them well decorated might just make the world a better place. And I'm curious as to what the heck Swedish weaving actually is. If it's as good as Pippy Longstocking, Ikea, ABBA and Swedish Berries, then I'm in.

True tales from someone who is halfway to 42

Well, it's about 11pm on my 21st birthday and I've returned from all birthday festivities and decided now is a good time to make a decent update on this blog. (Maybe 22nd birthday the focus will be on staying up late)
I know Steve needs something to make fun of me for (like long posts for example), and I have some questions I need some opinions on.. which I will bring up a bit later on in this post.

I'm pretty much settled into Charlottetown. They are great folks. By "they" I mean everybody. Tim Hortons workers, librarians, people in cars who actually stop for pedestrians. Great.
When we leave our house in the morning, Kate, my host mom says "Be good! And if you can't be good, at least try to be nice." She's constantly making super sarcastic comments and keeping a very straight face. I start laughing hysterically, and others (especially the Russians!!) look blankly at her or laugh awkwardly.
She said, after making fun of our Russian supervisor for having very long legs and therefore awkward looking knees that "Many truths come out of jest" or something along those lines meaning that the truth is usually found in humor. He had a kiniption fit when he found out that the first thing she noticed about him was his knees, and not his trendy hairstyle, expensive clothes or modelish good looks. (I'm talking about Cheslav, aka Chessmate, for the Swedes who were lucky enough to meet him..)

I've also discovered the local library. You get a free library card, and you don't even have to wear a ratty touque and beg for it. I took out about 7 books, and Galia keeps telling me that I'm crazy for having taken out so many books. Her observations about my apparant mental instability has started a very intense debate about whether or not reading is a good passtime. So I'm asking anybody who has any opinion on this to please come forward and let me know what they think.

Galia prefers singing and dancing to reading. I also love to dance, but the singing I find kind of ridiculous. Mostly because I'm a terrible singer, and singing can be done while doing other activities, so it's not fair to consider it a hobby on its on (in my case anyways)

Galia also claimed in her argument that reading "makes people fat" and "is sooo boring"

So, please let me know. Is reading good or bad??

I started reading "Why I hate Canadians" by WIll Ferguson, and apparantly Will Ferguson did Canada World YOuth about 20 years ago. He wrote a chapter about his experience and I was up all night laughing about it. He describes it to a "T" I've been carrying around the book reading parts of the chapter to my fellow CAnada World Youthers.

And describing the entire program: "In the Third World, North America is either glorified or vilified. We are either glamorous millionaires or capitalist vampires. In the same way, in North America, the suffering of the Third World is written off as something on the periphery; an object of charity and pity. Canada World Youth brings the two sides face to face, and few myths survive the contact. Consider it a principle of human interaction: it is very hard to hate- or idolize- someone with whom you have made moose-shit necklaces" (he made moose-shit necklaces with his host family in Canada and his Ecuadorian counterpart. apparantly it's odour free and handy for making decorate jewellery)

So we're leaving Tatamagouche Centre right now. That's where we've been in Nova Scotia for the last few days. It's a beautiful centre and we've been doing some interesting activities preparing ourselves for the second half of the program.
We were just introduced to our host families and ours looks pretty cool. They're the only ones living in downtown Charlottetown (everybody else is out of the city) and our dad is a professor of International Development and apparantly famous for his "in-depth" discussions, whatever that means. Sounds like the kiddies just left to University and the parents are experiencing some empty nest syndrome, and, well, Galia and I are about to cure that! I'm pretty excited, both for meeting my new family and the drive to PEI, which will mean crossing one of the long free-standing bridges in the world. LIke 50km or something crazy.

Over and out. Peace and love.

i'm back in canada and have 15 minutes to use the computer. so this will be full of typos and might not make much sense.

but i want to say happy new year!! sorry i don't have time to write you personal emails, but i'm thinking about yous and yeah hpapy new year!

this emial is mostly from my grandpa. And for Roloph Heinen. Grandpa, please tell him this story. And it's for you too mom.

so, I was checking in my baggage at the Heathrow Airport in London, England. And the lady next to me checking in was apparantly from Medicine hat. And the guy working at her counter asked her if she know Roloph Heinen, cause he's from Medicine Hat. And the lady was like "no! I have no clue who that is" and I stuck my head over to his counter and said "I know Roloph Heinen!! He's my grandpa's best friend!!" And this guy, Migual, spanish.. was very exciting that I knew him. And he told me to tell Roloph Heinen that he considers Mr. Heinen to be the most amazing man he has ever met.

Migual, this spanish dude who immigrated to London and now works for the Air CAnada Office in Heathrow Airport was traveling around CAnada in 1994 and was hitchhiking near Lethbridge, when a kind man stopped and picked him up. This man was.. you guessed it.. Roloph HEinen. so Roloph offers to not only give him a ride, but also bring him into his home and feed him and talk with him and make him feel very very welcomed. This Migual guy now considers Roloph to have the biggest heard out of any other man he has ever met. (I told him jokingly that he obviously hasn't met my grandfather)

I felt like I was in the twilight zone or something. Heathrow Airport has about 300000 people working in it, and AirCanada has about 20 checkin desks.. but there I was.. talking about Roloph heinen and how my grandpa and him go waaay back..

anyways, it's a small world.

I'm back in Canada and I love it. People are so friendly, I can communicate. We're picking up the Russians at the airport at 11pm and then heading to our camp. First some Tim Hortons. Don't it always seem to go... that you don't know what you got till it's gone..

Christmas?!

I just wanted to wish everybody (like my friends and family and everybody reading this blog who has some type of association with me and who celebrates something this time of the year) a belated Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and happy Hannukah (I sure wish I could spell Hannukah)
Our farewell went well. Our Canadian Christmas also well, except for a few minor glitches related to us not being able to read ingredient labels of russian packaging. We're leaving Tuesday and today is Sunday and I was up all night dancing with some people from the group and our Russian supervisor and 2 swedish boys who are kind of friends of friends. One is living in Kaliningrad working for the Swedish consulate and one is his little brother who is 17 and who went to a club for the first time in his life. He's adorable and I've decided that Swedish accents are my favourite and he kind of reminds me of Jesse (my little brother) It was great music and great fun and worth the whole not sleeping thing.

Christmas is about dancing, right? Okay, so what I've figured out is that tomorrow we have "debriefing" all day and the day after that we leave in the am. And it's 11:30pm, so I think now would be a good time to start packing? Perhpaps.

So yeah, Merry christmas..happy boxing day. Drive Safe. Signing off.. with Love.

Culturama

I feel a bit (as David Bowie would say) Under Pressure. I haven't posted in awhile cause I've been.. I'm not sure what I've been doing, waiting for the right time I suppose. Because I don't want to write just for the sake of writing, but rather because I have something to say. So now the pressure is on to say something entertaining and/or informative. Uh oh. And now I have David Bowie stuck in my head.

I have a cold. I have had one for awhile. And a few days ago it was much worse. My nose was running all over the place. (errands and stuff) Russians say that their brain is leaking when their nose is running, so I guess I could say my brain sprung a leak.
My host mom caught wind of my brain leakage and called me downstairs. (I thought I was in trouble, and I was right. But not the trouble I expected) I got into the kitchen, where she grabbed me and put a chunk of onions into each one of my nostrils. Now, for the full effect of this story, I think it might be necessary for everybody to get up right now and go put onions up their nose. And leave them there for a few minutes. My eyes started watering, and I started crying from the burning pain. So there I was my brain leaking all over the place.. from my eyes and from my nose.. and my Russian mom and sister are telling me to sneeze, cause after you sneeze that means you can take the onion out. Now, everybody sneeze. Can you sneeze on command? Have you ever heard of anybody sneezing on command? Maybe at the circus you might find people who can sneeze on command. Next to the bearded lady, I'm not sure.

Eventually the onions got out of my nose and I could taste onions for the rest of the week dripping from my sinuses. I'll admit, I did feel a bit better though. Russian Healthcare System.

Sunday, our mom asked me to cook a Canadian meal. I thought this would be pretty straight-forward. I chose Spaghetti. Simple, tasty, and the ingredients are relatively inexpensive. So Val, Galia and I set out for the grocery store. I find ground beef. Galia suggests ground chicken, (which I didn't even know existed) I get mushrooms and broccoli, Galia suggests cucumbers and celery. I get long noodles, Galia suggests crazy curly ones. I grab some parmasan cheese, Galia replaces it with Gouda. Finally, I get some tomato paste to make tomato sauce with, Galia suggests some ketchup with garlic in it. The ketchup was where I drew the line.
I wasn't home for supper that night, so I didn't have to taste the final product, which I knew would taste a bit off (or waaay off). Ekaterinberg/Canada spaghetti. (Galia kept calling it lasagna. Whatever.. what's in a name, anyways?)

I thought about leaving out the meat from the sauce all together, and maybe replacing it with beans, but I knew that I would be labelled a tree-hugging environmentalist lesbian vegan free-loving bead wearing left-wing radical and would get awkward stares for the rest of my days.

The mom watched us cook it up and told us what spices to put in (Is sugar a spice?) and how to do things properly. I guess when they say "cook us a Canadian meal", the really mean "we want to see how you would cook a Canadian meal if you were given the opportunity and then stare and scrutinize and take over and do it for you cause you obviously have no idea what the hell you're doing" It's probably better that way anyways. I probably would have blown up with house with the gas stove. With great power comes great responsability, right? So no power = no responsability. And no stress.

Overall, the spaghetti/lasagna event was fun. I was reminded of Mike, my old roomate who loved spaghetti and ate it pretty much everyday throughout the entire school year. I was also reminded of pre-made tomato sauces that are available in Canada with all possible spices and combinations, even organic if that's what your heart desires. And no, you don't have to be a hippy enjoy organic tomato sauce.

Information Technology

Wow is all I have to say about this It's our team webpage. My contributions include the peary puns and the purple background. Just like my bedroom.

peace and love

I am preparing myself for the likely possibility of reverse culture shock, which will take place in about 16 days. Perhaps a bit pre-mature, but it seems like the right thing to do.

Granted, there are some things I will miss here, like being able to carry open beer with me on trams, (I never actually did this, but knowing I could was somehow comforting), the little cheesecakes you can buy at the grocery store that cost about 30 cents and Russians eat for breakfast, buying pirated music everywhere, my 4 generational house and family, my little brother Nikita who is starting to talk and it’s just so cute, and the cheapness of most things and the lack of gst, and the crazy ladies that work on the trams to see if your tram pass is valid and argue with me that my student card is not valid. They are right, because my student card is actually in Canada and all I have with me as a “international Youth Travel Card” but they don’t speak english, so they have no clue what “international Youth Travel Card” means. And, I am still a student, kind of. A Student in the University of Life is what I like to explain to them. And they say that international student cards don’t work, because these aren’t international trams. So I asked what an international tram was?? Does anybody know? An international tram? Maybe the chunnel?
One tram lady told me that my student card was actually a phone card. I’m said something along the lines of “it has my picture on it” (she looked like the sea witch in the little mermaid btw) She was insisting it was a phone card.. I decided that the best way to deal with the tram pass/student card fiasco is just to argue with the tram nazis until you get to your destination at which point you get off the tram and hope you will not have another meeting with the same tram lady. A phone card?

At the same time as I will be missing what I left behind to most likely never return to, I am excited about some things to be seen in my country. A very cool fellow Canadian who is living in France right now by who is named Jessica said this:
“I think Cookies By George steamed milks and blue bench philosophical discussions and one pound baskets of fries in the Powerplant and slushes with movies and coffee in coffee shops where you get more than an ouce of liquid for your money and large green open slaces in the middle of town and practical footwear and having the ability of having your written work published quite easily comparatively you know all adds up to create a great culture! I miss it.” It made me laugh and cry cause I knew exactly what she was saying (except for the blue bench philosophical discussion part but I can imagine what these are)

There’s nowhere in the city where you can find a portable cup of coffee. No coffee, no travel mugs, and you have to pay extra for cream in your coffee if you go somewhere and sit to drink coffee. Also, being able to do simple tasks like go to the library or buy stamps or read the time the train leaves will actually be simple tasks once again, and not big long complicating fiascos. Less adventure, more efficiency. It's hard to say which is better.

I went to a lecture by a German professor living in Ireland teaching here.. doing lecture in English.. It was very interesting. He was talking about the EU and not until that talk did I realize how interesting the European Union really is..
I'm hoping to maybe sneak out of work to attend more of his talks this week.
Don't tell my boss.

Here are my two counterparts. Galia on the left (living counterpart) and Nastia on the right (work counterpart at BIDA) In the middle is me being (in sarcasm font) my usual photogenic self.

I was chased out of the produce section by some crazy Russian grocery store security people, but I got it, Scuby Steve. It's fun being a rebel in the grocery store.

HECK YEAH!

This made me laugh mostly because I learned that Napoleon Dynamite isn't really crazy afterall.

It doesn't say anything about having magical powers though..

hibernating?

Well, work has been cancelled for the entire week. This is kind of exciting for me. Not that I don't like working.. okay it is that I don't like working.

Freedom is exhilirating!! I don't even know what to do with myself. I've been drinking tea and reading, and working out in our lovely little sport room. I went with Nastia, my work counterpart to Svitlagorsk, which is a town on the Baltic Sea and we walked around the beach and took a train back! (I love trains!!)

Today, after standing outside my office and realizing that work was cancelled, we went to visit Galia at her work and we drank some tea and gossiped and chatted and she returned to work and I walked home.

On the way, I saw a poster for Jim Barron, a dj who goes by the name "Crazy Penis" (to attract attention I'm assuming. Like the naked chef maybe.) Well, he's super awesome house dj (there might be 2 of them in Crazy Penis, but only this Jim guy is brave enough for Russian dance floors apparantly) from the UK who is coming to Kaliningrad this Friday!

Kaliningrad!! This is great news for me. I've been dying for some house music dancey dance goodness. No more Rap, hip hop R and B soul whatever you wanna call it. No more top 40 or bottom 40 or anything in between. I want authentic dance music. And hopefully the tickets won't cost me and arm and a leg and my liver either.

But yeah, I wanted to say something about this Jim Barron/Crazy Penis entity. I discovered them when our Shambhala camping neighbors were playing them non-stop for the entire Shambhala weekend. Well, they alternated between Armand van Helden (MY MY MY) and Crazy Penis (COME ON!) for about 40 hrs. straight, and I was evangelized by the end.
I tried to track down some of their music, but I was only met with teenage HMV staff blushing when I made my request for the latest "Crazy Penis" mix.


It's kind of cool how I discovered this wonderful music blasting from our neighbors mini-van at a music festival in the middle of BC in the dusty Salmo River Ranch during the massive dance under the stars,swim in the river raver-hippy shakedown this summer.
And then I re-discover it, but this time blaring from the speakers of a very capitalist club in the former Soviet Union in the dead of of the crip Baltic Sea winter. Co-incidence? Am I reading into this too much due to my over-dose of herbal tea and soup?? That's for you, the reader, to decide.

And luckilly, my grandpa, who I adore, has been printing all my posts and creating a book. Maybe I'll try to write something intelligent in the future for his sake, for the sake of humanity..

Until then, I'm gonna go eat some soup. And maybe some more tea.

me in front of my house

most of us in front of the sea on the spit

our group, drinking some "five Star" cognac on the spit

agriculture?

does agriculture have anything to do with culture?
I thought I'd write about some cultural differences that I've noticed
Hope you enjoy it, Tessa!

-taking a taxi: you just stick your hand out into the street.. maybe a taxi will stop and maybe just a random car will stop if the driver is looking for some extra cash. I was also warned that taxi drivers carry baseball bats and they don't play baseball. There's no seatbealts in cabs. I always look for one, but they laugh.. "you don't have to wear a seatbelt" ha ha. silly me. what was I thinking? It's not illegal to not wear a seatbelt, so why would you wear one?
One morning I was running super late and I wanted to take a cab and there were 3 drivers standing there and 2 had a beer in their hand. (it was 9am) So I picked the one that didn't have a beer. But then I thought after that maybe he's just the fast drinker of the group.

Russians are very superstitious it seems. maybe we are too, but I feel kind of overwhelmed with the rules here. maybe just cause there's so many, or maybe cause they're new to me.
-you can't sit on the ground or by monuments or on steps. bad for your health
-empty bottles must be places on the floor, and NOT the table. otherwise it means you'll have no money.
-if you're passing jewellery between people, you must set it somewhere and then the other person picks it up. No direct jewerelly exchange. not sure why.
-black cat = bad! (we have this one too I think)
- if you forget something and you come back to get it, you must look in the mirror and smile. or it'll be bad news.

also, it's impossible to buy cd's in Kaliningrad that aren't pirated. Pirated cd's cost about $6 CAD and are available in all cd stores. It looks like HMV, except for everything is pirated. When I discovered this, I was very excited. I bought some Thievery Corporation, (Anna, it's so great!)

I already talked about the lateness thing. Odds are, if you're meeting a Russian, you can't be impatient, cause you'll go nuts. And don't expect an apology after waiting for an hour, either.

Drinking on the street is okay. bringing a beer with you into the cab is okay. Or a cooler or a bottle of vodka. No problem. brings the concept of pre-drinking to a whole new level.

No Recycling. I asked somebody from Ekaterinburg if there's any recycling and he said, "of course! we burn our garbage in the forest" Maybe I'm a bit extreme, but here I feel like some type of environmental freakshow.
Recycling vs. burning garbage? Not using the energy produced from the fire for anything else? Why didn't we think of that? We could just burn everything, people! paper, glass, mercury, muclear waste, scrap metal, batteries, plastic, rubber. Why the need for the 3 R's when you can "just burn it!" (that'll be my new recycle slogan) Plus, that would be one hell of a fire. I'll bring marshmallows.

-they don't drink alot of water here. More tea. tea tea tea. coffee. mostly tea, though. i guess cause they have to boil the water anyways, might as well make tea out of it.
Also, there's no place in the city where you can buy a coffee to go.. like Tim Hortons or second cup or starbucks or 7-11 or Mcdonald's. I'm not a fan, I'll admit.
No travel mugs either.

Today we went to an orphanage to hang out with the kids. Galia, max and I taught a group of 7 teenage boys how to play rummy. (I'm teaching rummy to the world!)

Okay, that's all that comes to mind right now, so I'm signing off. Good night. See ya later. Enjoy the pictures.

No more witch talk!

Mid-Project was really great. We stayed at this house (like a bed and breakfast but much more Russian and we had to cook for ourselves) on the spit. (like a skinny piece of land in sticking out of the mainland)

And throughout this post I”ll probably sound really cheesy and cliché, but it was actually a really wonderful heartwarming experience. Maybe I should be a script writer for the carebears..”if we just work together and love each other, everything will be okay!!”

Somehow I feel much closer to many people in the group, and some conflicts we were having before (it kind of felt like our team was falling apart) were settled.

Plus, the spit is beautiful. One day we went hiking along the sand dunes. One side is the Sea, and about 1km away is the gulf. So we saw both beaches. In between there were sand dunes and a forest. We had some free time to walk along the beach. The waves here huge and the weather was freezing, but the air was so refreshing or breathtaking or some other word that I can't think of but should write here to describe the air. I could have listened to the waves for hours. I wished that everybody in the world who I care about could have been standing there taking it in with me.

I strayed a bit too far and was late meeting the group (although I didn’t realize it cause they decided the meeting time after I wandered off) So some people thought I was eaten by a sea monster, but at least I was having a swell time.

I even got over my fear of peeing in the forest. Apparently, I’ve been very adament about not ever doing this my entire life. When I was five, according to my dad, I made my dad’s construction crew stop the job so the foreman could drive me 20 minutes to the nearest bathroom cause I was just much to dignified for the forest toilet. So, this time I figured out the entire process on my own, and I realized that it’s not actually that bad, and the forest is probably much more sanitary than public washrooms anyways.

The weather was freezing for hiking, but I came up with a clever idea to bring some cognac so we could do some shots at lunch and warm us up. When I shared my idea originally, half the people thought I was nuts, and the other half thought I was joking. The Russian supervisor thought it was a good idea, and we bought it. It was called “five star” and a huge bottle was $9. Tasted kind of like scotch, and unless you’re my grandpa, you could see how unpleasant shots could have been. By the way, a label named “five star” is very misleading. But it sure warmed us up!! Body AND Soul.

Overall, the biggest challenge was the cooking. Every meal was cooked from scratch. You might think this wasn’t a huge deal, but groups of 3 cooking for 16 was something I’ve never done before. For one thing, “there are many ways to skin a cat” (as Eckhart would say) and it’s sometimes difficult when other people tell you that you have to do something a certain way or the whole will come to a screeching halt. You’re pretty confident that your way is okay, because you’ve been doing it that way for many years and watching your mother and the Urban Peasant and roomates and professional cooks in a restaurant doing it your way for years and the world is still in one piece..(sort of.)

We bought all the food before, and had to figure out what was bought for each group and make sure not to use the food that was bought for another meal. Breakfast today we were supposed to make crepes (Canadian, right?) except there was no milk to be bought anywhere in the town. Russian reality I guess. Even Turin, Alberta (Population 43 on a good day)has a store where you can buy milk!!) So we thought about us Canadians going to wander around asking any Russian farmers if they had 5 litres of milk to spare. We chickened out, but the thought of it made me crack up.. just imagining.. us after a couple beer harassing some people in the middle of the night.. got milk?? Like about 5 litres? From like one of those cows or something?

The last lunch, somebody grabbed what they thought was a chicken that belonged to the group. When really, it was somebody elses duck.. So they start cooking it and halfway through some lady (the owner of the duck) came in and started telling them that it was hers it wasn’t even a chicken!! The Canadians just nodded and smiled at the lady. It was pretty funny.. we were going to tell them that it was Canadian tradition.. we always steal somebody’s food, cook it up and then serve it to them.. All without consulting the victim first. It’s a part of our culture..

We did some fun activities like spiderweb, where as a team you have to get everybody through a giant spider web in the forest made from string.. and nobody can touch the string. Then we did a game called nuclear meltdown where you have to try and manouvre cups around that are being held by strings which everybody is holding. And then half the group goes blind. Challenging things that were kind of frustrating at times. People yelled at me, “WATCH THE CUP!!” And I was thinking about how on earth I could do that having a scarf tied around my eyes (I was chosen to be blind.) We learned to trust each other. The importance of trust in a team is something I overlooked, but now I see how important it is.

We also had the opportunity to participate in Russian “bagna” It’s like a sauna, except you have these bundles of birch leaves and you wack eachother with them. It’s like exfoliation meets massage meets nature meets rage. It’s supposed to be really relaxing, but the person who wacked me was not very well trained in bagna wacking and went a bit out of control leaving my back with unusual sores.. like a bruise but red and small and not as painful. Like all the blood cells in my back just broke and left me with red markings. I came out of my room and was showing off my back, like “hey guys, you all have this, right?” And they’re like “um. NO that’s not normal at all” So next time, I’ll let an experienced Russian do the wacking. All in all, I felt so good afterwards. It smells great and you’re just sitting there sweating, relaxing, talking, wacking eachother, drinking beer. It’s an activity I definitely wish I could do more of in the future.

We had to write letters to everybody in the group telling them what we liked about them and what we thought they could improve on. This was interesting too, just to see how people see you. I was expecting people to tell me to shut up during group activities, cause I sometimes wonder if I’m too opinionated or loud. (for some reason with this group, I’m not shy at all) And people were like, “you know, you should really open up more because sometimes it seems like you don’t want to share all your ideas.” It’s kind of like things you might hear at your funeral, and it left me feeling good having had the opportunity to be completely honest with everybody and boosted my self-esteem reading about how people notice the things I do and who I am.

Now, I’m feeling pretty positive now, and I guess that’s a good way to start my 5th last week in Kaliningrad.

Banana picture to come.

But you're a musician. Not anymore. (Witches love lazy saturday afternoons.)

AH I'm in good spirits cause I just received Mr. Andersen's latest and greatest cd in the mail, and am listening to it RIGHT NOW! I think Galia likes it too, mostly cause she hasn't complained yet. (thanks Jeff, it made my day- I'm not happy about livesets being on at 8am here though)

The AIESEC interviewing was very..interesting. Cheslav and I pretended we were important and intimidated young AIESEC hopefuls. We asked everybody what they thought their strengths and weaknesses are. We were kind of surprised that very few could name strengths and all but 2 were unable to name their weaknesses. One girl said she was lazy and another one said she wasn't very clever.
I think I learned alot about how to behave in an interview. One girl was like "I can't answer these questions because I just woke up.. I'll have to think about them" (she came half and hour late too) And some economic majors couldn't name any economic problems in Russia... (50% of GRP is black market, political corruption, banks and insurance companies and the government aren't trusted by anybody blah blah I guess maybe it's just more obvious to a foreigner? I don't know I guess I can't really name any of Canada's economic problems off the top of my head)

Last night, I went to this Renaissance music concert. It was pretty good, mostly cause halfway through this very serious song, they started making farm animal noises, and then that lead into a song where everybody was making cat noises. I thought I was going to pee myself laughing. Lots of the songs were english and french, and they served free hot wine at intermission. So, um, the second half was much better..

Some Polish students came up to us and just wanted somebody to speak english to. They had no Russian translator and nobody spoke any Russian. They thought they were seeing My Fair Lady, which was actually playing across town next weekend, and somehow managed to get into this Renaissance music concert in a museum.. i'm so glad I have Galia to do the talking around here..

Last night, we were invited to her little cafe/shack in the woods for supper and karaoke. We sang the song "We are the world".. and we were mimiking this french tv show where they had a puppet of George Bush singing "we f*ck the world". I think we sang it in elementary school choir.. "we are the world, we are the children, we are the ones to make a better day so let's start giving" we www.sorryeverybody.com is awesome by the way. thanks for the link, mr. mcqueen.

I learned that there is a divide in our group.. THOSe who can't sing (canadians) and those who can (russians) Don't worry, that didn't stop us. I don't expect another invitation..
This was the first time in my life where I actually participated in karaoke, it was almost as funny as when Galen and Chester were facilitating. Galen breaking off into a story about his life mid-song.."so this one time.." takes the cake.

Track 22 is making me really want to get up and dance, so I'm signing off.

Peace love and Boris Yeltsin.

Witchy

Today is Wednesday. I slept in, didn't eat breakfast, the bus wouldn't stop for me cause it was full, (it's like a van-bus that can only seat 8 people.. it's always full it seems) One of those days. I'm sure everybody can relate. So I'll update the blog, instead of working. I predict this will make me feel better.

Monday was a holiday, because it was the celebration of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Sunday Bloody Sunday, I think U2 wrote a song about this. But the government wants to abolish the holiday, and move the Nov 7 holiday to Nov 4, celebrating an obscure day in 1612 when Moscow was freed from Polish occupation..(you all remember this day, right? 1612.. it was raining out and you forgot your umbrella?)
The majority of Russians are opposed to this. Apparantly, there's tons of gatherings on this day (the 7th). I'm not sure if people are partying to celebrate the Bolcheviks or to celebrate not having to work. (I know I was celebrating the Bolcheviks fersure)

There's also some controversy as to whether or not they should remove the huge Lenin statue in the middle of the centre square. Lenin was kind of a big jerk, depending on which history books you read, and maybe doesn't deserve to stand in the middle of the square looking down at everybody. But his influence is significant, cause it kind of affected alot for Russians and the rest of the world. Personally I think it's more exciting for tourists to keep it up. And really, that's all that matters, right?

Speaking of Lenin, and him affecting alot of things of historical significance, yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. Anna says we should drink to that. I agree. Prost!! Deutsch Vergnuegen Ueberall!!

By the way, how can you use a banana as a compass?? Just put it on the berlin wall (if they hadn't torn it down exactly 15 yrs ago that is) and see which side has a bite taken out of it..

Tomorrow I am going to AIESEC (like a student internship organization.. they have one in Kaliningrad AND at the U of A and at a billion other cities..) to interview people to see if their english is good enough to go to an english working environment. Should be interesting I think. Maybe I can get bribes.. (which is apparantly common in the russian system so I shouldn't be joking about it)

I'm looking forward to getting yelled at in Russian for trying to take pictures of bananas at the grocery store.

Witch way is it?

Oh no, it's been awhile and now I have lots to say again. Sorry Mr. McQueen!

I experienced Russian Halloween. Not quite as elaborate as Canadian Halloween. The only costumes I saw were myself, wearing a strange hat and Galia wearing devil ears. I didn't see any traces of candy or ghosts, except at a play put on by the English language club. So that's not really an accurate representation. (I wish I had seen more Baba Yaga (i inquired about this strange character thanks to Amanda. Baba Ganoush and Yoga? It's the only way I can remember it.
I give Canada 1 point for having Halloween madness integrated into their culture.

On Halloween, after not getting into the Matrix club (after waiting forever and finding out we needed tickets eeek)

So we went to our regular pizza place, "planet". Everytime I go there, I feel like I'm 12 and it's the first time I've gone to eat out without my parents. It's got a chuckie cheese vibe, but with more gambling and more smoking. The pizza isn't very good, and the music is the cheapest Russian dance/euro-techno/russian pop and it's to loud and there's neon lights everywhere. I say we need a new hangout, but the problem is "planet" has an awesome location and it's cheap, meaning a pizza and beer will run you about $4.

My last post was a slight tinge on the negative side. So this time I think I'll focus on good things. Never mind the complaining in the last 2 paragraphs. Think of it as more descriptive and not complaining..

Pink toilet paper. They have pink toilet paper!! And green. And they're scented. Kleenexes are scented too. I got some kleenex with oranges and apples on the box and it sort of smells like oranges and apples. So then I bought some with dinosaurs on the box cause I was so darn curious. Smells like oranges and apples too. False advertising if you ask me. Which you probably wouldn't.

It was Babooshka's birthday yesterday, so we ate some delicious cake and drank some homemade wine... You're supposed to toast to something and then take a big gulp. My gulping speed was a little slow, so BAbooshka kept motioning towards me to DRINK DRINK DRINK. By the end I just wanted to curl up somewhere and sleep. (maybe homemade wine is a tad stronger than regular wine. More like alcoholic syrup..)

I feel a bit closer to babooshka now. I even learned how to say Happy Birthday in Russian. (i forgot already) but I think she was very impressed. She's 66. Which is pretty young to be a great grandma. Maybe not. I don't know. So alcohol seems to be bringing me closer to the family. strange but true.

Last night Galia and I and Max and Anton (another counterpart pair--actually Anton is my work counterpart (who I complained about earlier) and Maxim the Quebequer (how do you spell quebequer?? quebecer?quebeker?) went for Sushi. It reminded me of Vancouver, and Max and I reminisced about our Canadian paradise. I thought about Douglas Coupeland and how he said in his twenties he traveled the world to find the best city and then after that he realized that his home town (Vancouver) was actually the best. Edmonton is also awesome though.

Anyways, this sushi place is great. And it's open till 6am. It was nice to go out with just a small part of the group and not all 13 of us! I find it way to stressful to go out with that many people.. to find a place that big and a table that big and organize the bill. TEAMWORK. this is all about teamwork I guess. The 4 people at one table was a nice change.

The other day, me and a few other people were sitting in our room and playing cards. And Nikita was chillin with us, cause we give him ample attention so he's like a little magnet to our room. Anyways, he drank like a liter of water and the bottle was like bigger than him and he kept spilling and he had to kind of bend over to concentrate.. we were joking around and saying "this kid seems to have a drinking problem".

About 2 hrs later, Val steps into our room to use the computer. Nikita insits on sitting in his lap. 30 seconds later, Val starts yelling at Nikita. Nikita peed on his lap. This was funny. Val didn't think so. One more thing to add the the list of things that one of us finds funny and the other doesn't. (Val is a cool guy, and I don't wish for anything bad to come his way, but come oN this is funny!)

So this weekend is a long weekend. Russian Revolution holiday something or other. Galia and I seem to be getting along quite well so far, which I'm feeling pretty lucky about. Anton has changed his ways at work, so there's alot less tension. I've convinced a techie guy from our group to come to my work and teach me some php MySql html goodness. too many acronyms if you ask me! (which you probably wouldn't) when I say teach me, I mean do the work for me while I wonder about important things like what "html" really stands for.

Nikita's decided that meals should be eaten on my lap. He does the infamous baby "mix saliva with the food so it turns into a nice goey paste and then smear it on anything within arms reach" and then puts jam into my coffee. He's so cute, I don't even mind. He teaches me russian and pees on Val's lap. How can get upset with him?

We have our "educational activity day" on Friday. Basically, 4 of us have the responsability to presenting a topic (ours is russian economy) in a creative, educational way for the entire day. It's an ongoing thing throughout the program.. and the idea is that we'll get better over time. We're going to make the rest of the group sell something on the street. Hands on Economy education. We think we'll make them sell some meat (you can buy a big bag of leftover parts at the market for $1) and some Canadian pins. Who knows? Maybe this will lead the group into some hands on penal/jail system education?

I'll try to make posts less long and more frequent. And to take more pictures of Steve's couch.

Oksana, my "sister" and I, after I did her hair and make-up.