Aaaaargh

What started out a smooth transition into group living has become a division between testosterone and estrogen, right down the gawddam middle. The past three days has created some serious tension among the house; where I thought people were adapting and accepting peoples' habits, they were actually harboring hatred for them and continuing to gossip.

An incident two nights ago at the Celebration Levis, the group was split up when some of the girls wanted to go up closer to the stage. Pete, Myself, Alex and his friend Laurence, were content where we were. We danced a couple hours away and then had to make the trip to the bus to get Laurence back to the ferry in time. I texted the girls the directions to the bus, and didn't look up at my phone again, or I don't think I did, too many beers.

Anyways, the next time I looked at my phone, I had a missed call, and four texts calling me an asshole.
Not to say that it wasn't my fault I didn't look at my phone, it was. But the reaction we received when we got home was hostile, quite so. Apologizing, pointless. Trying to make a point, worthless.

We talked about it the next day, and apparently all was well. People were back to talking, the rift between sexes seemed to have mended. Alex, Pete and I went to visit Laurence in the city. When we came back, the girls had creeped themselves out. Their dresser mirror was put in the living room, and asked if we the boys could sleep outside their room. As I stated in a previous blog, this isn't the Grudge, no one's losing their lower jaw. The ghost is a cool dude, he opened the bathroom door for me last night when I was half-dreamwalking to take a piss. But no, "we want someone to sleep on the futon."

Petey manned up for us, or rather, Alex and I went upstairs and said "Ya fackin' right."

Outside of that, the bs isn't going to end in the foreseeable future. Even this morning, we're having issues with the showering system. I just try to be a conscious observer, but somehow, I'm always going to end up being an asshole.

Man, I missed you high school.

I'm hoping the arrival of our two new members on Wednesday seals the gap that the group has made for itself. Not everyone has the mental fortitude to stick it out through that kind of stuff, and people are showing signs of caving.

Honestly, it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be.

My parents don't get to see Rod Stewart

Now that I'm back at Cafe La Mosaique, I feel more compelled to blog than I have all week...
... except I don't have a f***ing clue what to write about. Start simple, I guess.

Being house manager was not what it was cracked up to be, as Alex and Marc-Olivier are now discovering. Regardless of how much you b*tch at people to clean up their breakfast dishes, they aren't going to do it. "Sorry, I didn't have time before work to clean my pan, plate, cutlery and 3 different cups."

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I feel for them both. Robyn and I had to deal with that sh*t 7 days in a row.

Different topic. Alex, Pete and I went on a nice saturday night excursion to Quebec to meet up with one of Alex's old friends, Laurence. She's a sweet girl, and the apartment she gets to live in is ballin'. She's renting a room from a couple who have renovated a super old school place with super modernized furniture while still holding onto every old floorboard and brick that was used originally.

F*ck you, HGTV.

Anyways, we sat around, drank, swapped stories and then legged it back for the last ferry home. We have plans to do more of the same next Friday, but with more time and more beer. As it happens, my friend Lejla Dumont is in Quebec right now! Go figure. The more the merrier.

Once again, it's pissing rain here. normally I wouldn't care, but today I have to f***ing walk to work, and it rains harder here than it does in Vancouver. Not as often, but way, wayyyy harder.

Starting Thursday we're volunteering TWO jobs a day until Saturday. our regular jobs, and then Celebration Levis, which is essentially a 3-day long party, capped off by a Rod Stewart concert. (That's right mom, dad, he's gonna be here. I don't even listen to his music, hahahaha, suckers.)

Still I don't much fancy working 14 hours a day for 3 days and not being paid for it. siiiiiigh, tis what I signeth up for.

Time to trudge through the rain.

Why?

One month in, two people down. One because they hated it, one because he loved us.

what a load.

Damn dem Po-Po...

You try and walk to the store for a snack, and all you get is stopped by the cops.
In between Katima-meetings I tried to march through the rain and get some snacks, but the cops didn't want me to. Apparently some little shit has done some shitty little thing and now the Levis PD is patrolling my street constantly, or so I think, because they won't say a thing except "on cherche quelque-un" or "we're looking for someone."

Regardless, my second/third week in Levis has been a good one. We found an outdoor, public pool close to the house and it's a great way to cool off in this humid-ass weather. I've experienced 5 lightning storms since I got here, one of them forcing (and I mean forcing) some of the crew and myself to take shelter in a bar near my work with some girls we met last weekend... forced, I tell ya.

Sunday, we had a girl named Pascale come in and teach us how to make our own bread and pizza dough. Now the whole house smells delicioussss.

This week, we've implemented the house manager system for the first time. Robyn and I will be playing the mom n dad/slaves/maids/cooks/dishwasher roles this week. All house chores are on us til Sunday night, and then the process starts over with a different duo skipping work to do other work.

On a creepier note, it appears as though our humble home is haunted.  We've awoken several times to loud bangs, open cabinets, and odd noises. I've got not issue with it, I think it's rad. But the girls won't even approach the top floor of our house because they're scared. I sleep up there, so I don't get a choice, but it's really nice having the ghost open the door for you when you're "lacking a clear mind."

Ah well, I'm going to go lie on my stomach and hope it knows thai massage to some degree.

Cafe La Mosaique

Despite my brain-dead state, I felt compelled to say that my volunteer placement is the sh*t.
Cafe La Mosaique is a mellow, delicious little spot in Levis that serves fair-trade products and has a big handful of volunteers that put in their time on a weekly basis. Sarah, the girl who trained me, is quite luckily an anglophone and relaxed like yours truly. My boss Catherine is very bilingual although she is a francophone, and apparently she's even more more mellow than Sarah. These next two months are sure to be a delight, despite my lack of enjoyment for standing for long periods of time. This, however, is countered by the fact that I don't start work until 10:30 every day, while the other Katimacrew have to be out of the house by 8:00. I'm the last person home from work, but I can deal with the extra sleep.

Tonight I was unaware of the fact that apparently I was supposed to make dinner for everyone, so the sitting-down was short lived. I corralled a little kitchen team and made a vegetarian-rotini-cheese-casserole.

My stomach can't possibly eat more, although it wants to. Everyone's diet has improved dramatically, but our last two trips to Wal-Mart have proved that the allure of a McDouble is too tempting. Fatty foods aren't so much a treat, but are becoming more uncommon. The exception to this rule? A fried chicken place up the road from the house, and the plethora of poutine available in quebec.

Last night we hit up a bar down the street from the Katimahouse called L'Ingerable. The team had a great time together and even got back home before our Project Leader made it back from his band practice. Not bad considering our curfew. The pictures are on facebook, but there's a beauty vid of one of  our Taiwan students, Mark, trying out his first tequila shot...

... but blogger's uploader is garbage, so you'll have to wait for their input format to not suck to see it.



All this food and typing is making me sleepy. Goodnight, my very few readers.

Hales.

No One is Going to the Farm

Today we got our job placements and, thank the flying spaghetti monster, no one ended up on the farm. Seeing as how the only people who read this our my friends, the house, and my mom, it should be made known to you guys that I'm going to be working at a non-profit, fair-trade cafe called Cafe La Mosaique.
My boss, Catherine, is bilingual, so the learning process should be easy(er). Two months making coffee and paninis is probably one of the best ways I could have hoped to be volunteering :p

The interview process was done speed-dating style. Five minutes with an employer, switch, five minutes switch... and to the best of my knowledge, everyone ended up with a job that they're going to enjoy. The cafe was one of my top choices, so I was really stoked when I found out what I was doing.

This also gives me an excuse to FINALLY get a longboard after a year and a half of my mom complaining about safety issues and me wasting my money. Sorry mom, but walking down hills is stupid. Uphill, fine, good exercise. Flat, boring as all hell. Downhill, you wish you had a bike or skateboard anyways so you could just GET THAT SHIT OVER WITH.

I will gladly get a helmet AND slide gloves so that I'm a safe little boy and my mommy can stop wondering if my brains slid further than my body when I "crashed."

But enough of my awful attitude. The house has eliminated it's grumpy factor from yesterday and for the first time in three days we're not dodging Zeus and his lightning bolts. It's sunny and warm with a slight breeze. We made a stop at Walmart and Canadian Tire today to get desk fans and a filtered water jug. Solid investments in this house, because I'm sick of waking up with a stomach ache and my bedsheets, blanket and pillow being sweaty.

Contrarily, I'm going to go work up a sweat with some ultimate frisbee and some baskestball.

Hales.

Wet Work

The 21161 got their first taste of Quebec weather in the summer last night. A lightning bolt smashed into a backyard not even 30 meters from our front door. The thunderclap rattled all our windows and our mental stability apparently, hahaha. Humidity isn't our friend so far, as now we're into our second day of lightning storms and our sixth day of waking up covered in sweat from the saunas that are our bedrooms.

Regardless, the experience is proving to be a character builder. Today we met with our potential work placements, all of whom seemed very friendly and very excited to have us. Tomorrow are our interviews with said bosses, and then wednesday is our first day of work. We spent the whole day in the Katimavan, which is a beast to navigate through these narrow Quebec streets. Everyone was very tired and cranky near the end, so it was good we finished our tour when we did.

On a sour note, one of our francophones, Valerie, decided to drop out of the program. All she said was she didn't like it, next thing you know I'm dragging her bag down the back stairs of our house and into her mother's car. We'll be meeting her replacement in the coming weeks, exactly when, however, remains to be said.

Drinking water is also an issue here. The tap water is sure to make you a little sick, so we've been buying jugs of water for the house. We're using one 8L jug a day, so it's time to invest in a water filter for the tap. 

The Osheaga music festival in Montreal is at the end of the month. Seeing as how we can't all pay for it, we might not end up going as we planned. If you don't want to browse the site to see who's playing, the short list is Flaming Lips, Eminem, Shad, Elvis Costello, Kid Cudi, Ratatat, Death from Above 1979,  just to name a few. Theres just about 100 artists/ groups playing, which is more than enough incentive to get down there.

It's pouring rain, but we're all boiling, sweaty kids... I'm going to change.

Hales.

WTF Blogspot, WTF...

Hi friends and family! All is well, minus the fact that this blog site is garbage. Tried changing my profile for ten minutes, always error messages, so f**k it.

We're currently discussing house cleaning issues and assigning the roles of house managers for the week. Each week, two people skip work for 5 days to maintain the house and cook for the the Katimacrew. Today is the first assignment of that role, and I'm hoping I can swing the vote so I can get some writing done and to upload pictures, etc, but I also wouldn't mind being house manager when my mommy comes to visit :)

I've been asked to design a house emblem. The current idea is a pirate riding an eagle fighting a dragon accompanied by ninjas... and the group number, 21161. I think it'll look great...

We hit up the Quebec Festival the day before last. Never had such good poutine, and I never though Quebec City would be such an amazing place. The culture is amazing, the people are friendly, the beer is unbelievably cheap. We met a really nice girl, Jeanne, who's also doing a volunteer program called Explore. She's heading out to Victoria for a month so she's going to hang out with us when she gets back. Did I mention she's a lounge singer? Crazy.

But back to the present.

A major focus in the Katimavik program is the development of competencies as a group and as an individual (engaging as a citizen, active and healthy lifestyles, etc.). The group works on all components of one competency, but as an individual you focus on several elements of several competencies, but not the degree were about to embark on. With the Healthy Lifestyle competency, a lot of smokers in the house are about to start tweaking out, but it's the choice we all agreed on.

Speaking of lung deficiencies, I went on a run yesterday morning. I think I punctured both of my lungs by the time I got back. Word of advice to out of shape people, start with jogging up and down the street, not running the 1200m full bore around lower Levis.

We're about to go on a cleaning blitz. I'll have pictures up once blogspot stops being total shite.

Lots of Love
Hales.


PS, the beach that we hang out is at the end of Rue(Street) Fagot(Faggot)
hahaha