Frog Follies!

Soooo last weekend was Frog Follies and it's an annual event that happens in St. Pierre Jolys and a hugeeeee thing to the community. There's bands playing, tents, lots of food, stuff for kids, games and of course the frog jumping. The frog jumping is a competition and theres a huge trophy to win at the end it's so intense. So Wednesday-Friday we basically set up th stages, all the decroations and soooooo much that I cant even begin to explain. Rolly my boss is the head of the frog jumping so our work was mainly towards that event. On thursday night the frog hunt began at the golf course. Families came out with their gar and a few of us were driving golf cats kinda lik shofering them back and forth to the different ponds. They had an option to keep the frogs or put it in the hugeeee bucket we had to take care of them and collect frogs for people to rent out for the competition. That was was pretty fun especially driving the golf carts! When we got back into town the other people were helping at the bingo which was very long and didnt end until like 12ish. Afterwards we all helped set up the tables for the pancake breakfast in the morning and the chair. This is in the arena sooo there were sooo many.

Anywaysss the wweeekend was great we worked long hours but it was worth it and it made the festival even better. Frog jumping is intense and I basically  handled the frogs in the bucket and caught them and put them in buckets for whoever wanted a frog to rent. One treat was separtating the baby frog from the actual good sized frogs lolllllllllllll funnnnn then we brought the baby frogs back o the golf course because we couldnt use them. At the end of the weekend it was time to tear verything down which was a challenge but alright. We also returned the frogs to the golf course and stuff like that. Our group had to sort through garbage which staaaaaaaaaaaaankkk in the sun and sort the cans but in the end we got the money from all the cans which was good ! around like 135$$$$$$ wooooooooooooooo it was split between 8 of us since lowen and gerard was at home perparing for housemanaging.

On monday we didnt go to work because we were doing alll the clean up stuff but it was good because we finished around noon then had the rest of the day off. Yesterday at work I fuckin worked my assssss offf. Cutting and sawing dead branches off the trees, putting awa stages and signs, lots of heavy lifts and then diging for flower bed.. the sun was soooooo hot i left about 2:30ish, showered then past out at home for 3 hours until i was called for supper. last night was intensly insane but fun at the same time. ask me about it because i cannot blog about it but yeaah. gabb is on her 48 hours off so we have the house to ourselves until friday.

ouuuuuuuuu also my phone completely broke. like into two pieces lawwwwwwl, but the good thing is the day after we went to steinbach to go to canadian tire to buy fans because the hosue is fucking BOILING! and then we got a little bit of free time to roam around so I found a rogers and ordered a new phone which shouldddd be here anyyyy day now, hopefully that doesnt fuck up.

The house is a little tense after last night and a huge talk is gonna be given out but im just cool about it and and dont wana start shit, its not worth it but i do think we got a little closer after all this. hey im pretty much out to the whole house now except like one person and same with gerard so thats good :) but yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

P.S THEY DONATED SO MUCH FOOD TO OUR HOUSE ITS INSANEEEEE WOOOO

first group picture! soooo much fooodd and juice and good stuff!!!

katimavik in the frog follies parade!! most of the 3 groups

Moree moree moreeee

We had our interviews yesterday and was told where we were gonna work. I got the museum which is alright but it was my thirdd choice but whatevvvessss. Lowen and I work together and we went out yesterday with Rolly (my supervisor) to get pizzas and watermelon! He is such a nice man and has the most epic mustache in the town. He also told us that the next day he won't be there on our first day but he alreayd had things for us to do. So today,, first day of work! We were sent to the arena for 9 to help out with the set up of Frog Follies this weekend. Frog Follies is  a huge huge event that is celebrating annaully but the town and it has everything from beer tents, dancing, a social, ffooooood, frog races haha and so much more, lots of entertainment!!! We started off by bringing stuff fromm the follies shed to the area with a trcuk and trailer. So many people ended up helping out so the day waas short and only lasted 2 hours! Lots of heavy lifting  but it got done with the amount of people that helped out. Lowen and i went to the museum and chatted with the girls until she called Rolly to see what we would do  but he told us to take a hour and a half lunch break and meet at the arena again to help out the arena manager roger. Soooo we went home and tried to hook us his computer to the internet since we dont have a laptop anymore... I KNOW SOMEBODY FYUCJING PUT A VIRUS ON IT AHHHHH! and wee did and ate and I actullly skyyypppedd! :)

We went back to the arena for 1 and got instructions to mop the floors and wash stuff which only took 30 mintues and the manager was gone so we just left. I was only 1;30 and people start getting home between 3-5 so Lowen and I checked out the thrift store and the cinema. The thrift store is tiny tinyyy but alright, not a lot there and the cinema is wickkkkkkked. Danny a guy we met was there cuz we works there and gavce us a tour. Its basically a place for to just chill out theres pool tables, fooseball tables, wii, ps3, xbox, flats screen, the huge screen where you can play rockband and more wii, a roomm with drums and guitars and living room and sooo much more. You can buy snacks and its pretty chill. They play a movie every week and this week its Rio, and every movie is only 2$ but to chill there is freee! They do lots of programs with schools but schools out for the summers so its pretty empty.

We had such a chill day I loved it, we chilled at the cinema and played some pool and it was pretty fun. Ohhhh and last night we finally went out to the bar. Everyone drank except Claudia and Aiden but nobody got smashed or anything just social drinks and games of pool. The bar was completely dead but it was alright thats another cool chilll spot. JD cant get in cuz he is only 17 but him and Danielle stayed home. We had so much freee time yesterday and I was so bored but everyone was like watching movies off of Lowens laptop which I was not down to do so me and a few people got ready to go and other poeple realized where we were going so we allll went :)

Tonight we are doing more frog follies work but with the whole group helping out. All we have to do is basically decorate and set up chairs and tables because we did the rest of the stuff today. The outdoors stuff will be set up tomorrow but Im not excatly sure if we meet at the musuem, or go straight there. Im at the library right now cuz I was told that theres wifi, which there is and I brought my computer and everything but my computer wont connect for some reason and it really sucks :( SOOOO im on the library computer which is pretty fast. Alsoooo internet access is totally free for Katimavik people so thats great instead of paying a dollar an hour or whatever the rate it.

The town is so small but it just makes it so good ebcause everyone is super nice. Last night I could barely sleep because my head was pounddddding and my nose was runny and im all stuffed up. A few people are getting it and it will def go around the house because Gabrielle now has it too. Porbably gonna head back to the hosue msot peopel should be home by now so im just gonna realize and chill out for a bit maybe take a nap and then get up and ready for Frog follies which I am basically ready for. P.s this shirtt is pretttttyyy sick i love it and everyone loves Katimavik so it works out!

later dayyyyyyyyyys

the last of orientationnn and fun stuff!

Sooo basically everything in our hosue is settled and schdules are made from house managers, rules for each room, etc,etc soooo muchhhh but once its all covered its no problem to remember. Orientation was soooo long but there is so much to learn and know about Katimavik and so much to do. This week we had an option to have housemanagers while all the activities goes on, which is a shit load... or everyone help out and everyone prepare the food, so everyone volunteered. We have schedules for who makes lunches and dinner and does dishes on teams of 2. I work with Aidan tomorrow for lunch, were making tacoooossss! and Friday were making mashed potatoes, lots of veggies and chicken with a salad. We had to make the tortias from scratch and salsa so we did that tonight and they came out prettttyyy good but took so long.

Anywayssss yesterday we had a scavenger hunt type deal and we had to go around town taking pictures of each task on the list for points then make a slide show of the final result. It was suppppper fun I was with Lowen and Melissa which was good and there were crazy things like, find and fit in the smallest place possible, bust superhero moves by the creek, soooooo muchhhh AND extra points if all team members are in the pictures. Thannnnnnnnnk god for slef timers because it saved out asses. We all basically got in every picture which was goooddd! We had to be back in the house by noon and it ended but the catch was we could take one picture inside the house. Our team wonnnnnnnn the scavenger hunt woooooo, lots of work oh em gee and running around like crazy but it was fun and worth it. Apparently we get free icecream or something and iecream is a HUGEEEE thing becaus were not allowed anything with sugar or stuff like that inn the housee but lots of people have stachs of chips and candy :P

Anyways everyday is so busy and full and last night we had our first KCC meeting which didnt take a slong as I expected so that was good but it took like 3 hours to make a muthafuckin grocery list like wowwwww. everyone had to have their meals planned out and nobody knew what to do so it took some then then writing down the ingridients needed, checking what we had in the house, etc etccccccccc so that was bascally our night. Ohhhhhh and before supper was ready other other people had to weeeeeeed the frigin garden, didnt take us long with like 8 people but wowwww got suppppperrr dirty and bugs just love me.

Today we had tours of the work placements which was neat, we walked everywhere except st.malo which is like a 15 minute drive south to the next town. All the placements are interesting but some placements mainly want like groundskeepers to cut grasss and all that outside shit. Theres one place at the town office to be Sebastians assist, travlling which is cool but lots of paper work and shit I hate, theres one at an old folks home who have like mini apartments but its like mainly for outdoorsy work and cleaning, one at the hospital old folks home where they live there and you go do activities there and interact, etc, etc, one at the musuem of st. pierre jolys... yeah i know theres a musuem weird right.. but its like outdoorys labour stuff, one at a school for daycare for ages 6-12 and 2-5 but the kids only speak french so it sucks and the one in st.malo is a recycling facility but people with disabilities have the chance to go out in the work world and actually have a job so its all created for them which is pretty neat, lots of sorting or wood work or just different departments kinda sweet. Anywyas I kinda wanna work in the old folks home or kinda wanna do landscaping but im not sure yet. Tomorrow we have like speed dating interviews with the emplyers and we pick our top 3 choices and they pick their top 3 choices and then we get picked based on that. Shouuuuld be interesting.

Tonight Emily Mantha came in and had a workshop and presentation with us about the workplaces and shit and the Stienbach group came over and joined in. Fuckkkk I swear our group is like the only normal one out of all three gourps becuase they are just so fucked some of them lollllllll ANNNNNNNNND I attempted to buy a fucking phone card today but they gave me likepay as you go minutes which i cant refund so im trying to contact rogers to see if i can get that changed into long distance mintues cuz thats sooooo ridic and then 20 bucks down the drain if not. AHHH

Anywaysssss im probably gonna go to bed now since everyone is already in bed and we have to beeee at the town office at 9 ahhhh... luckily it only takes 5 mintues to walk everywhere :P GOOODNIGHTTT, my feet hurt like a mofo

CONTINUATION

Sorry had to take the available shower because we had to be ready by nine. Anyways, got int the house after midnight ish andpicked our rooms. There is only one boys room and 2 girls rooms but one is downstairs. First the downstairs one was a good idea but I change my mind because the upstairs one is with more people, the bathroom and had hangersss and places to put clothes!  We were so tired from waiting around and travelling that day we didnt unpack. Gabrielle (our PL) gave us a tour of the house and we chatted for  a bit then went to bed. I share a room with Martyna and Danielle and itès prety chill im glad.

The next day we had to be ready and eat breakfast by nine because the two other groups were coming over for orientation. Orientation consisted of slide shows, lots of talking and listening and lots of fun mini games that involved being outside and icebreakers. The things I liked about how they did it is that they tried getting ppeople involved when learning so it isnt so boring. Whenever I say they p.s it is the rest of the PLs (projct leaders) the PC and this other important person :P All girls and all cool, and their first language is french so some have accents. Being with the other groups was good especially seeing people I met and got kinda closer with.

First day we had sandwiches for lunch and shepards pie for dinner along with salad. All groups ate at the same time so it was feeding like 35 people, lots of food! The second day we had wraps for lunch and spaghetti for dinner and coslaw. Same thing happend but we went to the Steinbach house which is brand new and sooooo nice. Kinda jealous!

Orientation is long but mandatory and everyone has to know the rules. Once this is over the real Katimavik program begins! Right now we donèt work or anything like that we basically do workshops and activities. One the first night after everyone lef and we had ffree time our group played French Cranium, soooooo funnnnyy! We divided the bilingual people up so we can actually understand and play. Claudia and Melissa didnt join and just relaxed in their room. The second night we had lots of free time after coming home from Steinbach because we decided to just have free time. We played headbands which is basically you wear a headband and stick a card in it that had a person place or thing and your partner has to decribe it without saying th word. Funny board game!

The past few days have been just crammed with orientation and boardgames and some fun stuff but today was a bit different. We were ready by nine once again, I slept in till 8 by accident then waited for the shower.... hense blog entry before this then we all walked around the town and got toured around by Gabby. Now we basically know where everything is and it only took like half n hour, while walking slowly and stopping lol I love this town because you can walk everywhere in no time! outside of the town is just farm and field so theres kinda a lot of bugs but im used to it. After coming home from that we had lunch which was egg salad sandwiches and salad prettty good I peeled the eggs! lol then wait....some point before that and after walk we went over the house rules which is different than orientation because its about the specific house and we make up the rules for each room. The PL had veto power and the only thing that sucks is the no wifi part :( ohhh weeeeellllll.

After lunch we were surprised with an activity which involved 3 teams. We had to go door-to-door on certain designated streets and play bigger and better. We basically start with a paper clip and introduce ourselves to the new community but then try to trade the paper clip with something bigger and better could be anything! First thing I thought was ohhhhhhh maaan fuck door to dooor but it didnt turn out bad at all! I was in a group with JD and Martyna which was pretty sweet. The good thing about the game and town is that everyone knows what katimavik is, where we live and everything and they are always excited about having new groups in town so  it made it easier but not explaining what katimavik is. The first guy we went to was an elderly man and he gave us an olddddd saliors hat because it was sentimental to him and his 28th wedding anniversary. We felt soooooo bad we couldnt trade it off so we kept it at home and started again lol we basically went from paperclip-can of coke-2 pink lamps to a NEWWW HP printer ! I know right... wtf lol but we went around trying to trade the lamps and one lady was like , how about a printer? im lik sweeeeeeet and we first thought it was super old but it was basically brand new in the box lol we had three hours to do the activity or just go home when we felt was right and we went straiiiiiight home lol We were out for a hour and on team was already back and the heat was just sooooooooooooooo hot by this time we were all sweating! We were so proud of out printer lol, other teams had a blanket and mexican poncho, and an ollllld vaccuum but ALSOOOOO invited our whole group over to swim! Apparently the people were the parents of the guy who lives in the basement of our house!

After we regrouped we all went over to this guys house and just went swimming it was prettttyyy sweet and we played water volleyball which was fun! Gabby was sooooo down to go swimming instead of workshops which was siiiiick! The day isnt done yet , dinner is cooking and we have freetime until then, I think wre having soup, shepards pie and other stuff i dunnnnnno yet. Gabbys been cooking the meals but our real katima life starts on monday with house managrs and all that great stuffff for now im just gonna go join the group and not be isolated.

More to comeeee! Been great so far!

p.s this is a french/english keyboard and some of the keys stick hense why all the spelling mistakes and shit but yeaaah, sorry!

St. Pierre Jolys!

So Im here in the small town of St. Pierr Jolys population of around 800 people, kinda thinking to myself, where are all these people? The town/village is so tiny and the house is right on the main strip but it doesnt feel like it at all. Anyways my travel day was tiring but super sad. Soph stayed the night before and then helped me do the rest of the things that needed to be done before leaving. We actually didnt even get up until 1pm ish and the flight was at 4:45pm. Luckily the night before Andie helped me sooooooooo much with the packing process and we figured out the weights of the suitcases and bags so that was great and I appreciate it sooooooo much thank you!

When the time came, we decided Soph would be drivin me to the airport so I said my goodbyes to my mom before leaving and my goodbyes to my dad the night before because he was working on my departure day, same with andie. What a two days... dont think I cried so much in my life. It didnt hit me at all until then it kinda just exploded. Soph told my my dad was trying to have a going away party and offerd his house and everything while I was gone and I just bawled my eyes out. I would never think he would do something like that and offer his house soooo I was just like WAAAAHHHHH  I LOVE YOU! It didnt actually end up happening because some people are dud but I still had an amazing last few weeks.

So the ride to the airport was hard, I basically cried under my sunglasses the whole time. Checked the bags through, express machine was a little fucked but we got it worked and ohhhh couldnt find the right gates at first because Im retarded like that so we basicaly walked most of the airport. Once that was all said and done we both went outside to say our last goodbyes and have another cryfest. :( I HATE GOODBYES!!!

Once I checked through sercruity and got to my gate which had to be the longest walk ever... the lineup was almost done boarding so I basically made it just in time. I noticed a few people on the flight that coullllld be in katimavik but I wasnt sure so I didnt say anything. I passed out during the flight having not eaten anything for like a day and a half and having no sleep at all but no complaints. When I got to Winnipeg it kinda felt like the Victoria airport because it was so small, and at first I didnt notice anyone with any sign until I saw a little group crowding so I joined them and yaaaaaaay. People were arriving from 4pm-almost 10pm and the bus came at 10pm and we arrived at around 6:20pm so we had lots of time to kill. I met a few chill people right off the bat so we all went to the tim hortons at the airport and talked and got something to eat. After a while we all got to know each other and more new people would come every hour or so. My expectations of people were surprising and im so glad there are chill, cool people in all 3 groups.

After wating for sooooo long and people having a dozen ciggarettes we all aboarded the coach bus which first stop was St. Boniface which didnt even feel like we left Winnipeg it's so close. 30 mins later we arrived in Steinbach and then by midnight we were at home, in St. Pierre Jolys. I've seen pctures of the house before online and it was almost everything I was expecting but a little bit bigger. The house is so big, old but homey. Steinbach has a brand new house but its not as big but they do have the advantage of a deck and backyard.  Our whole town is like a field so Im not complaining. Oh yeah p.s Manitoba is FLAT! driving from place to place in the dark kinda reminded me of Egypt because it was one straight highway, no lights just your highbeams and darkness on both sides (because of fields). I was kinda sad some people werent in my group that I was closer with but heyyy its cool cuz there are some pretty chill people in my group too.

So we got to the house and struggled to carry luggage into the house which was a mission and a half bu thats fine....SHOWER IS FREEE ILL CONTINUE LATERR THIISS IS GOLDEEEENNN

Today is the day!

I leave today! I honestly don't know what to feel, happy/sad/excited/nervous all at once but some moments it just hasnt hit me yet and other moments im freakin crying like a baby. 6 months eh... gheez man, in my mind I'm thinking I'm  going to be back next week or on the weekend or something. I'm not scared or anything I'm perfectly fine with travelling and such but the concept of it just kinda scares the shit outta me.

Packing was intense like seriously packing for 6 months was pretty hard but thankfully I had help from the best <3

My last few weeks was amazing and a HUGEEEEE thanks goes out to those who made it special. We did so many many things and jut had a blast taking up all the time we could to make it the best before I leave. I love you guys and I will miss you guys soooooooo much like it will hit me super hard very soon and I will cry my eyes out like a huge baby butttt that was expected.

For now I am off to do some final things and packing, airport at 3:15 and the sky at 4:45!

There will be updates when I get there and yeah... I dont really know how to feel at the moment but the time has come all I have to say is,

GOOOOOODBYEEEE TORONTOOOO!!!!!!!


p.s here is my mailing address for those who would like to know :

PO box 99, 494 Sabourin Street
St. Pierre Jolys, MB
ROA 1VO

house number # (204)-433-3267

It hasn't hit me.

I think there's seriously something wrong with me because I leave in less than 48 hours and it hasn't hit me yet. I feel completely normal, I have said my goodbyes to a few people and I feel alright. I havn't started packing yet so maybe that's why... I dunno. I have my suticases pulled out and ready to be packed but I just have to clean my room still and go from there, ugh. Don't think I'll get around to cleaning my car which sucks and I feel bad because I know my dad will go in it and be like WOWWWWWWWWW, but in reality I used to never keep my car dirty it was always clean,,,, "used to" ah.

I'm glad I got my shopping though like SOOOOO glad, especially happy about the jean part which wasn't a total fail and i didn't feel fat for once. Usually im in there looking for the right size for hours and going through jeans like no tomorrow but this time nope. Maybe itss the different make and style they have now because now a days its always changing. The jeans are a softer material and kinda stretchy but soooo comfy just the way I like it. I even got a size bigger because Im just a huge boy like that dont like my jeaans looking tight or girly, wow how lesbian.

Anyways back to the point about it not hitting me yet.... just WOWWWWWWWW, people are crying around me, the world is just changing and sooooooo upset and im like meh . Bitch move right? I'm sorry it just hasnt HIT ME!!! Tomorrow it def will saying my goodbyes to people i've been spending my last few weeks with. The last month or so infact has been crazy as shit but I loved every second of it. Being out all the time and just living it up, my last memories of 2011 in Toronto... well the warmness of it anyways. So much has happened but whenever I think about it I go blank. Pride this weekend was a blast spending it with my two favourite peopleeee and just having fun. Parties, minigolfing, dinners, all that good stuff like I couldn't have asked for better really. I'd honestly rather have a few close friends then a lot of friends who I barely chill with and its starting to be this way, just a few close friends.

I can't fucking believe it's already here, it feels like yesterday I was still applying for this in hopes to get accepted but secretly thinking I never would. Even that day I had to fight with the Toronto police and go all the way downtown to get a criminal record check which I'm still waiting for. Just all these things.... ahhhhhhhhhh Tomorrow is going to be the worst day ever. It hit me really bad right now like so bad but I know that's not going to be a portion of what tomorrow is going to be like. No makeup for Steph tomorrow! WHy am I such a crybaby wow. On wednesday I dont want anyone to come either. I am honestly just thinkingof cabbing it and paying the 30 bucks or whatever it will be and just have a cooloff moment at the airport and be cool about everything. If one person goes with me, my mom, my dad, andie, soph, ANYONE EVEN DEX MY CAT, I will not stop crying because I am just an emotional wreck. I'll get in, wait at the gates after checking in and just bawl my eyes out and people will stare like I'm an idiot.. P.S WHY DO I HAVE TEISTO ON MY BEARSHARE, wow anyways but yeaah I caan never hold it in but tomorrow is just going to be a disaster waiting to happen wow.

AHHHHHHHHHHH tomorrow is going to be such a bad but good day, I'm am so excited to leave but just these emotions and missing people will hard me the hardest anyone will ever feel it's not healthy. Fuck.