MARCH 2ND 2011 - 2:18 AM

The bus is going to be here at 3:45, which means there is going to be here in approximately 87 minutes. My stomach is hurting, I feel sick, I feel numb. I dont want to leave. I dont want to go home. I am going to miss my friends so much. The memories I have made with them I will never make with another group of people again. 

Im sitting on my bed and when I talk I can hear my room echo. It is EMPTY. All my cards and pictures are off the wall, there are no sheets or blankets on my bed, no clothes in my drawers and Im sitting in here by myself and I can here my family downstairs laughing. Isaac just serenaded us for the last time. We laughed because Kyra was being HILARIOUS! Now I can hear Marc-Andre and Ryan fighting eachother like they do on a regular basis. Im going to miss this noise when I am home. Its going to be so quiet. Its going to be scary when I go to sleep at night because I won't have my Russian Sister and Kyra in my room with me to talk to until I fall asleep. The thought is making me so sad. I cried two times today and I'm so scared for when we are at the airport and half of my friends leave the bus to get their flights home. I am not going to see them for a long time. Katimavik should offer separation counseling after this is done, it is so hard to say goodbye to people that you have lived with for 6 months. Seeing them everyday. Never being able to get away from them. I dont know how many more times I can say it but I love my friends so much.

Its now 2:26 am and the bus will be here in 1hour and 14 minutes. I dont know what else to say.

Thank you for whoever has read this, it makes me so happy.

Never say goodbye,because goodbye means going away, and going away means forgetting.

Massage train

Me with my cake when Sarah (Russia) and I went out for coffee <3

RUSSIAN SISTERS at my work volunteering. I LOVE YOU <3

March 1st 2011 1:40am

I CANT BELIEVE IT. 6 MONTHS IS DONE. IT HAS BEEN 6 MONTHS.

6 months that I have lived with the same people that have now become my family. On September 8th 2010 when I landed in the Prince George Airport I never thought that I would have become such great friends with these people. I never thought that I would be wishing that the program was actually 9 months because I dont want to say goodbye tomorrow. I wont ever live in the same house as these 10 people ever again. Even though I have said that I couldnt wait to leave Quebec many times, whether it had been in my head or out loud I now wish I could take back all the times I said it because I didnt mean it. I love these people like they are my family. They are my family, they are my katimafamily!

I have had so many amazing times with them. Its going to be sad when we say goodbye but it isnt goodbye its see you later because I dont want to lose contact with them. Each person in my group has made my experience great in some way. Like when Kyra and I made cookies and bread and dinner on the day the group went to chop wood and we laughed all afternoon because I swore at the oven because the alarm wouldn't stop going off, or Sarah aka Russia and I laughing ourselves to sleep. Walking in on Thai Chi and crying on the kitchen floor, me reading her book in my russian accent or going out for coffee. House managing with Marc-Andre, working with Jared, laughing with Katelyn about Dane Cook, telling Evelyne how much I loved her everyday, Ryan making me laugh because he says the randomest things, listening to Isaac play his guitar ALL THE TIME, having to listen to Brandon ask a question that has already been asked and answered, or just enjoying Zoe's company because she is such a great person. I love them all and I am so glad they are apart of my group. i wouldnt want any other group!

MY KATIMAFAMILY <3

its not who you are that holds you back, its who you think you're not.

Its almost over..

I cant believe that its almost over. I have lived with the same 10 people for the last 6 months and knowing that in 10 days I will no longer wake up to waving to my Russian Sister or making trips trips coffee for Kyra or telling Evelyne I love her and her answering in her cute english accent, "Me too, I love you." Or seeing any of my other katimafamily members everyday is kind of sad. Now that its almost over I do wish that it was nine months instead of six. Yes I miss my family and friends SO MUCH but these people are my family too and I'll be very sad to say goodbye to them.


Yesterday we went to ice fishing. Let me just say this now that it was TERRIBLE. I do not fish. Well I do at my grandmothers in her backyard in the summer but I dont really. I get my cousin or brother or grandpa to put the worm on the hook, then I hold the rod and wait for a fish to bite the hook then I freak out and I once again get my cousin or grandpa to take the fish off and put it back in the water. I cant do that stuff it grosses me out. It never really bothered me before but yesterday I dont know what happened. I was sitting on the ice reading the book 'Eating Animals'(fitting I know!:), and when I saw Katelyn catch a fish and they took it out and put the fish in a bucket WITH NO WATER! I started to freak out and say that it was going to die and Stephane, my Project Leader said,"Thats the point." I couldn't handle it. I felt like crying. I took my stuff out of the water and said I didnt want to do it. So he told me to go inside with Kyra and Sarah, they weren't fishing because they are vegetarians. So I went inside. We didnt do anything for the rest of the day. We just talked and I knitting a little bit. Then we came home and went to the Snowboard Jamboree. Its a snowboard competition and people from RUSSIA, Netherlands, Australia and Canada were there. A Canadian guy won, I cant remember his name. I think it was Sebastien. It was really cool. Nothing much else happened yesterday..


Today we are cleaning the house :/.. And tomorrow we are having our work partners come over after work for a thank you dinner or something. In Quebec they called it a 5 to 7.. I still dont really know what that is but Ill just go with the flow..


Tuesday morning I am going home until Friday and I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE MY FAMILY. I cant wait to see my brother. I have missed him so much. Then when I come back there are 4 days left of the program and I go home again.


I got my travel arrangements to go home forever and I will be on a bus for 15 hours. We are leaving our house at 3:45am and bringing people to the airport. The Beauport and Levis groups will be with us also. So after the airport the bus will drive us bus riders to the Ste-Foy bus terminal where we will take a bus at 7:00am to Montreal and arrive there at 9:45am. Then we will take another bus with Coach Canada at 11:30am to Kingston then to Ottawa for a bit and then arrive in Toronto at 6:30pm.. That is intense. But it shouldn't be to bad. I will be with my friends, not all of them like Sarah, Kyra, Katelyn, Evelyne, or Zoe but I'll be with Ryan and Jared and other people from the other groups.


So that is what will be happening within the next 10 days. I will try to write again soon but I thought since I wasnt doing anything right now I would write this. Brandon and Isaac are making breakfast and Im rather excited. Im starving. Im also listening to french music. Our french teacher gave us a list of songs we should listen to and I have listened to the same sing about.. I dont even know how many times but ALOT. Its called Comme des Enfants by Coeur de Pirate.


Until next time. Have a wonderful day!


p.s. here are some pictures of what has been happening in my life.

MY FAMILY!

Never regret something that once made you smile!

THIS IS SO OVERDUE!

HOLY MOTHER OF MERYL STREEP!
I know I have not written in almost a month! And whoever reads this thing probably doesn't read it anymore because I have neglected it! I have been rather busy over the last 4 weeks! I turned 20, twenty, vingt, venti years old. Thats right folks. I am not longer a teenager. I am an adult. I do not feel like one though. I think Ill pretend Im still 19, dont tell anyone though because then I wont be able to lie about it lol. I cant believe it. I am 20 this is RIDIC! 19 was a good year. I liked being 19. Thank you year 19 :) hopefully 20 is even better! I did have a great birthday though. On my birthday weekend it was our 48 hours off so some of my friends went to Montreal or home and some stayed home. Katelyn, Zoé and I went out for dinner and had a cute time! On Saturday I went shopping with Katelyn and bought myself some birthday presents and we went for frozen yogurt. SO GOOD!
Kyra who went to Montreal left me a present for each day she was away! On the 7th she left me my favourite chocolate bar (MIRAGE), on the 8th I got a nail polish I wanted to bad from American Apparel, its pink! And on the 9th MY BIRTHDAY! I got these cute little button earrings, they are purple. TOTES CUTE!
Sarah's mom was here with her friend Judy for the weekend visiting Sarah and they invited me along and I stayed at the Chateau Frontenac with them! It was such a great weekend! I love my Katimafamily.
After my birthday not much happened. Same stuff everyday. Work, come home, do an activity or have free time. BUT there has been alot of conflict with the group, its resolved now but for about a week I was not looking forward to the rest of my time here. Even a knife couldn't cut that tension!

There are 12 days until Katimavik is finished. Now that its almost at the end I kind of wish the program was 9 months. Im going to miss everyone even though we fight and we get mad at eachother, we are a family and thas what families do!
Right now I am at work and typing this. Can you tell how busy I am? In the last week I have knit 1 scarf and 2 dishcloths while only being at work. I am becoming a knit-aholic..

On Wednesday we volunteered for this Snowboard Jamboree thing that is happening tomorrow. Its a snowboard competition and we broke ice adn shoveled snow for 5 hours. It was great!
So Sara, what kind of volunteering did you do in Québec?
I broke ice and shoveled snow, Collected money from strangers who speak a totally different language then me, wheeled elderly people around a nursing home, and I worked 5 days a week at an outdoor skating rink and rented out skates and tubes to rude people :).. BE JEALOUS!

There isnt much more to say, its almost over and I will try to write another one before I go home. If anyone still reads this..

Have a wonderful weekend!.. OH I totally forgot, maybe because this news is not exciting at all. Tomorrow we are going ice fishing :/.. Who goes ice fishing? I DONT! I think I will knit while we sit there for 5 hours. Since Sarah and Kyra are vegeterians they will not be accompanying us on this fun filled day, they will be going for coffee or something.
Anyways until next time!

oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR! My last blog post was on New Years Eve.

ilu Sara! Here you go!

Out with the old in with the NEW!

Merry Belated Christmas! 

I know I haven't written since last week and everytime I talk to my aunts they are always saying how they are waiting for a new blog post so here it is :) I hope you had a great Christmas. Mine was surely interesting to say the least.. 

30 people in one house, being stressed to the MAX with jazzy jazz crap. Let me start from the beginning.

Friday December 24th: We had alot of cooking and baking and cleaning to do parce-que we were going to Levis' house for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and coming home on boxing day. So I was in charge of making biscuits for like snack or something, I don't know why I wanted to make biscuits I just thought it would be cute. So I made them and they turned out pretty cute and totes delish! Please note the Christmas and Snowmen cheese biscuits to your right! :)

I was house managing that week and was rather stressed out so I put alot of love into these cute little things.

Ryan and Zoe made gingerbread cookies that I didnt get to try because everyone ate them. They must have been great!

Note cute gingerbread cookies to your left.

Everyone had different jobs to do and my house managing partner only had one thing to do which was put the leftovers in containers and put them in the freezer so we could take them with us to Levis. We all got ready and finished cleaning and left the house at 2pm. Myself, Sarah, Katelyn, Ryan, Brandon, Zoe, Marc-Andre and Isaac took the bus to the ferry over to Levis, while Kyra, Evelyne and Jared went in the van with Rachel our PC. 
We got to Levis and had to eat a little dinner because we were going to this mass and were going to eat dinner there but it wasnt going to be for like 5 hours. I went to look for the food that my house manager partner was supposed to packed so we could eat and guess what! YEP! It was left at home in the freezer where they left it. CUTE HUH!? At this point my blood was boiling and going to hurt someone. Alice the Project Leader in Levis gave us food to eat and while I was putting the meat pies on a tray to put in the over this certain someone said some people have to learn to lighten up. DO NOT say that to me when I am mad at you! I ended up telling him to get away from me because I didnt want to see his face and a few other nice things in from of a crowd of people :) very lady like I know! We ate our little dinner and got bundled up to go to the mass.

After the mass we played some games with people from the community and the 3 katimavik groups. After the dinner we went back to the Levis house and we all just hung around and didn't do much. I went to sleep at about 1 am and woke up at 10:30am Christmas morning. 

Saturday December 25th: I woke up and called my mom and dad and family. How I missed them on Christmas. We didn't do much at all. For most of the afternoon Sarah, myself, Kyra and Katelyn were in the room where Kyra and I were sleeping and just laying on her mattress that was on the floor. We ate chips and drank pop and laughed about stuff. That night we had a dinner that was kind of like a potluck but the Beauport group and my group both brought dessert, this just added to my stress because I was already upset that we weren't organized about the night before. I made carrot salad with celery and some other jazzy jazz and it turned out pretty good. I had a small breakdown after I finished doing the salad because I was quite upset with my house managing partner once again. I went to the living room where Sarah and Katelyn were and just started crying. While other people were laughing around me I was crying. It was a bit embarassing but whatevs. We ate 

dinner as a huge katimafamily.

What we ate for Christmas dinner.

After dinner a bunch of us decided to go down to the St.Lawrence and have a grand old time! We had a little dance party and it was a great time. After that we went home and me and my friend Zack from the Beauport group laughed for hours. At about 2:30am I went to sleep and was woken up the next morning by Kyra telling me that Isaac wanted to leave in 10 minutes. I got up and cleaned up my sleeping area then got the stuff that we could carry with us onto the ferry and started our trek home. Isaac, Jared, Ryan and Marc-Andre, Evelyne and Zoe left early so it was only Me, Sarah, Kyra, Katelyn, and Brandon who got the later ferry. When we got home I went to get stuff for dinner at the store and some people went to the mall. Boxing Day was a pretty relaxed day.

Monday December 27th: On Monday we went to Quebecadabra with the Levis group and the Beauport group. Quebecadabra is a look at the past present and future of Christmas in Quebec. We only really found the future and it was kind of creepy. I didn't get any pictures because I didn't bring my camera on this day. I do have a picture of the katimafamily though in Old Quebec.

Anyways. Monday night me, Ryan, Marc-Andre and Zoe went to a cafe with Zack, Elyanne and Veronique from Beauport, it was nice :).

On Tuesday we went to watch a Quebecois movie called L'Appat and in the night people from my group and Zack and Veronique went out to Old Quebec and had a fun time :)

Yesterday we went sliding at Stephane's friends Chalet and I felt like a crash test dummy. I would fall off my crazy carpet and just roll down the hill until I hit a tree. It was pretty intense! Then again last night, Ryan and I met up with Zack and Elyanne from Beauport and we went to a cafe again. I went out 3 nights this week that is the most I went out in the last four months in one week!

Tonight I am staying in and resting before New Years because it is going to be FUN! All 3 groups are going to be together again and we are going to have a huge party!

I hope you liked reading this small novel that I have written. I think I am all caught up on what has been happening.

Have a wonderful New Year and be safe!

XOXO Sara

you're smarter than you think, and braver than you know!



ITS A KATIMA- CHRISTMAS TIME!

 HELLO! This will be another blog with pictures.Not much writing as it is 11:13pm and I am quite tired. I have been house managing this week and am rather stressed. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve and I will be at Levis with my group and the Beauport group. We are there until the 26th. I am going to be missing my family the whole time. I love and miss you all!

Kyra and Sarah before St.Patrick's Pub

Kyra and I at the falls :)

The pacakge my Mommy sent me! I love you

Zoe, MA and Sarah!

Sarah and I

Zoe and Katelyn

Sarah and Me! Russian Sisters :)

Me and Kyra before the Pub. I look like Casper's sister..

The view from the bridge that I was having anxiety on becuse it was so high up!

I hope you like the pictures and that you have a WONDERFUL Christmas with your families! Also a great New Year.

use your smile to 
change the world,
dont let the world
change your smile!

XOXO Sara