Day 47!.. 47 Jours!

Bonjour (HI!)

So je (I) haven't written in like 5 days, I feel bad but nothing has vraiment (really) been happening that I felt the need to bore whoever reads this with those details :) I am considerate! he he
I worked at Strong Start on Lundi (you should know that one) pour (for) le premier temps (first time) dans (in) like 2 semaines (weeks). Je was tres (very) glad to see Pat and be there again. I missed it.
At the Manor, I told my Supervisor that I have a blog and I was wondering if I could parle (talk) about the residents or take pictures of them so I can show vous (you) qui (who) je suis (I am) talking sur (about) and how mignon (cute) they are! She said I would besoin (need) to get permission from their family's parce-que (because) if they don't know about it and one day they see their mere (mom), pere (dad), or grandparents picture et (and) they are like, "What the heck?" I could get into some doo doo. So for the time being I will just put the first initial of their nom (name) and (F)for female and (M)for male.. smart? Oui!
So on Wednesday I(F) passed away :(, she was 95. She had a major stroke last week and just couldn't recover. I had planned to go and visit her on Mercredi (Wednesday) matin (morning) when I got to travail (work) but when I asked about her one the of care aids told me elle (she) passed away. I was really triste (sad), but at least she isn't suffering anymore. She was such a nice lady. I really liked her. The rest of the week was pretty bon (good). Our francais (french) professor (teacher) came on Wednesday soir (night) and Amy came to the house on Thursday and we had like a 3 and a half hour meeting. It was our mid-rotation reflection. Pretty intense I must dit (say). We did a lot of activities and talked A LOT! We resolved some issues too, which is good.

Hier (yesterday) we went a la (to the) Neighbourhood Space. We are doing a mural on the whole wall! It looks really nice so far. I didn't get to take a picture because I left my phone a la maison (at the house), I was in one of those moods where je dit (I said), "I'm leaving my phone at home, I don't care if anyone texts moi." ha ha then I realized I should have brought it with me. Its okay, I'll get one when we go back after billeting to finition (finish).. Speaking of billeting.. Aujourd'hui (today), we are going with our familles (families). Je suis tres excite (I am very excited)! Je suis (I am) going to learn how to tricoter (knit),even though I already know how to do scarves I will probably apprendre (learn) more and crochet et (and) all the jazz!

I am doing laundry right now and people are still sleeping, I thought I would wake up and write a blog because Je ne sais pas (I dont know) si (if) during my billeting I will be able too. My Aunt Teresa emailed me last week and said she reads my blog all the time and she called my Grandma and told her to read it ha ha! HI GRANDMA and AUNT TERESA♥

I am loving the singer Lights. I listen to her music on repeat! Je sais (I know) by next week Im going to be sick of it LOL but pour l'instant (for now) je suis en profiter (I'm enjoying it).

Vous (You) have probably noticed that certains (some) of my words are in french, that's because I'm learning french as I have previously stated and I want to ecrire (write) whatever words I know so I get better at speaking the langue (language). I did utilisation (use) google translator to make sure what I was writing was right!.. If I didn't both of us would pense (think) that the wrong word is right.. Soon you will be fluent too! :)

I must go now and eat french toast.. seriously, we're having french toast for breakfast LOL, fitting I know. I will write quand je peux (when I can) and add pictures when I can.



I just thought this picture was really pretty, so I thought I would add it .

XOXO Sara

p.s. I can't believe J'ai (I have) been here for 47 days already! I feel like I just got here mais (but) also that I have been ici (here) for like un an (a year).. weird I know..

Au revoir (Good-bye)

♥

It's me again :)

K so being away from everyone  is making me realize the true colours of people.. It's kind of bitter-sweet. Im realizing that people you thought were genuine and not like everyone else are exactly how they you thought they weren't. I am not wasting my time on people who only care about themselves or don't care about other people's feelings. I really don't care anymore. I'm going to go home a different person I can promise that much and some people are going to be in for a rude awakening.

Anways enough about people that don't deserve my energy :)


Yesterday we volunteered at the BC Children's Hospital fundraiser. It was at the Friendship centre down the street from our house. They were raising money for the Hospital and people from the community came to support in the cause. We went to help sell tickets for the auction and gave out auction paddles, Melissa and I worked at that table. We had many laughs just sitting there talking about random stuff that nobody knows understands why it's funny but we laugh SO hard. Isaac and Jared did coat check. Brandon worked in the kitchen. Katelyn was at the door taking the tickets from the people who were coming to the event. Zoe, Marc-Andre, Sarah, Ryan and Evelyne were scattered about making sure everything was going smoothly and helped with setting up the buffet. Kyra sold playing cards for a chance to win a diamond ring. Oh! Melissa and I also had a very fun job on top of our ticket selling task. We helped wash ALL of the dishes from dinner and dessert. How great does that sound? Jealous I know, you don't have to tell me :) But we had so much fun doing that too. The other girls that were helping there and washing dishes on the other side couldn't understand why were laughing HYSTERICALLY for no reason, they would just look at us with confused faces and we would explain that we were not intoxicated because that was PROHIBITED in Katimavik ha ha. So that was my night last night, selling tickets for an auction, babysitting a cute baby and washing over 100 dishes, then coming home and knitting. I feel like a grandmother..




Everything set up before everyone arrived.



 




after everyone showed up.



Sara, Baby Andre, and Melissa.
Working at the ticket table and babysitting this little cutie!

 SO next week we are billeting. Which means all 11 of us are going to stay with different families in the community. Melissa has been going to see different people who have billeted Katimavik participants in the past. She was going to send me with this one family who is really nice and the lasy does scrapbooking and knits and stuff, they also have a canoe and a plane and stuff. BUT she went to meet this lady yesterday and she came home and said to me, "I need to send you with this lady. You will love her. She is so nice and cute. She knits! You are the kind of person who will stay with her on a Friday night and knit with her. You have to go there. You will have a good time there." So I was pleased with that. I am very excited to learn how to knit more! I am almost done my scarf! It's cute :)

Tomorrow I am at StrongStart. I haven't been at the school in like 2 weeks because I was house managing and then it was Thanksgiving. I miss Pat and the cute little kids. It's fun there. I am also excited to go to the Manor on Tuesday. I love those seniors! It is going to be hard when I leave and go to Quebec. Let's not think about that right now..

Today was a very relaxing day. I knitted all day, and listened to some of Kyra's short stories. She is an AMAZING writer. Holy Moly! We had our KCC meeting tonight after dinner.So we talked about the activities we are going to do this week and now the family is watching a movie. Some of them are watching Killers with Ashton Kutcher adn Katherine Heigl, and the others are watching Into the Wild with Emile Hirsch (sooo cute!)

And im writing away.

Here are random pictures that I haven't had a chance to add because I didn't have them until now!

Our common area, this is where we play crib, read, sit and relax, talk and watch movies.
We can't have technology in this room. Its the tech-free zone in the house, with the exception of
movies, that is if everyone agrees and if not, we have to go downstairs to watch it.

This is my room. My bed is the bottom bunk that is un-made with noone in it.
I know mother it is messy. Nothing changes! :)

This was our first attempt at bread. We let it rise for a little to long.
All part of the learning process. he he



Zoe, Marc-Andre, Kyra, Katelyn, and Me!
Coming back from a walk from somewhere. Maybe Tim Hortons or The Bean?
Those are the two Hot Spots in Vanderhoof :)

 I hope you enjoyed reading about my fun weekend and looking at how I'm living.

Wherever you go, no matter the weather, ALWAYS bring your own sunshine!

XOXO Sara

blah blah blah

Hi.


I don't know what to write about today.. I am not really in the best mood today but I thought maybe I should write something if ANYONE reads this thing. 
I had a good week. I was at the Manor for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It was fun. I brought Wayne for a walk again, he is SO funny and cute. I also took Alice for a walk. I baked a cake and made pumpkin bars with Gladys, Ruth J, and Alice. They were really good, I didn't try them but everyone said they were good. I worked with Sandy at Strong Start yesterday, we went to Fort Fraser and her son Marcus came. OH MY GOD. He made me laugh all day. He is so funny lol I am laughing right now thinking of what he was saying ha ha!
Last night, myself, Katelyn, Zoe, Ryan, Evelyne, and Kyra went to the Friendship Centre to help set up for the BC Children's Hospital fundraiser they are having tonight. We are going back at 5:30pm to help with ticket selling, the bar, cooking, and other stuff. Then tomorrow morning at 9am we have to go back and help clean up. 
Sarah and Isaac are house managers this week and they are doing a great job. They made french toast yesterday morning and chilli with corn bread for dinner. Pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries for breakfast this morning and now they're making stew. Everything is SO good! Thank you Russian Sister and Isaac :)


I have started knitting. I LOVE IT. That was one of my goals before I came here I wanted to learn how to knit and now I am.


HI JARED AND KATELYN. I LOVE YOU BOTH :)
Jared said the only way he would read my blog was if I mentioned him. And I told Katelyn I would write about her. So there you go :) I hope you enjoy reading it.


I dont have many pictures on here yet because I'm waiting for my memory card for my phone to come in the mail so I can put pictures on the computer and put them on my blog. 


I am going to continue knitting and get ready for this thing tonight. I will write more soon.

XOXO Sara

P.S. I miss my family. I wish I could go home for a few days to see them, but I cant. 5 more months. I am having a great time don't get me wrong but sometimes I miss them more then I do normally. 

I LOVE YOU FAMILY.

Just another day in Vanderhoof

Hello there!

So today was just another day at work. I worked at The Manor today aswell as yesterday and also tomorrow. I like working there. I love all the old people, but sometimes it's hard. They get really lonely and sad and when you're talking to them it just makes you sad. Today I went for a walk with Wayne who lives in D Pod. There are 4 pods at the manor, A Pod is for residents who are still understand what is going on around them, it is more of an independent part of the manor but they still need help. B/C Pod are together and that is for residents who cannot take care of themselves and need 24/7 care. Some of them can't feed themselves and alot of them are in wheelchairs. D Pod is for people with a more severe case of Alzheimer's or Dementia. You need a code to get into that pod and you can't take them out of that pod unless you are going to stay with them and make sure they don't wander off. Carrying on, Dwayne is such a cute old man and whenever you tell him something his response is always, "Well for heaven sakes!" if it's something intense then his response is "Well for God sakes" LOL he is to cute! We walked outside for a little while and he was making me laugh so much. I told him about my brother Joey and he told me to tell him that Wayne says Hello! So Hi Joey, from Wayne :).. I also spoke to Charlie who is in A Pod, he's a cutie too! He showed me a photo album of his family. I was going to play crib with Evelyn but she was tired so tomorrow we will play. I learned a new card game, it's called Muggins. Alma's daughter taught me. I am going to teach my housemates :)I had a pretty good day overall.

Now I'm at home. Our french teacher is here now, so I must go and become fluent!

XOXO Sara

End of 72.

Hi Friends!


K so.. not much has happened today.Woke up at 5am because I had the WORST dream of life. Let's not talk about that. Let's just say that I was up until 6 trying to convince myself to go back to sleep. It involved death.. Not one of my biggest fans. K great :) moving on.


Katelyn, Jared, Kyra, Evelyne, Isaac and Zoe came home at like 11. Melissa and I started watching Changeling, BUT we were hungry and tired of eating pie because that is basically all we ate this weekend. We made 2 apple pies on Saturday night i think and then 2 pumpkin pies yesterday. Last night we made egg salad and steamed broccoli and coffee and bread, ya thats right! I know how to make bread. FROM SRATCH :D Its a pretty big accomplishment LOL, anyways we went to Subway and on our way there we saw a drunk native man sitting near the train tracks. It was a little sketch and I was a bit scared because.. Im scared of everything! But we kept walking and Melissa said hi to him and he couldn't even say hi, he was so intoxicated :( poor man.. We ate and came back home then watched the end of Changeling. I have seen that movie three times now and it gives me chills every time I watch it and I tear at the same parts. Its so sad. WATCH IT! :)


Now I'm sitting in the living room on my russian sisters computer typing this blog waiting for Jared and Katelyn to finish playing crib because we are going to eat at this pizza place that is SO good. OH MY! I can play crib too, and I am learning how to knit! I am so excited!


We are going now. I will talk to you soon. I hope people are reading this thing. I know my Aunt Teresa read it and my Aunt Darlene. I love you!


Talk to you soon friends!

XOXO Sara

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hi Friends!


HAPPY THANKSGIVING! :)


I guess this Thanksgiving is kind of bittersweet for me. I am here in Vanderhoof with Melissa and Brandon, we aren't having a turkey or a big meal but... We are making pumpkin pie. So its a half Thanksgiving he he. We just watched Into the Wild, which was pretty intense. My heart was hurting the whole time for this boy. Might I add, he is SO CUTE! OH MY! Emile Hirsch(look him up!) Anyways, it was a good movie and last night we watched Couples Retreat, HILARIOUS! I love Vince Vaughn, and then we made apple pie and got pizza and watched The Bucket List. Holy Mother of Pearl, that movie was AMAZING. I loved it. I did cry, because I cry for everything :) but I loved it. I need to make a bucket list!.. So the other part of my bittersweet Thanksgiving is that I am not with my family back in Ontario. Oh how I miss them. I called my Aunt Teresa's house because my mom and brother are there with my family, and I talked to everyone. I told my aunt that I couldn't call because I was going away for the weekend but I just said that so I could do a surprise call! and it worked! :) I talked to my Aunt Teresa, my brother Joey, my mom, my cousin Chris, his girlfriend Jenn, their son Cayson (he said he loved me, I started to tear. He is the CUTEST EVER), my cousin Mike, my Aunt Lynn and Uncle Dave,and my Grandma and Grandpa Tony. It was so nice to talk to them all. I couldn't talk to my cousins Karl and Erik or my Uncle Gary because they weren't there but Ill talk to them soon.. I also won't be home for Christmas or my birthday. That will be tough, but I have my new friends here so it will be good :). I also talked to my dad, its his birthday tomorrow! I sent him a funny birthday card he he.


Its pretty quiet around here. With only 3 people in the house compared to 12! WOW!


I have a new found love.. The Beatles! Holy Moly, I heard them just a little while ago because Marc-Andre was listening to them and I fell in love! I cant stop listening to them. My favourite songs by them are Eight Days a Week, Eleanor Rigby, and PS I love you. OMG REPEAT :) Thank you Marc-Andre for introducing me ha ha. We were house managers this week, which means two people stay home from work and do all of the cooking and cleaning and we listened to them everyday for at least 2 hours. I think he might be sick of them now :S .. On the note of house managing, I am so proud of us! We made croissants from scratch, made vegetable white bean soup, which I made a bit of a boo boo while making it, so you had to puree some of it and put it back in the pot, so I put some in a blender and while it was doing the puree-ing thing, I pushed to hard on the plastic part and the plastic piece on the top fell in and broke in the soup :S, so before we ate I had to warn everyone to take caution while eating and make sure the didn't swallow any plastic... good thing they are good sports, and don't judge lol. So no one died thank goodness!, and then we had oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Another day we made pasta, my grandmother would be so proud :) and pizza another day. Stir fry on Friday. We made apple pie, well Marc-Andre made it and it was soo good! I made pumpkin pie, and let's just say it wasn't as good as the apple pie. It was a bit spicy ha ha. Isaac loved it though and brought it to work the next day :) he took like half the pie because no one wanted it. What a good sport he is:D We also made banana bread and granola bars. I loved our week as house manager. It was fun :) And I also received a package! From my friend Daniel, who I have been friends with since I was like 5 years old. He sent me his sweater and 99 red balloons :D I was SO excited! I sent him a 4 page letter he he. And I got 2 other letters, one from one of my best friends Kaylee from when I was also 5 and another from her little sister Cadence! It was a week of letters and packages :) I have them on my wall beside my bed. I love my friends <3


I think I have written enough for now and updated you so far on what is going on. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing.


Have a wonderful day and a great Thanksgiving. 

XOXO Sara

My First Blog Post EVER!

Hi Friends! 

So since this is my first blog post EVER, Im not sure what to write so it will probably be me rambling :) My name is Sara as you have probably already figured out, if not, now you know!

Moi, Jared, and Katelyn on the hunt
for something from nothing

I decided to start a blog because I am in a program called Katimvik. It is a youth volunteer program that takes teens from 17-21 across Canada to volunteer in different communities. I live with 10 people and a Project Leader. My new friends names are Sarah (my Russian Sister ha ha), Kyra, Katelyn, Zoe, Evelyne, Marc-Andre, Jared, Ryan, Isaac,and Brandon! They are great people. My Project Leader's name is Melissa and she is so nice and HILARIOUS!.. Now if I mention someone's name you will know who I'm talking about. I will talk more about them later!

SO the purpose of this blog is to basically write about this amazing experience that I'm having with new friends. I also want my friends and family to come here and see what I'm up to. This is will save a lot of repeating myself on the phone ha ha!.. Not that I mind but if I don't talk to them all the time they can come here and see what's going on with me.

Right now I am in Vanderhoof, British Columbia until December 1st. I got here on September 8th. Then I'm going to Quebec City until March 2nd 2011, then home. It has already been a month and I cant believe it. Time is starting to fly by! I work at Stewart Nechako Manor and StrongStart. StrongStart is like a preschool for children from 0-5. Parents go with their children and stay with them for the 3 hours. It gets them ready for kindergarten. Its a great program and my supervisor Pat is so nice :). I like the nursing home too because I get to talk to these cute old people. I also do a lot of repeating there as well because they don't remember much, so they have heard my life story 100 times and I've heard theirs. I don't mind though. They are so cute. I love old people :)

So this weekend is our 72 hours off. Which means we don't do anything related to Katimavik. Some of my Katima-family went to Prince George for the weekend to just get away, so Katelyn, Jared, Kyra, Zoe, Isaac, and Evelyne are gone. Ryan went to Vancouver to see his family for Thanksgiving. Marc-Andre went to Prince Rupert to "see the ocean" that what he said every time you asked him what he was going for. And Brandon stayed here at the house. So it's Melissa,Brandon, and I. We rented 4 movies and are going make pie and eat pizza and watch them :) 

I think I have written enough for my first blog post, which is very exciting might I add. I will keep you all posted as I travel across Canada and volunteer with my new friends :) I hope you enjoy reading as much as I love writing!

my katima-house!

xoxo Sara