Sunday, February 15, 2009

I should also mention...

We have had visitors this weekend. Rosie's parents and little brother came to visit us for the day yesterday and left this morning. They were very nice. I got to play that piano duet that everyone knows with her brother (who's name is Francis) and her mother brought us delicious cookies and banana bread...she also gave me some tips on how to get burnt chocolate of a pot (just add baking soda and watch it boil!).

Also, Maddy's boyfriend Mike is here. He came up at a little before 3 am on Friday morning and is staying until Monday morning...so tomorrow I guess.

And that is all.

Sara

Rockabilly Horseback riding, and other fun Valentine shenanigans

Yesterday was Valentine's day as you are all aware. For some it is the day of love. For others, it is a corporate cash grab. For me and Cass, it is the opportunity for a photoshoot.

While some people were out at the Music Box or watching movies downstairs, Cass and I were upstairs in our room, recreating a scene from our sickness. I hadn't had the opportunity to get any photos with my sick mask on, since I wasn't in much of a happy mood when I was last wearing them, so I decided to take some pictures yesterday night at around 9 or so, with a mask on. Cass saw this, and wanted to join in the fun. When the masks got a little old we decided to take more photos without them. Then that got old, so we decided to get dressed oddly and do some funky rockabilly hair and makeup and take even MORE photos. When everyone got home we dressed them up and I (the master makeuptress) gave them some funky makeup as well and had a fabulous photoshoot that lasted until 1 o'clock in the morning. If you count that out, we were being ridiculous for four hours. We have in progress photos, end result photos, posed photos and groups photos. It was mindless, entertaining teenage fun and is definetly something we will be doing again.

Promptly after our photoshoot, we all fell asleep, some still with their makeup on.

We all had to be ready for 8:45 this morning so that we could go horseback riding! It was a lot of fun. My horse was named Mafalda and was a very dark brown colour (very pretty). She was also very shaddy. I've never seen a horse with a winter coat before, but they look kinda like mountain/wild horses albeit with saddles on. Anyway, I was the last person in our line of riders and was also carrying the camera, so I don't actually have any photos of me on the horse which is unfortunate :(, but I do have the memories. The trail was a lot of fun. I've never been on a winter trail before and it's a lot different from a cleared summer trail.

The snow was sometimes up to the horses' knees so there was a lot of jerking about and it's a lot less smooth going, but also a bit more fun I think. It is also very cold for the obvious reason that it is winter, but also very picturesque with the dark horses and colourful blankets and riders against the snow. At one point we were riding through some trees and the snow was falling and everything had a movie magic quality to it. There were scared shouts from the more inexperienced and nervous riders and laughter from everyone else. We got to trot just a little because everyone wasn't very comfortable with it, but trotting is a lot more fun than just walking if a little uncomfortable.

In the middle of our ride we stopped at a old mine. They mined for barium, gold and lead there and it was a really interesting place. The mine itself is really cool looking. The walls at the entrance are all covered in crystalized ice spikes that are very delicate and look like spiky fluff from farther away (I can't really describe it a different way). Inside the mine you can see the veins of barium in the ceiling and the walls. Actually, a chunk of barium looks a lot like a huge wad of old white chewing gun mushed together with little chinks of darker matter in it. It looks like it should feel king of soft and mushy, but it feels just like rock.

The floor of the mine was covered in ice. In the beginning of the mine the ice was kind of foggy, but not slippery at all so you could walk quickly and be confident on not falling. However, a little farther back the ice was more slippery, yes, but also perfectly clear. You could see that we were standing on about a 15 cm of ice on top of the floor and it was a really neat effect. Things were kinda magnified, but also it made me feel like I was walking on air. You could just SEE that although you were stepping on something, it wasn't the stone.

There are also these stalagmites of water everywhere in the mine. Some are about a metre tall but only 5 cm across and almost perfectly cylindrical, but some of them were about 30 cm across and very oblong. Because they were so tall, they weren't all that sturdy and just brushing against them was enough to make some fall.

When we got into the back of the cave our guide turned off the lights to show us this calcium byproduct that forms stalagtites. It actually glows in purple (UV?) light and looks really cool. When he turned the lights off there was absolutely no natural light in there at all. I mean nothing. It was the blackests black I have ever been in. We weren't even very far into the mine and there was still no light whatsoever reaching us. It makes you feel very alone. Even though you can hear everyone breathing and laughing nervously around you, it's almost like they could just be a trick. Even though I knew Alyssanne had not moved from where she was standing beside me, I still found myself reaching for her hand to make sure she was still there. Anyway, when he turned on the UV lights you could see that there were veins of the calcium stuff all over the ceiling and it looked like some sort of fantasy cave with twisting and shimmering veins of something overhead. Very cool indeed.

After that we went back outside, got back on our horses and started riding back down to the ranch. When I got off my horse I started petting her and scratching her neck...and she stepped on my foot. Umm...oww. It wasn't too bad though. She didn't have her full weight on her hoof and I pushed her off very quickly, but it was still sore for twenty minutes or so.

And now I'm sitting around waiting for dinner to be ready....

Sara.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Still sick, and not getting better.

Today was a repeat of last Monday's 7 hour fiasco in the clinic, except I was there for 9 hours instead. Whatever I have (and I am told it is quite possibly viral bronchitis) it took them 9 hours wearing a face mask and an x-ray to figure out that it is NOT pnemonia.

The x-ray was pretty cool though. I got to stand around in a little robe thing, very naked underneath it may I add, and get little x-ray particles shot at me. Afterward I could see my lungs, my heart, even my boobs a little, though they mostly looked like little ghostly half circles under my lungs and my heart just looked like a ghostly blob. But it was really cool to see. I wish I could have kept them as a souvenier.

Anyway, there were a lot of screaming children towards the end of the day and a lot of coughing people just in general and yet it was very hard to stay awake. I am so tired. After this I'm going to just go to sleep and stay that way until tomorrow. I've been prescribed lots of bed rest, two days off work and the weekend, cough syrup, tylenol and this weird backing soda/salt/boiled water concoction that I am supposed to gargle with. I am assuming it will kill all the gross bacteria in my throat and mouth and restore me to better health.

On a brighter noote, I recieved my package from home today. It contains clothes, books, dvds, sheet music for the piano and my beautiful coat. It made me very happy this morning when I saw it.

Thanks Family!

Sara

Sunday, February 8, 2009

My iron-clad immune system

Life in Mont-Joli's Katima House has not seen smooth sailing in recent times. There have been fights and squabbles and all around bad feelings. I've been house managing this past week with Simon and it has been rough. On Monday, when we were supposed to buy groceries I instead had to go to the clinic with Maddy and Denise because Maddy is deathly afraid of doctors and has had this nasty cough for a very long time and she needed someone to go with her. We waited at the clinic from 9:30 to 5 pm. It was ridiculous. The seriously need another clinic. By the time all the medicine stuff was over, dinner was coming up very soon, but we had no food in the house. Simon and I had to go buy food quick as we could, and with all the rushing around, we didn't stick too closely to our shopping list. Basically, all week long we were over budget and without everything that we needed.

Anyway, the next day, Tuesday, I wake up feeling, hot and cold, nauseaus and achy. I couldn't do anything all day long and basically rolled around trying to sleep. At around 3 o'clock I cam downstairs feeling much like a zombie and was able to eat half a bowl of thing broth and noodles. It was not the most appetizing thing ever, but it was all I could handle. At dinner I ate crackers while everyone else had meatloaf.

The next day I felt fine, but Thursday I was sick again. We were supposed to go sledding at the highschool on Thursday, but all the sick people (which by this time included Cassie) had to stay home and do a core workout using videos found on youtube. It was fun, and actually the second time I've had to do it (the week before everyone went swimming, but I couldn't find my bathing suit bottoms) but it would have been nice to be healthy.

On Friday I felt good. We had a workshop led by a past participant named Thomas who has killer eyes, and we talked about how do media presentations and recruitment presentations at schools and kiosks, etc. It was fun and gave me a lot of ideas about what I could do after Katimavik. I actually like the idea of being a recruiter for Katimavik and do presentations at schools. I can see myself going to my old highschool for sure and telling them all that they don't HAVE to go straight back into school, that they have another option and that they can actually live life instead.

On Saturday we were supposed to go snowshoeing for two hours, but that idea was killed because again, people (including myself) were too sick. Everytime I step out of doors I start coughing like a mad woman and feeling ten times more sick than I actually am. Instead we wrote up stories in our 2nd language and had them edited by a person of the opposite language and then read them outload. They had to include 10 random things that people had written down on the board, so they ended up being a bit insane. My own story was about a small boy named Timtam who had a small and beloved toy wool piano (piano and wool being two of the required words). The small piano and the small boy go everywhere together and do everything, so one day when the two of them are on a rollercoaster, it is in surprise that the small piano is flung off and is lost for all eternity. The small boy goes through the rest of life with out his small piano. He eats alone. He sleeps in hot summer nights alone. Eventually the small boy grows up to be a small man but he is never happy again without the small wool piano.

It was quite depressing and sad, but everyone laughed at the right parts and gave shocked sad noises at the right parts so I was satisified. Also, there were a lot less corrections than I thought there were going to be. Can that mean I am improving?

That day we were also having a 24 hour black out as part of the environment committee's activites and we had fun trying to eat cold food, and live without any electricity (besides the heat and hot water, which we kept on). That night Sarah Perron's parents took us out to dinner and hung out with us for a while at the house (which I'm not proud to say was quite messy, but then again, everyone was home so it does not all fall to the house managers). After they left we played a few rounds of hide-and-seek in the dark and when that was no longer any fun we played sardines which is fabulous game in which one person hides and the rest search for them. When you find them you don't say a word, but neatly hide with them until finally everyone is squished into the same hiding spot. It is quite hilarious.

Well, anyway, fun activities there was horrible house managing. I just don't do as well as a house manager when I can't bounce idea's off of my partner. Simon is great, but he doesn't know how to cook like Maddy does so I was left making most of the decisions. And it really was a crappy week. I was sick, and not working at 100%, Simon as kinda aimless, everyone were having arguments and being generally unhelpful. I much rather working at the hospital.

When I was sick all I could think about was home. All I could think was 'I want my mommy'. No one really takes care of anyone here. I mean I was sick and moaning and tossing and turning all day long, and not once did anyone come into my room and ask if maybe I wanted something to eat or drink, or another blanket to keep me warm. There were people in the room, absorbed in the computer who I had to finally ask to get me some water and a blanket because I honestly couldn't stand and move all that much. But you would think that someone would be kind enough to think of the sick person. I always ask if someone wants some water, or if I can get them anything. Can you tell I feel quite strongly about this?

I just really really want to be home right now. Just a week or two to breathe without the entire group being here and around me. I want some space and I want some time. There is just too much togetherness right now and too much tension and bad feelings on my part and on others. Time away to see family and friends and to go back to something familiar would be so lovely. Maybe not being in the house all day will help though.

The week started off really shitty and ended really shitty and I don't ever want to repeat such a bad house managing experience. I also don't want to ever be sick again. I side stepped so much illness in Terrace Bay that I have become very confident in my iron-clad immune system, but it seems that it has become a little rusted because I have been brought down by a small and nasty cold that seeps into your bones and drains you of all energy. Nasty, nasty cold.

Sara