Touching Base

So not too much had happened since my last post it seems, but I bet once I begin to recount many things will come to mind. So let's commence!
This past weekend we had our 2 day excursion to Halifax; which in my opinion is the most beautiful city I've ever seen! I definitely plan on living there st some point in my life! The ocean is right there, the city is so unique and clean and there are so many nifty little shops! The people are so friendly... Especially the homeless ones!
We visited Peggy's Cove which rivals the Rockies as one of the most breathtaking views instilled in my memory. It was a tad cold though.. ha ha ha! I have never been so close to having frostbite in the absence of snow in my life! Imagine this if you may. December. Large rocks over-looking the sea. No trees or buildings. 70 km/hr winds coming directly off the ocean. Brrrr!! Yet being that I was not raised to be a wimp Kristen and I spent the entire time out on the rocks, braving the cold, freezing our asses off, in order to get as many pictures as possible! I can't even begin to describe how gorgeous this place is so I will include a couple of said photos.
After Peggy's Cove we went received a tour of Citadel Hill, solely in French. Needless to say I didn't take in too much.. I honestly think that the only thing I could tell you is that the world's first telegraph was sent from Citadel Hill and the message was "We need beer". How fitting is it that this is the only thing I pick up in me second language??
Apres l'tour de Citadel we went to the Pier 21 Museum. This was really neat to see as over 1 million immigrants came into Canada through this single port during it's years or operation. Also the stats say that 1 in 5 Canadians can trace a connection to Pier 21, be it relatives who immigrated into Canada or traveled through during war times.
Saturday night we hung out with the Katimavik group from Spryfield. They are a cool group of individuals and they will be in our cluster for the next 2 rotations. We stayed at a day care that night where we were given 2" thick foamies to sleep on, although they would have served as better table tops! Needless to say with 12 people sleeping in the same room I didn't catch many winks! I was impressed, however, with our group's level of performance on Sunday with such little sleep. We had a seminar/workshop with a woman Marjo did Katimavik with way, way back in the day. We learned all about.. BA, BA DA BAAAAAAA!!! SEX! It was a really good workshop but I won't elaborate other than to say that we received an education about sexual health that we sure as hell couldn't get in sex-ed at school! After we got all sexed-up (Just kidding!!) we went to the Halifax Discovery Center which was almost as good as the one in Edmonton. I felt like a kid again doing some of the activities. Especially the bubble room!! :D The remainder of our time was spent shopping and walking around downtown Halifax. We went into some extremely.. unique shops to say the least! I love Halifax!! Did I mention that? I wasn't able to make a return trip to the Keith's Brewery which was disappointing, but hey.. I have the rest of my life to drink right!?

When we returned home we had a little bit of a group meltdown. No.. I don't want to describe it as a meltdown.. More of the finale to our honeymoon period. One of the girls had been causing problems with many members of the group and one of the other girls finally gathered the balls to confront her about it. So we're not down one large problem, a bunch of drama and one French girl. Annabelle decided that maybe Katimavik was not for her; with the little push from Sandra; and now there is finally peace in our house. The relief this has caused is amazing! We had been walking on egg shells for the longest time as many of us (myself included) were on the very verge of explosion. It is sad that Katimavik didn't work out for Annabelle and I do feel bad that she can't live out her experience, but I don't feel she had the maturity level for it. I think that this was probably the best decision for her as it is not healthy for a person to be living in constant conflict like she had been. I have to say that I am a little jealous as she gets to spend Christmas with her family, but there's not too much that could drag me away from my Katima-family!

Until next time!
Life is an adventure. Live it to the fullest!!

~Syd

Short blurb from the east coast

Time for a short blurb.

A new sense of excitement and joy settled over the Dieppe Katima-house this morning as we realized that it was the first day of December. (As if Danielle would let anyone forget it anyways!) I didn't really think about it until I started walking into the tooth brushing mosh pit in the bathroom and Kristen came at me like a spider monkey, pinched me and punched me while yelling "Pinch! Punch! First day of the month!" I think I just might bruise! You know that someone loves you when they don't hesitate to leave their 'love marks' on your arms!

C'est semain je suis la house manager avec Annabelle. This couldn't come at a better time for me really. We just get back from billeting and a full week of actual sleep and if I had to adjust back into 6 hours of extremely iffy sleep and work at the same time I think I'd have a mental breakdown! No joke! You know it's bad when a person would rather sleep on the floor vs the 'Katima-bed'. The first night back in the house after billeting I woke up at 5:00am and realized I couldn't move my neck. Anyone who has ever had partial paralysis would agree that this really sucks! I'm still not able to use my pillow as it creates painful angles with my neck. Vraiment pas cool!

This morning I decided that because sleep is futile in this house anyways I would make french toast pour tous le monde a six heure. Luckily it's not my day to do breakfast dishes! (haha poor Annabelle! :p)

I learned yesterday that while most people are done work on the 18th of December and don't have to return until we rotate to BC that I am required to work December 21st, 22nd and 23rd as well as the 28th, 29th and 30th! One could say that I am less than impressed! We will have to wait and see how that turns out I guess. I'm going to have a conversation with Marjo regarding this as I don't see it as just.

I'll try and keep this as up to date as possible.. Although I will make no promises as per usual!

Live Love Laugh! (I know it's not exactly original but I believe it's very important!)
Till next time!!
~Syd