October 29th, 2002 "Jackass" - So admittedly, it's a stupid movie. But I love it.... I just got back from it, and it makes me want home. It reminds me of my brother, cause we used to watch it together, and it reminds me of escapades with Dave, Andrew and Brian. When we left the theatre, I wanted to head up to the PA skatepark and hang out and watch people skate and listen to them be funny. Jaret said "skatings for bitches" when I told him I wanted to hang out at the skatepark... this after he said he wishes he had the guts to do some of the things they did in the movie. Andrew, Dave Lisa et al.. let's bring some life to this desert

October 28th, 2002 "The Hungry Bears didn't get me" - Se we went camping this weekend, and as I told many of you I had hungry-bear-o-phobia..... but I made it! no hungry bears. No serial killers on the loose on a camp ground full of teenagers. yay! However it was ridiculously cold. I was rather unimpressed. It snowed. I've never seen snow in October before. I'm such a spoiled west coust kid :P.... oh well.... I had a good scarf and a nice hat with me, so it's all good. It's almost Halloween too. As I write this I'm at work and someone brought in a bag of Rockets, which are the best candy ever! However, I may not think so later. There's a kilo and a hlaf of them and I'm the only one who seems interested. We did this neat activity too at camp where we wrote letters to each other. not long ones. Just a sentence or two saying something positive about that person. It was really nice to write and even nicer to read.....

October 19th "Dinner and a Movie" - So a bunch of us from the team went out to eat tonite. We went to Milestones, and I had my classic order od a vegetarian Thai Noodle Salad and an Iced Tea. Go Milistones! and then we went to a movie. It was called "Abandon" and was directed by the guy who wrote traffic and starred Katie Holmes. It was alright, except that there were a bunch of Juniour High kids who would not stop talking. It was a good nite. It was one of the first times we went out together strictly in a social way. I think things are starting to fall into place on our "team".

October 18th "Family Ties - So my ever-so-lovely family came to visit me in Kamloops. It was grrrreat. We shopped abit, and now I'm stocked up on facewash and bodywash and all that jazz. We did a bit of shopping. Went out to eat lots. It was a good time. Last nite I discovered a good homesick book. "Where the Wild Things Are", no matter how far you travel, or for how long, there's always home.... no matter what adventures you have *sigh*

September 28th, 2002 "Renovations" - so the site has an entierly different looks now.... I took out the all that jazz photo and replaced it with a da Vinci scan from my other sitte that I had forgotten about I posted a cats review that has been hiding in this site along time.... and my counter is part one hundred!

yay!

September 26th "The New Girl - Our new participant arrived today! She seems very nice and has great shoes. they're from Aldo....

September 16th, 2002 "Out with the old...." - Jenn left today. It's quite tragic really. it would have been nice to have her around.

September 15th, 2002 "Water, water everywhere" - Deana started a water fight at Jenn's going away party today. She locked all her doors and started three hoses. I was one of the priveleged few who got to wield a hose. afterwards we soaked in the hot tub... it was really nice. Deana has a gorgeous view of the city lights....

September 14th, 2002 "Wells Grey" - Sights. Smells/ Sounds. The world is rich with them. I walk through the forest and hear the quiet, modest flow of the river. We go further and it becomes the aggressive roar of the rapids. Then we're there. At the falls. Now it's the deep, low thundering rumble that captures that massive scope of nature. The sight is breathtaking. really and truly it is. there's a globe shaped cavern carved out behind it. The water seems to fall in slow motion. I don't really want to leave here. I lay down on my belly and peek over the edge. I look down and see the mist rolling along the base of the canyon. It's soooo gorgeous. The rocks are deep gray and glimmering. I know that this can't be translated into words. the smell was fantastic. It was a rich, almost autumn smell. Everything was ripe and sweet. The combination of it was so overwhelming that it made me want to stay and live in it and experience it fully.

September 11th, 2002 "Pure Excitement - I found out I'll be working at the Kamloops Art gallery! I'm so excited!

September 9th, 2002 "Danka Shoen" - I got an e mail from Michael.. he's ready to be friends again :)

September 8th, 2002 "Serendipity" - So that Colin kid, from winnipeg went to school near where David lives. I'm going to have to do some investigating.... moving on.... We live with the Doyle's... Paul, Mary and Cailin. They seem very nice and very interesting. Cailin has been to India, which is pretty cool. All the host families welcomed us at tthis little hall and we had a barbeque and they found door prizes and it was fun.

September 7th, 2002 "A match made in...." - we got our counterparts today. Mine is Li Hai Bo. He seems like a very nice guy

September 6th, 2002 "Home" - I talked to mum today for the first time since I left. Shane has been having some anxiety either about school or about being home again, she's not really sure.

September 5th, 2002 "Promise to be...." - Apparently perfection can be found sitting on a dock with a nice girl at nite. We sat on a plastic love seat and gazed at the perfect scenery. there were the inky black sillhouettes of the mountains and the shimmering stars up above. In the water, the phosphoresence shimmered like fairy dust. We listened to good music and talked about movies and books and life and who knows what else.

September 4th, 2002 "Arrival" - Today was the day of the arrival of the Chinese participants.... It was so exchilerating. When they pulled up in the boat, everyone came running. There was an equal rush to help them with their luggage. Even though my elbow is still buggered up from the incident with the skateboard, I still did my best to help out. I think I might be doing permanent damage to it... oh well.... I'm not permanent.... I lead a game of group juggling with the group as a name game... I don't think it helped with about 40 names to be learned, but it was fun.... I got to have a translator! At dinner, it was sort of funny... all the chinese participants used forks and knives while all the Canadian participants used chopsticks..... I guess we wanted to show each other we were ready for experiencing each others culture.... and I discovered that blue jell-o is wierd... it really, really is.... I never thought about it before.... but yeah, it's hard to explain it and why it's so appealing, when it looks like a pile of goo....

September 3rd, 2002 "Unexpected" - So this is day 2 of the exchange. We're doing orientation at Camp Jubilee on Indian Arm in Burrard Inlet. It's not anything new to me, but it's new to so many others. It's really exciting for them. Everyone has so much enthusiasm. It's really neat to watch someone discover something. Actually last nite, I made a discovery. Phospherescent Algae.... I'd heard of it before But I'd never seen it... it's really bloody cool... when you disturb the water, it lights up. we're surrounded by huge mountains and dense forrests and low clouds and now everyone seems to want to move to B.C..... I on the other had, don't think I'd ever want to live anywhere else.... I don't think I'm amazed anymore though.... It's sort of made me think about when I got bored with my surroundings... they are really wonderful, but I don't wake up in the morning and have the amazement and enthusiasm as those who aren't from B.C... i dunno....

September 1st and 2nd 2002 "the cat came back" - Shane came home. Well, he didn't come home, but I found him. On the nite before I left, of all nites. It was so bizarre. So bizarre! I was going to the Galaxy for coffee one last time before I left, and as I reached for the door handle to go in, I looked inside and there he was standing up to get going. Elgin was with me and I turned around and looked at her and was like "My brother's in there".... Which I supppose didn't make much sense, but I wsa so shocked. The two guys he was with left and walked right passed us and I still just stood there. I didn't know what to do. I was scared. I don't know why. So I went in. and sat down on the edge of one of the booth seats. Shane had bolted for the bathroom. I guess the waitress could see it on my face that I was upset, and asked what was wrong.. I told her that my brother was here, and that still didn't make sense. I had to explain that he hadn't been home in months. I asked her to use the phone and I told Elgin to gaurd the door, which in retrospect was sooooo ridiculous, because she could have done nothing to srop him leaving. I phoned home and Aaron picked up and I told him that Shane was at the Galaxy his only response was "really...." and I told him to get mum over as soon as possible. (On the way over Isiah said go 80 Grandma" because he wanted Shane home too). So Shane finally came out of the washroom and he just stood there in front of me. And i didn't know what to say. So I started with "I'm leaving tomorrow and I won't be home til March".... and it just poured from there. Grandpa had been in the hospital... so had Trish... He missed Grandma's very first birthday party ever... and Amina (our cousins) first birthday... so much stuff... and it was so emoptional and all I could do was cry. Finally, after what seemed like forever, mum showed up... she asked where he had been and told him that we had missed him and then hugged him.... and he cried...... She brought him home and I stayed behind because I needed to take some time t calm down and recover from that rather emotionally draining experience. So I sat with Elgin and we talked... I apologized for her having had to be there for that.... and then I walked home and packed the lsat of my stuff... It was 2:30 by the time I got to bed..... Then I woke up at 5:30, had my shower, got ready to go and then Mum, Aaron, Shane, Isiah and I went out for breakfast at Smittys. and I know I said that it seemed normal to have Shane gone... but it seemed even more normal to have him there... and sometimes I would just smile because I was happy to have him back.