Lucky Number Thirteen

Last week our Katimavik group got the chance to see an Omenica Ice hockey game at the local Vanderhoof Arena. It was a playoff game against the Huston Luckies and it was their final home game. Anthony’s work partner (I guess mine too but they didn’t really like me to much since I wanted to do more than scrub the arena windows) gave him the go ahead to use a key and sneak in the back Zamboni door to see the game free of charge. It was their way to thank us for all of our hard work, but in a lapse of communication it was not told to the security people, for the game, that we were invited by the arena manager and we were forced to pay a whole six dollars fee. For a playoff game it was extremely dead. There was maybe one hundred people in the crowd and that was including the Katimavik group. Puzzled we waited for the people to arrive and the start of the game. The game started but still only a few dozen others had joined us to cheer on our local hockey team.
Forty-three seconds into the first period the Huston Luckies scored a goal. It was at this point that another fan leant over to me and informed me that in the last three games the Omineca Ice had been outscored twenty-eight to six. After hearing that statement I prayed for a miracle which would never come. For the next two hours I wanted a hockey team get out played, out smarted and demolished. Half of the Ice’s players were either suspended for misconduct or they were at a wedding in the Dominican. They were at a clear disadvantage from the beginning. It was so bad that the head coach, for the Ice, found himself in the Beer Gardens instead of on the bench, with his players, during the third period. When it was all said and done they had been slaughtered thirteen to one. For someone who is not a fan of the sport this does not do much to help its cause. My future with this sport is grim. I may watch the gold medal hockey game for the Olympics on the T.V...but that is only if I am forced.

17 to 71

In Vanderhoof I got the chance to join a pick up badminton league. My partner there, for most of my games, was an amazing woman and her name was Ann. She was British and her love for the sport was incredible. Although she never told me her age, and I should not speculate on it, she is extremely full of wisdom because she was already travelling and living on her own by 1950. She taught me that badminton is a sport for the ageless. Everyone has their limitations but badminton allows growth for everyone at all stages of life. Even though it is a surprisingly strenuous sport, Ann was able to move around the court with great ease. Her sense of humor was also quite infectious. We shared some great laughs and it proved that friendships can cross generations. Thank you Ann for all that you taught me. Whether it was on the badminton court or off the court and related to life situations, you left a great impression on me.

Saying my Goodbyes

It has been nine days since my last blog post but relocating to Newmarket Ontario has been crazy and not to mention extremely busy. Nevertheless lots of stuff happened in Vanderhoof, before I left, which is blog material, so for the next seven days I will post an entry about my various goodbye stories to all of the people in the small town of Vanderhoof BC.

A Taste of India

This past week I have been saying my various goodbye's to all of the people to whom I have met here in Vanderhoof. Yesterday it was saying goodbye to my billets Zoe and Davy Dhillon. For 10 days in November and December they graciously took my into their home and let me stay with them as our project leader took his time off and "skied it up" in Jasper. Spending time with them was fantastic. They led a very active in healthy lifestyle, a lifestyle I would like to live when I become older and have family of my own. They way they talked to each other and communicated even through all the stresses of life was incredible. They have a dog that is barely a year old, named Teeka, and a gorgeous baby girl, Anya, who is only seven months. On top of it all Anya began teething while I was staying with them. They were super nice, easy going and fantastic to talk to. Anyways, the Dhillon's left yesterday, with their seven month old baby, to New Delhi India for a month long trip in the East-Asian country.

I am super jealous of the trip which they have planned. India looks like an amazing place to visit. I would love seeing a country where development is everywhere and seeing old traditions integrate with the twenty first century ideology. The other reason I would like to go there is because of the food which is unbelievable. In London the only Indian cuisine is a restaurant called Curry's and although it is pretty good I rarely got there. A plus, while staying with Zoe and Davy was that I got tons of Indian cuisine. I did try to replicate one of their dishes called chennas, a chick pea dish with spices,back at the katimavik house after billeting but I failed miserably because I didn't let the chick peas soak enough and then added ten times the amount of Coriander seed to the dish. It was so terrible that even Tom, known for eating anything, had to make a trip to A&W. In closing this couple left an amazing impression on me and I wish them all the best of luck not only on their twenty four hour flight but on their amazing journey which will take them half way around the world.

One Hundred Days of Katimavik

As of Thursday, I had spent one hundred days in the Katimavik program! It does not feel like it was one hundred days ago that I was in the airport, past security, crying for my mother. So much has changed and I feel like I have learnt so much from my project leader, my work placements and my fellow participants. I realize that I missed posting a blog about "one hundred days on Katimavik" on the actual anniversary, but life is not perfect and neither am I so here I am on the morning of day one hundred and two writing about two days ago. This has been an experience like no other and although there are things which I wish went differently I could not have asked for a better group. As we end our trimester in Vanderhoof I am slightly nervous. Newmarket will bring new opportunities but also new problems to overcome. I can not lie, there are definitely people I want to see as a I return to Ontario. I miss many friends and family dearly and not to see them would be a unbearable. I am hoping that seeing them will give me a boost of energy I need to “keep on truckin” though this program. Newmarket here I come and all I can say is I hope you don’t disappoint.

Smithers (Part Two)

When I left my blog last night I had written about my Cross country ski adventure. Cross country skiing is an amazing sport and I have a new found respect for the sport. I think the next step that I should take is trying and mastering biathlon because me with a gun and on skies would be the perfect combination. Any how back to my trip, after recovering (slightly) from the ski workout we all packed into the van and went to the movie store (to get films for the night) and to eat at Masayama, an authentic Japanese restaurant! Well almost authentic. The food was delicious but the only Asian person in the whole building was Shoshana, and she is part of our Katimavik group. Hundreds of pictures were take at the restaurant for no particular reason (most of them hideous) and one included an epic shot of Jessica fighting with me over the last Tempura (deep fried vegetables). My nose looks like a hundred times bigger than it actually is and my neck is freakishly long. Upon returning to St. Joseph's (our sleeping facility) we had a quiet night of watching movies and laying on virtually non existent mattresses as "beds".

The following morning we woke up bright and early, with aching bodies, to go on a hike. The trail was called Malkow Lookout and it was suppose to take two hours round trip. Unfortunately we read the signs wrong and ended up walking half way up the mountain and then we took a path which gradually brought us back to base. Determined to reach a good lookout point, half of our group decided to ``rough it out`` and make our own trail which went vertically up. Getting up the trail was not terrible. Pictures were taken and we even got on my camera a shot of Bigfoot. Unfortunately our sighting turned out to be a girl in our group who had strayed from the path (...oops). Coming down that ridge was not as fun. Gravity did not help us out at all and we hurtled down the side of this `trail`. Over all it was a great trip. On our ride home we stopped in Huston for a photo shoot with the World's longest fishing pole and we made it the whole way home with out any bathroom breaks, which takes skill!

Jessica and me fighting over the last bit of deep fried vegetables!

Jessica and Me looking very fine ;)

Bigfoot sighting!!!!! (it turned out to be Jessica...wow she is very popular in this story)

The World`s biggest fishing rod!

Half of my Katima-fam on our ``off the trail`` lookout :)

Smithers (Part One)

This past weekend our Katimavik group got the opportunity to travel to Smithers BC (after a grueling excursion protocol procedure) to see some of the beautiful mountains which Northern BC has to offer, seeing that Vanderhoof is the "Geographical center of BC" and has no mountains. We set out before sunrise on Saturday and arrived in Smithers, without incident, around eleven am. Our sleeping facility was an elementary catholic school that would have had a beautiful view of the main ski hill, if there weren't so many clouds. It was so dreary that seeing the base of the mountain was hard. Nevertheless we unpacked our van and headed off to the Bulkley Valley Nordic Center to go cross country skiing.

The temperature was about minus two degrees and lightly snowing so the conditions were perfect. We started on a trail called Pooch Paradise. It wasn't until half way through the trail that I realized that they named the trail Pooch Paradise because dogs were aloud to run along side their masters. After breezing through the four and a half kilometer trail, half of our group moved on to Pine creek trail which was ten kilometers. Cross country skiing is much harder than it looks. I spent the whole time trying to keep up with my Project Leader who had a serious advantage of me because he is over six feet tall and his strides are ridiculously big. Nevertheless I finished the trail with him and then skied a little more through the pain. All in all Tristan and I skied for eighteen kilometers. I felt really good mentally but I was so sweaty and disgusting that I was thankful for the down time we had back at the school. Our trip back did hold some excitement as we saw the first of the four moose we would see on the trip. Part two in my Smithers story will include eating almost Japanese food and climbing a mountain, but I am extremely tired and still hurting from my ski/outdoor adventures that I must get some much needed rest.

Andreanne and me getting ready to ski!

Jessica and I ready to take on "Pooch Paradise"

What is the plural of Moose; Mooses or Meeses??