Going on a trip... kind of...

So here I am again. Still in the Fort, still wanting to go home.

The second Friday of this month we had a party to welcome the new students. We started with a pre-party at Patrick's new place (another good old Saskatoon student) on Powder (fancy places have two rooms, one with a bathroom and a balcony to itself, another bathroom, in house laundry, and a maid every too months. I thought I was doing pretty well for myself but the more I see of other apartments it seems I got the bum end of the deal. The redeeming quality of my apartment is air conditioning which was a Godsend this summer but from now until the end of term is next to useless. All the other places have in house laundry (did I mention it was free)and two bathrooms one of which is an ensuite. anyways...) and went from there to the actual party, also in the Powder apartments. We weren't there long but as there were more than 50 people crammed into this little apartment all of whom were drinking, some much more heavily than those like me, it got very loud, very fast. I figured that a party in an apartment probably wasn't a great idea but as we no longer have people in the townhouses and we needed to have a welcome party I can't say I'm surprised. We were kicked out by 10 o'clock to the point of the landlord/manager calling to cops. Funny cause it doesn't have to be quiet in that place until 10 and we were out of there by then. Anyway, we were kicked off the parking lot so a bunch of us stood around in the extra foods parking lot (some sober ones so that they could go get their vehicles once the cops left) trying to decide what to do next. A number of the students moved on to Diesel, a bar near my place. There were about 6 of us though who decided to tone it down and went to some other student apartments on Loutit where the goal was to watch zombie movies but we basically just sat around chatting. If it weren't for that night though I would probably still be bored out of my skull.

Though I still long to go home it's not nearly as painful as it was last term as now I have friends to spend some time with. We do movie nights about once a week or so and don't do much other than chat and listen to a couple of them play with their guitars. It's a good time though and it keeps me busy. Two of them even have cars up here to come pick me up and bring me over ther (as I don't have a dvd player here it's not entirely conducive to having movie nights at my place.) I made them all supper last night and was told by one who seems to have a lot of things upset her stomach that it was the first meal since she's been up here that someone made her and she didn't feel sick after. Not to mention that they all seemed to enjoy it as their plates were clean after. I felt proud of honing my domestic skills!

Anywho, I should probably think about getting to bed as my little trip is going to Edmonton tomorrow (we have Friday off) and meeting up with Dez tomorrow night and Dan, Russ, Matt, Cindy and Chris Friday night for the weekend. I can't wait to see everyone. We have passes to the waterpark that I got cheap through the social club at work and it's going to be a good time I think.

Oh, noteworthy point. I went to my weigh in for this diet I'm doing and after 3 weeks I am down 5 pounds, two weeks between the 1-2 pound ideal weight loss gain and one week 2.6 lbs (explain that one to me, Dan was up and I didn't exactly eat as well as I was supposed to that week, I don't get it!) I'm excited that this seems to be helping. At this rate though I can lose another 15-20 lbs before I come home at christmas!! YAY!

Going to Saskatoon in a week from today. I can't wait!! I'm leaving early for the long weekend as my birthday falls on the Friday and I'd like to spend some time with Dan and Austin Thursday night. Sounds like Dan's taking me out Friday night and going out with friends on Saturday, Sunday is thanksgiving dinner and I leave again on Monday. It's all far too short. I packed up all of my summer clothes to bring home and they pretty much fill my big suitcase so I'll probably have to send some down with Dan so I have room for the stuff I need for the weekend! My rollerblades can wait until the next time he comes up I think. We'll see what I can make work!

Ok, bedtime as was stated a few minutes ago! Goodnight! Luv ya!

CANJAC

Enough of the blogger drama and on to CANJAC!

WOW! If I could spend every day doing things like CANJAC I would be in great shape, probably in the hospital from lack of sleep, but very happy every single day! Please excuse me if this is hard to understand cause it'll be a little bit all over the place!

For those who don't know what CANJAC is it is the Canadian National Junior Achievement Conference. For a week high school aged students involved in various Junior Achievement entrepreneurship groups from across Canada and around the world gather in a Canadian city (this year Ottawa.) They work hard for this week in different coloured houses listening to various speakers and participating in different activities to answer a vague, business related question. They work hard but they also play hard. As part of building their team they also develop house skits and cheers, gAIMs (activities they rotate through put on by the staff of each house), as well as social events, networking, and visiting the city. The question this year was "As future business leaders how do we fulfill our individual, team and corporate visions?" and the theme was "Fulfilling The Vision". In order to answer this question in a 10 minute presentation they heard speakers as a large group as well as from their house's sponsor company in the areas of Marketing, Process/Production, and Human Resources. Each house consists of about 25 students, 2 staff and 1 house co-ordinator. This year we were ORANGE house sponsored by COGNOS. We had students from all over Canada, Bahamas, Hong Kong, Germany, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Cayman Islands, and Norway.

This is our house!

Let's start at the beginning...

Wednesday, August 16th

All staff met for the first time save a few exceptions. There were 6 houses with 3 staff each (18) and black house with 7 staff for a total of 25 for those who can't add. Our opening meeting went over all the basics: schedule, rules, responsibilities, dinner... you know, all the important stuff. After supper we tried out the first gAIM put on by green house staff which consisted of taking newspaper and tape and being given the assignment of building a bridge the hieght of a pop bottle that could hold a bowl full of water. We were in two teams and we'll just say now that our bridge lost horribly! We then split off to meet as house staff to briefly bond together the three of us. I working with two men: Brent, our HC, who has been doing CANJAC for the past 9 years, and John who was with us last year in logistics but did a wonderful job this year with the students as well.

Here's a picture of us!















That's John, Me and Brent.


And all of the staff...














After the house staff meeting we got to paint our staff t-shirts which would be worn for the gAIMs day (instead of t-shirts, the students painted banners for this one, put on by orange house staff) and after this it was bedtime!

Thursday, August 17th

First full day of work. Breakfast was at 7, and trust me, there's no skipping breakfast here! We participated in 3 more of the gAIMs:

1) Putting together a large puzzle blindfolded, and then taking the blindfold off one of them and having them direct the others. This was put on by yellow house staff.

2) Participating in an obstacle course during which some get "blinded" some become "lame" and others end up hanging from a tree. The students didn't get to do this one as the day we did the gAIMs was the one day of the week that it rained and this was definetly an outdoor activity! This was put on by blue house staff.

3) Another activity that they found a replacement for due to rain. We had to "neutralize acid" by walking across planks to a small circle on the other end without falling in. This was put on by red house staff.

After a great morning outside we had lunch and started in on acutual training with things like time & stress management and goal setting. After dinner was a mall run for any last minute items we may need, some time for decorating/planning and the final gAIM - learning all the cheers. This was led by purple house staff. We also put together our own skit and song for the "opening ceremonies when the students arrived.

Friday, August 18th

I think the training is probably the hardest to get through because after little sleep you are sitting listening to people for most of the day as opposed to running from one place to another with the students. Today we did training all day with breaks for lunch and supper. In training we had the opportunity to practice our own facilitation skills and those sitting were the toughest crowd we would have to deal with all week, man did they give us a hard time! We also were given half an hour to put together our answer to "the question" to present briefly to the HC's. At least we have an idea of what the students will have to go through. After dinner we did a bit of decorating of the classrooms and halls. We met later for staff rehearsal of the skit and song.

Saturday, August 19th

The morning was spent wrapping up our training followed by lunch and preparations to welcome our students whom we would officially meet at dinner that night. We had our first General Meeting (all of the houses together) after dinner where we held the "opening ceremonies." We went from there to our first House Meeting where we did icebreakers and all of the basics like rules, introductions, distribution of t-shirts and developing of house identity.

From here the week was a blur! We got about 5-6 hours of sleep every night, when someone wasn't sick that is! Here's a quick overview...

Sunday, August 20th

We did the gAIMs most of the day, unfortunately had to be held indoors due to rain but still turned out pretty well, they learned a lot and that's the important part. Brief house meeting in the afternoon and general meeting at night with networking. All of the students received JA business cards to network with members of the business community (largely staff!) followed by another house meeting to prepare for our speaker in marketing the next day. Black House Frolics!! The staff gets to wind down with official hang out time together. The staff lounge was always well stocked with good food (and chips, and cookies) and Nancy would lead us in a game of sorts. It was always good times and always went late!

Monday, August 21st

Corporate tours. We went to COGNOS and had some speaker give us an overview of their business and got shown some of the perks of working there such as a gym and beach volleyball courts. They provided us with sandwiches and veggies for lunch. On our return we had a general meeting in marketing presented by Wendy Kennedy - president & CEO of wendykennedy.com inc. This was followed by a house meeting where we had John Blackmore from COGNOS come and answer questions about marketing. In the evening we prepared for the next day's process/production speakers and prepared skits and cheers for the following evening.

Tuesday, August 22nd

Pictures first thing in the morning followed by our second general meeting presented by Mike Hicks of Hyperactive Communications Inc. Again, we had a house meeting, this time presided over by Abdel Hamar Lhadj to answer our process/production questions. We followed up and prepared for Human Resources next day. That afternoon was free time. Some used the time to sleep but most went out on the town. I went with Kailena, Mark, and John to go down to Rideau Centre (mall) and the market which was pretty neat. The four of us and Yannick (who we ran into on our journeys) then went and got henna tatoos in our individual house colours. We had supper at a pretty cool buffet where we drank smoothies out of sand pails (that we got to bring home after.) It was a good time. That evening was skits and cheers. I was so impressed by our students. They were told to do a news program and for every scene they had people laughing. Their ending with a mock boy band of six of the guys calling themselves the "three blind mice" singing with hand actions to Do, A Deer from Sound of Music and one of our young men from Sri Lanka dancing in front of them had the audience howling. It was pretty cool. Frolics, frolics, frolics!!

Wednesday, August 23rd

Human Resources general meeting lead by Anne Graham of AVP Leadership Institute and Canadian Medical Association followed again by a house meeting of the same subject lead by Angela Roberge. We did a brief overview of everything before they were to work on answering the question. That afternoon we went over the presentation rules and got them started on developing that. They seemed on the right track so we pretty much left them alone. For dinner we went to a barbeque in a nearby park which was a nice way to spend some time outside with everyone together. We met back for another house meeting where we set them to work again on the question. At about 10 o'clock all hell broke loose. They determined they were lost and didn't know where to go from where they were so they would have to start over. They got some good brainstorming in together during which a mild conflict developed between two of the students. We returned to the dorm floor around midnight for birthday cake for Nicole and then they were to go back to work on the presentation from the floor as they would have little time the next day. Unfortunately the conflict from earlier came to a head so Brent sent them to bed so they could cool down and deal with everything tomorrow (and so we wouldn't have to clean up anything that was any more messy than it already was.) It was nice to wind down with frolics that night though they started (and ended) later than usual due to people working on the presentation until late.

Thursday, August 24th

Last day already! Sure didn't take long! Presentations and dry runs were completed in the morning and presented formally after lunch followed by "closing ceremonies". After a short break we had the very fancy banquet and awards ceremony. At the awards ceremony two achievers from each house formally thanked their staff with a little speech and certificates. They referred to me as the big sister of the group. Apparently they were going to say I was the mother of the group but then they decided that made me sound old so they changed it! We changed and went to a dance (go figure that the two achievers that had had the conflict the day before were seen dancing... rather close... together) following which we had pizza and pop in a house meeting that lasted until 3am as some of the students were leaving on a bus at 3:30. It was very emotional, lots of tears were shed. The achievers received CD's, certificates, cookbooks (Eat, Shrink and Be Merry - One of the authors was to be one of the general meeting presenters but couldn't make it so they sent books for all of the staff and students) as well as waterbottles and pens from COGNOS.

Friday, August 25th

Most of the students are gone and those that aren't are no longer our responsibility. Much of the staff went to lunch together at a place down by the market. It wasn't great food, or service, and cost too much but it was nice to go out with everyone. At 5pm we met again to go on our staff thank you evening. We received a pen set and an engraved glass inukshuk as gifts from black house for our work over the week, as if the experience and the paid trip weren't enough! We then went to Rideau Carleton Raceway where we had an incredible buffet dinner, it was huge! We were also given $2 each to bet (I bet to win and my horse placed... it was in the lead right up until the end... oh well, I was betting on names anyways!). We were also given a ride in the pace car which 4 people got to go in and we went down and had our picture taken with the winning horse of that race. It was pretty fun. We then went to a bar where we danced and partied until 1 or 2 am. I don't know what it is about Ottawa but they don't know how to play Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" all the way through. That is a staff song that we have a dance to every year and thought it was played twice over the last couple days it was always cut off shortly after the baseball sketch. We were pretty ticked but kept right on dancing to whatever they put on next. There's always next year anyway!

Saturday, August 26th

Got to the airport and because of the mixup with my flight on the way out I had to go through manual checkin which took about half an hour! I met up with a group of people in the food court just before I had to go through security. I said goodbye, gave more hugs and kisses and could no longer hold back the tears. I can't wait to go back next year (as long as wherever I'm working will let me do that as well as my honeymoon the month before!) I went through security, grabbed a quick sandwich at Timmy's and went to my gate where everyone was already boarding.

My flight from Winnipeg to Edmonton was delayed an hour or so but I still made my connection so all was good. My wonderful Danny came and picked me up from the airport here in Fort Mac although the next day would be spent unpacking and monday he would have to go home already again. It was good to spend the time together. He comes up again this weekend. I can't wait to see him! My arms feel empty and I long for his kisses and cuddles. I love you honey! Goodnight.

A quick note

For anyone who was offended by my last blog in any way. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude. When I begin blogging I do a lot of thinking and a lot of emotion comes out as well. I was very frustrated and needed a venue to release that frustration. I figure this is a better place to put those thoughts than just talking to friends. I tend to shy away from confrontation with most people and in this manner of expressing myself I know that if I say anything about anyone they have the ability to read what I've said. I find it is better that I put it somewhere that can be read so that those who may be involved can know exactly what I've said or am thinking. Again, I'm sorry if anyone was offended by it. If you want to discuss it you know where to reach me.

It's been a busy month

Hey hey!

My mom has been pestering me to blog and I suppose it has been quite a while since I did that so here goes. It's been a very busy month as you can probably presume by my not blogging and the title of this one! So, here's August:

Weekend #1:
The long weekend.

I flew home, as planned, Friday right after work. Half of the goal of this was to get a budget for the wedding and talk to both sets of parents about it. I finally managed to get an idea of numbers and received some ideas from both sets of parents. Dan's mom had some good suggestions that I hadn't thought of before but there are a few things that she's pushing for that I don't want. She wants an evening wedding with reception that only has a night lunch. I want the traditional afternoon wedding so pictures can be done after and I like the idea of having a dinner. I have no problem cutting down my guest list so we can afford it but she claims this is something that shouldn't be sacrificed. It's frustrating but we'll get through it. I got some good suggestions about flowers from friends too.

Went to Abra's wedding. Shortest ceremony I've ever been to! It was a civil ceremony so there wasn't a lot of traditional things that had to be done. We told her we'd help out a bit with selling tickets at the bar. Turned out at the reception the only people we knew were Abra and Dave so selling tickets wasn't so bad aside from not being able to go dancing. We also helped clean up some of the garbage from supper. Her cake was incredible. Chocolate with delicious white icing. Yum!! At the end of the night as we were leaving we went to say our goodbyes and thank yous and congratulations. She offered anything she could do for our wedding to let her know. After we found out that her mom made the cake we asked about the possibility of her making one for us too! Abra said it shouldn't be a problem and it was the least she could do so at least now that's covered!



That is the happy couple, Abra and Dave, congratulations!

We went for supper Sunday night at Otawa japanese restaurant. It was pretty good. Then we went back to Dan's for the usual geekery: the lan party. Liz, Dez, Russ, Dan and I played a good couple games of Starcraft. It was nice to get out with them again. I miss them all terribly!



The girls!



and the foot shot!



The lan!

I came home after a long, stressful weekend with my final flight delayed a couple hours so I didn't get home until about midnight/1 o'clock in the morning. I was a very tired girl the next day. One of the days I was checking out the student site and I see under "Giving rides": "To: Saskatoon" "Leaving after work Friday, return Sunday." I said hey, why not, carpooling home is a whole lot cheaper than flying. I contacted the guy (Shawn) who was offering the ride and he said there was room for me so home I went for a second weekend.

Weekend #2:
Road Trip!

We left right after work on Friday which meant I got in around 1 am. We made pretty good time from the Mac and it was an amusing trip with 2 other guys (Andrew and Chris). We dropped Chris off in Lloyd so after that I could stretch out on the back seat and sleep and Andrew could put his chair back and do the same.

When I got to Saskatoon it was straight to bed. I was wiped! Dan and I went for supper the next night and when we got home we had, you guessed it, another lan party! It's pretty sad I know, but it was a lot of fun. It gives and excuse to hang out with my friends that I don't get to see when I'm up here in the middle of nowhere.

We went to visit my parents Sunday morning from which Shawn picked me up. He, Andrew and I had been invited to his parent's farm house for lunch. Mmm, homemade corn chowder and fresh buns with cheese and pickles followed by a freshly baked cinnamon bun (I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!) It was good stuff. Shawn took us on a small tour of the farm, showed us the land, the cows and the horses. Andrew was fascinated as he had never seen these things before. I found it nice just to be out there, I miss going to the farm!

From there we begun the trip here again. It will never be home to me. We picked Chris up as we passed through Lloydminster and got back to Fort Mac around 11 or so. I'd definetly do it again!

Two days later it was time to leave for CANJAC (YAY!!) in Ottawa. My plane was scheduled to leave Fort McMurray at 6 so I was out of the house by 4:30 to get to the airport on time. Super early, nobody should have to see that hour of the morning! Got my boarding passes, went through security and was waiting patiently for my plane which was to take off in an hour. All of a sudden there was a message over the intercom for anyone going to Calgary the flight was cancelled and to go to the front desk. As it turns out, when the plane came in the night before it had been struck by lightning in the storm and they wanted to inspect it before they would let it fly (which is good that they won't fly something remotely unsafe, but still terribly irritating as this meant I had had to get up early so I could get to Ottawa at a reasonable time so I could go for supper with some of the staff.) They ended up finding another flight for me that got into Ottawa at 7:30 and didn't leave Fort Mac until around 8. I called Jen, my contact in Ottawa, to let her know I would be arriving late and proceeded to sit around the airport for a few hours as it is a $40 taxi trip each way to my apartment and back. This flight went through Edmonton and Toronto so because it was a cheaper flight (more connections) Air Canada actually gave me a "free" meal. I didn't know they ever gave ANYTHING away for free anymore. It wasn't very good but it did the trick at least to satisfy me until I got there. When I got to Carlton University... finally... I unpacked and went straight to sleep as I was sooo tired!

I will tell you more about CANJAC when I return. For now I am leaving for the beach, I'm just glad to get out of the house! Later!