01.06. January 27 2011

Step Backwards.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12295718

01.05 January 21, 2011

Sorry I've been quiet for a few days!
Started the internship this week and it's so great. I share an office with a guy named Rob, with whom I talk humanitarianism, politics, media relations, genocide, sustainable development and several other not-so-intense topics.


I have no idea what our age difference is...as I told him I don't know if he's 24 or 46, but he said closer to the latter. Anyway, we share an office on the 4th floor of the Jewish Archives Building. I have my own computer and desk and have been starting the preliminary stages of organizing a conference on the Will to Intervene Project; an off-shoot of the Responsibility to Protect Doctrine...
If you are interested in learning about them, I recommend checking out migs.concordia.ca and clicking on the W2I Link.

I have been hanging out a lot with a fellow Winnipeger, Ben, and he's letting me be a tourist here which is nice! There's still so much to learn though and I had a semi-break down last night when it took me two and a half hours to complete a drive that should have taken only 54 minutes. I realized that EVERYTHING has changed - from doing my laundry at the laundromat to grocery shopping at small local stores instead of big chains, to not having a car, to being a linguistic minority, to facing difficulties finding a job....the whole shebang.
Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated. I feel better today though. I'll be doing homework for my US History class (my prof is a riot to watch...he sits in a big leather armchair, and turns the TV screen on to Fire Place so that the lecture feels more like a Christmas Eve discussion rather than a class.
However, I've never had to talk about Roosevelt or the New Deal on x-mas, and I don't much feel like doing it now.

Hmmm what else...I'm still settling in. I'm hoping to hear from some Winnipeg friends and/or family about coming to visit...YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Well I'm going to get back to the fireplace. Today is a bit chilly but I'm in the countryside and when I'm not doing homework I think I'll go for a country drive.
Also, for breakfast, I had sliced banana, grapes, Camembert cheese and coffee.
I was meant for rural Quebec.

How is everyone else's January treating them? I relish in the headlines that Winnipeg is in a deep freeze...so how are you all surviving/coping with it?

Much love,

Katie

01. 04. January 15, 2011

 cockfights, crash test dummies, coladas: St Lucia 2011

hi mum!

chocolate piano. no big deal.

i'm actually drinking rum on the rocks!

morning routine.

FOUND!!!!!!!!!

Another photo for my mum

brilliant! wine and coffee shop!

23. st lucia.

view from the room

Hello! It seems I'm having to remind everyone I know to check the blog. I thought I was more interesting than that? Apparently not.

In my infinite quest for narcissistic tendencies however, I have opted to continue writing, if only for myself.

So on January 5th at 3:30am, while Winnipeg was I'm sure still celebrating New Years, Nico and I took off to St Lucia. We landed in Vieux Fort, in the South of the island. Someone we met on the plane offered us a ride North to Castries where we were staying with our loveliest couchsurfing host, Michael. For 20USD, the passenger's brother drove us to the North tip of St Lucia, and dropped us off about a block from our destination.

Not bad!

Michael greeted us with Chairman's Reserve on the rocks - a sweetly spiced locally-made rum. I actually managed to drink it without wincing, which surprised everyone.

The next day, Nico and I set out to the market in Castries via public transport, which is very similar to the matatus of Uganda. We found one, jumped in, and within about twelve seconds it registered. A very distinct "hmmm hmmm hmmmmm" - The Crash Test Dummies were playing on the radio. Fits of laughter erupted from me (you can never really escape Winnipeg....) before arriving at the bustling, Creole-inspired marketplace. We ate and shopped around a bit (I use the term "shopped" quite loosely - I left my debit card at home giving me a grand total of 78USD and 75CND for the 10-day trip). All the portions of food served were absolutely enormous and full of curryish flavour. 

That night, Michael's girlfriend prepared us some more local fare, which, to my detriment, was basically fish mixed with fishy tasting vegetables. I had two bites but couldn't hack it. However, I did resolve that from now on I will try at least everything once (future endeavours on the island included mussels, mahi mahi, something a rasta handed me and more rum than usual).

After a few days in Castries, which involved sun, beach, food, drinks, conversation we opted to go to a Friday night street party in Gros Islet - about 12 kms further North. 

w-o-w.

Every Friday night the streets close down and everyone comes out, vendors open, booze is served openly and everyone just dances and sings and parties and yells and laughs. At one point, I saw a girl who didn't look to comfortable, dancing with a local.

After studying them for about 30 seconds, and seeing her growing uncertainty/nervousness I jumped in, grabbing her arm and saying "DANIELLE!?!?! HEY!!!!" I'd never seen her before but my intention was that it would be a good excuse to scoot away from the creepy guy.

She was very confused and so I explained why I'd interjected and rescued her. She thanked me. I asked her where she was from and she said "Canada."

me: Me too! Where?

her: umm..Winnipeg?

me: ME TOO!!!!! WHERE?!!?!!?!?!??!?!?!!? (JUBILATION BURSTING THROUGH)

her: St James. 

me: ME TOOOO!!! (kidding).

So we grew up five minutes away from each other. And now we are at the same small-island street party. Did I mention you can't escape Winnipeg?

I asked what school she was at and learned she was in high school...taking a closer look I figured she was about 15. I felt...old? responsible? Winnipeg pride? 

Well nothing could really top that moment and we headed back to Michael's. Three more couch surfers arrived into his tinyish place and we were grateful to have arrived first so we got the bedroom, as opposed to the love seat/floor/back yard.

Headed to a new couchsurfer's, in the South inland. Generally the tourists stick to the coast so we knew we were going into some pretty thick rural St Lucia. What we DIDN'T anticipate was that our couchsurfing host would live in a club-turned-house, attached to a bar, full of children and pot-smokers alike, with a very active COCKFIGHT happening. The roof was corrugated tin, the walls were thin, everyone was drunk. The hosts were incredibly warm and talkative and their children were adorable but...just not our scene. It felt like a charity case, and I needed a vacation. 

The next morning I woke up at 7am to sounds of the children burping and farting and complaining about having to go to school. I went to sit outside, where, at 8:30am, I found a couple locals drinking the local beer, Piton. You know those days you wake up and wonder how anyone could possibly be drinking!? It was one of those moments.

I lasted another 4 hours before booking a seaside  hotel in Soufriere, on the Southwest of the island, surrounded by palm trees and the Caribbean sea, and of course the Pitons - cone shaped mountains unique to St Lucia. 

This is where we spent the remainder of our vacation, admittedly on the beach the whole time. We had had a lot of adventuring in our first 5 days and so opted to have a very relaxed end to the trip.

I've put some pictures up that showed some of the highlights of our trip. All in all, Nico and I decided it was the coolest trip we'd ever done together (better than Iceland, Vancouver, and even Grand Forks).

I'll have more stories coming up in time...hopefully this has been a good start though. I highly recommend couch surfing St Lucia, for what it's worth. 

I have to go work on my photo cloud - a wall-based collage of pictures and post cards. I finished unpacking (I think).. and suddenly, I feel like I'm at home.

I'm feeling very happy and relaxed and excited to start my internship on Monday! 

 

01.03. January 1, 2011

Wowzas.

Here I am. Montréal. So far SO good! I arrived on the 30th and picked up my bags and boxes (8 boxes, a 90 pound suitcase plus carry-on) with Nicolas and his father Serge. Arrived at the apartment and hauled everything up the spiral staircase to our front door. (Okay...mostly Nicolas did it)
Anyway, left everything a bit fat mess and immediately made some coffee and pulled out my bag of hemp granola and sat around with Jeanne and Nicolas. I tried to sleep but was completely abuzz and ended up sticking it through.
Went out to a dinner party with Nico and Jeanne. Their friends have a gorgeous apartment several metro stops away and we all pitched in some money and they provided us with some fantastic eats. Raw salmon on a pancake, topped with sour cream and caramelized onions; flat bread pesto pizza with sun dried tomato. Seriously...lavish.
There was a fellow Anglophone (see Mum, sooooo Quebecoise) named Rosie from Australia. She actually lives with a Winnipegger too. I reflected for far too long that it was hovering around 0 degrees while Winnipeg suffered -35. baha!
Yesterday Nicolas worked and so I was responsible for my OWN WELL-BEING! :-o
I showered (and successfully flooded the bathroom...oops) and unpacked ALL my stuff (in retrospect, a bit stupid since I have to pack it all up for St Lucia), arranged my room and all my possessions. Then I hit the road! I live very close to the metro station so I headed there and took the metro all the way to downtown, at Peel station. I met up with an old friend named Ben who lives here now. We went for a drink in old montreal and chatted and caught up and chatted and caught up some more. It was so lovely - how nice to see a familiar face in a new city!
Met up with Nicolas at his work - it was his final day at his job and it coincided with a dinner, so we scored a free meal. A metro ride and rainy walk home and then we celebrated midnight by not celebrating it...we didn't even look at the clock until 12:07. Oops.
Watched the Breakfast Club and then headed to sleep. All in all a very positive first day. I was on my own for a bit of it, challenging myself to figure things out, navigating through a new city. I also walked so much and I realize how restricting Winnipeg is in terms of walking. I easily walked over two kilmoetres yesterday, which isn't that much, but is more walking than I've done in a long time.
Unfortunately, my boots let in all the rain and puddle water and now I have to go buy new boots.
I'm about to leave to go pick up Moses from the airport and then we'll have a French evening, full of wine and baguette and cheese.

I hope everyone had a fascinating New Year's Eve. My resolution is to not settle for less. This will take a lot of self-exploration but ultimately a very good thing for me.

A Bientot,

Katie

ps. Pictures of the apartment will come soon! I promise!