a wise rabbit once told me...

11:48pm Friday, Aug 31

hey guys!!! i made it to moncton safe and sound! OMG, these past 3 days have been CRAZY you would not believe. i arrived in halifax, nova scotia on july 28, and i met the other 8 canadian participants in my group at the airport, as well as 9 other canadian participants doing another exchange with canada world youth (CWY). we all went to a training camp in halifax for 3 days. seriously, if i could have a camera crew follow me around, you guys would all be laughing your asses off.

when i said CWY would be complete opposite of JET, i was not exagerating. instead of the swank keio plaza, CWY rented out a BIBLE camp in the middle of nowhere for our orientation. so there were all these posters and drawings on the wall, with inspirational sayings like "don't be like bill. bill doesn't know god. mike knows god. be like mike" and the food was typical camp food. for lunch i had cheese and tomato sauce toasted over hamburger buns. swank

and while i expected myself to be the oldes participant at age 25 (tech the programme is only for ppl aged 17-24), i didn't expect there to be so many TEENAGERS. ok, i should clarify. there are two CWY groups going to china. one is my group (moncton/yichang). we're all aged 21-25. and theres the younger one (charlottetown/yichang) and they're 17-20. so the first 3 months we won't be together, but in china we will. i have never felt so old in my life as i did during those three days at orientation. i just kept thinking...what have i gotten myself into? it's like i'm hanging out on the set of boy meets world or something. god, what a dated reference, i'm so out of the teenager loop.

anyways, on the second day our chinese counterparts arrive. when i say day, i mean 3 am. so the chinese girls going to moncton slept with us in the same cabin. one of the chinese girls, nancy (she pronounces it lancy) pulled something out of her suitcase. she asked us "what do u call this in english?" i didn't have my glasses on, but i was like "are those num chucks???!!!" they were.

we hadnt decided who would be paired with who yet, but we were given temporary partners just to show them around the camp. i got a girl named chen man (she gave herself the english name andy). her english is how we say...not so good. anyways, she clung to me like glue! at breakfast she's like "where's karen" and when i get up to go to the washroom she looks really panicky and asks where i'm going. i had to fill out my visa application, and i told her to do her own thing. she told me she'll wait for me. umm...okaaaay.

right, so yesterday morning ben (our project supervisor) decided the fairest way to decide permanent partners was to do a random draw. me and luwam (she's also from mississauga!) were joking around saying that she'd get num chuck girl, and i'd get the superclingy one. i think we jinxed ourselves cuz thats who we got!!! lol...its okay. i think its funny more than anything. but one thing i do have to teach andy, apart from alone time, is personal space. shes one of those close talkers. u know the type, every time u take a step back they step forward. i gotta be tactful about it just cuz my mandarin is shit, and her english is shit, and i dont wanna insult her.

today, we got assigned our host families. mine is a single mother named gina, who has a 14-year old daughter thats there every other week. she's francophone but speaks really good english. and she's a dietitcian! which hopefully means i'll be eating really heaithy! she's away this weekend running a marathon, so i'm staying with a temporary host family. i'm really looking forward to working on my french, because moncton is a bilingual city. but people have warned me that they speak acadian french here. it's a mix of french and english called chiac. ex. "je vais parker mon car"

these next 6 months will be a challenge to say the least. while i have had my doubts, i do feel this will be a very transformational experience. it's a once in a lifetime deal sure to be full of surprises. i'll find out my moncton work placement by friday. oh, and i already know what i'll be doing in china. you'll never guess. teaching english. lol. figures :-P

man an! (good night)

"Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out alive." -- Bugs Bunny.