Day One Hundred and Sixty Three

     I have now been in the Kelowna Katimavik House for two full weeks, and I am half way through my stay here. It's funny you know. Outside of Katimavik, if someone were to tell me I was going to stay away from home for a month, I would have made a big deal of it. A whole month they were gonna send we away! And now, here, staying for a month, it is like nothing. I decided to come because four weeks to round out my program is just a hop skip and jump through the calender. And it truly feels like that but more at the same time.
      Scientists figured it out. Katimavik's 9 month program gave the participant ten years of life experience. I cam attest that the new 6 month program gives no less. You have to figure out things faster. Get your act, your group and yourself together faster. I am so happy I did this program.
      Last weekend, I had my third 48 hours off. If any katima-kids are reading this, they understand how great that sounds. For this time around I decided I did not want to stay in the house as I did with both my breaks in my last group. This weekend, I went to Vernon. The trip there was fantastically cheap. I was able to use the free city bus pass to ride the city bus all the way to Vernon. So when I say "fantastically cheap", I really mean "free." I spent the weekend with the Katimavik Group in Vernon at their motel rooms. We joked about the incredible sketch factor of our motel, stayed up to wee hours of the morning, and enjoyed our weekend off. On the second day, me and Emily, a gorgeous blond from Ontario, had our epic adventure.
     It started off with having breakfast at Denny's (it was my first time and I wasn't all that impressed). While the group decided to go skiing, Emily and I decided to economize our little money and explore the down town. Eric told us of a small mountain we could climb that had an amazing view. We went up and down the hard way because that was our style, and built miniature igloos on the top of the mountain. Our next destination was the center of the city. Emily wanted to show me the few sights that Vernon held for us. We ate the most delicious pizza, wandered the streets, waited at a bus stop for 20 minutes, wandered into a toy store to kill time, and walked out in time to see ALL the buses leave from the stop. In all fairness, the toy store was fascinating. They had a huge showcase of these tiny animals. Emily and I scoured the shelves, finding animals that meant something to us, whether it was from childhood (Emily's budgie named Blue Sky) or recent life (My tiger, Petite Tigre) or simply reminded us of our friends (Junaid's wolf). We loved scanning the shelves, blurting out the animals we found interesting. At the end of it we had picked up the three animals I aforementioned plus two more. Two foxes, one white, one red, sat among the small zoo we planned to purchase. These foxes, the same but different, represented Emily and I. While we were in the same boat on many things (migraines, writing, travel) we were different. The red and white foxes were tiny reminders of the bond we built over the two weekends we had spent together. We carry the foxes with us on our Katimavik journey now, no matter how close we are to the end. They tell us that we will always have a friend who is the same but different. Our journey continued to contain candy on the top of a different mountain in the night, being in the beginning of a horror story, riding in the back of a Lexus, going to a bizarre bonfire and collapsing into bed only to hear that the Katimavik house had lost all their power. Junaid and his sister, who originally planned on sleeping at the house, now were to crash on our floor. Emily and I smiled because we felt like this was the only logical end to our Epic Day of Epic Adventures.
     We now have exactly 14 days till the end of our rotation and our program. I am keeping in touch with Jessica and we talk like old high school friends on the phone at all hours. I miss her something awful, and she does me, but we both know that we have amazing lives ahead of us, and as for me, I'm just happy I get to be a part of her story.
     I have to go to work soon. I am half way through my last week of work. Next week I have been handed the nightmarish task of House Manager. I don't want to leave my job. I have made friends there and the residents are always happy to see me in the day. I will miss many of them.

But as we know, Every day is a new adventure, So no worries