Wachiya!

Wachiya toute la monde!
Hope all is well for everyone, cause its awesome up here.
I am having a blast. We just got our internet today, yeah it took a while. I was at an orientation camp from the 17th until the 23rd, and we got up here around noon on that day. Funny little anecdote:
The luggage from my group weight almost 1000 lbs., so the plane couldn't take off from one of its stops in Val D'Or, so they removed our luggage from the plane.
Whats funny about this? Well we only found out once the plane was in the air and had already left the airport and our luggage was still sitting in the airport :D
Yes, it wasn't actually funny at all, it was very annoying, alas we got it safely the next day and brought it home.
Okay, so the orientation camp was tonnes of fun. We were with two other groups, and there was plenty of games and food and campfires and joking around. I even picked up a french accent for a couple of days because there were so many frenchies around me. So the other two groups left on the Sunday because their first placements were in Ville Ray and Ville Emant which are both in Montreal. So my group and myself had the whole camp to ourselves for 2 nights and 1 day, it was fun fun fun but we missed everyone else. Finally Tuesday came along and we all woke up late at 4 am so we had to rush to the airport, and there was no point to that because once we got their the Air Creebec desk wasn't even open. There is such thing as 'Cree Time'. They like to take their time doing things, like with this internet, that we were supposed to have last week and just got today after Marc (our Project Leader) actually took the computer into the place and made them do it. Either way, they are very nice but timid people, and they are very accomodatin and have been very nice to us.
Our house is brand new, with new appliances and everything, except for the cooking pots and all that stuff but who cares, they get the job done and everyone is happy with it.
There is a lot of construction up here and a lot of children. They seem to hang around the general store and eat candy a lot. They are extremely shy but a few of the brave ones approach us and
ask us stuff, and usually laugh at everything we say or do or whatever we are wearing.
The weather is not too bad, yet. The days are beautiful, nice t-shirt/sweater weather, but the nices are SO COLD! I guess thats what for coats are for though right?
We all took a walk out the other night and got to see the Northern Lights, which was, combined with the stars, probably the most amazing thing I have ever seen, and they weren't even in their prime, they were "faint" apparentyly. I almost cried because it was such a beautiful sight.
I've forgotten what I've written so I'm going to point out that I work at the daycare as a cook/receptionist, which I start next week and I am super excited.
And I have to share my laptop so I must be on my way. I will try to update more frequently.
Take care y'all
-Megan

p.s.- wachiya means hello/welcome in Cree...and CHIP-CHEE means STOP and its written in all these funky letters that i can describe as 'candycane, triangle, two squiggles, candycane dot' :D

The Sun'll Come Out, Tomorrow

AH AH AH AH!!!!!

Tomorrow is the big day!!! Am I finished packing? Nope. :D

Well today is very exciting for me, I've got a lot to do (packing and making sure my room is clean) and I don't really feel like doing it but eventually, I will start.

I was very happy yesterday to find out that Chisasibi does recieve service from Telus, meaning I get to keep my phone instead of putting it on 3 month vacation, and on top of that, I have free calling to my fave 5, which is awesome!!!

Also, I've already met 6 people from my group, and I've been chatting with them! Thank you Facebook!! So just to let everyone know, my housemates for the next 9 months are:
1. Kalleena Hunter
2. Rachelle
3. Anna Slater
4. Monicka Lemelin
5. Kayla Hodges
6. Garrett Gunning

*Including my Project Leader, Marc Guilbeault

With myself included that makes 6 girls already, so I'm assuming everyone else will be of the male gender.

So this time tomorrow I should be sitting on a Greyhound bus on the 401 East right outside of Kingston, bored out of my brains haha. I'm going to miss everyone so much, and my room and my bed and my cat and normal food and warm weather (by the way, high of 9, low of -2 next Monday, our first full day in Chisasibi) and well, wish me luck!

Take Care,
Megan

8 Days Left!!

Okay, this is my first blog, it might be lame.

Right so just to fill you in, I leave next Wednesday morning (the 17th) at 9:35 a.m. for Montreal, where I will be in an orientation camp for a few days. From there my group will be heading up to Chisasibi, Quebec, a small town in the James Bay region of northern Quebec. It is a town of about 4000 residents, mainly of Inuit and Cree origin, meaning they speak neither English or French, so this will be quite the experience. I understand that I'll be able to see Aurora Borealis while I'm up there, I've never seen it before so I'm pretty excited!!! On January 7th, 2009, we'll be flying out to Burnaby, British Columbia. This is a fairly larger city right outside of Vancouver, and my cousin (he lives in Coquitlam, excuse my improper spelling if need be, right outside of Burnaby) says that there is a very nice shopping mall there :) So we spend three months in Burnaby doing our thing, and then on March 25th we're flying back to Ontario, to the town of Woodstock, which is not too too far from Toronto, so it will be like being home, but not really home hehe.
Sooo it's T-minus 8 days until the big departure, technically 7 days since my bus leaves bright and early in the morning (and I arrive at 4:05 p.m., followed by another bus departure at 5:15 p.m. that will stop by the airport to pick up more people before we head out to orientation camp, and I have no idea how far that is from Montreal, LOOOOOONG BUS RIDE!!!) :).
Anyways my sad attempts at packing are giving me some results. I've managed to squeeze in a winter coat, snow pants, winter gloves/hat, sleeping bag, towel, bed sheets and shoes, while sparing some room for actual clothes (this is not going to be fun).
Oh, on top of all of this, I have to keep clothes out to wear for the next 8 days as well as pack my backpack for 3 days of camping, any volunteers to help me out?
I think I'm done this blog now, I don't know if I'll be able to update it very often in Chisasibi, we'll see if they even have internet up there lol. As for now, I've got some stuff to take care of at the bank.

Take care,
Megan