I was fondled by an old lady...

I guess I haven't written on this for a while... woops.

WELL! To those of you who don't know.. I'm home from France. A little early.. but it's alright. Working at Club Correze was quite the experience, I'm glad it happened, but it sucks they dicked us around so much in the end.

If anyone who worked at Correze is reading this; thank you. The staff was the only reason it was awesome.. and the kids, some of them were fantastic.

Being home is a little strange, getting sick of hearing "how was france?" "good to be home?". There are about 300 different answers to those questions, all of which apply. I'm glad to be home because I get to drive my car again. I'm sad to be away because I miss the 20 or so people that I met on my trip. I'm glad to be home because my mom rules at cooking. I'm sad to be home because I miss the freedom of travelling. The list of things go on. Really I'm not happy or sad, just the same, moving on with life.

I'm definitely looking forward to the future, moving in with Eric in Victoria! It's all very exciting! Stoked to go back to school too... I miss using my brain.. I think it's atrophyed.

Today I was fondled by an old lady at the chilliwack exhibition. Made my day.

Does anyone still love me?!?!?

I have suddenly come to the realization that noone has e-mailed me in quite some time, and I have yet to receive a letter from anyone that isnt my parents. Robyn if you are reading this you are excluded and I have sent out my reply.

Anyways, I know everyone must have tons going on; I wish you would all write me to tell me about it though!! Basically I am ranting because I paid for internet and facebook doesnt work. Lame.

This past week has been rather eventful, a bunch of us [and by that I mean everyone who works here] went down to the lake and drank the other night; and apparently we arent allowed to do that, so our boss threw a FIT and we got a major bollocking, so two people left. Two other guys last week also quit, so now were down to about 12 of us I think, and more new people are coming.... wonder how long theyll last. This place is crazy that way; people leave at random. Ah well, weve got a new group here this week and the kids are hilarious. British kids crack me up.

I dont really know what else to write about; this place is like its own little world... there really isnt a way to convey this experience through blogging. I guess its life changing in a way.... Today I peeled potatoes for three hours hahahahahaha.

I miss Manning; I miss the Tercel; I miss Canadians, especially you whoever is reading this; I miss ketchup {IMPOSSIBLE to find ketchup here]; and I miss site 20.

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

French keyboards SUCK

I will first start by apologizing for my poor typing... this keyboard is WEIRD. VERY weird.

Alright, so Helen and I made it to work... it was hard, as Italian trains were involved, but we managed to get here with only minor incident. Our trip was amazing... we met rad people and had some pretty ridiculous experiences.

Work thus far is challenging and I think its going to be a crazy summer. There are only 12 of us staff members here so far, and everyone seems really awesome, even though theyre English [sorry Pete and Claude I had to throw that in there]. Its sweet because everyone is really active, so I already found a running partner and a climbing partner who just happens to have an extra harness... sweet. I dont know how much climbing there is around here, but apparently there are a few sport routes around.

Anyway, right now were doing staff training and setting up the centre, so there are no children here yet, but our first group arrives on Saturday: I am terrified. Basically Im going to be responsible for teaching either biking, archery, climbing [theres a little bouldering hut], fencing, rifle shooting, or orienteering... I think maybe some other activities as well. I dont know if youve noticed... but half of those I dont know how to do. Good.

Here is a typical day here at the centre, Im using yesterday as an example:

Get up at 7 and go for a short run.. [we dont have to do this... i just like to], have breakfast at 8:15ish... then do site work until lunch, like painting or raking grass or something. Anyway, after lunch we did fencing {which was really cool because we were taught by one of the best female fencers in France]. Then we went on the bike route to practice, i got lost twice, then some more random stuff until dinner. After dinner we usually have some free time to do chores or whatnot... but yesterday we got to go fencing at the fencing club; and it was the coolest thing ever. You get plugged in so when you get a point it beeps!!! yay!! [i JUST found the exclamation point]. Anyway fencing is cool... but she made us go against people who actually KNEW what they were doing... lets just say my loss was comical. By this time it was about midnight and i was EXHAUSTED.

When the centre actually opens; Ill be teaching three activities per day... so basically its scary.

Anyways, the centre doesnt have internet, and its hard to come into town to use it; so I probably wont be emailing much for the rest of the summer. Please continue to send me emails, but if im slow to reply youll know why.

If you want, you can send me letters instead!!! Mail is my favourite thing in the world, and if you write me Ill write back promptly, so please send me mail!!

The Address is

Club Correze
Les Gardes
19250 Meymac, France

Italian trains... shudder....

So here's the deal with Italian trains: they're awful.

We have EURAIL passes, which are good for italy and some other countries... that means normally you just get on the train.. and then they stamp your EURAIL pass. But SOMETIMES you have to reserve seats on a train.. you know... if its a sleeper train or something.. makes sense.. for overnight trains you want to get a bed and stuff.. but usually during the day its fine. SO we went to the lady and asked "Do we need reservations from Ancona to Firenze (florence)" she says "no" we say "Grazie" she says "Prego".

Sure enough, because we're in Italy, teh train arrives late, so we miss our connector. No worries we say, there's another one leaving in 30 minutes. So we get on the train and think "thank GOD this one is air conditioned" and have a seat. Well then the lady comes and goes on this HUGE rant about how you need reservations FOR ALL THE TRAINS IN ITALY. and we were like "NO WE DONT!" and she made us pay a fucking fine.. PLUS the stupid reservation fee.
SO basically, EURAIL pays for your fare... but there's a compulsory fee to pay for any train that's good.

Tomorrow, helen and I get to take an 18 hour journey through italy and into france. That'll be reseravtion fees up the wazoo. What's really amusing.. is that right now we're south of Meymac (the town we're giong to) and the train goes up to PARIS (WAY the fuck north of where we're going) and then two more trains and a BUS down to where we haev to go. HILARIOUS. good thing that's the best route we coudl take. hahaha. the only reason we're doing it that way though is because otherwise we have to take 3 italian trains, and surely we'll miss ALL the connectors.

ITALIAN TRAINS ARE THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE.

Other than that we're doing SPLENDIDLY!

(note: this post was originally written as an e-mail to Trevor.. but I thought it was amusing and decided to post it... way to save time Erika.. way to save time.)

Random update from Dubrovnik

So I haven't updated in a while I guess... I don't really remember when... ummm... TONS of stuff has happened!!!! I'll just include the highlights:

-Belgrade was somewhat uneventful, except for we met this randomer named Greg.. he's from Niagara Falls

-We went to Sarajevo.. and it's SUCH a rad place, the city is beautiful, cobble-stone streets and amazing lush hills surrounding it, but soo many shelled out buildings.. went on this tour there and heard a guy who was part of of the war talk about building the tunnel that basically kept everyone in Sarajevo alive during the siege, it was really touching. We also went to Mostar, another town in Bosnia, which has the most beautiful river Ive ever seen. Amazing.

(some RANDOM guy just came up and yelled YOU ARE NUMBER ONE!!!,... oh gawd..)

Anyways... back to what I was writing.... we learned tons of stuff about Sarajevo and I fell in love with that place.

We met up with Greg again in Sarajevo... along with a bunch of other people: Melanie from Edmonton, Melissa from Massachusetts, Jeremy from Georgia, and Jessie, Mike, and Brandon from Calgary... and now we're all travelling together. That makes nine.. in case you weren't counting. So anyways the nine of us took a bus to Dubrovnik with a stop in Mostar and we were greeted by a whole bunch of crazy old ladies when we got off the bus saying "NINE PEOPLE MY HOUSE MY HOUSE!!" it was the greatest greeting EVER. We already felt at home. So basically to make a long story short.. nine people got into a Yaris and a Fiat and we're now staying at a random old ladie's house in Dubrovnik. Dubrovnik is the most amazing city of my LIFE. ALL we've done for the past two days is swim in the gorgeous Adriatic sea in nice warm water. It's been completely awesome.

Last night we went skinny dipping at this little beach we found the day before. We swam into a cave and the little animals in the water make your skin glow..(Dynoflagellates I think theyre called... well we called them THE FLAG... but thats another story. Anyways it was the most beautiful thing ever... and one of the coolest experiences of my life.

Time to go!!! Internet is expensive here!

It's back to just the two Canadians...

Yesterday we had to say goodbye to Pete and Claude... it was tragic. The one downfall of travelling is saying goodbye to the people you meet, knowing that they live INSANELY far away from you. Argh... those guys were friggen awesome too... that was one of the funnest weeks of my whole life. Helen and I decided to leave work a few days early and to visit them in London... so I guess we'll see them again in a few months. Still though... it was a sad night.

Anyways, so now that we've parted ways with the boys, Helen and I are back on our own in Serbia. It was the scariest train ride of my whole life getting here. Crazy people were lifting up the seats and barging into our room all night... and the train would just RANDOMLY stop in the middle of nowhere, not even at a platform! I dont understand!!! hahaha. The best part though was when the border guard goes "where are you going?" "Belgrade..." "WHY?!" "umm... travel?" "ooh..." and looked at us as if we were CRAZY. I guess it's off the beaten path though.. because it doesn't seem as though too many backpackers come to Belgrade.

This city is so strange... there's garbage EVERYWHERE on the country side.. (Romania too) it seems as though they have a large garbage disposal problem here... it's strange. On the train we passed people living in the most deplorable conditions... I mean living in pure shit. It was sad. There seems to be a HUGE difference between the poor and the rich here.. no middle ground. Our hostel is in the centre of town.. and it's really busy and seems pretty fun. It's dirty and loud and smelly, but it's definitely got a different atmosphere. I'm looking forward to Bosnia, we're going there in 2 days.

and then I ran into a BMW...

Budapest, Hungary:

Getting here: 12 hour train ride... no PROBLEM right? wrong. Oh so wrong. We got our own little room thing, with one bench on each side. (We being me, Helen, Claude, and Pete... Claude and Pete are our new british friends that were travelling with now). Anyways, of COURSE we got the one with the broken heater... my goodness... it must have been about 40 degrees celsius in there, and we were supposed to SLEEP. We put all our backpacks on the floor so that we could all lie down.. and we died.. from heat stroke. We all have a new saying now: "I hate you with the heat of a thousand polish train carriages".. hahaha. In the morning, when we crossed the Hungarian border, Helen and I found out our tickets were only good for Poland and Slovakia... not Hungary... so we ended up having to bribe the ticket man with 40 Euros that we got from Pete... thank God for him or we would have been booted off the train in some shit town midde of nowhere Hungary... good. good. Anyways, the guys were with are pure hilarity... the most vulgar people ive EVER met, but good hearted none-the-less.

The city: Budapest is amazing... SUCH a beautiful city, and the most amazing bike lanes for bikers!! I love it! There are about 5 parks and we got here near May day so there were outdoor concerts and all sorts of fun free things to do. Good times. Compared to krakow though it is a little bit more expensive. The architecture here is so cool, the parliament is psycho beautiful and is just on the side of the river, that runs right through the city and separates Buda from Pest. Im fully impressed and glad we came here.

Crazy Hostel Night: On the website for our hostel, it says that its a big party scene, with a DJ until 3am sort of deal. Well, if by "big party scene" you mean the four of us and Chobby the bar tender giving us free shots... and by "DJ" you mean Chobby with winamp... you got it. Hahaha it was amazing, we were the only people here, and Chobby gave us random free shots.. and we drank absynth.. which was BAD BAD news. Bad news. I couldnt see straight, or really FUNCTION. The phone booth really got the worst end of the deal though.. oooh boy...

Bike Rentals: Today Helen and I rented a couple of bikes and took for the hills. All was going swell for a while.. went up a good hill with a beautiful view at the top... went down some fun hills (although the excessively large bike with no suspension was a little scary)... and then we got lost... just kept riding until we figured out where we were. We figured out the only way to get back to the hostel was to ride through the city... so we tried ridin with the cars... and well thats when I hit the curb with my pedal and crashed into a BMW... pushed its mirror all the way back... and then rode away and hid until he drove away hahahahaha. Ooooh dear.

So thats the story thus far... tomorrow were going to Debrecen (also in Hungary) and we dont really have a place to sleep... well see how THAT goes.