monday, march 9:
i worked at the school and tutored cree. i gave a one-hour presentation on aboriginal issues in social impact assessment for my class. it didn't go so well. i have a bad tendency to blank out when i am doing things from a physical perspective that is new to me. like, i had a really hard time in ukrainian dance remembering all the steps when we performed in a new place. my technique was fine, but as soon as the walls became unfamiliar, i just lost everything. same with giving tours at the legislature. as long as i always stood in the same place each time, i could just turn my brain onto autopilot and give my little presentation with no problem. but if i moved just a little, like to a different side of a statue or stood beside the mace case instead of behind it like usual, i would stumble over all of my words and blank out on my information. and that happened for my class presentation. i think i have a pretty good understanding of aboriginal issues in social impact assessment. i've done a few classes on it, and saw some of it firsthand when i was in guyana. but having to look at the class from the front rather than from my seat just totally threw me. i completely lost my train of thought about 5 or 6 times, and one of those times involved a terribly awkward 10-second silence. eek. embarrassing. after class i went home and sewed natasha's dress.

tuesday, march 10:
my dad called and woke me up at both 7:30 and 8:30, which irritated me because i had been hoping to sleep in. i ended up skipping working at the school and my first anthro class in favour of staying home and napping away a headache.

wednesday, march 11:
i had class in the morning, and then worked at the school and tutored cree. after that, i went to the university health centre to see if i had diabetes. i've been SUPER thirsty for the last 3 months or so, and nothing i do will make that stop. AND it has been hard for me to read the powerpoints in class, but that might be due to the technology actually being out of focus. anyway, the doctor said i was probably feeling thirsty because alberta is so dry, so she told me to get a humidifier for my room. she also made sure i had a blood test, which came back totally normal. which means i will continue eating ridiculous amounts of sugar! i celebrated my health by buying myself a cupcake on whyte. later on, natasha axed our craft night in favour of an ikea night. she coaxed me into buying a $3.99 plate of meatballs and potatoes, which i was wary of at first but then promptly shelled out another $3.99 for a second plate (we shared - i'm not a TOTAL glutton). we also saw one of my favourite kids from the elementary school that i work at. he was really excited to see me, which felt really nice. natasha ended up buying a really incredible drafting table, and i looked at bookshelves and wardrobes for the place i hope to move into in may. natasha also let me stop at home depot to pick up a humidifier. doctor's orders.

thursday, march 12:
i had class and work at the school, but no tutoring. i bussed to whyte after class and ate supper by myself at opa! then i met bethany at the princess and we watched "the wrestler." it was good. a little gruesome at times, but good. you should watch it. bethany was fun company, and i'm glad i watched it with her in particular.

friday, march 13:
i worked at the elementary school, and then met my friend melissa (a classmate in cree) so she could help me go over some artifacts i needed to analyze for an anthro class. i tutored cree at 4, and then LRT'd downtown and bussed home to vermilion at 7. my mom picked me up at 9:30 and took me home. i mostly just visited with my mom and ate blueberry crumble until i went to bed. i was a little bummed about missing jessica's show at the hydeaway, though, because i haven't heard her play for a long long time.

saturday, march 14:
this post will definitely make you think less of me. my dad woke me up at 9:00 (in vermilion), and after eating breakfast, we went to the college to watch the bullriding/bullfighting school (see page 5 of this link) that was going on. my dad's good friend doug was coordinating it all, so we stopped by in the morning to see how things were going. they had, like, 30 teenage/early 20s boys practicing bullriding, and 5 or 6 boys of the same age that would practice bullfighting after the bulls had been ridden. i really liked watching it. i liked hearing everyone holler encouragement at the boys who were riding or fighting. i liked seeing how the bullfighters could outsmart the bull just by timing their turns right - if they waited long enough and pivoted at the right time, the bull couldn't turn its body as fast as the bullfighter. easy peasy. at noon, the school took a break, so my dad and i picked up some KFC (where we saw kelsey's parents) and went to see my grandparents at the lodge. we visited them and ate and my gido vented about his irritation with peter pocklington. then my dad and i went to visit doris, who is kind of my grandma but not really. ask me about it. we went back to watch more bullriding (come on, vermilion's boring and i didn't want to do homework on the dial-up connection) and came home for some roast. appropriate choice, no? then my mom and i went BACK to the riding arena, where we waited until 7 for the professional bull riders show. my dad, as well as some friends from high school (brina and clarisa), joined me and my mom and we watched 30 guys ride bulls. it was really small-town-ish and i love small-town-ish things. so i had a good time.

sunday, march 15:
my mom made tea biscuits and my dad made bacon for breakfast. mmm. two of my favourite breakfast foods, and i hardly ever eat them. my mom forgot to put baking powder in the biscuits, so they were a little flat but tasted fine. dad and i went back to see my grandparents at the lodge. we also went to see doris again, partially because my cousin erin had brought a collection of arrowheads to doris' room for me to look at. erin's aunt and my former neighbour joan had collected about 40 projectile points over the last 15 or so years, and i was interested in looking at them because they pertained to my archaeology class. the points were collected from around our old place in innisfree, and a few of them are about 10,000 years old! that's kind of exciting, hey? i took the collection to my grandparents to show them, and they were pretty interested. archaeology is neat, even if it is geeky. dad and i went to watch some MORE bullriding after that, and then mom took me to the bus at 3:45. when i got into edmonton, the mom of the boy i tutor cree to picked me up and took me to their place for a quick tutoring session. then i went home. phew.