We've been given so much information in the past few days! There are a lot of rules to follow but most of them are straightforward and easy to remember. One big bonus in all of this is that because I'm bilingual, I hear the information in French and then again when it is translated for the Anglophones. So I have a bit of an advantage as far as absorbing all this information.
We eat so healthy here! It's really exciting. Yesterday we were told about how we will be expected to plan menus when it is our turn to be house manager for a week. The house manager will stay home from their work placement and clean the house and cook dinner for everyone. It sounded like it would be hard to make a menu that is diverse and meets our guidelines but it was very easy. We can cook whatever we want as long as it contains all the food groups with an emphasis on vegetables (so usually we would choose a main dish and then put a vegetable dish on the side) and we can't eat meat with dinner more than 4 days in a week. So an example of a good meal would be vegetarian burgers on ciabatta buns with sweet potato fries on the side, or chicken gyros with greek salad on the side. We have a zillion recipe books and some suggested weekly menus already so it was really easy to come up with the practice menus that our Project Leader (PL from now on) asked us to make.
Today for lunch we all made individual pizzas on whole wheat pitas. I made mine with bechamel sauce that was left over from dinner on Friday instead of tomato sauce, and topped it with Spinach, ham, little chunks of feta cheese, and lots of grated mozzarella. It was fantastic! It's never occurred to me to make something so nice for myself for lunch. I feel like I'll continue to eat healthy when I get home because I never knew how much fun it could be.
Today we toured most of our potential work placements. There are still a few to check out tomorrow. I was really excited during the tour of the women's shelter because we had been told only a Francophone girl could work there and I was disappointed to hear that because it was a place in which I would be interested. But then when we got there I asked if an Anglophone could work there if their French was strong enough and the director said that wouldn't be a problem! And to make that even better, the other two French speaking girls had no interest in the place so (knock on wood) I have a pretty good chance of getting to work there. I think it would be so rewarding. Also, I wouldn't have to pack a lunch (only a few of the placements provide lunch for their volunteers), clean up horse shit (one placement is a farm), or go outside much (the daycares, while awesome because kids, talked about going outside with them. Well, -10 is a warm day around here and -25 happens. So, no thanks). Sounds good to me.
I'd like to talk about the dynamics emerging in our group because it's so interesting to see how everyone is interacting but I'm very, very tired. I actually took a nap before supper. I don't know what it was about touring work placements but I was exhausted when we got back. I have to be up early again tomorrow so I should get to bed now to ensure at least seven and a half hours of sleep.
It's hard to balance socializing with this group, keeping in touch with people back home, and getting a decent amount of sleep (I prefer ten hours). I guess I'll get the hang of it though; it's still early.
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