Things to Look Forward to

I have such a growing list of things that I'm excited for and that should be arriving here soon and I am super pumped!
-Bad Veins CD should be in soon to the store I ordered it from. Really rad band from the US. I love their beats and their lyrics are magical. (Totally love Dan Black right now as well.)
-My Contract for Nannying in Holland should be here on the Asap, that means it's as offical as it's eva gonna get!
-Tribal Earrings from Etsy I ordered today. Mad loveee. Makes your ears look stretched and they're made from scanvenged water buffulo horn so no animals were harmed in the making. Yippie!
-I'm getting a new battery for my laptop because this one is shot.
-I'm expecting a letter from my lovely Jessica in Montreal. (I remember when I lived in Quebec City and her letters would take one day to get to me!)
-Sarah from Calgs said she's sending some love my way so I'm pumped for that.
-And I may or may not get approved to get my first credit card!
So Chea, gots the goods to watch out for.
Je suis tres excitie pour tout dans ma vie. <3

Vegan Cake.

So this weekend was the 10th year birthday of the grocery store I work at. In celebration we had 10% off everything, and gave every customer free Vegan chocolate cake and coffee. For the duration of the day I ran around like a crazy person, cashiered on 3 tills, did price checks, answered phones, bagged for people, slipped on water and almost died, and I also informed customers of the days events and gave out cake. It was later on in the evening when I was all alone when the haters truly came out. Now let me put in a little footnote how I was working over time, and instead of the usual 8 hour shift, I worked for 12. On hour 11 a woman came into the store and I exclaimed, "Just so you know everything is 10% off, and we have free cake and coffee because it's our birthday!" She scowled at me said "What? I can't hear you." She came closer and I repeated myself. She told me she'd really love to know how it was possible to make vegan icing and said that she doubted it would be good but said she would try it and even give me her 'verdict.' I served her a piece and she gingerly nibbled on the icing and went, "Oh that's disgusting. I don't like it." and spat it in the garbage. Then she said, "Let's try the cake." Her eyes fluttered to the ceiling and she chewed the cake a bit and said, "Well, the cake is alright I guess." I nodded and said in a light hearted, casual, slightly joking manner, "Oh, well I'm glad it's up to your standard." She looked at me, grabbed a napkin, spat the remainder of her mouthful into it, threw it into the garbage with a flourish and yelled with her eyes widened dramatically, "YOU DID NOT HAVE TO SAY THAT! ARE YOU AN EMPLOYEE HERE? GET ME YOUR MANAGER." I nodded and told her one second and ran off to find my manager. I pounded on her office door seriously scared at this point and told my manager in one breath the exchange that had just occur ed. She went out to find the woman but couldn't. After a few minutes when my breathing returned to normal I ventured back to my cake post, more ready than ever to be sweeter to the customers than the cake I was serving because apparently my humour was strongly not appreciated. I was waiting for the next customer to come in when I saw crazy lady head towards me for ROUND TWO! I saw my manager and ran around the front to tell her but she moved away as I got closer to put baskets away so basically me and my manager and the crazy woman were playing ring around the rosy. I eventually grabbed my manager and pointed the woman out. During their heated conversation I saw the woman's eyes slip over to me often as I packed bags trying to be helpful and keep myself busy. After when the woman left my manager came to me and said not to worry. The woman had been rude to her as well and accused both her and I of being young people and that she didn't want to shop in a store run by them, and that were were incapeable of giving good customer service.
So I learnt a few things from this.
Firstly, people can find a problem with everything, including free cake.
That working for 12 hours without running into an angry person is impossible.
And that you can never make everyone happy, (make a vegan, organic, celiac, diabetic friendly cake.)
I also learnt that my manager has my back, that I don't have to let crazy people ruin my night, and that in the end it's just one small event I shouldn't worry about.
But oh my... some people needs to get a hobby ova hereeeee! (I mean besides harrasing young sample girls giving away free food. That is not a hobby for anyone who was wondering.)

Insecurities

When I was little, I contemplated intensely what I should be when I grew up. When 5 years old I was very, very sure that I'd be a firefighter. Yellow was my favourite colour and as we all know, sporting the sunny colour is all a firefighter is required to do in a hard days work.

Once I realized that real fire was involved and that I'd have to face my fear of heights via climbing numerous ladder, that dream flew out the window.
Next came the obsession of dinosaurs which this day lingers in my heart. My first email ever in grade 3 was dinobones@ hotmail. I emailed anyone dinosaur related and for my birthday all I wanted was to go to the Royal Alberta Museum to look at the two dinosaurs they had year round.

Once I realized how much science and math one would have to take in order to become a paleontologist, that dream quickly fled as well.
Being an author had also struck me on occasion,

but the insecurity of it left me uncomfortable. Since flying for the first time that I could remember since immigrating to Canada it struck me that I would absolutely love to be a flight attendant.

Right now I'm trying to figure out my life, and by going to Holland this has bought me sometime, but I can't avoid real life forever. So many questions are up in the air and butterflies flit about in my stomach as I contemplate all the options I have, uni, college, straight into a career, travel, money, family, and everything inbetween. Why is life so scary? Why do they expect 18 year olds to know what to spend their entire lives doing. Breathe in and Out.. thank goodness I have a least a little bit of time to think things over.

Speaking the French!

I was at the grocery till buying my breakfast, (you should really try ginger scones they sound strange but taste great,) and one of the grocery supervisors and my manager come up to me and ask me "How good is your French?" In my humble opinion, I think not too great but it has improved from the zero amount of French I knew before Katimavik.
They pointed out a woman to me who needed help finding a product. Her question could probably not have been more complicated. In French she asked me if we had this certain brand of baby food and if it was possible that we carried it in flavours that were not mixed with other fruits or vegetables. I really had to use all the French I knew because she did't know any English besides, "my english bad" and once I figured out her question I walked her back to the front of the store and told her how I lived in Quebec City for 3 months and that I know how hard it is to learn a language. It felt so great though that they came to me and asked me to help when it came to speaking French and ironic because in Quebec they would come to me to help speak English. I really love French and am so glad my abilities of grown. A small part of me wishes that I was doing Aupair in a French country so that I could work on my French but I'm 1/2 way there with Dutch and it will be useful to me and I can pick up French again when I return to Canada. (:

Drama..?

The other night, I headed over to Whyte Ave to celebrate the birthday of a friend of mine. On the way there, I ran into a couple of guys from highschool. We went through the usual friendly polite chat when they confronted me about some gossip they had heard about me. I found it quite ludicrous regardless of whether or not it was true.
I was curious where they had heard this useless information from and supplied a name. The funniest part of the entire situation is I did not even know the name of the person they mentioned. I found this quite hard to accept, because this meant that young men from highschool who I don't even know, found the time in their busy young adult lives to gossip about a girl who didn't even know them personally!! It really shows me how low my generation, or perhaps too broad, my highschool graduation class has stooped. Although I'm honoured and flattered and dumbstruck that I've become an over night celebrity in E-town and that my personal life is worthy of being gossiped over by adolescent boys sipping stale beer in someones basement, I really would prefer if my highschool grad class which I do not care about particularly would keep their noses OUT OF MY LIFE. I don't really understand at all the gain or value of scrutinizing the unstable truths or untruths of someones life. Especially if they have no connection or relationship to you. It's just a waste of time. But oh well, as my good friend JT told me, 'All publicity is good publicity' you losers can talk all you want. And when you confront me for the truth, what makes you think you're gonna get it? ;)

Thanks for wasting your time gossiping about me and scrutinizing my personal life, but last time I checked I look nothing like Lindsay Lohan.

Spring Fling!

The broski and his wife were able to make it over for the easter weekend which was fabulous because everyone was together for the first time in 2 years! We had great food, large amounts of cheese, played the game of life and enjoyed eachother's company. Before the big weekend I made little name place tags/markers in the Spring spirit to FORGET them on the day everyone was all together. The Monday I had to work so I left them behind so that the family that would come over for lunch could at least look at them for a couple of hours. But they were pretty easy to make and came out pretty cute!


The boys got bugs, the girls got butterflies or dragonflies. (: It goes to show it's pretty easy to make something cute and less expensive too. Goes the same for cards, you don't always gotta go the hallmark route!
Hope your easter was swell!

Boycotted!

So a few weeks ago the sister made a venture to the local 7-11 to buy a couple of snacks and what not. I gave her a $10 and my list was what I was sure 5 bucks. She was gone for a bit but returned with not 5 dollars as planned but a measly 25 cents. Clearly being shortchanged by the same amount the purchase was worth Kyra got mad and we returned back to this horrid 7-11. I went in and claimed the exact same purchases from the shelf and asked her to ring it through for me and tell me the price. She said 5 something so I asked her why she charged my sister 10 dollars for the exact same purchase. After a confusing conversation and the cashier playing the 'I don't speak English' card, I finally spoke to the manager who adamently did not believe we were short changed. I strongly encouraged him to watch his security cameras to see what billage my sister gave their beloved cashier. He offered us drinks while we waited but at this point I wasn't having it, besides, he'd probably turn around and charge us for them or accuse us for stealing them right after. When a 15 minute wait was over he finally returned and agreed that after watching the footage that we were shortchanged. He said that the very good reason for this was that the cashier put the bill in the 5 dollar slot by accident. I'm a cashier and if I put a 10 ten in the 5 dollar slot, its going to dawn on me pretty quick because two of my slots will suddenly look the same. I don't know, I was just not very happy regardless but he gave my $5 back! I am not a stingy person, normally I don't care too much, but when you short change me the amount the entire purchase costs its kinda sorta really extremely notciable. The sister and I decided that if we ever wanted to fufill our snacking urges we would NOT return there. It's not worth it, fighting with the manager and trying to convince him to monitor his sketchy employees more carefully.
We returned home and took a few victory photos.


Just count your change before you tear open that bag of chips or down that pop. ;)

No, thank you!

If you have been checking here to see the lovely words I write everyday I THANK YOU so much, you are super sweet. Life has been busy with drama, boycotting local convienient stores, connecting with random Katimavikers, yield team calls, voting and... life.
I will post something, lots of somethings in the very near future.
Thanks again, you guys ownnnn....

life, same as always

Hey guys, so I've been pumped about my Holland departure, it's just less than 4 months now. Can't believe how fast I got my passport, it only took 1.5 days including mailing time!!! Craziness.
Ive been reading tons of blogs of people who have moved to Holland from other countries and their takes on everything and the one refreshed my memory that Anne Frank lived in Amsterdam and the Secret Annex is a museum there now, so I really want to go see that while I'm there. There is something so magical and almost disturbing about history that's real in front of your eyes.
Other than that working my butt off 5/7 days a week except for this week because my broski is coming!!! My whole family is together this weekend! Super pumped!! (:

The World of Customers!

Hey People,
So nowadays my life consists of a lot of working. And this of course means that I deal with a lot of customers, and for the better part, they're crazy. Like I've often said, anyone is allowed to go grocery shopping. Today I rang through a woman who asked me why they didn't make certain flavours of this sort of biscuit she liked so I called grocery who said it was due to a manufacturing problem. So I told her, "It's a manufacturing problem." and she goes on to ask, "What type of manufacturing problem?" Okay well let me go over to the factory and ask them? I may be a cashier at a grocery store, and I have been one for some time, however this does in no way mean that I know why certain flavours of every product is or is not being manufactured.
Another of my favourites is what I call the bag people.
Bag People - I'll ring through one cookie already in a bag, or one bottle of pills, they'll pay for them and I give them their receipt and they just stand there and look at me expecting something... when I don't say anything they say, "So what, do I get a bag or something?" and I tell them, "we have large paper bags or 10 cents or cloth for 99 cents" and they'll look at me with this horrified look and as if presented with some sort of life threatening situation will exclaim, "How will I carry it then!?!" Last time I checked, you got it to the till, and so my thoughts are that you can get it to your vehicle in some sort of similar manner. Do you really need a bag that's the length of my arm and is 1/2 of a recycled tree that you're never going to use again to carry your singular apple to your car? Didn't think so.
Then there are the cell-phone users who walk up to my till, throw down their purchases and lack the decency to notice that I'm a person serving them. For these people they get no "Hi how are you, do you need a bag, have a nice days." They'll look at me and mouth "how much?" to which I reply with a pointing to the screen instead of a verbal reply and they'll continue yacking as they walk out of the store leaving their receipt behind for me to dispose of.
Then there are the name users. I know that it is mandatory for me to wear my name tag to work, but I really, really hate that because the second I do something they disapprove of, they attempt to use my name, pronounced incorrectly. For instance, tie together a bag person and a name user.
Purchase is rung through and singular product is chilling on the counter and they stare at me.
[BP-NU] - "Why did you not ask me for a bag Kyra (Kye-ra), [Scrutinize my name tag] That is your name isn't it?"
Kyra - "Sorry we have really large paper for ten cents, and it's actually Kyra (Kay-rah)."
[BP-NU] "Oh, I guess they spelt it wrong, I'll get a bag then I suppose."
Reallllllllllyyyyyy?
There are also the basketers. They will unpack their basket onto my till, on the scale, on my plu binder, on my light stand, in the cosmic cookie basket, right in front of me when they could clearly have left their basket there and let me unpack it. Then when the basket is empty they pick it up and hold it looking around, left, right, up, down, desperately because they have absolutely no fathom of an idea where the basket should go. Me, without even looking at them say, "You can leave it there." and I hear a sigh of relief escape their lips as if I solved one of the worlds largest mysteries.
Money Holders, these are also a favourite. I will be ringing through their groceries, probably 35 items or so, 80-100 bucks and for the entire duration it takes to ring through their order they will hold out their credit card under my nose, and for the entire transaction, I will ignore it.
The surprisers - These are the ones who will get about 5 KG of Organic Almonds or Pine Nuts and their eyeballs will fall out of their heads when I point it out to them that the one bag costs 35-50 dollars. "Oh no! I don't want that! Is it too late to put it back?" and then the rest of the order will be spent discussing the overinflated prices of Organic nuts.
Anyhow, just thought I'd inform you guys of all the types of customers I see come through Planet on a daily basis.
If you're really lucky, you may get a combo of all of these, the ultimate customer.
It's a good time. Don't be jealous.

Passports, Credit Cards and Hummus.

So today's goal was to take in my passport downtown. I was really surprised it takes me less time to get downtown then it does for me to get to work everyday, go figure. I was nervous, as I hear all these, not quite horror stories of people who filled their papers in wrong and get sent back, or can't hand in their papers that day, so I was absolutely delighted when mine were problem free. Funny too is that the guards at Canada Place are friendlier than the passport staff. The woman asked for proof of citizenship and so I gave her my certificate and then she barks at me that I need my card, I had that too but really? She noticed too that I had a gap in my working so I had to write in that I was with Katimavik for most of last year. They are really just not friendly, and I was nervous that something might not work out right, I was applying for it alone whereas I would normally drag my dad around for this kind of thing because he knows more about it than I do. But I was surprised. Sometimes there are large lines but it took 1/2 hr bus there, 20 minutes to get it processed, and 1/2 hr back. They said it will only take 2 weeks to ge to me! I went to the mall and went to the bank and library where I carried on to read and then crash. Good times.
Tomorrow it is back to working. Ew, ew, and ew again. One day off just doesn't feel sufficent, I'm glad I have Sat + Sun off next week to see my broski!
I've also recently applied for a credit card so that I can book my future trips and things more easily. I plan on being a mature and responsible credit card holder, but everyone does.
Tonight I made hummus for work tomorrow after I texted Sarah to hunt down my favourite recipe we made in Katimavik and Carlin and Dad thought it was yummy too. Then I made lemonade and I plan to read the remainder of my evening away. I happen to be reading a good book. Goodnight world!
"Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling."

Farewell

So today I woke up early and met with Jared and Jacob for breakfast.
I have deicided they are truly my favourite set of brothers... ever!
Then I went to Jesse's farewell!
I grew up with Jesse in church for almost my entire life so it's pretty surreal now that after all the early morning rides to seminary, math classes, joint YW and YM activities and sunday school teachers that he's off on Tuesday to Jamaica!! This just proves that I'm getting old now, but I'm super excited for him and I know he'll do great.
Wednesday I want to finally go and hand in my passport papers. My contract came finally and I will mail it to them soon, as well as book my plane tickets. Expedia seems like the cheapest option so far!!
And my brother is visiting soon so I'm excited about that too.
I work a 1-930 shift tomorrow, can you spell yuck?

Kay, so 7 Things

KAY, so a couple of things are up for discussion this evening.
1.)My future.
I almost typed, why does it exist, but that would get people angry. I want it to exist, I do, but seriously, I have too many options to grasp and or handle.
I can become a flight attendant, Katimavik PL, Tourism Agent, Wedding Planner, or Creative Writing... uhm, how you go about deciding which one to do!?!? My current plan based on creative writing is chilling on my wall. Yes I did make a 5-7 year plan. But it changes everyday...

Thank goodness for Holland and the postponing of my life for another year. Ahahaha.
2.)Clean rooms. Don't you feel so good when your room is clean? My room wasn't THAT messy, but when it comes to mine and my sisters room, if I don't clean it, it won't ever be clean, seriously. So I cleaned it and it feels so nice to have more space and my desk cleared off and my bookshelf perfect. I also love micro-cleaning. Like one everything is cleaned organizing little drawers and shelves so they're perfect. I decided to hang up all my clean clothes for work because that's all I have room for in my own bedroom anyways... 1/2 a closet and 2 drawers... I had 1 drawer and 1/3 a closet when I shared a room with two people. I should have 1/2 a closet and 2 and 1/2 drawers... OR my WHOLE closet and 5 drawers.. I guess it doesn't really matter in the end because I'll leave soon, and plus I can wear my limited work clothes 5/7 days a week, church clothes 1/7 days a week and normal clothes which make up 85% of my wardrobe... a whopping 1/7 days a week. Ahaha. Although I can wear all colours except pink and purple, I can't wear anything with print, or anything with hoods so that knocks out everything out of my wardrobe except my ocean of shirt. Ocean as in the only colours I seem to own that are acceptable for work are random shades of blue and black. Hahah.

3.)Making plans. It frustrates me when people agree to hangout on a certain day, but then make themselves unreachable for the times and locations/details for the hanging out. Enough said.
4.)Today, to get my mind off of an example of number 3, got my passport forms signed etc by a family friend! Now, all I have to do is take it in on my next day off. Yay yay yay.
5.)3rd Person perspective in novels, annoy me to no end. No I don't believe it when it says, "Oh, how much I miss him..." Karen thought to herself. HOW DOES THIS THIRD PERSON KNOW!? I really love 1st person novels only, because I believe it much more when it's Karen saying, "Oh how much I miss him," I thought... Maybe it's just me.
6.)Technology changes! I was searching for a box to send Sarah her vegan package in, and discovered the first phone I ever had... and it was super funny because I didn't remember how TINY it was! Check it out!


I don't know if it looks tiny to you but it is! And it turns into a flashlight if you push a certain button and it's graphics are totally 90s. Thank you Nokia Firely for being so awesome when I was 14!
7.)Vegan packages. I made an epic one the other day and sent it to lovely Sarah in Calgary! Filled with Vegetarian Jelly Beans, Carob Chips, Mineral drinks, ginger chews, vegan kraft dinner and quotes, pictures, recipes, a cd... and love!!! Check it!



SHABAM. Don't be jealous.
Tomorrow should be good, working an early shift and then hopefully dinner with Lisa and Tannis. (: Thanks for reading!

Travel Insanity

GAAAAH.
Why is there so much preparation surrounding travel!?! I mean I guess it makes sense but my to do list only gets longer everyday!
The scariest part of it all is... INSURANCE.
I hate this thing, or word. It's like incase you fall off a building, we'll cover your medical costs, and if nothing happens to you while you're gone well, at least you wasted $1,400!!!!
That's disgusting.
That is like a probable $1000 of my life that I'm like never going to see ever again and I hope so, because I don't want it to have to kick in incase I get hurt. It's just so rediculously expensive. That's like a whole month of work.
When I signed up for this Holland trip, I was like, 4.5 months of work will be absolutely fine to cover all the expenses... but I'm looking at like...
$1000 towards half my flight THERE.
$300 for my dutch courses
$1000 for insurance
$1000-2000 for my flights back!
I am going to be much too poor to travel Europe ahaha, or do anything.
Thank goodness I'm getting paid a little bit for my work. Oh man.
I really wanna visit Nova Scotia on my way back from Holland and then go to Montreal and then back to Edmonton, but we'll see how that fincial thing is going... ahhh... :(

A City with Character...

So last night I had a dream about Old Quebec and it made me really miss it.
Quebec City is a beautiful city with a really old and modern feel tied together.
So many apartments with Stairs and fire escapes, tall walks ways to look down at apartments and Old Churches were distruibuted with the frequencies of E-towns 7-11s.
The second half of my dream was of Amsterdam which I have not seen yet, and I was there with my Dad and we saw a lot of Water,`and a windmill and really cute apartments and saw a group of teenagers dancing to music at night and some crazy girl tried to steal my camera, but yeah, my dreams were all about travel and cool cities.
But yeah, I really miss Quebec City and it's culture and beauty and since I have so many memories of it.
It was so absolutely gorgeous and even my walk to work everyday was beautiful. Take a look!





I think from these pictures it's very clear why I miss Quebec City, it's pumped with so much culture and beauty. Any apartment in this city would be the cutest thing EVER. So many little alley way apartments. <3
But at least I get to look forward to beautiful Amsterdam and the small town I live in!





I feel lucky to live in a world so beautiful and to be able to explore it. (:
I leave in 4 months and 15 days! Weeeeeeeee!

make way, epicness coming through!!

As most of you know, I have returned 3 weeks ago from a government sponsored program called Katimavik. I was away for 6 months and lived in BC, and in QC and had a fabulous time, some of the best in my life.
And now, all you will know that I'm leaving again!
In four and a half months!!
Flying away from Candada, a day after my birthday, (Aug 18th) I will be leaving for a year to live abroad in Driebergen, Holland, being an Aupair/Nanny for 4 kids!
I will have my own little cottage beside their house, get paid to work for 18 hours a week biking the kids to school and what not, and the rest of the time am free to adventure Holland and Europe!
I will be living 25 minutes away from this,

Utrecht

and 45 minutes away from this:

Amsterdam

I intend on learning a ton of Dutch in my year long language courses, to eat a lot of cheese, to become a bike riding expert, and write and recieve millions of letters.
Thank you so much to those of you have already expressed your excitement for me.
I'll be so excited to tell my kids that I was born in South Africa, and have lived in Alberta, Quebec, British Columbia, and Holland. Hopefully the list can keep expanding along with my postcard wall.

Thanks for reading!

Read me like a book.

Today I spent the day with my lovely sister Carlin.
We headed to Southgate mall, ran an errand for my mother, and then I headed over to the store that houses my other addiction, Matt and Nat wallets, bags etc.
I caved people, well rather, I planned on getting another wallet although there is nothing wrong with the one I currently have! *Gasp*
I'm sorry, there is something magical in the vegan leather of it all, something magical in the shape of an envelope that makes me want to shove my pitiful money inside, something about smooth inside lining made from recycled soda bottles.
So here it is, the newest baby to add to my collection.

The baby

Interior

The collection

Oh Matt and Nat, WHY do you do this to me? I suppose it's alright because some people splurge on shoes, some on Jewelry, I... on wallets. Okay, and sometimes earrings. (But today I resisted the temptation!)
Anyhow, the sister and I continued to a nearby mall where I got my grown up Library card.
The library where I live, since as long as I can remember, has had two different library cards. One for youth, and one for adults. The youth was a vibrant yellow, signed by your parent, and free. The adult, a deep mature looking red purchased with a whopping $12 dollars. HOWEVER the library recently went through an epic change and now advertises itself in bright colours and humour and I went to go get my grown up card just as these changes had taken place!
My lovely mother took me to get my first library card when I was 3, (we need to blame someone for my genius) and now being 18, there are some minor changes. Like the complete freedom to choose from a wide array of colours and messages on the card! Look at the comparison!

I love the comparison, and I love how it's purple and clever!! I could have chosen "I'm an information Ninja" or, "Chicks dig big brains", or "I'm happy and I know it," this one of a few others. I needed to guarantee the colour however, so I settled with this one.
I've already used it and will use it to order my books for free to my local library! Go reading! Whoot.
After me and my sister headed over to get some food and she was holding majority of our purchases of the day.
Carlin: Since when am I your pack mule?
Kyra: Since I buy you food.
Carlin: Silence.