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It's been just about a month since I have now been back in good ol' Edmonton, so I figured it was about time to write another entry, so as to keep up to my regular monthly updates. I must confess I have had less drive to do so, since so many of my friends are now on Facebook and that seems to be a good way to keep in touch. But being the good democratically minded individual I am, I must taken into consideration the minority out there who isn’t on facebook and who relies on my blog for updates as to what I am up to! So this entry is dedicated to all the non-facebook types out there!
I booked my ticket home for the 1st of March, so as to come home just in time for the provincial election (I know I am a bit of a nerd! but what can I say I thought what a good reason to come home.) The day after I arrived home in Canada I volunteered all day for my local favourite candidate (David Eggen), as a scrutineer at the polls and later door knocking to ensure that registered supporters went out to cast their vote! It was fun, but a little too cold for my liking. Nonetheless my efforts didn’t seem to pay off, as my candidate lost by approximately 200 votes and our party took a bit of a hit, only 2 members got elected! So once again our province voted in a landslide conservative majority government. As you can imagine this was not a good way to roll back into Alberta, but it was however a good reality check!
Apart from that major disappointment, being home has been a lot of fun and I have been thoroughly enjoying being back in my old neighbourhood and bunking out with mom! It has been a sort of adjustment as I have lived with mom for some time now, and actually I haven’t stayed for more than a month in Edmonton for the past 4 years!
I have been busy with a wide assortment of things, such as countless coffee/lunch/dinner dates with old friends, catching up on the last several months I have been away. I have also become a regular at the local salsa nightclub here in Edmonton. I love it as I usually meet lots of new people and get the opportunity to practice both my salsa dancing skills, as well as my Spanish language skills as many of the patrons to this club are from Latin America. It has been a great way to keep up my Spanish -which has greatly improved over the past 8 months!
The middle of the month I volunteered for Rural Roots, Change for Children's annual youth leadership conference for rural youth throughout Alberta! While there I was a acabin leader, and got the opportunity to hang out with a group of youth from Northern Alberta and get them excited about social justice and tell them how much fun it can be! While at the conference I continuously got more and more inspired that change is possible, that positive social change is happening and that this generation of youth is already working towards making it happen in their local social justice clubs through the various local actions and initiatives these youth are organizing in their home communities! YEAH!
What else happened? Oh, yeah I turned 29! It was a pretty low key bday; I went for dinner with a couple friends and family. However, the week prior my friend Sheryle hosted a bday party for the two of us, as we share the same bday. That was a lot of fun, and it was a great to reconnect with all my closest friends here in town!
Last month I applied for grad school. That was a major project, as it has been nearly 5 years since I graduated from university, and therefore its been a long time since I have written a paper! So writing the research proposal took a lot of effort and motivation. Getting that all together was a bit of a challenge but I was pretty proud of getting it completed and in the mail by the end of the month. I applied for a very interesting and engaging programme in Germany, run through the Global Labour University. It's an MA programme in Labour Policies and Globalisation. If I get into the programme, I intend to research the situation of Foreign Migrant Workers here in Alberta! To check out the program you can go online to: www.global-labour-university.org
The next two weeks I plan to make a couple short visits to Camrose, the host community where I have run my last two Canada World Youth programmes. In Camrose I want to visit and catch up with all the wonderful people that I connected with there and I will do a presentation about the Bolivian phase and our experiences there with the team! This week I also plan to start an Advanced Spanish Class!
Overall life is very good and I am very happy! I am eternally thankful for all the wonderful people I have around me! I love you all!
I booked my ticket home for the 1st of March, so as to come home just in time for the provincial election (I know I am a bit of a nerd! but what can I say I thought what a good reason to come home.) The day after I arrived home in Canada I volunteered all day for my local favourite candidate (David Eggen), as a scrutineer at the polls and later door knocking to ensure that registered supporters went out to cast their vote! It was fun, but a little too cold for my liking. Nonetheless my efforts didn’t seem to pay off, as my candidate lost by approximately 200 votes and our party took a bit of a hit, only 2 members got elected! So once again our province voted in a landslide conservative majority government. As you can imagine this was not a good way to roll back into Alberta, but it was however a good reality check!
Apart from that major disappointment, being home has been a lot of fun and I have been thoroughly enjoying being back in my old neighbourhood and bunking out with mom! It has been a sort of adjustment as I have lived with mom for some time now, and actually I haven’t stayed for more than a month in Edmonton for the past 4 years!
I have been busy with a wide assortment of things, such as countless coffee/lunch/dinner dates with old friends, catching up on the last several months I have been away. I have also become a regular at the local salsa nightclub here in Edmonton. I love it as I usually meet lots of new people and get the opportunity to practice both my salsa dancing skills, as well as my Spanish language skills as many of the patrons to this club are from Latin America. It has been a great way to keep up my Spanish -which has greatly improved over the past 8 months!
The middle of the month I volunteered for Rural Roots, Change for Children's annual youth leadership conference for rural youth throughout Alberta! While there I was a acabin leader, and got the opportunity to hang out with a group of youth from Northern Alberta and get them excited about social justice and tell them how much fun it can be! While at the conference I continuously got more and more inspired that change is possible, that positive social change is happening and that this generation of youth is already working towards making it happen in their local social justice clubs through the various local actions and initiatives these youth are organizing in their home communities! YEAH!
What else happened? Oh, yeah I turned 29! It was a pretty low key bday; I went for dinner with a couple friends and family. However, the week prior my friend Sheryle hosted a bday party for the two of us, as we share the same bday. That was a lot of fun, and it was a great to reconnect with all my closest friends here in town!
Last month I applied for grad school. That was a major project, as it has been nearly 5 years since I graduated from university, and therefore its been a long time since I have written a paper! So writing the research proposal took a lot of effort and motivation. Getting that all together was a bit of a challenge but I was pretty proud of getting it completed and in the mail by the end of the month. I applied for a very interesting and engaging programme in Germany, run through the Global Labour University. It's an MA programme in Labour Policies and Globalisation. If I get into the programme, I intend to research the situation of Foreign Migrant Workers here in Alberta! To check out the program you can go online to: www.global-labour-university.org
The next two weeks I plan to make a couple short visits to Camrose, the host community where I have run my last two Canada World Youth programmes. In Camrose I want to visit and catch up with all the wonderful people that I connected with there and I will do a presentation about the Bolivian phase and our experiences there with the team! This week I also plan to start an Advanced Spanish Class!
Overall life is very good and I am very happy! I am eternally thankful for all the wonderful people I have around me! I love you all!
posted by Laura | 6:18 PM
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