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| Alex in Québec 3 juillet, 2008
22:58
It was rainy today so we had fifty kids inside one gym for well over 8 hours (I only stay for 8 hours). Yesterday we went to Montréal, which is two hours away, to La Ronde amusement park so all the «moniteurs» were already pooped when they arrived. Today it looked like some of us wanted to pick up a kid and throw them across the room.
I actually did pick up a couple of kids but I just swung them around and we had lots of fun. They're all really very sweet. I've never met such wonderful children in my life and I'm sure I won't again unless I come back next year.
So La Ronde: I was in this line for almost an hour with nine children and there was this guy who kept smiling at me. He looked pretty old; I wouldn't have been surprised if he were tagging along some kids of his own. Turns out he's 19, knows English, and would like to take me to see his city, Trois-Rivières, which is 45 mins away from where I live.
Now, I hate it when people hit on me. Once in awhile some well-meaning soul says I'm pretty and I smile and shrug it off. It's really an awkward position: you can't agree or disagree. So I just smile and let it fly over my head. It's not a big deal: I'm not too nice to look at and I've accepted it. So when people hit on me and say I am, I have to question their motives. I wasn't even wearing anything remotely nice yesterday.
At Parc PieX, all moniteurs have nicknames. The girl in charge is Fleur (I'm Orange). I was with her when this happened and when the guy asked around rather obviously for paper and pen Fleur thrust her Tinkerbelle stationary at him and I got his email. Later she described the event quite loudly to the other moniteurs during dinner and everyone had a good laugh.
I've been at work now for less than a week and the other moniteurs and I haven't really talked at all. It's probably not only because I'm new and speak broken French, but I'm also very obviously different (meaning Chinese. I've seen only one other Chinese so far and she's a little adopted girl). Louise (my home stay mom) says people gawk at me when we're out together but it's behind my back so I've seen nothing.
But now I think Fleur's teasing is starting to break the ice. Kit Kat introduced himself to me yesterday and was listening in on my conversation with Sept. Today this other moniteur asked how I was doing and kept smiling at me.
I admit all the guys I work with have extremely fine facial features (Tariq's terms, not mine haha. I don't say their hot cause white guys never really did it for me). Actually, everyone in Québec, or at least Victoriaville is gorgeous (it's the French genes). The most beautiful girls I've ever seen are but 10 and 12 year olds.
But I honestly don't care about the other moniteurs; all I need are the children. Except for Fleur, the moniteurs didn't help me out on my first day. I started work three days after the program did so I was completely lost. It was the children who came up to me, introduced themselves, and told me what was going on. I love these children so much. They are the kindest, sweetest, most beautiful children in the world. There are disagreements several times a day over who gets to sit next to me or on my lap. My walls, when I get home, will be covered with their drawings. All I hear all day is «Orange, look at me!»
The other moniteurs are there to do the hard stuff: control rowdy boys, and plan and run the program. All I do is play with the kids. It's a case of where-were-you-when-I-needed-it-cause-now-I've-found-something-better. I guess that makes me proud. I suppose I better take this opportunity.
But only cause I must. | | |
| Evening gown - $80
Dress Alterations - $45
Ticket - $100
Limo - $34
Makeup - $50
------------------------------------
Unforgettable night with friends -
NOT WORTH IT
I told everyone all this year that I wouldn't be at prom. So I didn't pay for my ticket. I thought I'd leave and graduate quietly.
Two weeks ago Mom thought it'd be funny to call me and go, "Hey Alex guess what? I know you said all year you didn't want to go, but I just gave your school my credit card number and guess where you're going!"
I do not mean to be ungrateful. The teachers take their own time to put prom together and chaperone it (nobody should ever have to watch teenagers going wild), the grade 11s volunteer to decorate the venue, and all my friends, wonderful and kind they are, have begged me to join them. My grandmother paid for my dress and my mother paid for my ticket. They did this, they do it for me, for us, because they care.
And we are not undeserving. We've worked hard all year. This is the last time we'll ever be together as the class of 2008. Why shouldn't we be spoiled a bit and have some fun?
But the festivities have gone quite overboard. There is no need to buy gowns that cost hundreds of dollars. I feel like a complete fool, all this dressing up for a one-night fairytale. Of course, I've imagined it all in my head, every time I flip through a magazine; I do see myself in that beautiful dress, made beautiful with professional makeup (Carmindy!<3). But that's what magazines are designed to do. In the end, I know I'd feel just as empty. This is not how I pursue happiness.
The bottom line is, what right do we have to engage in this foolish, wasteful, expensive frolicking when there are people starving? There is not one dollar I've listed above that can be justified in the name of our fun.
Of course, you'll say, oh hasn't she's got a great argument there. Why don't you go and ask me to become a monk while you're at it. I'll just stay at home forever cause everything, everything in this world costs money. She's probably no Mennonite herself. People are going to starve forever, why should that prevent me from living my life?
And I'll say again: it's not that we're undeserving. We're all nice, hardworking people. But then so is everyone - we are all deserving. Everyone should be allowed to live the fairytale.
But we don't live in an ideal world. No, we're not undeserving, we are unneeding. In the same way that there is no good reason for the existence of Mexx or Tommy Kids other than people have money they want to spend, there is no good reason for us to need to spend money in this way. Children don't need to wear brand-name clothes, and we do not need to have fun by spending thousands of dollars.
When it comes down to it, it's a matter of materialism, consumerism. I'm not against having fun. But do we have to have it in such unnecessary extravagance? After all, what do we need in order to have fun? Nothing - but a safe environment and then some you, some me.
I begged my mother not to send me to prom. "If I must spend the money, let me take Tiff and Cat out for lunch instead." Let's cut the crap; we are already beautiful we don't need the makeup, the dress, the high ceiling, the fancy dinner cooked by chefs that we'll never see. I only want what's real; I just want my girls. I want us dressed the way we always do. I want to see their real faces, I want to talk to them without that god-awful "dance music" blaring behind us.
And what about anyone who isn't Cat and Tiff? I've loved you all, but if we're going to keep in touch, we will. We've had years to develop friendships, one more night will do nothing. If we really wanted to spend another day together as Grad 2008 why can't we plan a more constructive activity? With a 200-person manpower imagine the good we can do. Wouldn't that feel even better, the happiness last longer?
I admit it's all wonderful. The food will dazzle, my friends will look beautiful and we'll have fun. My dress is more gorgeous than I could've dreamed. Quantitively speaking, it'll be worth my money. But not a dime of it will have been spent without guilt.
| | |
| I have no hope for the future. - not my future, but it's the generation after that I am worried about.
I fully attribute all failures of the generation following mine to a parenting that allows children an exposure to age-inappropriate media. Two years ago I volunteered at a community centre's children's program, and I found nothing less than 4th-graders playing nothing less than Grand Theft Auto on Playstation Portables they had no doubt dwindled out of their parents. Others came bragging about the thousands of dollars given to them by their grandparents. Some came dressed in full Nike gear or as mini gangsters. They tried to entertain us with their renditions of Family Guy or Robot Chicken episodes they had watched last night
Trumon too, watches TV uncensored. I do my best, but it's only when I'm not home that he watches inappropriate TV or plays computer games excessively. The few times that I am home, he protests his right to Futurama or Two and a Half Men. Dad doesn't do much either, as Trumon helps himself to Dad's 18A video games.
And I thought all that was bad, but Trumon's school is all this - and more.
Trumon comes home regularly with stories about his schoolfriends. I regret everyday that this is the only environment of kids that we have been able to provide for him. His friends swear and gamble (We didn't even know swear words until high school!). A few weeks ago Trumon came home, punctuating the end of his every sentence with a phrase he had undoubtedly learned in school: "You owe me 5 bucks," as if I should be grateful he were even talking to me (I put a stop to it immediately). Lunch is eaten collectively, a mass pig out, as your plate becomes mine and mine, yours (I cannot bear the thought of mom's cooking being traded to some snotball for a Fruit Roll Up). The kids have no manners at all. Parents are but drivers with money and all that matters is that they go home to level up on Maple Story so you can brag about it the next day.
Couple weeks ago Trumon came home and related a story in which his friends found out he had a sister. "A sister? We never knew you had a sister!" Apparently they wanted to meet me, and I was to pick Trumon up sometime in order for them to do so.
I was foolishly flattered, and surprised that these rough hooligans had shown a smoother side. Poor foolish me, who has had little sustained success with children, was foolishly flattered. For when I got there, the little darlings said hello and smiled, but behind my back they told my little brother what they really thought.
Trumon says, unreserved, "Hi Ga Jie. Noah says you're ugly."
Wow.
I had been invited, not because they sincerely liked my brother and wished to learn more about him, but to provide entertainment, a freak show for the freaks. I have never been so insulted in my life. This who my brother hangs out with? Apparently my own Trumon doesn't have the sense to keep that to himself, let alone defend his sister. He feels he needs to suck up to Noah because he is higher on the social hierarchy. Noah is cool.
They have established social hierarchies and they are in grade five!
Okay, so "Noah" is really just this one kid. The girls are darlings actually. Still, what kind of parent could allow their child to think that he is entitled to not only food and shelter, but also to a world that will continuously please his ungrateful eyes?
Surely the most frustrating aspect of parenting must be seeing how other parents insists on screwing up their kids!
This isn't a post of complaint about Trumon. Anyone will testify that Trumon is a nice kid with manners and the ability to converse with those older than he. But if his is the group that the torch is being passed to, I say leap overboard now. I repeat: there is no hope for the future. I am making every effort not to end up in a senior home, as these kids will be my nurses.
It is said that my generation reaps the benefits of the progress made by the baby boomers, but that must be untrue because we have never been spoiled like the kids of today.
But Trumon is different. Trumon is mine. It's up to me to make sure everything will be okay. | | |
| It's about time...
for more Trumon quotes!
T: What a cowinkidink!
T: Why'd you put your cleats on the roof?
A: They have to be aired out. They get smelly.
T: Can I go on the roof?
A: No; it's dangerous.
T: But you always say I'm smelly!
A: (doing laundry, grumbling) Boy, you sure have a ton of underwear.
T: (deep voice) With a ton of underwear comes great responsibility.
T: What'd you do at school today?
A: I took anti-Trumon pills
T: DRUGS! ILLEGAL DRUGS!
T: (wanders in) Dad's watching a movie. Hitler's speaking Mandarin.
T: Ga Jie do you want juice?
A: No I'm okay
T: Well...do you want to pour it for me?
T: Ga Jie how was DragonBoat Z?
T: Quick! We need to collect the 7 paddles!
T: hawhawhaw A: Je veux manger et dormir
T: Je veux mourir
A: What?!
T: Nono, manger + dormir = mourir
T: Oh wait it'd be "mormir"
T: Or "danger"
T: haha
T: When Mom says "No," she means No
When Mom says "Maybe," she means No
And when Mom says "Yes," she means Maybe - but still No | | |
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