Billeting, Hat, Beard

Hi gang,

Billeting starts next week, which means that we'll be living with a local family for a week. We'll all be living with different families. I'm going to be with the aunt of a former participant who is associated with our group. First I was going to be living with another participants' boss at the Salvation Army, but someone else in our group's family backed out, and he got switched to my family, which meant that I got put with a local farmer, but another Katimavik group in PEI didn't have enough families around where they lived, so they stuck a deal with my PL to get him put with my farmer, so I got switched to this former participants' aunt. I'm a little worried that, because she only entered at the last minute, and someone associated with the group has blood connections with her, that she just got begged into it, and doesn't really want to do it. At least I'm the closest to the house.

Otherwise, I'll describe my hat. It's a black tuque. For my non-Canadian readers, that's like... a knitted winter hat. Here's the Wikipedia on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuque

A French Canadian guy over here taught me the right way to wear a tuque. With the rim rolled up and pushed back on your head so a ruff of hair shows and it doesn't keep your head warm. I'm getting pins and putting them on the rolled up rim of the hat. So far, I've got a Katimavik pin and a Summerside pin.

We got Katimavik T-shirts now. I like wearing them because I feel like a man in uniform.

The beard competition is coming along disappointingly. It's been just over a week and I feel like I should have more. Oh well, the beard-growing instructions I read said that it usually takes at least four weeks to grow a beard. If I can do it in half that time, I'll still feel good about my testosterone levels. As far as my competition goes, some people in the house say it's really close, but that he might be a little bit in the lead, and some people say that it's too close to call. I call that me losing. I don't know if a competition like this is something you can make up for once you start losing. There are a few tricks. Like sleeping for large periods at a time, drinking lots of caffein, and exfoliating your skin early in the competition. I think he did a better job of exfoliating his skin near the beginning. Yeah, that must be it...

I'm finally not sick anymore! YAHOOOO!!!!