The weekend

As it turns out, I survived my weekend with all the strangers, participated in making a list of recomendations for the provincial government, and even had a (sort of) good time.

The government spent $750,000 on the youth conference and sponsoring business contributed $50,000, so my bus ticket, fancy hotel room, shuttle rides from the hotel to the conference centre, gourmet meals and my fantastic door prize (a portable DVD player) were all covered.

I caught the bus on Friday afternoon and this guy who got to the depot just in time asked to sit beside me. I made some space for him and he sat down and said, "I know this sounds really weird, but you were an extra playing a reporter in a T.V. crime show, weren't you?"

I gave him a strange look. The show hasn't even come out yet.

He told me he does some editing for a local production company and that he had just finished my scenes before racing to catch the bus.

Then we talked about his degree and mine and it turned out that his best friend and I were in the same program and graduated together. And it turns out that he and I had met briefly twice before.

He wasn't going to the conference, so I headed to the hotel alone and checked in. My room was HUGE and I didn't even have to share it with anyone. I hadn't seen many people in the lobby so I walked around and investigated the hotel a bit, trying to find something to do or someone to hang out with. Afterall, it was just 8:30 on a Friday night.

I checked out some business recruiting places but didn't find anyone to talk to, so I went and sat, alone, in the hot tub. Then I ended up watching T.V. in my suite.

The next day I ran into a guy I had met while we were working as extras a few months earlier for that T.V. crime show. I was eating breakfast with him and a table full of very nice strangers, when he totally exaggereated the "acting" we had done and made it seem like we were co-stars in the show. It was ridiculous. So then I went and hung out with different strangers.

Basically I spent the whole weekend meeting strangers, eating with them, wandering hallways with them, collecting their business cards and forgetting their names. It was a little lonely, but I'm really glad I went.

The political side of the weekend was great and we came up with a lot of suggestions for what the government could do to make the province into an ideal place for us to live. We talked about the environment, about developing the northern parts of the province for eco-tourism and recreation, about educating people about First Nations culture and about minority groups and about creating an exchange program for students from cities, farms and First Nations to learn more about each other and to have a better understanding of one another.

We talked about strengthening the downtown cores in the cities to revitalize them and about making it easier for local people to start their own businesses. We talked, essentially, about everything. And if the government listens and follows even a fraction of our recommendations, I will be thrilled.