Spain is still the preferred route to Europe for many Africans seeking a better life through illegal immigration, but the number of those making the dangerous ocean crossing in flimsy boats has been sharply reduced this year.

Fassara Keita, 26, considers himself among the fortunate. He says he was working as a security guard in his native Mali, but fled a death threat. He walked and rode buses to reach Morocco.

From there, he paid 750 euros ($1,050) last July for a ride in a small boat with 34 other immigrants, which took three days to reach Fuerteventura, one of Spain's Canary Islands.

Arriving without documentation, he was held for 39 days on Fuerteventura, received aid from the Red Cross, and then was flown to Madrid.

"I am asking for asylum. I don't know when I'll get my papers," Keita told CNN. "But I'm better off here than in Mali."

Not all are so lucky. Just this week, six Africans died trying to reach Spain. The boats are flimsy, overcrowded, the crossing perilous. Some flee danger; many others seek jobs.

The Spanish government says illegal crossings by boat reaching all Spanish shores have declined by 60 percent this year, compared with last. The decline is 67 percent for the boats specifically reaching Spain's Canary Islands this year. About 31,000 illegal immigrants arrived by boat last year to the Canaries, which lie a mere 67 miles (110 km) off the coast of northwest Africa.

Officials say the decline is due to increased patrols off the west African coast, in cooperation with the European Union and some African countries. Another factor, they say, is the planeloads of immigrants - more than 6,500 this year alone - who have been sent back to Africa.

Spanish authorities say there's still much work to do.

"As long as the boats keep coming and as long as there's even one death in the Atlantic, we must work forcefully to end clandestine immigration," said Consuelo Rumi, Spain's Secretary of State for Immigration.

Rumi said "the only ones who can be blamed" are the mafias which traffic in humans, and "trick, defraud and extort" the immigrants when offering the clandestine boat rides.

In Madrid, the Roman Catholic Church supports a center catering to African immigrants. It is called Karibu, which means "welcome" in Swahili, said Karibu director Antonio Diaz de Freijo. Diaz de Freijo worked for 12 years as missionary in Africa before helping to start Karibu 20 years ago.

As many as 4,000 African immigrants a year get clothing, food, medical attention and advice at Karibu. But the director says what they really need are working papers.

"The people we serve can't work and fully integrate into society," Diaz de Freijo said. "That's what separates sub-Saharan Africans here from other immigrants."

A Spanish government amnesty two years ago allowed 600,000 illegal immigrants to become legal. But some experts say many sub-Saharan Africans were left out, because they didn't have even the basic documentation to present to authorities.

Immigrants from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa now make up nine percent of Spain's population of 45 million. Morocco and Romania are the leading sources, with more than 500,000 immigrants from each nation, while Ecuador has sent more than 400,000.

The total number of immigrants from the combined, numerous sub-Saharan African countries is far less, but their plight on the boats has sparked a great deal of media attention, some experts say.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is due to speak about immigration at a summit meeting of European Union and Africa nations this weekend in Lisbon, his office said in a statement.

Zapatero is expected to propose a European-African pact based on three principals: developing employment and opportunities for young Africans to help them remain at home; a policy of managing legal migration that includes developing infrastructure as a key to growth, and a firm policy against the clandestine trafficking of illegal immigrants.

In Madrid at the Karibu center, a motorcycle mechanic from Liberia, who gave his name only as Charles, told CNN he'd rather try to get official paperwork to remain in Spain than return home.

"Going back to my country, that is going to be the most difficult," Charles said. "I prefer to live this kind of life in Spain."

again, it's been a while. was just enjoying my christmas break. i go back to school on monday. going to finish off my year doing general arts. trying to love it up. over my break i did a whole lotta nothin'! and it kicked butt. ive been kinda busy this week tho. i had to get this crazy heart monitor put on the other day but its off now. it sure was a pain in the ass. i'll tell ya that much. somethin's wrong with the ticker. nothing too serious tho. i'll be good. nothin a little surgery wont fix :P anywho, i think ive decided what program im going to switch to for next year. i'm gonna go get my MCSE. i'm gonna be a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. crazy eh. who'd a thunk it??? not me thats for sure. for now tho, i gotta find a job. ive definatley been unemployed for like 9 months... thats insane. as much as i've loved it up and taken advantage of not working to the fullest extent. i need money. some friends and i found this house out in the boon dogs. its got a sweet beer drinkin porch. and its cheap rent. its closer to my school, so thats a pretty sweet deal too. plus you can only get there on gravel roads. no cops are gonna bust up a party out there. no way. no how. thats all for now.
peace

So where am I headed next.
New exciting developments in my life....
Im am going to be a Youth Minister;
I am transfering schools and starting the most exciting part of my journey in life thus far.
I can't wait; it's hard to believe it's really going to happen.
Where I end up I don't know yet ... I'm being patient.
But that's whats happening.... it's crazy but it's how it's meant to be.
I feel it...

My Testimony
If you told me a year ago I would be standing in front of you speaking about how much I love God, I would have laughed in your face. The thought of God was never something I debated much; I was content shrugging the notion off. I never felt I needed him. Now I know that I simply didn’t know any different.
High school was a time of experimentation for me; it was a time of what seemed innocent fun. I thought of little beyond what I wanted to do on the weekend and who I was going to get to buy alcohol for me. Having a boyfriend, popularity, great hair those seemed to be the ultimate key to happiness. So why was it that deep down I wasn’t happy? No matter how many friends I thought I had, why did I still feel so alone?
The beginning years of high school I lost a close friend of mine. She took her life in a selfish accidental attempt to get her own ultimate happiness. She wanted to go to a party and she’d do anything to get her own way as most teenage girls would do. She tried to fake her own death to scare her parents and in the end gave them the ultimate scare because she accidentally killed her self. Sandra died for silly reasons that scary enough I agreed and related to at the time. Scary as it was, deep down I felt I was capable of exactly what Sandra did. I guess you could say it was a wake up call but it seems that shortly after I fell asleep again.
I remember after Sandra died all my friends struggled, for a moment we realized life is fragile and we all seemed a bit closer. But that faded and soon we forgot. I remember soon after Sandra died, this is so vivid. I remember saying to my friends in a drunken fit of rage, “there isn’t a God and if there is I hate him.” I had so much anger inside me I had to take it somewhere I guess God was my easy target. I pushed everyone away I shut myself off and I felt truly alone. I was angry at everything but I never reached out and instead I struggled and struggled until it happened again.
A few years later a childhood friend who I had known all my life who also shared a mutual friendship with Sandra took a gun and ended her life. This time it was no mistake; Jamie like everyone else had her own struggles. I suppose she simply couldn’t stand the pain left from Sandra’s death. I searched for answers and found non I remember living in absolute misery. The anger that I possessed was scary at times. I couldn’t believe what was happening all over again to me and to the people I loved around me. This time I remember thinking about the notion of an ultimate being and being angry at the thought that He could exist. Jamie’s death left me bitter and feeling very empty; those were dark times.
Years past and now and then I wondered if I was really alone and I would think about praying just incase but it felt like such a huge step and I felt so far away. I just remember that feeling of being alone no matter who was around me it was stuck in the pit of my stomache. I too felt at times that perhaps I couldn’t go on anymore, perhaps I was capable of ending it all.
I moved away to start university and told myself that it would be a fresh start convinced that the struggles I was hiding from everyone would just disappear. I had an amazing time my first year at Brescia and met some amazing people. Everything seemed perfect, I felt truly happy. It was like night and day, this feeling I had been carrying around seemed to lift. It turns out that as soon as I came back to Petrolia it hit me that I had only run away from it all. The clouds started to cover again and Jamie and Sandra started to become something that I tried so hard to forget about.
At Christmas time last year a close friend of mine opened the doors for me and helped spark my curiosity. Usually I felt uncomfortable around Him and especially when he would mention the G.O.D word. This time it was different, he would talk about God and I started asking him questions and I started wanting to hear more and more. It was like I all of a sudden had this thirst for the word of God. We spent most of Christmas together and I came back to school. I started to feel convicted about the idea of even touching a drink. Things started happening around me to push my spark into a flame. I remember at Christmas time my friend told me that God speaks to you through his word. I was like hey, I want God to speak to me that sounds really cool. But it was weird I didn’t want to bring a bible to school how weird would that make me look. So I kind of forgot about that spark.
Some strange coincidences started to occur around me and I truly felt like God was letting me know that he is here. God totally washed any doubt I had away and made me feel secure in this life altering decisions I was about to make. I was at the Weldon library one day and I was wandering around. I’m from Brescia so I had no idea where I was going. I stopped in an Isle and I was surrounded by two book cases of bibles; I had never seen so many bibles in my whole life. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, should I run? So I took a few breaths after getting goose bumps over my entire body and I went to the Bookstore. I bought myself a bible; I can remember $9.99 which was the best ten dollars I have honestly ever spent. I came back to rez and felt pretty awkward putting that bible on my book shelf. I remember thinking to my self; what is going on? I just bought a bible! I started reading that bible, I started going to church but I didn’t know anyone so I just stuck to reading the bible for a bit on my own.
A girl moved on to our floor in January by fluke right down the hall from me, coincidence? She was a Christian but I didn’t find that out until right after we started talking and became very aware that we were almost a double of each other. She introduced me to her Christian friends on campus and we started going to church together. She also was able to let me join her bible study group that just happened to have one extra seat for. Felt like that seat was just for me, as if it was waiting.
When I started to going to church at first I randomly met a friend on the bus and we seemed to hit it off so well, we became instant friends. Again, Coincidence? No way. She introduced me to the Alpha Course @ North Park which ultimately changed my life. I can’t thank her enough for that. Any doubts that I was having about my decision were totally lifted by that course and I knew that this was forever and that I wanted God to be the source of refuge in my life.
I remember the end of Alpha there is an all day retreat on the Holy Spirit and at the end you can accept the Holy Spirit into your life. Now I had already said that prayer a million times to make sure that the Holy Spirit was in me but it was on that day that I really really felt it. I came home from that day and I was so excited I’m pretty sure my roommate was wondering what was wrong with me. I believe that day was the point in which I decided to give God all of my life.
I love God, he truly is my best friend and he has changed my life. I feel at peace with the hardships I have suffered. Every time I worship him or think of how amazing He has been to me I get so excited. Now I get to see the ripple effect of my friends around me. My two best friends are searching for their love of God and that is one of the most amazing things that I’m able to take part in. Friends around me have contacted me after finding out that I’ve been saved asking questions. I am the first Christian in my immediate family and I hope to be a spark within them also. I feel like I’m an example for anyone who feels self pity, for anyone who has had a rough time and just can’t pick their feet back up again. I want to be an answer for them because I know how hard it was for me to accept God. I also know that I was filled with so much pain and anger and now I’m in awe each and everyday. I’m not without hardship but I depend on God to provide what I need to move through whatever may come. Now I know how amazing God’s love is I could never look away. I’m not devoting even more of my life towards him; I’m going to be a Youth Minister and I truly feel that I’m walking the path God intended for me. My ultimate goal is to be that example for anyone who is struggling. I want to be the kind of person that people look at and wonder what I have that makes me so different. I want people to see the spark in me and be curious and want a part of that too. I just want to be compassionate and loving and show people how God is working through me. I will continue to do my part and I know that God will find His way into your heart if you let him.
I was given a book mark @ Alpha and I remember how it spoke to me:
“There is a door to your heart and Jesus is knocking on it.
He can’t open it against your will.
He wants to lead you through the door to the father’s house in heaven.
Will you open your heart to Him and receive his invitation?”

I pray that you all find a way to open that door.

Well it's been forever since I've updated that I'm not even sure what to add to catch up. But life is deffinately wicked thats for sure. My summer was amazing at Camp Wahanowin. I met some people that will remain in my life forever I know it. Now Im back at Western living with friends that have been here through out my entire life practically. (me n linds in the pic.. sorry beck, casey and bri ... the only pic i had on the net) Anyways I love life I really do and I love the way things are going and I thank God for all the amazing opportunities going my way.

Why is AIDS Education Important for Young People?

Young people are especially vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). They are also vulnerable as regards drug use (and not just injected drugs). Even if they are not engaging in risk behaviours today, they may soon be exposed to situations that put them at risk.

In many countries 60% of all new HIV infections are among 15-24 year-olds. Also the highest rates of STDs are usually found in the age range 20-24 years, followed by 15-19 years.

Does education about AIDS make young people more sexually active?

It is commonly supposed that talking to young people about sex will make them do it. Such anxieties prevent many teachers, youth workers and parents from talking about sexual matters. Alternatively, they may encourage an over-emphasis on the negative aspects of sex - unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, AIDS - rather than positive aspects such as intimacy, sexual love and pleasure. Likewise when drugs are talked about the emphasis is often on the damage they can cause. This kind of unbalanced approach is often seen through by young people. In consequence, they may reject all that adults have to say, seeking guidance and role models from peers and from the media.

Contrary to what might popularly be believed, research looking at the effects of sex education on young people's sexual behaviour offers little evidence that it hastens the onset of sexual experience, or increases sexual risk among those who are already sexually active. Indeed, several studies from different countries show that good quality sex education can actually decrease the likelihood that young people will have sex, and increases condom use among those who are already sexually active.

What type of education works best in school?

It is widely recognised that the best approaches to sex and drug education in schools are broad based and have several components. These include the provision of factual information about biology, sexual development, and sexual and drug-related risks; a concern with personal relationships, feelings and values; an emphasis on the acquisition of relevant negotiation skills (including but not restricted to how to say 'no'); and a consideration of wider social pressures and cultural expectations.

Successful sex education programmes have several key qualities. These include the provision of information, exercises to encourage an appraisal of values, and role play rehearsal to teach sexual negotiation skills. Programmes that aim to reduce specific sexual risk-taking behaviours and which reinforce group norms against unprotected sex and discuss social pressures to have unprotected sexual activity have been shown to be particularly successful. School curricula with these qualities have been shown significantly to reduce the likelihood that students who have not had sex prior to their exposure to the curriculum will have had unprotected sexual intercourse eighteen months later.

What works out of school?

Ideally, services for young people should be provided in a variety of ways - through specialised clinics, through youth advisory services, through general practitioners (doctors) and through local outreach work. The kind of services that are found most acceptable and appropriate by young people are those that offer a range of integrated services, are accessible at evenings and weekends, are close to public transport, have an appropriate image and atmosphere, and have approachable, non-judgmental and reassuring staff.

Studies show that peers can be well respected sources of information and support on AIDS-related concerns. Peer-led education has been shown to be effective in the field of substance abuse, and there are studies demonstrating its ability to bring about changes in HIV-related knowledge and attitudes. Studies focusing on risk behaviours are harder to come by. The best peer-led education programmes have clear objectives, provide training, support and supervision for peer educators, are accompanied by service provision or referral to appropriate services, and include regular monitoring and evaluation.

Other successful out of school programmes include those that provide culturally appropriate opportunities for learning through videotapes, games, exercises and other materials. These have been shown to be effective in reducing the incidence of unsafe sex and promoting intentions to use condoms.

How can we meet the needs of special groups?

Some groups of young people have special needs in relation to HIV and AIDS. Perhaps the most obvious of these are related to gender. Young women in particular may require support in acquiring the assertiveness and sexual negotiation skills that may enable them to avoid unwanted or unprotected sex. Young men on the other hand may need encouragement to listen carefully to what young women have to say and to respect their wishes in relation to sex and drug use.

The needs of young lesbians and young gay men may be missed by programmes and interventions that assume that all young people are heterosexual. There is evidence from the US at least that some young gay men may be at special risk of HIV. A variety of factors may cause this including the perception that AIDS is a disease of older men, a sense of low self worth caused by the reactions of parents and society, and less experience negotiating safer sex. Effective interventions among young gay men include risk-reduction counselling followed by peer education and referral to appropriate health services, and community based programmes using social, outreach and small group activities organised and run by young men themselves.

Young Black people and young people from minority ethnic communities may also have special needs when it comes to the promotion of safer sex and safer drug use. These may include access to materials and messages that are linguistically and culturally relevant, as well as what some writers have called 'culturally relevant learning'. These include activities and videotapes that engage directly with the interests and anxieties of the young people concerned.

Young homeless people may have special needs when it comes to HIV prevention. Some may have unsafe sex in order to obtain food and clothing, and in order to have somewhere to live. Some may share syringes and needles when injecting drugs. For many such young people, HIV and AIDS may seem less important than finding food and shelter. In order to be effective, intervention programmes among homeless young people need to address these concerns as well as AIDS-related issues. Providing access to health care and other resources, training in coping and sexual negotiation skills, and video and art workshops have been shown to be effective in reducing high risk patterns of sexual behaviour and promoting consistent condom use among members of this group.

Why are Schools Important?

Many young people cannot talk about AIDS either at home or in the community. Nor can they talk about the risk behaviours that can lead to HIV infection. In many countries family planning clinics are mostly restricted to married women and couples, and young people are reluctant to talk about sex to doctors or nurses, either out of embarrassment or because they are worried that confidentiality will not be respected. They may feel equally uncomfortable talking to their parents, and their parents in turn may also be embarrassed or lack the confidence to discuss the subject with their children.

However, most young people do attend school at some point, and school is an entry point where these topics can be addressed. The potential strengths of a school setting are that children there have a curriculum, teachers, and a peer group. And school can teach them not only information, but also skills. School can also help to shape attitudes.

Obstacles to AIDS Education in Schools

Despite the desirability of AIDS education in schools, there are a number of obstacles which often stand in the way. Some countries have no policies on AIDS education, and in others there can even be policies specifically against AIDS education.

At the level of individual schools, one major obstacle is that often the subject can be considered by adults such as policy-makers, teachers and parents, as too sensitive for children or too controversial. Another obstacle, which is often encountered, is that the school curriculum is already full and that it is therefore impossible to find a slot for AIDS education.

Even when HIV and AIDS education is provided in a school, it is often inadequate for one or more of the following reasons:-

HIV and AIDS education is often provided that deals only with medical and biological facts, and not with the real-life situations that young people find themselves in. Only if life skills are taught, and matters such as relationships, sexuality and the risks of drug use discussed, will young people be able to handle situations where they might be at risk of HIV infection.
Only one option in terms of sexual behaviour may be offered (for example, that of abstinence) regardless of the age of the students.
Materials for teachers may not exist, and teachers may not be properly trained to organise classroom activities on sensitive issues.
No education is provided on referral services, such as further information and skills training, counselling, and youth-friendly STD services.
Overcoming the Obstacles - Developing a Consensus

Various "gatekeepers" such as policy-makers, religious leaders, parents, teachers and teachers' associations normally determine whether and what kind of AIDS education is taught in schools. Although they may consider some aspects of AIDS education controversial or unacceptable, there is likely to be some consensus among them on certain issues. For example, that students need protection from sexual abuse, that they should be able to refuse drugs, and that there should be educational equality between boys and girls.

This consensus can be a starting point, and it can then be extended to other matters such as the premises that adolescents can learn how to make sound decisions, including about avoiding risk behaviour, and that society should help rather than hinder them in such matters.

Overcoming the Obstacles - Designing A Good Curriculum

The starting point for designing a good curriculum for AIDS education should be to make a proper situation assessment. This involves studying students' patterns of behaviour relating to the risk of HIV and finding out, for example, what is the average age at which they first have sexual intercourse, what are their most common forms of sexual behaviour and of drug consumption (including alcohol) and when they tend to leave school.

Such an assessment should start by asking young people's views. Asking young people is essential as young people do not necessarily share adults' attitudes on sexual and drug behaviour. The students must be assured of confidentiality so that they give honest responses. The results of this assessment will have a direct bearing on the rest of the curriculum design which should then involve undertaking the following steps.

Defining the type of programme (including the age at which it is to be introduced).
Selecting objectives for the programme.
Making a curriculum plan.
Planning specifically for the production of learning materials, and for activities of the students.
Developing teachers' guides.
Overcoming the Obstacles - Ensuring an Effective AIDS Education Programme
Effective programmes are those that have had a positive influence on behaviour as regards sex, drug use and non-discrimination, and not simply increased knowledge and changed the attitudes of students.

It has been shown that effective programmes do all the following things:

Focus on life skills with the double aim of delaying first sexual intercourse and encouraging protected intercourse.
Concentrate on personalising risk through appropriate role playing and discussions.
Discuss clearly the possible result of unprotected sex, and in equally clear terms the ways to avoid such an outcome.
Explain where to turn for help and support among peers, school staff, and outside facilities.
Stress that skills useful for self-protection from HIV also help build self-confidence and avoid unwanted pregnancy, sexual abuse, and the abuse of drugs (including tobacco and alcohol)
Reinforce values, norms and peer group support for practising and sustaining safe behaviour and resisting unsafe behaviour, both at school and in the community.
Provide sufficient time for classroom work and interactive teaching methods such as role play and group discussions.
Start at the earliest possible age and certainly before the onset of sexual activity. Effectively this means that age appropriate programmes should start at primary school level.
A Good Example In Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe all schools since 1993 have had compulsory weekly lessons on life skills and AIDS, for all students from grade 4(9-10 year olds) upwards. Booklets for students and teachers are designed for each grade and address four main themes: relationships, growing up, life skills and health. Topics range from discussions on gender roles and rape, to coping with emotions and stressful expectations. In the classroom, self-esteem and assertiveness are encouraged, and role playing suggests ways to respond to peer pressures. In addition to using booklets in the classroom, students also do projects in the community.

All materials are reviewed and approved by a committee including the national AIDS programme, the Ministry of Education, and representatives from the major religious denominations.

A large teacher training programme helps prepare serving teachers as well as students and teacher training colleges.

hey all
so im in my third week of school. its pretty cool. not too hard, meetin' some fun people. doin' lotsa work. second day of school i tripped up the stair in the cafeteria infront of everyone and did a face plant and dropped all my stuff... everyone started clapping and yelling good one! so i got up and was like "YEAH" just so i didnt feel like such an ass... it was pretty halarious. i was supposed to move out a little while ago, but we got screwed out of our place... they decided they didnt want to rent to students after all :P pretty shaddy... but we found a place today thats pretty kick ass. so we're gonna take it and move in for october first. pretty pumped up. just thought i'd drop a few lines! heres a pic of me from the wknd drinkin' at my cottage with some buddies... my eyes kinda look all glossy drunk life :) ahhh! the life of a college student :P anywho gotta get up at 6... woooo!!! exciting! later

No way!! no way!! Life is not what we think it is, but cards placed on a table of water. No one can play these cards with joy, coz the water hinders the players.
Where are we driving to, is the question. Life is getting rough and tough every day? people hunting for one another. prizes and awards being place on others head. what for? ONLY GOD ALONE CAN TELL.

Where are we thinking of while living? people say there is no God, others say the Bible is an idea from men, some Cameroonians say AIDS means American International Way of Discouraging Sex. These are the real virtures of life and the parables life holds. No one should be taken by surprise when the world comes to and end or when the Americans will say " BIN LADEN has been captured". Things are just going any how,that we can't defend nor give statements on.Behold to the father who gives his child a snake when he/she ask for fish.

I do ask my self, when really will all these sufferings on earth will come to an end. Only the shadow of a flying hawlk will tell the hen that danger is arround.For no one raises up a business to lose but to make profits, nor can a young fox teach an old fox old tricks, but recent tricks.
Why and what for should we be angry with one another, fight one another, kill one another or kill our selves? NO ANSWER!!

September 11 2001 is a day I can't foreget no matter how far I was and I am from the place it all took place. I was there spiritually and cried with the families that lost their love ones. I lost my faith in men, for I didnt believe men could do what they did.
Lucifer on earth, is the conclusion, but why should he be here is the next question.

NO MAN CAN TEACH HIS/HER GRAND MOTHER HOW TO BREAST FEED A BABY!! Nor can we teach our selves to know what is good or bad. We all have a second personality and we need time to get to know him.

SEX,DRUGS,KILLINGS,CORRUPTION,POVERTY and all sorts of societal ills are the order of the day now in our World.

How was the world 100yrs ago? did people die like this? In those days, when non of us was here on earth, men and women could live till 500years.. but now it's not the same.
ENTHROPY every where.

Govermnents make rules and can't keep them. Things happen and there is no one who can STOP them. Countries fight for POWER which is no theirs. IS GOD SLEEPING of giving them a long ROPE TO DRAW? I wish to be there on the day GOD HIMSELF WILL TAKE CONTROL OF THINGS.

Watch out the way u Goverment leaders do your things. Life is brief and the earth is a passage to a different world.

WHAT PROFITS YOU IF YOU GAIN THIS WHOLE WORLD AND U LOSE YOUR SOUL? any answer?? I dont think so. So think in every actions of yours, for the day is coming, when....
THE HUNTER WILL BE THE HUNTED....

im not big on change... but sooner or later things do change... you have to grow up and move on with your life. i start college next week. and i move into my new place a day before i start. things are going to be pretty hectic. i got a three bedroom townhouse a ways down the street from my school. im sharing a place with my buddies mel-hole and murry... i dont like having to leave my mom in our house alone. bah! i hate being the youngest. but i have to grow up and do things for myself. im gonna study my ass off all the time, and hope that i can get honours or something so i can get into a sweet university. maybe get a scholarship or something... thatd be cool. its a good thing that my roomates like to clean and they know how to cook. otherwise i'd have the most unclean place ever and i'd live off toast. probably burnt toast to boot. well hopefully things will work out for the better, and i'll be fine living away from home... and i wont be the hopeless case in college that i was in highschool... welp... wish me luck all... gonna go pack up some junk.

so i hate to say it... but summers almost done... few more weeks and then back to reality. i havent been in school for a bit more than a year. and its almost time to go back. freaky. its gonna be crazy. i know that if i dont start college now... i probably never will. so im forcing myself to go. which will be a good thing in the long run for sure. i just wish there was a way around it. hahaha. its also kinda sad... all the ppl i grew up with and have been hanging out with my whole life are starting to move away. we wont get to see each other hardly ever, which is really shafty. all i have to say is im gonna be doing a lot of driving on the wknds all over the place... and i hope that everybody has e-mail :P
this summer has been sort of productive. i havent worked at all... but i saw a lot of concerts. and i got to chill with my brother derek for a week in t.o. so that was sweet. my brothers pretty kick ass. always comes up with these crazy cool ideas. and is full of fun and interesting information... like how you can buy sweet ass light sabers that do all this crazy fun stuff for only like $700 american. hahaha. but yeah... we went to the stones concert in t.o together which was a kick ass time. spent like $50 bucks on water alone! nutty. then afterwards we got stuck in the 500 000 ppl hurd... shuffling down the street and ended up walking for like 500 hours. good times. anywho yeah... hopefully i do some more fantastically fun things before summers done and im forced to grow up again for another 10 months. bah. okee welp im off to bed, just thought i'd write a bit. and on the note of me going to bed... heres a pic of me waking up! hahaha i thought it would be funny to expose the morning me for all to see!

This place got BIG!

..

*speachless*

hey all! went to SARS STOCK yesterday! hahaha sars stock... i cant even believe they were selling t-shirts that said that... anywho yeah. me and derek went, it was pretty cool. its fun hangin with my bro :) hes silly! i dont know how the heck he stood for 12 hrs straight. i had to take sit breaks every so often. ac~dc, rush and the rolling stones were definatley my fav's out of the day. they were kick ass. in total i spent about 50 bucks on water. thats just insane. and none of my bottles got thrown at justin timberlake... he wasnt worth my water. i kinda felt bad for him, how he got boo'd soooo hard. but man, he was just singin to the wrong crowd. we were all there for some rock and roll and he came out singin "cry me a river" i just wanted to be like "cry me a river when you get knocked out by one of those bottles of water aimed at your head" and for all those folks who just kept whippin em at him when he was singin with the stones... you are brave, i definatley didnt have the balls to risk hittin one of the stones. keith richards almost got pegged and he was right pissed. anywho yeah. it was a good time for sure. hahaha derek got a lot of sun :) i didnt burn tho... kinda peeved... i want a sweet tan, but im never outside enough... then when i am, the sun doesnt wanna show any love :) anywho out fer now, more later. peace

k so the cops came and just left... i misjudged them i guess... they were really nice, and helpful. i guess muggers with the description i gave them were reported yesterday as well... in the same area. what stupid criminals eh. for real. even though the chances are super slim... if i ever see those f*$%^^# again... im gonna whoop them sooooo hard! anywho its been a long ass day... i dont care if its super bad for you, im goin outside and im smokin cause im stressed... and im gonna luv it too!
have a good night, be safe, and dont walk around t.o alone... even in daylight! oh yeah and tomorrow... give homeless ppl your spare change... cause this bum by the doors of the subway on yongue and queen asked me why i was crying... and offered to pay to get me home on the subway. that was the nicest thing ever. there still are some strangers out there that arent out to get you. i love that bum, if i ever see him again im gonna give him like 20 bucks... k bye again...

im visiting in toronto for the week, staying at my brother dereks. i havent been here in a long time and today i was just tourin' around minding my own business... and i got mugged. these four guys prally thought it would be fun to pick on an innocent girl, walking alone. they stole my purse. luckily they just stole my tin with 60 bucks in it. they tossed my purse down the street with my digicam, cell phone, and a buncha other stuff... they knocked me down pretty hard though. my legs kinda beat up a bit. im right pissed. and i wont even see them ever again. so i wont get a chance to beat them down. see if this had happened in petrolia. i could just ask them the next day "man why the hell did ya do that?" cause you always see everyone in petrolia all the time. everyone knows everyone. and everyone knows where everyone lives. but here... its a different story. i got screwed and theres nothing anyone can do about it. i called 911 like 45 minutes ago, im at dereks now. they said they sent a cop here to take a report and they'd be here in like 10 minutes. but nope... still not here. takin' their sweet ass time i guess... like seriously, if i had been badly hurt and was like bleeding somewhere on the sidewalk, i'd prally be dead by now, cause the cops just dont seem to care. well maybe thats not accurate but thats how i feel right now. im just pissed off... anywho... report back later.