Kelly Bowden

The Life and Times of Kelly Lynn Bowden

Do you ever get the feeling sometimes that in CISV we know people really really well, but at the same time we don't know them at all? We know lots and lots about their lives in CISV, but very little about their lives at home and in the "real world". Well hopefully this will give you a little peak, a sneak preview if you will, of what that other part of all of us (well, just of me actually) is about. Make your own wiki page too- and lets connect, friends.

IJBC 2008 Count-Down!

If you could be anyone in the world for one day, who would it be?

Jose Saramango (a Portugese author who won a nobel prize for literature). He has an incredible ability to be writing about one thing that drifts into another and before you know it you're five topics down the line. I'd love to be able to just see my thoughts flow so incredibly naturally and smooth like that.

What was your favourite cartoon as a kid?

Astroboy. It was a cartoon about a little boy who, incidentally, wore a speedo and had jet-packs attached to his boots so that he could fly in the air. I don't really remeber what he did, except for wear a speedo and fly around....

What did you collect as a kid?

STICKERS! I had shiny stickers, fuzzy stickers, collection sets, and my personal favourite-- scratch and sniff! They were very throughly divided onto different pages of an album depending on what category they belonged to. Needless to say I was quite confused when they came out shiny scratch and sniff stickers.... where was i supposed to put them? with the shinies? with the scratch and sniffs? did they merit a category of their own? Comments as to how this problem should have been resolved would be much appreciated.

What language would you like to speak?

Swedish.

Do feet in general gross you out?

Not so much. Smelly feet do.

Do your feet gross you out?

Not really (unless they're smelly...)

Do you wear shoes with or without socks?

WITH SOCKS. The latter clearly creates smelly feet, which as I've already noted, I'm quite opposed to.

In your everyday vocabulary, what's the common expression you use?

Let's be friends.

Kelly the Kid

I was born in 1985 in a funny little town called Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I never really lived there though. We stayed for about 2 months before my family moved to Toronto, because my father is a university professor and he got work there. We moved a lot when I was young because of my dad's work. By the time I was 5 years old we had lived in 5 different cities. We finally settled down in the lovely town of Fredericton, New Brunswick, where I grew up, went to school and joined CISV. I loved board games (still do actually) but always had a hard time playing them when I was a kid because I'm an only child and most board games require three or more players... so both parents had to be home. lame.

Kelly the Student

After high school, I left Fredericton to go to University at a school called Queen's University. This was in Kingston Ontario (about a 20 hour car drive away from my family-- whew, Canada, you're big). But actually, I did my first year of university in a little tiny village called Herstmonceaux which is in the south of England, about 2 hours below London. I studied International Development Studies and Political Science for four years and finally graduated in June of 2007. Now I'm missing being a student and thinking about what and when I will study next...

Kelly the Worker Bee

I always liked working, even when i was younger, for several reasons I think: (1) you make friends with the people you work with, and well, I like friends. (2) it felt cool to be making my own money when I was like 16-- it made me feel more independent (3) I always liked my jobs. some of them were a bit funny and eclectic, but i enjoyed them.

Jobs I have had?

• Working as a sales associate at the Body Shop (a store that sells bath and body products. I can tell you anything you want to know about soap)
• Working as a gift wrapper at Christmas time, you guessed it, wrapping other people's gifts.
• Working for a program called Walk Home where I worked with a partner and we walked people home at night, anytime between 6pm and 2am. You meet lots of interesting people walking around all night!
• Working as a residence associate-- living in a university residence and advising all of the first year students on what they should do with their lives. Again, excellent fun.

I'll spare you the actual employment I've had, because it's significantly less entertaining than my odd jobs.

Kelly the CISVer

• Crazy Farm Village, Lyon 1997 (participant)
• Interchange Fredericton-Jonkoping, Sweden 1998-1999 (participant)
• Who Am I Summer Camp, Munich 2000 (participant)
• International Youth Meeting, Graz 2001-2002 (participant)
• Aha Village, Kristiansand 2002 (JC)
• ARMM/IJBC/AIM 2002, Turku (participant)
• Seminar Camp, Ottawa 2004 (participant)
• ARMM/IJBC/AIM 2005, Bangkok (participant)
• ARMM/IJBC/AIM 2006, Jonkoping (participant)
• ARMM/IJBC/AIM 2007, Bogota (planner)
• 40320 Village, San Jose 2007-2008 (International Staff)
• ARMM/IJBC/AIM 2008, Florence (planner)