How to Get to the Ethiopian Restaurant

--by Sara and Shelley

First, walk to your local skytrain station. In our case, it is only two blocks away. Make sure your faresaver ticket is in hand beforehand lest you have to dig through your wallet in public.

Enter skytrain station, activate ticket if you remember, and step on escalator. Stare straight ahead and smile.

Find a spot to stand along the track away from creepy men. Do something, such as play with a digital camera, to occupy the moments you stand waiting for the skytrain.

Fight the urge to play on the tracks, or enter the area between the tracks. Apparently it is high voltage and your body will be thrust through the air.




When the skytrain comes, squeeze inside and find a railing to hold onto, lest you go flying into the arms of that creepy man.




Make strange faces to intimidate strangers.





When the train stops, worm your way out and walk quickly out of the station and to your next destination.
Do not pause to take a picture of a busker, as this makes them (or one) angry.



Walk underneath the skytrain tracks on Commercial Drive.




Pass Grandview highway and keep walking for a few blocks.




Notice old bicycles and the shadows they create when the sun is in the process of sinking.



Stop at the Ethiopan cafe, wash your hands, and prepare to eat some pretty delicious food.

autumnal equinox

There has been a sudden season change; last week I thought I would have to reacquaint myself with the rhythms of the rain. The seasons here are almost more comparable to a rainy and dry season than a winter, spring, summer and fall.

The last few days have been sunny again, but with that cold tinge to the air. I met my friend Kristin and her buddies at Granville island and we took the opportunity to enjoy the coast before the warmth fades for the year.



It is really amazing how much the weather changes a place. During the rain the city can become a sombre place, but come sunshine it is so lively.

community

A couple of days ago I was walking down Broadway, trying to find a place to buy bus tickets on my way to the bus stop. I saw a sketchy little convenience store and decided to go in, even though I knew there wouldn't be bus tickets there. I asked the man behind the counter, an older East Indian man, if he sold bus tickets.

He said no, then took a few moments to look at me, really study me. Then he said, "You are an honest person. You have a big heart and like to give to people. Be careful not to give too much. People will take your money from you..." Then he asked me where I was from and when my birthday was, nodding after each answer, as if to confirm his assumptions.

I asked him how he knew this, but he said, "Have a good day!" as if to scurry me out of his shop. It was a strange little experience and I am not sure what to make of it yet.

Lately I've been struggling with ideas of community--what exactly one is and can be, and why I feel the need for one so strongly. Sometimes I think that Dordt and small town Alberta have spoiled me with such strong communities. Other times I think that I need to find community within myself now. Or that the synthesis of random encounters with strangers can form some sort of substitute...

What constitutes a community? Any thoughts?

back again.

I awoke, early Sunday morning, to a big thunderstorm. Lightning, thunder, and hail at 7:30am! It was awesome. Here is a view from my window. Vancouver doesn't get storms like that. I think I had heard thunder once this year until then.




I am back in Vancouver already again. And I did catch my flight on the way home, no problems. The good thing about doing something as silly as missing a flight because you fail to take 24 hour clock into consideration is that I will most likely not do it again. I will do something else...

'Twas a great little trip. I like to think that being a country girl living in the city makes me a well-rounded person. Sometimes, however, it just makes me confused.

adventures back home

On Thursday I was reminded that airlines operate on 24 hour time when I missed my flight by 12 hours. I was having difficulty with the self-check in and so I went to the counter for assistance where I was glared at, asked if I knew that my flight left that morning, and told to see if the ticketing officer might be able to sell me a new ticket. The ticketing officer pressed about a hundred computer keys in silence before handing me a new ticket, saying: "You are lucky that I'm having a good day."

As the plane took off the sun was setting and I was suddenly overcome by grace and the realization of how beautiful everything was. And how unbelievable it was that I was mid-air with so many strangers, all headed to the same place. And that the lady next to me was reading Chinese, which is written vertically. It was a moment in which nothing and everything made sense.

Yesterday, as I pulled into a Tim Hortons parking lot full of trucks to order inside, since there was a Drive-thru line up of almost a block outside the store, I was reminded that I am in Alberta. It is harvest time right now and so there are combines running day and night. And people need their Tim Hortons coffee.

Today I woke up at 5:00am so I could sell veggies at the farmer's market with my dad. (We stopped by Tim Hortons on the way there.) I love farmer's markets. There is a man who lost an arm and a leg and almost another arm in a train accident when he was a boy. He sits across from our stand and plays his drum, holding the drumstick with the hook on his amputated arm, singing old songs that remind me of Forrest Gump. There is a carpenter named Joseph from Trinidad who stops by with eight triple-triple coffees from Tim Hortons, passes them out to us, and sits in the back of our truck eating his breakfast. There is a brightly clothed woman named Wildberry who has made it her mission to spread joy to everyone, and also paint flowers and rainbows on them. She was really excited to see me and gave me a giant hug. Alot of people were happy to see me again. I love the people. And the sense of community here is something I've been craving while living in the big city.

Unfortunately farmer's markets in Vancouver are not the same, from what I have experienced. Alberta just does some things so well.

new year, new look

Today marks my one year anniversary as a Vancouverite. I have decided to celebrate by changing my blog (a much more mature look is now required) and eating raspberry pie.

Tomorrow festivities continue with an early morning commute across the city to the first day of classes, and then a flight across a province to spend the weekend in Alberta.

(I can't believe I've been here a year! that is crazy!)

(phew.)

Just finished the first draft of my thesis...or put it away for now. After a week of being a hermit, incessantly reading and taking notes and checking e-mail, I have the first fifteen page proposal. It took me a lot of coffee to get to this point.

The working title: Cancer as Part of a Spiritual Journey
It is going to explore the relationship between art, spirituality and healing and compare the journey of those experiencing cancer with the archetypal image of a pilgrim. And show how the prospect of death results in new life, or enlightenment. and talk about the mind-body-spirit connection. and show how art is meditation is healing. and, and, and...

I have too many thoughts going through my head right now.
I am off to do a brainless activity for awhile.