Day 31
This morning my tiny little Chinese (I think she's Chinese) neighbor lady decided to move around furniture and close drawers. At first I was annoyed and tried to ignore it, then I pounded on the wall and then I bolted upright in bed and started to wonder exactly how much furniture she had and exactly how many drawers her room contained. I stopped pounding back when I realized someone with 23 chests of drawers and countless furniture items of all varities may not be mentally stable. I decided to wake up and not mess with her, the only problems now are that I am tired and spent my entire day thinking of ways to get into her room to see it's contents.
Canadian observation of the day: Today I spent most of my time watching youtube videos of Dame Edna but during breaks I checked my email (and looked at facebook, and wondered why people don't write me more often). I have an account with yahoo. In the U.S. I sometimes read the "news" stories on the main page of yahoo, most of the news topics being split between the realms of politics and scientific breakthroughs. However, when I am in Canada and type in yahoo.com I am immediately redirected to yahoo.ca. And, the news pieces are much funnier and more off-key. Today I noticed that the two main items were a puppy bulldog who couldn't roll over and a piece on why save pandas from extinction (title: "Worth Saving?").
The first video was a puppy who really couldn't flip over, he just rolled from side to side on his back. The panic in his eyes increased with every attempt. What was cute at first became torturous, what kind of person could just put a camera on the dog and not help him to flip himself after a minute an a half of his backbone grinding into a hard wooden floor. Two other videos followed this one, one with a cat stuck in a coat sleeve being tormented by it's owner dangling a bell in it's face and the other, a pug forced to push a baby stoller on walking on his hind legs like a person. One of the first signs of a serial killer is that he/she tortures animals. Hmm...what does that say about Canadian society that they have this as front page news and yet so few killers?
The panda article was humourous when you considered the environmentalist freaks that were cringing all over the provinces as they watched the news clip and heard a man say that pandas are costing too much money to keep alive and that we should just let them take the evolutionary path and die off already. What was even better was how they interviewed the panda supporters and all they had to say was that we should save pandas because they're cute. Now that's real news.
Tonight a couple friends and I were going out to dinner at an Indian restaurant. The restaurant had been endorsed by our Indian friend. We discussed how it's sort of silly that people move their entire lives to another country to attend school and get a fresh start on life and yet they spend a good amount of time and money trying to find the cuisine of their homeland. As we were speaking of such things we passed a Denny's and I wondered if I should feel compelled to enter based on this logic. Then I realized that people from other cultures craved the food of their motherlands not only because it was comforting but more so because it tasted good. After this realization I didn't feel so bad to walk past the Denny's without so much as a glimpse inside, but my internal patriotism meter dropped.
A few more feet up the block the brightly lit signs for a Toys R Us shined. Pride filled my eyes. We may not have gourmet cu sine at home but we sure do have awesome chain toy stores filled with the cheap handicrafts of foreign 12 year olds. My heart lit up like a tacky pinball machine. This is my version of an American comfort food, shameless commercialism. God, I feel satiated.
-Canadian Castaway
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