Broke my Bed

Somehow I've lost my student card. Last place I remember using it is at TD when I used it to get my student credit card. I went back and asked them if I'd left it there but no luck. Get one card and lose another, huh.

Today was kind of disappointing, made plans that fell through, and had back-up plans which also fell through. Then I got home, sat on my bed and the bed broke. Now I'm sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

I kind of thought that might happen. My bed frame was four pieces of wood nailed together with one placed overtop. It had already broken once before and I "fixed it by shifting around the top board so that not a lot of pressure was placed on the broken part.

I'd put that plant-holder that came with the room in the area between the boards under the mattress. I'd always thought that the area under the bed would make a good last-resort storage container. Oh well, there are worse losses, I guess.

I've got a table next to my bed that I keep my laptop and printer on. It was at a really good level to me when I was lying in bed. Now I'm sitting cross-legged on my mattress to be face-level with my laptop. Little disappointing.

But none of that matters because THIS HAPPENED

OHHHH YEAH! SUNFLOWER! Where'd this guy come from?! Who's gardening at our place?! What?!

All my sunflowers had died, but this guy shows up out of the blue! Ohhhh, it's going to be a good year after all!

Toronto Trips

Last Friday we went to the Toronto Science Centre, which I've been to once before. Aside from viewing the exhibits, we went to the Imax Theatre and watched a documentary on lemurs. This was pretty cool to me, because I'm lame and into that kind of thing, but I still couldn't help but think that the Imax Theatre, with it's huge, curved screen that covers a person's entire sense of vision, including peripheral, was downplayed on something as low-energy as a documentary, and made me consider it's potential if it decided to feature something more action-oriented.

The bus ride was tough, just because of the length and because I'd decided to drink coffee beforehand. Gotta be in my top ten "need a bathroom" experiences.

This week we got to watch a Blue Jays game. They faced the Red Sox and beat them soundly. I avoided drinking coffee before the drive to Toronto, but found myself having a hard time fighting the urge to nod off. Can't win.

And then today we got to go bowling and swimming. Went swimming at the Waterloo Recreation Centre, which is different from our usual place. Instead of having a single pool that gets deeper and deeper, it has two separate pools, one that is shallow and one that is deep. It also had a "warm pool" which is like a hot tub, but big enough to classify as a pool. Met a friend there who is working as a lifeguard, which was pretty neat.

There is a nature trail between my house and the nearest grocery, which I've walked by frequently over the past two years and have always intended to visit but never found the time to. Last week, I finally got around to it. I walked up and down the better-traveled path and then walked into the rough. It reminded me of my youth, when I found so much fulfillment in exploring the wilderness around me.

Segu Book

A long time ago, I made a post wondering if it would be possible to make a restaurant based on Malian cuisine, since other cultures have made in-Canada restaurants based on their home food, adapted to Canadian taste. Well check this out, a list of Malian recipes:

http://www.celtnet.org.uk/recipes/mali.php

I never ate most of that. And where's the Toh? The sour cake dipped in fish sauce. And under the spice list, where's the Pima? That hot sauce that would turn your mouth on fire.

And check this out, a Bambara Wikipedia:

http://bm.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ny%C9%9B_f%C9%94l%C9%94

My Segu book is pretty amazing. The main family is of the Traore tribe, which my host family belonged to. I've found out that our sacred tree is the dubale, in which the spirits of our ancestors rest. Our motto is "Traore, Traore, Traore--the long-named man need not pay to cross the river". Our totemic animals are the black monkey, the dog-faced baboon, the crowned crane, and the panther. So don't any of you let me kill those animals, or I'll be cursed!

I found out that the Samake tribe are our enemies, but since my nickname was "Elephant" and the Bambara word for elephant is "Sama", and "Samake" means "Son of Elephant", this means that my signature animal belongs to my enemy's tribe! This is what happens when you let a Diarra nickname you!

Oh, and Diarra was the name of a special lion, so the Diarra clan that lived with us in Karadie and with which we shared Cousinage is associated with the lion.

I've learned the reason why "Mali" is Bambara for "Hippo". Turns out the Malinke are a tribe that were represented by the hippo. In this book, the Malinke are a proud but defeated people, who once ruled the lands but were defeated by the Songhay, who were in turn defeated by the Segu. Funny how they don't acknowledge the fall of the Mali Empire, when it turns out they later make such a comeback.

Segu was the place of my counterpart's upbringing, too, and it's the starting place of the book. Also, he married a Samake woman, enemy of the Traore. Now the Segu Empire is reduced to being a region within the Malinke Empire.

Apparently the current political turmoil with Timbuktu being taken by the Tuareg is old news. In fact, Timbuktu is apparently named after a woman who originally ruled it, and the meaning is "woman with a big naval". It's history reflects a woman who is fought over by men, but who belongs to no one. It has been in the hands of the Tuaregs several times before and lost.

I may have already said this, but the ruler of Segu is Monzon Diarra, which  is the same name as the son of the chief of Karadie. And the wife of the person that the book originally centres on is of the Kulibaly clan, which is even more noble than the Traore. That left me a little bitter... Sedio is not better than I am!

The Traore, Diarra, and the Kulibaly were the three tribes to live in Karadie. Such a happy coincidence that they are such a focus in the book! With Traore being the main chaaracters!

I remember building stoves out of Banko and using it in the fields. It was so casually spoken on, that I thought it must be a regular building material. But coming back, no one knew what it was. Turns out, it's a Bambara word meaning a combination of water, clay, dung, straw, and sand.

And the word Pagne, which is a type of cloth you bring to the tailor so he can make your clothes!

I get to read about Toh, the food I spoke on above, courage sharing, and the concept of one person holding multiple names, which I've spoken on in this book.

So cool!

Debit Card

Last Wednesday, a bank machine ate my debit card. It said "Temporarily out of service, please try again later" or something like that. I looked down to see my card having been ejected and in the process of being retracted. So painful to see your card being swallowed past the point of no return. I hammered on the "cancel" and "correct" buttons on the ATM keyboard, but as you can imagine, that won't do anything after the machine has logged you out.

I actually took out a pen, wrote "OUT OF SERVICE" on an envelope and stuck it to the machine. I decided to believe that, instead of fate picking on me, I was actually there to prevent others from having their cards eaten, since not everyone might be so considerate as to leave an out of order notice.

And then the next day we had a staff meeting, so work ran late. We let out at seven and the bus ride is roughly an hour long, with the bank closing at eight. I managed to get there ten minutes before closing. The woman at front desk, instead of offering to retrieve my card, said she'd print me out a new one. I've actually had my card eaten by the same machine in the past (when that happened, they said it had never happened before) and then, they'd just gotten it back for me. This time, I had it redone with the new Visa adaptation, which means I can spend money online.

But the Debit-Visa isn't an actual credit card, just an adaption to my debit card that allows me to spend online.  However, she also offered me the Student Visa card, which is a credit card available to students. Remember how in the past,  I went through the credit card application phase and was denied because even though my credit rating was good, I didn't have enough of it? Well, this time around, I didn't even have to do an interview and see if I'd be accepted. We were able to complete the acceptance process in what remained of the ten minutes that were left after I'd had my debit card reprinted.

Leaving Guelph

When leaving Guelph, I put off packing to the last minute, and so I was able to find my beard trimmer, but not my beard trimmer charger. I just trimmed my beard, but I don't know how many trims it has in it. I'm scared of one day it running out when my beard is half-trimmed, and then I have to walk around with half my beard mechanically trimmed and half of it manually trimmed. I don't know how that would look but I assume it would be bad.

 I also brought my detachable keyboard but forgot my computer mouse.

I feel like I should point out that even though my sunflowers died, our zucchini plants and one of the broccoli plants are doing great. The tomato plants are doing okay and the pepper plants are working out way better than last year. The peas and beans are dead. But since my sunflowers are dead, so is my ambition to the garden. Blech.

I just ate a gyro for the first time in my life. At the Transfers Cafe in the downtown bus terminal, but whatever, still counts. It was shockingly good. The best thing I've ever had through the Transfers Cafe.

I got my first paycheque last  Friday.  Really exciting.

Last week, we got to go bowling. I'm a terrible bowler, but this time around, I did alright. I usually always mix up my style, because there isn't a way that I can do consistently well, but I think I've found one now. I even got a strike, but I was so excited, that when I turned around and ran up to give everyone high fives, I tripped over a table.

Got to watch the movie How to Train Your Dragon 2. I watched the original one in Katimavik. I remember my group giving the original high praise, but I found it more or less unmemorable. Viking theme, nerdy protagonist, dragons are initially the enemy but the protagonist learns to befriend them. I actually think the sequel was better. It was a little bit less predictable, but I found the protagonist was difficult to empathize with and the antagonist should have been sympathetic but wasn't convincingly so. The comic relief was hit-and-miss. The best parts were through the lead support characters and some of the plot.

We had a visit from someone who showed us exotic pets, such as lizards, snakes, tarantulas, scorpions, and tortoises. Loved it. We also got to watch a magic show. When you're young, you think that you'll grow up to understand all the magic tricks, but now as an adult, I'm stuck with the frustration of being mystified and knowing I will probably never grasp it!

African Lion Safari

I'm home for the weekend for the first time since I started work. All my sunflowers are dead and nobody told me!! I brought them into this world and let them die! Bad karma.

Since I'm here, I can bring back a few things I forgot last time, like my dress pants, my beard trimmer (had to go back to scissors for a month), my detachable keyboard and my computer mouse.

The Friday before last Friday I got to go to African Lion Safari. I haven't been there since I was a kid. Since I'm not allowed to take photos of participants, I never take my camera to work and it didn't occur to me that there's lots of cool photo opportunities that don't involve participants. Oh well.

I got the same sense of familiarity when I arrived there that I did at the Butterfly Conservatory. All the little details you don't bother to hold in your conscious memory, but which bubble up when reintroduced. The lake where the elephants swim was the first thing I saw, and my first thought was that the tables next to the lake were the same (or at least the same design) as when I'd been there as a child.

I appreciated all the African trivia way more now than I did as a child, for obvious reasons. They have zones in the safari set aside for specific countries. The Watuzu Cattle or however it's spelled, were cool because they were the same as the cattle I'd see every day in Mali.

They have a newborn giraffe there, the first in Canada to be born through artificial insemination. They are very proud.

They have a zone for the Americas. That kind of bothered me. This is the African Lion Safari. I don't want to think about the Americas. They had bison, deer, moose etc in that zone. I guess those are some pretty cool animals, regardless.

I also noticed all of their elephants are Asian elephants, not African. And in the Birds of Prey exhibit, they had birds from every continent.

They made the Zebra sound pretty lame. They aren't as intelligent and don't have the endurance of regular horses, and nobody knows why they have stripes.

The girl rhinos were hanging around the male rhino, which is pretty rare, because apparently their male rhino has a bad personality and the girl rhinos don't like spending time with him.

We went to the Parrot Paradise, Birds of Prey, and Elephant Walk (or something like that) shows. When I was a kid, there was a show where they asked a bunch of kids to come up and race this vulture. The claim was that it would not use it's wings and still beat us kids in a footrace. Well, I was beating it, and it used it's wings to get by me! I was so angry.

Until this recent trip, I'd wondered if I had deluded myself with childish fantasy into believing that I could beat the bird. But I got to go back to the show, and they did the same thing. When they asked who believed the vultures would when and who believed the kids would, I cheered for the kids.

And I was right! The vultures used their wings and still lost to most of the kids! And the people running the show bluffed and called a tie! I don't know why they insist on keeping this stunt going. Those vultures are terrible runners.

I also remember how at the elephant show, when mounting the elephant, the woman ripped her pants. This time around, the woman failed to full mount the elephant and dangled off it while two assistants tried to push her back on. Then she flipped over and fell off the other side, suspiciously gracefully. I'm beginning to think they usually have a put-on gimmick to make it look like something messed up.

Cooking

I got together with an old friend from HSF this weekend who wound up going to an SSW program in another city. It's been over a year, but it didn't feel so dramatic when he showed up, as if we'd seen each other just the other day. We went out for lunch at a Thai-Vietnamese restaurant just across the street from the school which I'd never bothered to visit but had always wondered about. It had good portions for the price. Probably people more refined would criticize it but it was good enough for me.

I've been doing a lot of cooking at home. I didn't do much of it in residence as I was only allowed to have a microwave (or a closed-element cooking utensil, but I didn't have anything better handy) and then last year because I... avoided using the kitchen area as much as I could (you can interpret that however you want).

Been making a lot of stirfry. Last one was rice with beans, zucchini, onion, cauliflower, mushrooms, and carrots with teriyaki and sriracha sauce. Kind of just remembered how the stirfry line at my school cafeteria did it and tried to replicate based on memory. First one had beef instead of beans and honey garlic instead of steriyaki, with a frozen vegetable pack instead of individually bought vegetables.

In Mali, I lost 30 pounds by eating rice constantly. In Chisasibi, I lost 30 on a vegetarian diet, so I'm supplementing my protein source with beans. I'm not too clever about nutrition, so I just try to replicate what's worked for me in the past. Hey, everyone's body is different, so you have to experiment to find out what works best for you personally.

I can make pasta too. These are like, the two things I can cook. You know that episode of Spongebob, where they go to the past and the caveman versions of Spongebob and Patrick discover fire and suddenly try putting different things on it to see if it tastes good? That's how I feel right now.

I'm about to try scrambled eggs. I know I've done that in the past. Heck, I was in Katimavik. I had to cook for a household for a week at a time when I was the House Manager. I know I'm capable of this.