Bus Race

Last weekend I visited my cousin in London (Ontario). I haven't been to London since I was a young child. It's a place that's always on the peripheral of my mind. At the Greyhound bus terminal in Kitchener, there are three stops. One for Toronto, one for Guelph, and one for London. Kitchener is connected to Waterloo and Cambridge, so they each shape their identity by how they contrast each other, with Guelph close enough to always be coming up as a detached fourth element that defines itself as being separated from the Tri-City. London is about as far away as Toronto, but less well-known, as it doesn't have the same big-city presence. I also know fewer people in London than each of the other cities. So while I've always been aware of it as one of the six cities that I have immediately accessible to me, I haven't afforded it much thought.

Seemed nice. Didn't have enough time to get a thorough feel for the place. I mean, all of the cities have their commonalities because of geography. It was maybe the most well-balanced of the six, since it didn't seem to have any weird rivalries and was a pretty decent size. I'm leaving myself open to some kind of dark undercurrent that I may have missed.

A member of WALES will be participating in the Human Library this year. The training session was last night. Because I live across the street from the school, I opted to meet the WALES Book at the bus stop and show her to the classroom.

She didn't get off the bus I expected. There are two Conestoga stops and I wondered if she'd gotten off the earlier one. So I walked to the other bus stop, and right as I arrived at it, I saw a bus go by with her on it. I don't know why, but my first instinct was to beat the bus to the Conestoga terminal. My adrenalin kicked into gear and I sprinted after the bus.

I almost managed it.  It eventually got speed on me when I was about two-thirds the distance. When the WALES Book got off the bus and started walking toward me (she had seen me at the previous stop and watched my heroic dash) I hit the wall and fell to heavy panting. She almost had to support me as I limped into the training session with her.

The icebreaker for Human Library training was Human Bingo, where squares on a Bingo Board gave descriptors of people and you walk around getting people to sign their name as they apply. One of the squares said "Likes to run" and so of course the Human Books made me sign that one because of my recent bus chase.

We had a mini Human Library where the books rotated around and took turns asking each other questions. Because there was an odd number of people in the room, I got to be a Human Book! It was awesome! I even got to be in a Human Library team photo. I tried to duck out since I wasn't really there as a worker or volunteer, but since I'm a member of the team that is running the event, and because I'm a placement student with WALES and responsible for connecting the agency to the event, and since a large number of Human Books are Respect volunteers, I was just connected enough that I got in the photo.

A lot of my friends are Human Books and are volunteering based on topics that I haven't spoken with them about at length. It was a real eye-opener for me to be able to talk to them in a format like that.