I wandered around several craft stores, contemplating the best gifts to buy for my family - and having a heck of a time, actually. It would be much easier if I were 19 - I'd just buy some BC-specific brews and bring them home to Mom and Dad. Alas, I am two months short ...
I ended up deciding that I needed to go back home and think about things, and besides there was a student marketplace on-campus that day and I knew there were some things there that I could get for my siblings. I had gotten something for my brother, and wandered around an umbrella shop (I found the perfect umbrella. unfortunately, it costs $65), and had eaten a marvelous crêpe with pears and brown sugar for lunch ... so I declared the morning a relative success, and headed home.
Warning: rant ahead.
I knew there were some shops along the street where I would need to get a bus, so when I saw that the next one wasn't due for another fifteen minutes, I decided to walk a bit and see what I could see. That turned out to be somewhat of a mistake. About two or three blocks in, I was stopped by a perfectly friendly young man, probably in his early or mid-twenties, who asked what I was listening to, and then started a conversation with me about the charity he was working for. I listened politely, as I was indeed interested, and he was friendly - but when it became clear that they were looking for monthly donations, I had to find a way to demur and politely refuse ... not because I wouldn't want to, but because I don't have the means.
Unfortunately, he was rather insistent. He wanted my banking details, and when I said I didn't have them (which was true), he said he could call them on his smartphone, he'd pass the phone to me and I could negotiate the transfer. At this point I was rather turned off. I asked if I could take a form home with me, and he said they didn't want them to get spread around for fear of being copied (which I don't quite understand); I asked if there were a website on which I could sign up, and he said no, it had to be now. At this point I apologized, said I really had to catch a bus, and asked if there were a number I could call. He said no, but he could take my number and call me back.
Really, dude? Sigh. I gave him my name and number. I caught the bus. I went home.
Once home, I Googled the charity, and it turns out that it is indeed quite easy to sign up online for monthly donations, or, if you'd rather, to give a one-time gift. I had already planned not to answer his call, but now I want to answer even less. If he'd given me the option of signing up to a mailing list or even just given me the website, I would have considered it - but his attitude was frustrating and rather rude, so, no thank you.
Rant over.
Upon returning to UBC, I went to the student marketplace and bought souvenirs for my sisters, and then came home to have a nap. I had been out from 9.30 and it was now 2.30. I was quite tired, so I slept a bit, and then went off to my coaching with Erika Switzer at 4.00. This was quite good - she helped me figure out this whole "find meaning in the words" thing, and she worked with us on diction and direction and things like that. We were all very, very tired ...
I went back to the dorms and made dinner, then got a little bit dressed up and went back to the music building, for something called "The Concert of Your Wildest Dreams". This is one of the director's ideas - after three weeks of being nitpicked, nagged, directed, corrected ... you get to perform in a concert where everything you do is absolutely amazing. The audience is allowed and encouraged to comment on bits of the performance that they find amazing - while you are performing. Now this might sound distracting, and on occasion it was, but most of the time it was extraordinarily encouraging. There's nothing quite like hearing, "Schubert would be proud," as you perform one of his Lieder. It's this incredible reassurance of self and of purpose, and it's so very freeing.
We had some hilarious performances, too - once people kinda got into the feel of "anything goes as long as you're having fun", we really opened up. Some of the performances had us just about falling off our chairs laughing - some of the performances had us nearly in tears. And no one was allowed to stop clapping until the performers actually told us to stop - jump to your feet and applaud and applaud and applaud! It's so empowering, both for audience and for performer. You really get to discover the creativity within yourself, and to see everyone else's creativity, as well. It makes you very, very happy.
After the concert, I talked with the director briefly about her travels to Rwanda, and about mine a little bit, and she gave me some leads as to who I could contact to return as a musician, and really use my talents and gifts to help the people I care about so much. That was a nice little conversation.
I walked back with a bunch of VISIers, and even though they were all heading off to party and enjoy themselves (where I, alas, would not be allowed to enter), we had fun walking together. It spiralled, as these things do, into Monty Python quotes and random singing of art song and just being goofy in general, and I felt the closest I have to these people in three weeks. (I'm strange, right?) I broke off from the group and went home, warmed up some food, and relaxed a bit before bed.
Today, I was planning on heading to a Sears outlet and buying a baggage scale (you know, the little thing you clip onto your bag and then lift to find out how heavy the bag is), but it turns out the nearest one is downtown - so I'm going to do that tomorrow, when I have more free time, and when I will go back to Granville Island. I don't have to be anywhere until four tomorrow, and while of course I have to be home earlier than that in order to get ready and warm up and things like that, I have more thought-time to travel downtown, get the baggage scale, bus back a bit to go to Granville Island, pick up the things I want, and head back home. It's just a more relaxed schedule.
If the sky clears, I might walk to the beach - but to a beach with sand this time, so it's a longer walk than Wednesday, so I might do that tomorrow, too. I'd actually like to go in the water (I haven't yet), so I'd have to have a shower when I get back, which is another variable to consider in timing ... I don't know. We'll see! Right now I'm going to do some preliminary planning of packing.
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