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Friday, October 4, 2013

February/March 2010 (and the end of the archive, finally!)



March 14


As I continue to go through my photos, I remember other stories I forgot to mention. One of them is that on the drive to Tank, you pass by the Indus River. I was amazed by how wide that river is. It's so wide, you almost think you're passing by an ocean or at least a big sea. It's really impressive. The Indus River valley area was the site of the ancient Harappa civilisation. Many anthropologists consider the area to be the birthplace of modern civilisation because the Harappans had sewage systems in their cities and things like that. I was hoping to be able to see some Harappan ruins while I was there, but unfortunately, the locations of the ruins are situated in areas that are too dangerous to tourism at the moment. I was pretty disappointed because I like to see places that I learned about in anthropology. Maybe one day, I'll still get to see it. At least I hope!


March 13


I can't believe I forgot to tell the story about the gardeners! They were so awesome; to welcome me there, they invited me (and Mom and Asif, of course) to a formal tea. They had felt embarrassed that they couldn't invite me for supper, but the tea was really nice. In their culture, their concern was that I would come back to Canada with bad reports about how no one could even offer me a cup of tea. It was so sweet. So, being gardeners, they picked a bouquet of fresh flowers growing at the hospital to decorate the table, and we set up shop outside Mom and Asif's house. They had tea and snacks and sweets. It was really yummy. About gardeners in general, I don't know what it is about them, but one can always get along well with gardeners. I think if I had a choice, it would be one of the loveliest things to do to work in a garden all day. Of course, that also includes weeding and cutting grass and things like that, but it's not really that bad, especially when the product is colourful flora and bright green foliage.

On a completely unrelated note, it looks like I'm headed back to India in a month--for work this time! I don't go for 17 years, and suddenly I'm there twice in the same year!

10:28 AM | Permalink | Travel

March 07


Pakistan is definitely a world away, especially since the Canada-US Olympic gold medal match has gone into overtime, and I think the whole country is watching the game, pretty much. It's so nerve-wracking! In any case, it makes the whole South Asia trip seem like it was a lifetime ago. By this time, it's already the next day in Pakistan, and everyone should be sleeping at the moment. Well, by the time I finished writing that last sentence, Canada scored the winning goal. Wow...it's so exciting! And yet I think back to that part of the world and remember all the beggars, the people living in tents and straw huts who sleep on dirt and who will never even know what an ice hockey game is, let alone dream of skating or anything else. Well, more on those folks a little later.
 

I left you at the point at which Joel and Carol left to return home, and I was going to be off on my journey to Pakistan. I spent that night at my cousin's place as she lives about a 10-minute drive from the airport. I'm very thankful that she has quite a high position in the police force that the airports in the region use for security in them, and that means she will arrange police escorts for her family from airport to airport--and in my case, airport to country border as well. It helps to get through the crowds a little faster, and you can go into areas that are usually restricted, even if it means just getting to the toilet before you have a boarding pass to get you in the airport to begin with. For security reasons, only passengers with boarding passes are now allowed into the airport buildings, so unless you have one, you have say goodbye to your family outside the airport itself.
 

So my travel path to get to Pakistan was to fly to the nearest city, Amritsar, to the only border point where you are allowed to cross into the other country, the Wagha Border (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagah). If you're wondering why my spelling differs, I'm not sure that there is an agreed upon spelling, but when you're at the border, you'll see it spelled Wagha. Anyway, I just have to say that for those of you who like to nitpick if I actually make a typo or grammatical error! The border is only 28km from the Amritsar, so it's not a very far drive to go this route, assuming you have someone in Lahore, which is practically right on the border in Pakistan, to pick you up. You may be wondering why I didn't just fly to Pakistan. That would have been my preferred method of commuting, but it isn't easy to fly between India and Pakistan. Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is the only airline that flies between the two countries, but they only fly on Saturdays and Wednesdays, which I didn't even find out until I was trying to fly back to Delhi to catch my flight back to Canada. Up to that point, I had thought it wasn't even possible to fly between the two countries at all.
 

It's not overly difficult to cross into Pakistan by land as people do cross between the two countries that way all the time. It's a little easier when you have someone in the police helping you go through the process, but even without that, it just takes a little longer. I also was served tea while I was waiting and people were running all around me with my passport and what not. When that part was finally over, I made the walk over to Pakistan and saw my mom and Asif waiting there for me. Of course, I burst into tears because for me at least, it's such an emotional experience. Mom and Asif also get to come closer to the border than most people because Asif has a relative who is a major in the military and who is actually posted at the border, so I definitely recognise the privilege I have access to on both sides of the border!
 

Crossing into Pakistan, I didn't notice much difference except that everything was in Urdu. Punjab is still Punjab, no matter what country you're in, the fields are green, and area is generally wealthier than other regions. And the other thing is that you'll see a lot more mosques rather than gurudwaras (Sikh temples) or mandirs (Hindu temples). One thing I did notice, though, is that Lahore itself is a lot cleaner and more organised than almost any other city in India that I've been to, aside from Chandigarh. I don't know why that is, but it's just somehow more organised. The traffic is no better, though. You don't see as much variety of stuff on the road, especially as there aren't cows just roaming the streets. But there are lots of donkey-drive carts among all the other vehicles.
 

We spent just a little time in Lahore. I didn't really do a lot of sightseeing, just a little shopping and also got to go see Lahore Fort, which adds to the Mughal forts that I've been able to visit. I have to say that I was a little disappointed with it because it's in poor condition. There's garbage in a lot of places, and it just hasn't been maintained at all. Asif says he really frustrates him that Pakistan doesn't understand how much of a tourist country they could be if they would only stop to make a few improvements. Lahore Fort is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, actually, but you'd expect it to look better. Still, they have started on restoration, and Mom said that they've done a lot since she had visited last year as compared the amount of work done since the first time she went there in 2003. Hopefully Pakistan will become safe enough some day that people will get to enjoy it. It's kind of the less-populous way to see India since there are a lot of similarities between the two countries, but it just isn't as crowded.
 

After spending just a couple of days there, we left for Islamabad where we were to spend only one night just to break up the long drive back to Tank. We didn't do much there other than eat and sleep, so I can say that I was there, but I didn't really get to see and do much.
 

We left early in the morning for Tank, stopping only for gas and food. The interesting thing is that Mom and Asif's car runs on both propane and petrol, and of all the things, there was a shortage on both that day. Apparently the government rations gas from time to time in order to jack up the price from time to time. That meant we had to stop at almost all the gas stations along the way, which made the trip longer than it should have been. Why that's really significant, aside from a person just getting tired from the trip, is that we actually had to get to Tank by 6pm because after that, they close off access to the city due to a curfew that's in place. We actually barely made it, and we figure it's only by the grace of God that we were still able to get through despite crossing the gate just minutes after 6pm. If you don't make it in time, you have to spend the night in your car or go back to the nearest city, DI Khan, and find somewhere there to spend the night. Thankfully, we didn't have to do that, but it was a little nerve-wracking until we were safely through. I should mention that going through smaller towns in Pakistan, you notice a difference from the big cities at restaurants. In the larger cities, you can walk about with little thought to covering your head, but in the smaller cities and towns, you need to cover your head, and they also put up a curtain or divider of some kind so that men don't look at you while you eat.

One of the fun experiences driving to Tank, however, is a mountain range you have to pass through. I wouldn't really describe it as a narrow, windy, mountain road, just a regular 2-lane highway, but even still, it's not difficult for it to get bottlenecked when giant trucks that are overloaded with cargo try to pass each other on roads only to find that there is oncoming traffic preventing anyone from going any further. So these types of things also slow down the trip, as well as the many trucks carry wide loads of sugar cane that will scratch your vehicle if you get too close to them when you pass them. It's quite the adventure!
 

When I arrived at the hospital compound where my mom and Asif live, the first thing I noticed was the intense noise from chattering birds. There is quite a population of egrets in the area, and they do make a lot of noise! Once arriving at the hospital, my stay there was pretty uneventful for the most part. Mom had wanted me to help her revise a grant proposal, so I worked on that by morning, and then she took the afternoons off so we could bake or just enjoy each other's company. I got to learn about some of the issues facing the hospital, such as the number of internally displaced persons in the region who are trying to access the hospital's services but who are turned away at security checkpoints after curfew. Women in labour have lost their babies this way, and I'm not sure what other results have transpired, but even still, it's a sad situation. While in Tank, we did take a day to drive to DI Khan for some shopping. The markets there are similar to Jalandhar, not quite as narrow, but still smaller roads with all kinds of shops. That day, we had to have a police escort, which is a normal situation in that area. One of the officers that's posted at the hospital came with us. It's kind of funny to have a guy wielding an AK-47 telling people to get out of the way. Well, while we were eating lunch, he had to go to do his afternoon prayers at the mosque and could hardly bring his gun with him, so he left it with us, which was a great time for us--namely me--to be able to take photos while holding it!

Another thing I should also mention is about the internally displace persons. You'll see some straw huts in a couple of my photos, and that's where they live. They have come from Waziristan further south due to the violence from the big push in the region by the Pakistani military. It just saddens me that, like those tents in India, kids could potentially be born, raised, live, and die in those places, never having a chance to go to school or access any of the basic rights that so many of us enjoy. It makes me really sad.
 

My stay in Tank was more relaxing, which was fine because I think if it had been too packed, I would have come home even more tired than I was. Although I would have been happy to travel for longer, I didn't feel that I needed a vacation after my vacation, which is how it should be. My drive back to Lahore for my flight home was less eventful, although at first, we found out there was a curfew for some unknown reason that would last from 7am-7pm of the day were were leaving, meaning we'd have to leave the area before that if we wanted to get out. But when the local military commander learned it would be Asif on the road, he allowed us to leave later but with a police escort. That was mildly inconvenient, though, as we had to wait at the end of the jurisdiction for the first convoy we had for quite some time, but I actually think it's great that the local military and police feel the need to protect people working at the hospital like that. And it certainly could have been worse. They could have said we can't be on the road at all, and then I would have been toast because that would have caused me to miss my flight home! The only thing is that with each police vehicle we met, we had more and more lights on them, so people were really looking at us as we were driving along, but what can you do. I was able to sneak a few photos of them here and there, so you can see guys with their AK-47s and flak jackets. One thing I can say is that these are no pansy pistols the police carry around! hehehe

Once we arrived in Lahore, we stayed there for one more day, and then I had to go back to the border. My cousin wasn't able to arrange anyone to meet me on the India side this time, but I knew I'd be able to take a taxi. It was a teary goodbye just because I wasn't sure if I'd see my mom again before her and Asif's planned return home next summer, but I couldn't allow myself to cry for too long because I had to pay attention to getting myself across the border again. I found out I'd need to get a special registration to get back to India. Apparently, even if you have a multiple entry visa, you're not supposed to re-enter the country sooner than 2 months after you leave or else you need to get permission to re-enter. Thankfully I had enough time to go to some immigration office I had to get to in order to get this registration, but still, I wasn't expecting it. When I got to that office, the guy filling in my registration asked me if I had a photo, which of course I didn't have because I didn't even know about this registration thing, let alone needing a photo for it. I was so thankful they decided it was ok to use a photocopy of my passport photo, so they guy pasted that, and then he told me that the FRRO, the person who had to sign the ok for my re-entry, wanted to see me. I started freaking out with a million thoughts running through my head, thinking he was going to want to know why I was in Pakistan and what I did there or who knows what else. I walked into his office sheepishly, and as soon as I popped my head in, he asked me if I was Harpreet's sister, and when I confirmed this, he told me he was her classmate at police school and that he had been expecting me! Apparently my cousin had told me I'd be coming there. I have no idea how that all transpired, but I was so relieved. Of course, he signed my papers and had just really wanted to say hi and meet me!
 

The rest of my trip was spent in airports, and of all the things, I actually ran into someone I know at the Delhi airport! I've tried to convince people that I don't actually know everyone everywhere I go, but I can't even convince myself now. I thought the one time was funny when I ran into 2 former students of mine at the airport in Chicago, but this really takes the cake being on the other side of the world. It was a lady I used to work with who is also Indian, but really, what are the chances of being on the same flight out of India?! In any case, I can't say I was fully happy to be home. I really just need to come into a pile of money that I can live off the rest of my life so I can continue to travel and do volunteer work while I travel. It would be so great! Then I could be a nomad without being a poor, wayfaring stranger!

5:23 PM | Permalink | Travel

February 27


Just a quick note that some of the photos are blurry because they were taken through windows on bumpy roads. Unfortunately, that tended to be my main location from which to take photos: from a bus or car window while on the road. Just so you know I'm not a terrible photographer!

10:43 PM | Permalink | Travel


Well, I know you've all been waiting for it, so here are the pictures. I have so many of them, though, that I will have to post them in batches, partly because Windows Live Space is really slow for posting these days. I can only post them 5 at a time, and I think I have a few hundred to post! So if they're not all there right away, please be patient with me. It's lucky I even got a few posted--I've let my apartment stay a mess working all day on going through my photos.
 

Anyway, my trip to India was really great. I hadn't been there in 17 years, nor had I seen my family there or even spoken to them in all that time! So it was a valuable time of re-connecting.
 

The weather in Punjab was somewhat dreadful, at least for the first few days. My flight from Toronto was even delayed by 4 hours as it was coming from Delhi, and there had been such severe fog there that many flights and been delayed or cancelled. Considering how dense the fog was when we finally left the airport--so dense it seemed that the fog was emanating from the road--that I think I should have been thankful to arrive at all! My reunion with my family was also an opportunity to reunite with my friend Joel and meet his sister Carol, who joined me for the India portion of my trip. All told, we spent a couple of weeks in India staying with family in various cities, except for the short road trip we took where we stayed for a couple of nights in hotels.
 

After recuperating from the long journey to Delhi for a couple of days, we left for Jalandhar, my dad's home town. The problem with our ability to get there was that the trains were not running normally due to the fog. Apparently there had already been 2 severe train crashes as a result of the fog, so many train rides were being cancelled as well, and we were forced to take the bus. We were told that the bus ride was only about an hour longer than the train ride, so we were expecting to be on the bus for only about 7 hours at the most. And by no means was it a comfortable bus ride. We weren't able to get a first class or luxury bus for the time we wanted to leave, so we ended up on the Punbus, which is not quite the chicken bus, but it was almost as bad. We were squished next to people who were standing as there wasn't space for them to sit. Luckily for them, they weren't going the full distance that we were, because I can't imagine standing on the bus for hours on end! I felt badly for Carol because the man she was sitting next to kept horking out the window every half hour or so. It's normal to do that in India; I mean, people spit stuff out the window all the time. It's not that I have a problem with it; it's just horrifying when you are so close to the action! The good thing about the Punbus, though, is that at least the ticket is cheap! It cost the equivalent of about $2 for the fare. Here at home, it costs me $2.75 for an individual fare on the city bus, so it's quite the bargain!
 

When we arrived in Jalandhar, 8.5 hours later, we were quite exhausted. My first task at hand, though, was to phone my uncle so he could come pick us up. I walked around for a while looking for a phone booth, but it turns out they don't have phone booths like we have in Canada. You go into a shop and pay as you go. It took me a while to figure that out; I had to ask people for help, and still I was lost, and then eventually I saw a shop that appeared to be selling phones, so I went in and then saw that there were prices listed on the phones there, depending on whether it was a local or international phone. I'm thankful that so many people speak English in India. If there had been a huge language barrier, I would have been toast! In any case, I called my uncle, who was surprised we got there so early. Early?? We thought we were so late! Turns out that bus trip is normally 10 hours; we had been led to believe differently, so in the end, I was thankful that we arrived after only 8.5 hours!

We stayed in Jalandhar for just 2 full days. While we were there, we were quite cold, for one thing. The fog prevented the sun from warming up the surface. My uncle said he hadn't seen fog like that in all his 70+ years of life, 23 consecutive days of it. It was crazy. Still, we managed to drive out to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmandir_Sahib). For some reason, the hyperlink function isn't working on the blog today, so I'll have to just include the links by pasting them here instead. I actually didn't take too many pictures there because I had been there before 2 times, but I'm waiting for a few of the great photos that Joel took that he's sending me by snail mail, and then I will post those. We also went to a place nearby, the name of which escapes me, but it's significant because basically the Brits opened fired on hundreds of innocent people and killed about 600 of them or so. It had something to do with Gandhi, too, but I can't remember the whole story just now. Terrible and shameful that I don't remember, I know, but what can I do. On the way back from Amritsar, my uncled decided to crash a wedding to show Joel what weddings were like. That wasn't quite the answer Joel was expecting when he asked my uncle about how weddings are in India, but it was quite entertaining. Joel and Carol got their photos taken with the bride and groom, and the photographer even shooed some lady out of the scene just to have Carol and Joel be alone with the bride and groom in the photo. It was hilarious. Some guy there recognised my uncle, despite the fact we were in the middle of nowhere off the highway, and it turned out that guy was the father of the groom and invited us to stay for food and everything! We didn't do that, but I can't imagine the reaction of the new couple when they see their photos. It should be quite the thing!
 

The next day, we just relaxed on the rooftop of my uncle and aunt's house. My uncle ended up having to go to a funeral, unfortunately, so we couldn't go anywhere, but it was ok because we just relaxed and enjoyed the first day the sunshine was out. When my uncle got back we went to the market for a bit of shopping. I like Jalandhar because even though it's a big city--it even has malls now--it still feels like a traditional old city with less-commercialised markets and restaurants, meaning they're also less expensive! Of course, these days, they have McDonalds and Benetton and Pizza Hut and other American stores and restaurants, but it doesn't ruin the charm of the city, at least not for me.
 

The next city we went to was Chandigarh. We also had to take the Punbus there, but the trip was much shorter, and we got there early enough to get a good seat where we were comfortable and could all sit together. That city is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, and it's an interesting city because it was designed by a French architect, and it's really the only city of the few I've been to in India that actually has controlled traffic and is fairly clean and organised for the most part. I've always felt quite comfortable here, but that's partly because it's the closest to a Western city, so it's the closest you can feel to home on the other side of the world. We didn't end up doing much there as we spent a lot of time talking with my cousin and visiting with her, but we did manage to get to the Rock Garden, which is a park that contains sculptures made with stones, broken ceramics/dishes, and broken plastic bangles. It's a really interesting site, and there was a new section with large mosaics, so I was happy to see that since I'd been there twice before as well. Of course, even if there hadn't been any new sections, it would have been fun to go to anyway since Joel and Carol hadn't been there, and it's always fun to take someone somewhere when it's their first time because it makes everything new for you as well. At least that happens to me. While we were in Chandigarh, we also spent our last night there booking our road trip so we could go to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and to Jaipur, where I had wanted to go for a while because I knew that it was a city of palaces where many maharajas had lived. We were able to book a vehicle with a driver, so it was nicer than having to take a tour bus, although you do meet fun people from other countries on those tours. Anyway, our driver was a Nepalese guy with minimal English but enough to get by, and he knew the highways, but unfortunately, didn't know enough about the cities we were going to or the attractions, so we always got lost at first when trying to find our hotels, and we also ended up getting taken advantage of by people claiming to be tour guides and giving us false information. Well, sometimes these things happen. It was on that trip that I definitely wished my dad would have been there to tell those people to get lost, but what can you do! Furthermore, when you only speak English, it's hard to really be able to communicate with a lot of these people, or at least as effectively as when you can tell them off in Hindi or Punjabi.
 

I had been to the Taj Mahal the last time I was in India, and not much has changed, I'm happy to say, although I did notice that people had etched their names into marble, the "Johnny loves Sally" kind of stuff. I find it appalling that people would deface the Taj Mahal. We did learn that in order to protect the the site, though, all the housing around the area is going to be bulldozed, and they're going to surround the Taj Mahal with parkland. It will be interesting to go back and see that.
 

We stopped briefly in Fatehpur Sikri in order to see the sites there, as there are some interesting mosques and stuff, but we really didn't like the tour guide that fleeced us there and just wanted to get away, so we saw one mosque, and that was it.
 

Next, we were on our way to Jaipur. We arrived at night so didn't do anything but watch TV and go to sleep. The next day, though, the driver had arranged for an actual tour guide for us, so it was a great way to see Jaipur having a local expert who was legitimate. He took us to Jantar Mantar (http://www.jantarmantar.org/) , which is an ancient observatory. We saw the City Palace and Amber Fort as well as took and elephant ride and saw a snake charmer! It was pretty cool. Jaipur is as beautiful as I had hoped. It's called the Pink City because the older part is painted this pinkish-terra cotta colour, and all buildings must be painted that way according to law. We also learned that it's the only other city besides Chandigarh that was actually a planned city, although in the case of Jaipur, it was organised according to caste. What that means is that the city was organised in sections such that your caste determined in what section of the city you would live. It would have been nice to spend more time in Rajasthan generally. There is a lot to see and in other cities as well. It's also a state where you notice camels being used as the primary beast of burden rather than water buffalo or cattle. Sadly, I didn't get many good quality photos of the camels, but I think that Joel did, so once I get his photos, I might be able to post some.
 

After that day in Jaipur, we had to make our way back to Delhi for Joel and Carol's flight home a couple of days later. By that time, Joel and I had got sick from eating the wrong things at a road-side restaurant (up until that point, we had been eating at them without consequence), so we were just as happy to spend a couple of nights with my cousin in Gurgaon, just outside of Delhi, which is a modern area with a lot of malls and ex-pats. My cousin herself is an ex-pat as she is Malaysian, and she made Malaysian food for us while we were there, which was an excellent treat. I was only sad that I couldn't eat more because my stomach wasn't handling food too well, although I've definitely had worse bouts than what I had at that time. We basically just relaxed the rest of the time there, and at last, Joel and Carol had to return home, and I myself was leaving for Pakistan the next day. But that trip is saved for the next entry!

8:54 PM | Permalink | Travel

Sunday, September 29, 2013

October 2009



October 23
I was not incorrect in my observation of the number of Mexican restaurants on every street corner. I learned, soon after my last blog entry, that I actually did have 3 Mexican restaurants available to me within a 1-block radius! There was one on the same block as my hotel, one across the street on the west side of the hotel and one on the north side! It was great :o) The one I went to had mole, so I made sure to take advantage of that.

In any case, I didn't end up doing a whole lot while in California. The main thing I wanted to do while I was there is go see the Angels play the Yankees as I was only a 5-minute drive from the stadium, but the problem is that the game started 13 minutes after my fair ended, and the fair was a 45 minute drive from the stadium. Still, I found out it would be ok to go late, but I didn't think about the fact that I wouldn't be able to get parking, so I never ended up getting to go! The smart thing would have been to just drive to my hotel and take a taxi, but by the time I figured that out, it was too late to really go to the game.

I did go see the historic district of Orange, CA. I read that they had the highest concentration of antique malls in the state or the country or something. I thought there might be some nice, old architecture, or something, so I went there, but it actually wasn't that exciting. Most of it wasn't even picture-worthy. However, the one thing about some of the antique stores I went to reminded me of being at my grandma's when she used to have all her old dishes and stuff. It smelled the same and reminded me of the simplicity and the hardships of old times. I was also disturbed to see some things in the antique stores which were not antiques when I was a kid! Way to make a person feel old! So a couple of the photos I included are from the inside of the antique stores.

I drove to San Diego on Wednesday night and felt it would have been a pretty drive to do by day when you can actually see the ocean, along which you drive for much of the way. At least I had a harbor front view. I didn't get to spend any free time in San Diego beyond the hour before I had to leave for the airport. After my fair, I went to get a tea from Starbucks, which was across the street from a naval base, so I was able to get a couple of photos of the boats and ocean. I would have liked to spend more time in San Diego as it seems like a really nice city with a lot of interesting things to do. Maybe I'll get back one day. It would have been nice to slip down to Tijuana too!
October 18
So for work, I had to travel to Southern California. Normally, this is my colleague's territory, but she wasn't able to make this particular trip, so I ended up having to cover. I've never been really excited about California. I have no attraction to LA or any part of the state, except for maybe San Diego, but only because it's so close to Mexico! I will actually be in San Diego during this trip, but for such a short period of time that I won't be able to take a side trip down to Mexico, unfortunately. The good part about this area, though, is that there are so many Mexicans living here that there are Mexican restaurants with authentic food on almost every street corner! It's great. The hotel I'm staying at in Orange has a restaurant so near that it smells of tortillas in the air. I love it! I'm definitely eating there for supper.

I arrived at the Burbank airport, a.k.a the Bop Hope Airport, situated among hills that look like the ones you always see on TV with the word "Hollywood" in white on them. I was half expecting to see that at any moment, but not really knowing where I am in relation to Hollywood, I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was quite hot that day and just as hot the next. I found I didn't really pack appropriately as I didn't bring any clothing that's cool to wear in my downtime, like a pair of shorts and some sandals. Thankfully, as I wanted to go shopping anyway, I found some stuff for next summer in Edmonton that I can wear now. Last night, I went to a place called La Luna Negra, a tapas restaurant with live Flamenco on the weekend--or so they advertise. The food was ok, but the Flamenco dancing wasn't really Flamenco. It was more classical Spanish with elements of Flamenco. The male dancer and the guitarist were the best. The female dancer wasn't great as a dancer, but she was much better as a singer, and I wish she would have stuck to that. In any case, it was a good way to spend the evening alone. That's the one downside of travelling for work is all the meals alone. I try to do take-out when I can, but it's not always possible. And sometimes, it's better for my health just to get out than to just sit in my hotel watching TV while eating take-out.

I haven't taken any pictures since I got here. The couple of things worth taking pictures of were in places where I could hardly stop to take them--on the Interstate--and traffic is here much too heavy for me to snap any photos while I drive. I need to concentrate a lot more than usual here! One thing that kind of disgusts me, though, is the pollution. I forgot to take a photo from my hotel in Pasadena, which was just of the parking lot and the other side of the hotel, so I took a photo from my Orange hotel as soon as I got here. But I noticed that there may be little hills in the background, and you can't tell due to pollution. There's a lot of smog here, and it's pretty gross. I started wondering about the commercial about cheese coming from happy cows in California. I wonder how healthy those cows can be when they're drinking the water of polluted rain. I don't know what other source of clean water they have, so it kind of concerns me.

In any case, I'm hoping to get to see a MLB game tomorrow. Turns out my hotel is 5 minutes away from the stadium where the Angels play, and they're playing on Monday and Tuesday, so I'm hoping to see the game on Monday, even though I'll have to show up late after the fair I'm at in the afternoon. Better than not going at all!

October 13
I did get to do some touristy stuff while in Denver. I went out with a friend of my brother's, and we went with a couple of other guys to an Italian place. The one guy we were with is Italian, and this was a place he highly approved of, so it was nice to go to a place that you know is authentic. And the prices were reasonable. Darned if I can remember the name, however! On Sunday, I went to the Denver Art Museum. They had a variety of different exhibits. One of the things that makes this museum unique, or so they advertise, is that the exhibits are constantly changing. I didn't get as many pictures from there as I would have liked, mainly because the museum doesn't really allow people to take photos. So I took the few I could steal. On Monday, I went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. They had a variety of exhibits there as well. You could take pictures there, but the lighting was quite poor. In any case, I hope the pictures suffice.
8:52 PM | Permalink | Travel
October 09
So, here I am in Denver, Colorado. This trip was quite a bit longer than the one I did last year because I was able to register for more of the college fairs in the area this year. The first part of my trip was the same as last year, beginning in Aspen and then driving to Colorado Springs from there through Independence Pass, through the mountains and over the continental divide. It's a beautiful trip. Last year when I went, I just remember feeling that I was driving down what I would imagine heaven's streets of gold to be like. The yellow trees in the sun appear to glow from within in the sun, like dimmer orbs of the sub itself emanating a warm light. I was so looking forward to that again. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite the same. They had already had snow in Aspen this year, and as a result, many of the trees were already browner or had even lost their leaves, and then it was snowing for quite a ways through the most mountainous part. It was still pretty, though, and I stopped in some different places from last year so as hopefully not to duplicate too much from last year's photos.

I ended up not doing anything touristy in Colorado Springs this year and am hoping to do some stuff in Denver this weekend. I was hoping to get some NFL tickets for the Broncos game on Sunday, and I could have found some on eBay, but the forecast for Sunday is meant to be quite cold, and I don't have proper clothing for sitting out in that type of weather, so I don't think I should go just to freeze myself to death! I don't know yet what I'll do this weekend. I was hoping to go salsa dancing tonight, but I'm not sure if that will end up happening, so I'll have to see what else I can do. Maybe there's an opera I can see or something. I'm sure I won't be bored no matter what! I did spend a bit of time in Boulder today as I had to go out there anyway,and I went to a place called the Pearl Street Mall, a pedestrian mall with lots of little artsy shops and Tibetan/Indian-type import stores. There was also a tea shop where I tried to refrain from buying any, but there was such a great-smelling black-vanilla tea that I couldn't help myself, plus it was on sale, so what could I do! I highly recommend a visit there, though. I ate lunch at a place called the Paradise Bakery & Cafe where I had a great bowl of butternut squash soup, something that just warms the soul on a chilly, fall day. Let's see if I can post some pics soon! One cool thing that happened was very happenstance. I got to a school where I had a meeting way too early, so I was trying to figure out what to do to kill time. As it turned out, the school was across the street from a sculpture garden. There were tons of really interesting sculptures in there, and even though it was snowing, I decided to walk around the pond to snap a few photos. It was right in a residential area, so there are people that live right across the street from this. That would be so cool!


3:21 PM | Permalink | Travel
I realised that I wanted to write a blog entry about this a while ago, but I had just been so busy, so I'm going to do 2 separate entries since I was about to write an entry from Colorado, where I'm currently situated. Oddly, I meant to use the title of my blog today to refer to the fact that I'm back to travelling for work again, but it seems more fitting to talk about having gone horseback riding at my aunt's place, an activity I haven't done for quite some time. Pictures should be forthcoming as I've already downloaded them from my camera and posted them on Facebook for the same of my family that prefers them there.

In any case, that was a great weekend. It was meant to be a farewell to my cousin and his wife, who are moving out of province, but not a lot of our family could make it. Still, it was such a relaxing little holiday. I think I'll need to go out there regularly just for the stress relief of riding horses. It was so peaceful and relaxing that I forgot about all the problems of the day--and there are sure enough of them, but out in the trail, you're just there with your horse and a few other people with you and nature. Maybe it's because I'm a prairie girl, but I do find fields of crops to be very peaceful scenery, so relaxing, especially under a warm sun with a cool breeze. There is so much beauty in our province. The leaves on the trees had already started to turn yellow, and one of the things that I love about trees like that is the way they reflect light. It's like they're glowing from within. I'll describe them in further detail in my next entry about Colorado!

It was great to get to do something I love so much, though. I used to go every summer as a child when I spent my holidays and my grandparents' farm, and when I got close to the horses again, the smell of the saddles and the horses together was nostalgic in such a happy way. Can't wait to go again!
3:04 PM | Permalink | Hobbies