donderdag 20 november 2008

Back from the swimming pool

I'm just back from the swimmingpool. My cat-like hair still dripping on the keyboard of this Irving Learning Centre Computer. my mind set on studying (for the first time in the library... It's a way to reinforce myself I guess) and still not succeeding in my mission not to be distracted by computerscreens... I'll never learn it! Anyway. I have just one week and 1 day of classes left. After that hell begins. No, just joking. I'll have 4 finals, nicely spread over my last 3 weeks in Vancouver. Empathic people can hold their thumbs up on friday 5th (at 7 o clock at night!), the 10th, 11th and 16th. I am desperately behind with some courses, but put more effort in the Teaching Writing project I have to finish for next wednesday.

At the same time I stay relaxed with movie-evenings, cooking, swimming, yoga, origami, walking in the rain, sunsets on the beach, Lady in red soup and vegan brownies from Sprouts, a kitchen salsa with Juan from now to than, long evening chats with parents and Pieter, writing emails to strangers on Couchsurfing in order to meet some more 'vegan Vancouverians' before I leave, karate (but not today because my legs cry out because of terrible muscle pains "no more stairs please! Please don't kick!!! Au au au!!!". I just did some stretching in the sauna to make them relieved again...

Just discovered that they only have 3 changing rooms in the female part of the swimming pool changing area. You can guess my surprise entering the open public space, immediately being surrounded by a dozen naked girls. We, Belgians, are not used to that, aren't we? Or did I just never go to an university swimming pool before? Maybe that's it. Anyway, be informed.

Some more things about my life here: I don't want to go back, but miss you all very much (especially you!!!!). Last weekend I went to see Deep Cove, a regional park close to West Vancouver. What a wonderful view just after sunset!!! But... after sunset means 'no light anymore'. We returned by re-entering the forest in the dark of the 6 o'clock night. Imagine the Canadian forest... bears hiding behind every tree, but you can't see them in the scarce light of a desperate almost battery less photocamera. You can only hear a soft murmuring... We used Jeremy's flash (on his professional camera) to light the way from time to time in order not to get lost. Probably he took a lot of abstract forest-pictures in this way. Alex showed off by walking in front of us without any light to guide him. This rainforest (yes, it really is a rainforest. They exist here in Canada. just like in Ecuador, with trees too big to hug, outreaching green arms of plants, waterfalls and seemingly not so stable bridges... and mud of course (but I already told you about that) reminded me of the night trip in the Amazon jungle almost 3 years ago now. But in this case we didn't see any colored frog, wanting to poison us.

Yesterday I went with Petra (from Slovenia) to Mikyungs (from Korea) house to watch the Spanish movie Sex and Lucia (Lucia y el Sexo) together. Awesome to have a girlsnight with movies, chips and chocolate chai tea. We were lucky that Mikyungs roommates didn't enter the common place at some moments, because they would suspect us of watching porn before midnight ( we don't know how open Canadian are about this :D Even though they don't use changing rooms in the swimming pools). But overall it was a love story. Erotic, but romantic in a rather strange sense.

I could tell about the Malaysian birthday party I went to on saturday. Farah became one year older than me, so we celebrated with a buffet of delicious Malaysian spicy snacks. Mmmm... I love red rice coconut desserts!!! And the soymilk with bubbles was tongue-teasing! Farah introduced me in some Malaysian traditions, like for example singing Malay(and in my case English) karaoke on your socks. On the 29th I am going to be the bride in a Malaysian cultural event. I wonder what that will give... And I still need a groom!!!! Apply by sending a mail to farahilde@gmail.com

That's all for now. I should start studying now. Just like to waste my time in a usefull way...

Love you all!!!!! Miss you!!!
God nat! Goedenacht! Bye bye! Namaste! Oyasumi! etc...

Veerle Joanna

woensdag 5 november 2008

and suddenly there was mud...

Before I post my new blog with the news of the last month, I would like to share a story with you. An outcome of creative writing, my shopping and cooking experiences here in Vancouver and the appearance of mud seemingly everywhere...

MUD

Suddenly... Maybe not as suddenly as she would like to make herself believe. She deliberately bought the ingredients, without caring for the proportions. Attracted by the colors and the prospect of tasteful delight. Especially the 'organic' and 'vegan' labels attracted her. Sometimes she thinks to know what she wants, especially in the chaos of overwhelming, flashing supermarkets.


She overloaded her shopping bags until a point that everybody would describe as ‘a state in which the bag is going to burst’. You don't know when or how, but you know suddenly you won't be able to carry all the things you brought into existence by buying them. There is no way back once you added them in the planning of your dish.

You will put it all together. Of course. it`s natural, you guess. That`s life... mix it up. It`s just one life, so multi and poly and extra is more. If she had a blender, she would have used it, but in her case she had to rely on the residence materials: a from- neighbour-borrowed pot in a messy kitchen. She didn`t want to bother her housemates with it. Kept it silent, even when she already occupied the whole kitchen with her thoughts and the sound of bubbling water.


No, it didn't take long for the water to cook. She even didn't expect it to happen at all. She almost forgot she had put the pot with water on the stove. She had set aside the idea of cooking, at least not all these ingredients at the same time. She would avoid the cooking point, in order to leave the veggies more or less raw. Of course she would flirt with the boiling point, knowing she would exceed the by-herself-agreed temperature. If she never exceeded the boiling point the mud would never have occurred, both the intentional as the unintentional one.

But suddenly there was mud... It smelled nice at first. A mix of sweet and spicy. `Hot in a certain way, but from a distance it wouldn`t look attractive at all. Time to switch off the fire``, common sense would exclaim. `It`s to late, so don`t make it worse`. But she didn`t. She kept staring, fascinated by the way the veggies mixed. How you couldn`t tell after a while where they originally started. She even couldn`t remember what she put in the pot. It must have been everything... Everything she had in her fridge, even the things which were not meant to be ever mixed.

Can mud be messy? Can it be disgustingly brown and swampy, but tasteful at the same time? Can it be totally 'flat', will it leave you smooth? Can it not evoke anything anymore because it just on cooking way too long? Or is that impossible? Will the mud burn anyway, even when you decrease the heat to a lower temperature to make the outlook acceptable? “Will it burn?” she asks. And if it burns, who or what will be hurt? Will she hurt herself by touching the pot? Will the mud smell like an extinguished camp fire or will the old borrowed pot have to live with inerasable scratches? Or will it catch fire? Spread the flame and burn the house and all the people connected to it? Will the mash form a flood? Will they call it ‘the invasion of the stew’ and will everybody who smells it be swept away by the flow of sludge? And she? Will she sink up to her knees in the mud? Will the world sling mud at her? Will they drag her through the mire?

She just doesn’t know and stirs the mud, unintentionally and innocent.
Stirring well, till the brownness blinds her sight... and she can only sightlessly guess how well the mud once tasted.

Thanks for visiting!