Flurries and Fall Part 3: Canadian Thanksgiving

Surely I am out of things to write about by now? Well as you should know, the spirit of misadventure is eternal. Only when I leave here will my Albertan misadventures end.

So for starters, why did I name this post Flurries and Fall? Because it's a catchy name! It's just not true though. After giving this title, I realized it was actually snowing-- yes snowing -- in mid October. In other words, right now. As I write this.

The temperature here keeps bouncing between subfreezing and significantly above the point. But we always find our way back to a snow-friendly temperature. We first hit the negative temperatures during the day time in September, which was frightening enough.

And add onto that my mom insisting I do something fun for Canadian Thanksgiving. Fortunately, I found something that was right on campus, and was in fact just this past Saturday. (It turns out celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving not on the 'proper' day is totally okay!)  In fact, it was set in my dorm on the first floor in the meeting room.

On the day of, feeling comfortable with the fact that the event was in my dorm, I decided to pay a trip to the city library. Yes, it took me two months to head there! But I had made a mistake in thinking it was nowhere near me...the library actually had a few branches, one of which was not far from the university. The trip there was fairly confusing for me....and I chose to not take my scooter....but somehow I made it work!

But I must say that the layout was quite confusing; they had most of their books in the basement, and it took a while to find their manga section. Yet it was still rather incomplete, with many series only partially represented. I decided to go get the card. Getting my library card itself was much easier -- it was just an add onto my student card. Stunned by how easy it was, I actually stepped out of the library, changed my mind, and came back in. I returned to the basement and picked up a Murakami book (his first two books actually) and checked it out.

Then I returned home for the Canadian Thanksgiving feast. I came right about on time, it turns out, and found two people to sit with; both were people I had played bingo with just the previous month! The event organizers forced us to hear about the history of the holiday, which was rather uninteresting, but when it came time to eat it was quite fun! The two people I ate with hadn't done Thanksgiving before, which added a layer to this experience. But the main items -- turkey and mashed potatoes -- were as appetizing as I expected.

There was a surprise. The friend I had invited, who had seen Toy Story 4 with me and also coincidentally had been at the bingo table, made progress on her paper last minute and was able to come to the event. But I found out short notice, and quickly got a plate of food ready for her before it was all gone. When she finally arrived, I realized I had gotten too much. But I shrugged it off as something my mom has done.

Making matters more exciting, I spilled lemonade on the table and myself....in front of other people. Oh the inhumanity!

And then they made us watch a video about the history of Thanksgiving, which was also incredibly dull (and repetitive). But they gave us pumpkin pie, so who am I to judge!

Of course, one last surprise was the final member of that 'fated' bingo table coming very late into the event; but there was no food left. In retrospect, I wish I'd saved food for him but hadn't known he was coming.

And actually, the event mostly simmered out then, and all four of the people ended up leaving. The ending was rather anticlimactic, in all honesty, but it was a fun event that made me reconsider building up social ties. This was my first time sitting with people I did not "know" that well while here, but it felt like a good way to build those ties. So I see why my mom wanted me to do this. And I think it was successful! At least for Saturday. Sunday and Monday, the proper Canadian Thanksgiving, have felt slower.

But, some more good news is that I am going to see Harry Potter films today!

So take care and thanks for reading!