The Arrival of Sister

Before my sister arrived late on Wednesday (11/27) night, I actually resolved to finally make a trip to IKEA. For practical reasons one would desperately hope. Especially on a day with flurries. However, I went to take a picture of and with BLAHAJ, the Ikea shark plushie that is so oh so beloved in my corner of the internet. While here, I did see many Ikea things as you might imagine, including couches and beds! Unfortunately, I made one practical purchase -- a lamp. (Don't worry -- I forgot to buy a lightbulb, so maybe I will return before my winter break.) By the time I left, I felt much better than before, and also the flurries had stopped.

Wednesday was an incredibly odd day for me, especially as I managed to spill bleach on my blue corduroy, creating pink splotches. It sure looked pretty, but I felt very disrupted. Not content to simply 'be', I also gave a presentation for Toastmasters on the 27th -- it was my lab talk on Muscular Dystrophy, but adapted for a new audience. Afterwards, I ate dinner in the dorm cafeteria, spilling soda on my pants in the process. The plan *had* been to sleep until my sister came.

Instead, I stayed up straight through her arrival at my place, and I ended up sleeping on the floor. This gave me an entirely new vantage point of my room. But it also reminded me how used I am to my room only having me. My sister being there was simultaneously welcome and alien.

Suffice it to say, sleeping was pretty difficult, and both of us only got probably 5-6 hours -- all this on top of my sister's jetlag and her trying to escape from work for just a weekend. After all, 11/28, Thursday, is American THanksgiving!

She was entirely still in the mood for coffee -- so I finally brought her to a Tim Hortons, before we stopped at the lab. She got to meet everyone present and we took a selfie at the lab.

Earl's
Eager to share with her food of Canada, we moved from the lab to Earl's, treating ourselves to a nice steak dinner (on my sister's money). I had eaten here once before. Though this was not unfamiliar to me, it was deservedly a good experience. Admittedly, she liked the restaurant more than I expected (Because of its modern yet elegant look.)

Actually, I had not seen the bathrooms before. I will offer a nitpick of the bathrooms being downstairs, accessible by these stairs....(There was an elevator but this design still strikes me as cumbersome.)

For me, the most welcome surprise was some beautiful artwork by local artists, the most striking of which is below.

After getting our fill, we headed to the City Centre to watch Rian Johnson's new film Knives Out. Getting to the cinema proper was hell because of the mall's poor layout. But we still managed to arrive 30 minutes before the film. Coming in, I simply knew it subverted the whodunnit genre; beyond simply building upon Christie though, I found that Johnson and co imbued the film with great empathy. Truly a film that hits on 2019 America very well and among my favorites of the year. (Alongside The Farewell, Us, and Parasite, of course.)

KING and I
Next, and we did start to feel sleepy at this point, we went to eat at King and I on the recommendation of a labmate. Curry chicken pad thai was an interesting idea and I'm glad I tried it!

Friday was also a jam-packed day. I ran groceries early in the morning for my sister and then I rushed to the lab, where I did imaging work for the rest of the morning. Only having work for the morning was a relief for a few reasons; it gave me time to spend with my sister and it let me anticipate a message from my friend (who had her birthday on that day) so I could pass on a gift.

SUB Trip
My sister and I took a trip to the student union building and on the way back saw a rather impressive site. Again, this was for coffee.

Afterwards, I went to the JCC for the Friday. Admittedly, this week was pretty challenging, as my socializing skills felt lower than normal. Furthermore, I had to ask my sister to bring me deodorant discreetly, thereby forcing her out of my room too. This certainly did not help my feelings of perhaps being isolated. But a friend I had not seen in a while came to the club -- so I ended up joining her group. In the mean time, I also got a message from my birthday friend. Being the kind person she is, she offered me time after the club to come.

But it was a short window, making me worry a bit. However, the expressions on my friend's face when she met me, and when I gave her the gift, made me feel that the trouble was well worth it. I also felt especially proud of thinking to include hot chocolate packets in her gift bag. This encounter was so short but it helped me feel warm on one of the coldest days of the year. (Seriously -- my older sister decided to come here on an absolutely frigid weekend.)

La Poutine

Shortly after, my sister and I ate Poutine at a nearby place. There's little to say about Poutine, really! It's unhealthy, and not meant to eat often, but it really hit the spot on this cold day.

On Saturday

WEST EDMONTON MALL, Earl's (2nd trip)

Yuzu flavored lemonade:

 Indian butter chicken curry:

Glasses store:

Syrian soap shop:

A nice synthetic tree:

Walking into Uniqlo for the first time:

Honestly, Uniqlo is pretty cool and it's kind of a wonder I never went into one before.

After this, we headed back, taking a pretty typical route.

Animal Time
We got back around 2:30, just in time for me to play with some animals. I spent a good chunk of my time with the dogs, who smelled rather bad. But someone offered to let me hold one of the cuter dogs in my lab -- in turn, I held the dog towards a couple people next to me. They had been commenting about the dog being cute -- but in Japanese -- so I tried saying "this dog's cute" in Japanese. That led me to start talking to the one nearest to me. Honestly, there might be a solidarity in being the people in the room ignored by the dogs. All the dogs were probably on the other side. But this was quite fun!

Then I learned there was actually bunnies around too. Bunnies with very soft fur. I took more photos of animals than this, but this bunny shot is so memorable to me. Why hadn't I played with bunnies before??? They're so fun!!!

Actually, the animal time gave my sister a brief chance to recuperate before our next event.

Winter Whyte Light Up
Honestly, the Winter Whyte Light Up was pretty modest, which worked out well given how cold it was. I just took some nice photos of the lights.

DORINKU
We only spent like 15 minutes at Winter Whyte Light Up before walking over to Dorinku, which was not far. At the West Edmonton Mall, we skipped out on Japanese food, so we settled for some sushi here. There's not much to say other than it being VERY GOOD.

But I must say -- as an Oregonian, I will always move towards salmon sushi.

Though I had been to this restaurant before, I had never been to the bathroom (or down the hallway leading to it). Meaning I had never ever seen the following images.

Here's a Gundam

The Sailor Moon Girls

This is actually from the bathroom

Neon Genesis Evangelion characters; though it's actually mainly Rei and one Asuka

I probably mentioned already. But Thursday/Friday/Saturday were both quite cold so we were quite eager to head back finally.

There was a complicating factor that we learned of while at Dinner -- my sister's flight got rerouted, which greatly extended her travel time. I kept telling her she just needed to get to the major hub first and to not worry about the job for now.


At home, I actually left my sister for an hour so she could get ready for bed. I had to wake up myself to help her wake up.

Mario Kart Tournament
Why? Well the header gave it away. My RA held a Mario Kart tournament -- it was quite fun learning a new game for the first time, but much less so to play with overly competitive dudes. It made me want to play the game more! But without certain other people. Imagine this being the event to finally make me play a Switch (asides from Mario Odyssey with a certain friend.) But at some point I realized that this tournament itself was not that fun -- I went to bed around 8:30 PM so I could be up in time.

Airport

I was supposed to just wake up my sister. But she still seemed so very worried, and I had gotten some amount of rest. She told me not to come with her, but I insisted and ended up taking the Uber with her. I could tell her anxiety over the situation was still immense, even as she came to grips with it. 

We split up into two separate lines, which is when I saw these balloons floating at the ceiling for some reason.

After 30 minutes or so, I was called over to my sister's line. And another half hour later, we finally spoke ot the desk, and spent tense moments figuring out next steps.

Ultimately, she figured out a route largely through the US, avoiding the many weather-caused delays along the East Coast in the US and in Canada.

The ride back itself was uneventful. But the real story for me is how this Sunday I had already done a trip from 4:30 to 7:30. I had already done enough travel that would let me rest, and I did spend much of the day in rest. This is probably a great experience for me to remember.

Once I rested, I realized that I wanted some new excitement. Later in the day, I decided to find a new place to study. This led me straight to Cinnaholic.

Cinnaholic

Just a nice cinnamon roll place with some water. 

I was able to also contact my dad's colleague and we ate dinner on Sunday too.

Highlevel Diner
This was a roast beef meal; mashed potatoes would have been better, but clearly this diner specialized in beef, and it showed.  I took the chance to learn much more about Edmonton, including the outlying areas. Our conversation was marvelously varied, including a discussion on letters from 100 years ago!

All in all, this was quite the fascinating weekend, in large thanks due to my sister. I'm very glad she came!