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!

State of the Omar (December)

It's incredible that I made it to December, especially with how much November seemed to ramp up with my responsibilities. There is an upcoming post (soon) about the things that I experienced just at the end of the month.

But November has marked movement on areas of professional development, community engagement, the building of friendships (which can be better understood in my next post), and exploration of Edmonton.

Just within the lab, I am working on 1) training in wet-lab (such as cell work) and dry-lab techniques (such as imaging), 2) a cell based project of my own (which is getting off the ground still), 3) a literature review on therapies for DMD, 4) a machine learning project (which is also getting off the ground), and 5) the Muscular Dystrophy Canada (MDC)'s Burden of Illness project (which I am helping with occasionally). Right now, the training and literature review are my top priority, especially as the review is due in 3 weeks or so. I am getting the chance, however, to learn many types of imaging and gain a finer eye for this type of analysis; this greatly buffers my ability to perform wet-lab experiments as well. Currently, I feel the pressure to learn machine learning, as that project has given me no instructions thus far. Lastly, I hope to interview with the MDC study so that I can give my impressions as a researcher and as someone with a neuromuscular condition. Though this time feels completely draining, I can feel my endurance slowly improving. With time, I can handle everything coming my way.

Much of this work has not produced visible results yet, but I hope to press on. That said, everything else has felt incredibly slow, even as November feels filled to the brim.

As one hopefully guessed, I am still participating with the Toastmasters group here; in this case, I am the secretary, which is a relatively informal role. But my relationship with the group keeps growing as I understand the skills and desires of my fellow clubmates. Furthermore, it has already been twice for a second speech of mine, as of November 27th, which I shall elaborate on in the next post. The most exciting part of my time here is the mentorship program -- just recently, I have made connections with my first 'mentee'. Given their focus on speechwriting, which is largely an area where I excel, I feel our partnership would be an excellent learning opportunity for both of us. This is the newest part to me...the part where I help someone grow as a speaker.

The Feminist group remains as casual as ever, but our tea party on the 21st was incredibly fun. The "Gender Gap" boardgame we played was awful but amusing in every sense. What should a man not do in a relationship? How does a man play golf? How does a woman cook Turkey? It was a testament to the ridiculousness of the game that our top scorer only 'correctly' answered a few cards. This is certainly not a game I will remember for much other than laughs. There was also some excellent green tea there!

My experience with the New Democratic Party, the left party of Canada, has been a mixture of positivity and confusion. The student group here seems to do nothing, perhaps because the university sits in an NDP district! But I did venture out to Edmonton-Manning and Edmonton-Glenora, both of which are far from the university, and catch a glimpse of the familial nature of these meetings. There was an agenda, but there was a common friendly energy to be found. There was also food to be found! The second meeting proved to be more memorable for me because....well....I asked what an MLA is. The answer made me feel silly -- "member of the legislative assembly" -- but they still made me feel welcome in learning. It was the MLA who explained the concept herself! The idea of a question and answer really helped make these meetings feel accessible. I also enjoyed how the MLA brought her children to help explain how the budget cuts proposed by the Alberta premier would hurt many ordinary Albertans. I also learned about the Election Commissioner of Alberta, who had for a year helped ensure election integrity and security, had been sacked. There was a lot of complaining about the Conservatives -- apparently beyond the extensive budget cuts they proposed, they also were rewriting rules to limit the power of the opposition. The opposition leader was even thrown out of the Alberta Parliament! The Conservatives had only taken power a few months earlier, around when I arrived, but they were already wreaking havoc. There was also the Office of Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities. Unfortunately, I had to leave, as my scooter battery had drained a lot. But this gave me a great starting place to think more deeply about Canadian politics.

The Japanese Conversational Club on campus has helped me meet many people and continue to refine my ability to converse in English and Japanese. However, it has spurred me to begin studying Japanese (admittedly just today so far) so that I can learn more. It is very demanding to keep talking to people, especially with the high probability of having at least one or two complete strangers. People also come inconsistently, which creates a different atmosphere each time. Simultaneously, I am interacting with the Japanese society here, which recently held a wonderful celebration, and gaining greater immersion into that culture. Though my progress here is the most abstract, it can feel the most rewarding.

However, on the disability front, I have found some difficulties for contacts. The Students for Life Without Limits group has proven to be missing in action, with an immense lack of contact. Undeterred, however, I am still following up with the Muscular Dystrophy Canada and the Burden of Illness study. I also followed up with the Office of Advocacy for Persons with Disabilities, which led me to also contact the Accessibility Committee of Edmonton. Through these connections, I am gaining an understanding of snow removal and the maintenance of sidewalks and roads. However, I am also gaining resources to teach about muscular dystrophy to government officials and to work on disability outreach with children, hewing close to my original community engagement goals here. This part requires the most work. But as I continue I find contacts who lead me to other contacts. I even have followed up with the accessibility committee to talk about physical accessibility. This is the area that I would like to push the most growth in.

For December, I will perhaps begin preparing for 2020 rather than ramming through final changes. However, I hope that lab training and work, supplemented by community engagement, will prove immensely fruitful. Given that I leave on December 17th, I anticipate that there is not enough time for everything I want. But there is many chances for setting up meetings up through I finally head home. So many hopes seem to be riding on these next two weeks, even as I expect all new progress to be in the next year.

Food (Panda Express), Food (Potluck #1), Food (Potluck #2), a Cultural Event, and Food (Pizza Hut)

Last week was the Reading Week here, which of course somehow amounts to food. (Who studies, am I right?)

On Tuesday, I ate Panda Express with my RA, which featured a nice spiciness, even if it is so obviously not *real* Chinese food. The biggest surprise was a free boba tea -- it took me a week to finish, but it was a nice chance to re-evaluate my stance! It turns out, I am fine with tapioca balls, even if they still seem a bit weird. Of all the places one could get a free boba, Panda Express was not what I expected! It was also a good chance to get to know my RA better -- we knew each other but had not spend time one on one in such a capacity.

 
Actually, there were also two potlucks this week. This inspired me to do some cooking -- I made a reddish "spanish" rice (below) on the suggestion of my mom. I tried creating a broth to cook the rice in, but it largely tasted like tomato! It was not a failure though. I learned a lot from cooking it. I also prepared some scrambled eggs (below) and some edamame. *BUT* this did heighten my stress and make me enjoy Reading Week less. I felt weighed down by the idea that my cooking was too simple -- I could do so much better.

Potluck #1 is illustrated in the next two images. This was our lab potluck, which was quite exciting with many varieties of food. Unfortunately, the pasta dish was loaded with pesto, which meant that I could not eat it. But the lasagna was quite nice. Our famous baker in the lab created a matcha cake, which smoothly blends matcha (green) with a white chocolate layer. Clearly a well done cake, but I would push its baker to work to better bring out the flavor of matcha! The distinctive flavor felt hidden away in the dish, as if we had to dig around with our taste buds. Above all else, this was a very fun social event.

One would hope that we accomplished important lab things after our potluck like writing and experiments. Instead we played the game Exploding Kittens, by the creator of The Oatmeal, for perhaps two whole hours. Though the game has some luck, it requires much skill to maintain control of the cards. I felt accomplished from winning just one game, even if I had been the first loser in a previous round. Forget poker, they should call it the Exploding Kittens Face. 

Wednesday had one more surprise in store; we were running The Worst Meeting of Toastmasters Ever. A first-timer took on the lead role and simultaneously as the table topics master. But with only 6 people, all of whom had done Toastmasters before, we had to get very creative with our format. We watched a video of a GOP candidate -- his speech was infamous enough to travel the internet, but we still tried to play nice. After that we did table topics -- which are again the short impromptu speeches -- for most of the time. The hardest part of the meeting was keeping up the facade of being a bad Toastmasters meeting. I jokingly insulted our leader a few times! But at the end, I made a pivot back to seriousness and gave evaluation on the meeting as a whole. Our gimmick actually generally worked with our format, albeit simplified, and it paves the way for future experimentation. I look forward to what we can accomplish now.

Potluck #2 was also fortunately near my place -- it was in my dorm on the 14th. The same fears about potlucks persisted in my mind. What if people did not eat my dish?

I brought the spanish rice once more and edamame (below), which was a good mixture of vegetarian dishes in my view. The meat dishes tended to be pork, which is no good for me. I actually simply ate some pasta and my vegetarian dishes, opting to not eat meat. It was a good experience trying to cut down on meat consumption. It is feasible, even for me who has grown up with many meat dishes.

This potluck was also followed by a fun event: karaoke. At the least, it seemed fun on the surface, until it got out of hand with a certain person going many more times than they should have. But before that point, I made a new friend, someone from China and we discussed many things about cuisine and other cultural differences. This came in handy when it was my turn for karaoke; if she had not spoken up, I may have been entirely passed over. (I think that one person was too overzealous to do karaoke, despite not being one of the best speakers). I chose "Smells Like Teen Spirit" because of the humor of the lyrics and it was absolutely fun to sing even if I felt incredibly foolish. My new friend did an Adele song, clocking in perhaps the only actually good performance. A slight accent aside, her vocal control was pretty impressive. Unfortunately, the karaoke event kind of petered out, and I ended up leaving. The worst part is the organizer may have tossed my food (since the cleaning staff had not touched it)! It was still edible. I wanted to still eat it. ;______; My spirit is perhaps most wounded by the loss of perfectly usable plastic containers.

Friday, I cooked chicken again (below), using up my leftover Panda Express Rice. This was a pretty simple dish, but I marveled at the simple yet elegant balance of spices. Imagine what I can do with more complex dishes! This kept up my cooking theme for the Reading Week.

One last point of excitement was the Edmonton Japanese Community Association event -- it celebrated its 25th anniversary on my sister's 25th birthday! I do not have much to say here, other than I enjoyed seeing Japanese culture on full display. I had been anticipating this event ever since I finished the EJCA on November 2nd. Going there was a great way to place myself back into Japanese culture. (A perfect complement to my doing the Japanese Conversational Club.)

Right after this event, I had coffee with new friends from the conversational club, I just mentioned. Admittedly, my worry over the time (The event started late) soured it a little bit in my mind. But in the end I still greatly enjoyed having both back to back.

On November 18th, I ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut (below) in an effort to remember my grandparents. Though certainly not the 'best' pizza, the crust and cheese flavor was enough to bring a sense of nostalgia and comfort over me. This  is maybe my first time ordering a pizza entirely of my own volition. And I do not plan to make this a regular habit! But it was a very fun way to mix up my eating and keep myself thinking about how to improve as a cook.