Older gent (fifties?). Shared a Lindt truffle with me. I tried saying no, but I couldn't, so I got one. He spilled some of the chocolate juice on himself and changed his shirt in the bathroom. He resumed taking notes on a book and typing vigorously on his laptop.
We didn't speak again until the end of the flight, when electronics had to be shut off. He's a Theology professor at Marquette who lives in Skokie. He started off a Chemistry major, minoring in Philosophy, and then eventually realized his calling. I told him I'm an engineer who really likes Linguistics and have total career path confusion. He was comforting.
We disembarked and parted ways. My Pacific NW trip was officially over.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
17 April 2010: Vancouver, Bolting
Mike, Gordon's roommate. Frequently has dinner with his exes and drunk dials his recent ex Lor(r)i(e), who has a 4-year-old and lives in Portland. Looks completely different with glasses on.
On my last night, I was dead tired from walking everywhere, and was tipsy on a couple of drinks. Gordon, Natasha, and Matt (the other roommate, geography grad student, didn't talk with him much) wanted to go to the Treehouse, where there was a party. I did not. We cabbed it there, anyway.
I mentioned this to a couple of people before, but if there's anything worse than a hipster party, it's a hipster party with a treehouse, where hipsters can perch and literally look down at you as you enter through the yard gate. My awkwardness meter went off the charts as I sensed the hipster density and bolted the first opportunity I got, which presented itself within 2 minutes. I was disoriented, as I had no maps and had no clue in which part of the city we were, and asked a bicyclist where Main St was. A newcomer herself, she seemingly flagged down a taxivan for me, and I lightly jogged after it. Turns out the cabdriver was off-duty, but he pointed me in the general direction and said I could catch a cab on my walk there. I expressed my thanks and started on my way. 1 minute later, the cabbie pulls up in his regular car and offers to give me a ride there, since he's heading back to Surrey anyway (apparently there's a huge Indian/Pakistani/Bengali population there). Ever so grateful, I got in, and we chatted about Vancouver. His Anglicized name is "Harry". He didn't take the 8 CAD I tried giving him. I gave him a strange shoulder-pat-hug because Harry's the best.
I got pie and headed back to the house, where I was alone and just made my sofa bed up. An hour later, people crashed in, and this girl named Molly was nearly sitting on my lap, asking me if I wanted to party because she wanted to party. She had that glassy-eyed look on her face, and I'm sure I looked like a doe in headlights.
Mike led me down the stairs to the other sofa. He was trying to avoid the after-party party himself, and closed the door and ignored all summons for him to re-emerge. At some point in the night, he came out and put an extra blanket on me. At this point I'm thinking, "Canadians (minus this 'Molly' broad) are the nicest!"
The next morning, I got pastries for the house and ate one slowly while spacing out because I did not sleep well. Mike came up and had two cups of coffee and a scone, and we chatted. He's a high school teacher in a Vancouver public school, teaching history and special needs kids. There's a wheelchair-bound kid who causes a scene sometimes, and Mike has to kick him out by telling him to leave the room. So the kid frowns, scowls, sighs, and huffs, and then you hear his wheelchair whirring as his motor helps move him out. We laughed.
Mike used to be a History grad student, but, like me, he dropped out after his Master's, which we agreed was upsetting because we thought we had the next 6 years of our lives planned out. He taught in Japan for 2 years, as well, and London, ON, is his hometown. We talked about language extinction, US vs. Canada, and bossa nova, among other things. He gave me a ride to the Canada Line to get to the airport before taking off for Washington state in his rental car to find trails with some naturalist girl he met at the party the night before. She'll probably wind up another ex with whom he'll be having dinner.
On my last night, I was dead tired from walking everywhere, and was tipsy on a couple of drinks. Gordon, Natasha, and Matt (the other roommate, geography grad student, didn't talk with him much) wanted to go to the Treehouse, where there was a party. I did not. We cabbed it there, anyway.
I mentioned this to a couple of people before, but if there's anything worse than a hipster party, it's a hipster party with a treehouse, where hipsters can perch and literally look down at you as you enter through the yard gate. My awkwardness meter went off the charts as I sensed the hipster density and bolted the first opportunity I got, which presented itself within 2 minutes. I was disoriented, as I had no maps and had no clue in which part of the city we were, and asked a bicyclist where Main St was. A newcomer herself, she seemingly flagged down a taxivan for me, and I lightly jogged after it. Turns out the cabdriver was off-duty, but he pointed me in the general direction and said I could catch a cab on my walk there. I expressed my thanks and started on my way. 1 minute later, the cabbie pulls up in his regular car and offers to give me a ride there, since he's heading back to Surrey anyway (apparently there's a huge Indian/Pakistani/Bengali population there). Ever so grateful, I got in, and we chatted about Vancouver. His Anglicized name is "Harry". He didn't take the 8 CAD I tried giving him. I gave him a strange shoulder-pat-hug because Harry's the best.
I got pie and headed back to the house, where I was alone and just made my sofa bed up. An hour later, people crashed in, and this girl named Molly was nearly sitting on my lap, asking me if I wanted to party because she wanted to party. She had that glassy-eyed look on her face, and I'm sure I looked like a doe in headlights.
Mike led me down the stairs to the other sofa. He was trying to avoid the after-party party himself, and closed the door and ignored all summons for him to re-emerge. At some point in the night, he came out and put an extra blanket on me. At this point I'm thinking, "Canadians (minus this 'Molly' broad) are the nicest!"
The next morning, I got pastries for the house and ate one slowly while spacing out because I did not sleep well. Mike came up and had two cups of coffee and a scone, and we chatted. He's a high school teacher in a Vancouver public school, teaching history and special needs kids. There's a wheelchair-bound kid who causes a scene sometimes, and Mike has to kick him out by telling him to leave the room. So the kid frowns, scowls, sighs, and huffs, and then you hear his wheelchair whirring as his motor helps move him out. We laughed.
Mike used to be a History grad student, but, like me, he dropped out after his Master's, which we agreed was upsetting because we thought we had the next 6 years of our lives planned out. He taught in Japan for 2 years, as well, and London, ON, is his hometown. We talked about language extinction, US vs. Canada, and bossa nova, among other things. He gave me a ride to the Canada Line to get to the airport before taking off for Washington state in his rental car to find trails with some naturalist girl he met at the party the night before. She'll probably wind up another ex with whom he'll be having dinner.
15 april 2010: Vancouver, Couching
Bill hooked me up with a place to stay on Thursday & Friday nights in Vancouver, without my asking. Super-sweet.
So, Gordon. Bill's friend. German, studied in Weimar, UBC grad student in computer graphics, wants a career in research. Smaller guy with reddish hair and a sporadic beard. Loves electronica. 29.
Girlfriend: Natasha, in Interior Architecture (a cross between Interior Design and Architecture), taking a break from ennui & studies outside Hamburg, originally from München. Wavy blonde hair and confrontational boobs. 24.
Gordon & Natasha are two of the friendliest people ever. Gordon spoke with a Canadian-German accent, and we ate sushi at a nice place in South Vancouver (the tuna felt like it melted in my mouth!). Vancouver already feels like home for him, and he can't see himself moving back. He and his roommates of 2.5 years (Matt & Mike) take trips to Central America (at least two I recall: Guatemala and Honduras) as well as Washington state, where they met a guy in a bar who invited them over to shoot clay pigeons. We discussed whether it's reasonable to expect immigrants to learn the language of their new home, which, unsurprisingly, was a topic left unresolved.
Gordon gets random documentaries from the public library. He told me about 3-meter tall beavers that once existed around the Great Lakes; this freaks me out a bit.
Natasha is in Vancouver for 3 months and found some temp work at beauty salon, where she's like errand bitch girl. She likes chick flicks and Gilmore Girls. In June, she plans to make her way from NYC to SF in 90 days, whether by public transit or through hitchhiking. She wants to make sweet sushi with licorice, which sounds gross to me.
So, Gordon. Bill's friend. German, studied in Weimar, UBC grad student in computer graphics, wants a career in research. Smaller guy with reddish hair and a sporadic beard. Loves electronica. 29.
Girlfriend: Natasha, in Interior Architecture (a cross between Interior Design and Architecture), taking a break from ennui & studies outside Hamburg, originally from München. Wavy blonde hair and confrontational boobs. 24.
Gordon & Natasha are two of the friendliest people ever. Gordon spoke with a Canadian-German accent, and we ate sushi at a nice place in South Vancouver (the tuna felt like it melted in my mouth!). Vancouver already feels like home for him, and he can't see himself moving back. He and his roommates of 2.5 years (Matt & Mike) take trips to Central America (at least two I recall: Guatemala and Honduras) as well as Washington state, where they met a guy in a bar who invited them over to shoot clay pigeons. We discussed whether it's reasonable to expect immigrants to learn the language of their new home, which, unsurprisingly, was a topic left unresolved.
Gordon gets random documentaries from the public library. He told me about 3-meter tall beavers that once existed around the Great Lakes; this freaks me out a bit.
Natasha is in Vancouver for 3 months and found some temp work at beauty salon, where she's like errand bitch girl. She likes chick flicks and Gilmore Girls. In June, she plans to make her way from NYC to SF in 90 days, whether by public transit or through hitchhiking. She wants to make sweet sushi with licorice, which sounds gross to me.
15 April 2010: Vancouver, Tim Hortons
Ross from Victoria. With the Neil Sedaka voice. Short with greying hair. Works for The Canadian Man.
Started speaking to me because apparently I looked reaaally happy eating a Bavarian creme doughnut, which helped me recharge after walking through Granville Island and Stanley Park earlier. Asked if I was going to watch the hockey game. "What hockey game?" Worried about offending a Canuck, I quickly added, "I'm from the States."
He recommended watching the game from Malone's, and continued talking about hockey for quite a while. He also gave me advice on how to get to Victoria and suggested I check out Grouse Mountain. I made it to the mountain, but sadly not to Victoria. Ah, next time.
He asked me to coffee the next day, but my schedule was packed. I wonder if he thought I was 40.
Started speaking to me because apparently I looked reaaally happy eating a Bavarian creme doughnut, which helped me recharge after walking through Granville Island and Stanley Park earlier. Asked if I was going to watch the hockey game. "What hockey game?" Worried about offending a Canuck, I quickly added, "I'm from the States."
He recommended watching the game from Malone's, and continued talking about hockey for quite a while. He also gave me advice on how to get to Victoria and suggested I check out Grouse Mountain. I made it to the mountain, but sadly not to Victoria. Ah, next time.
He asked me to coffee the next day, but my schedule was packed. I wonder if he thought I was 40.
12 April 2010: Seattle, Jack's Friend/Coworker
Joe.
He sure loves nonparametric modeling.
And Boddingtons.
He sure loves nonparametric modeling.
And Boddingtons.
11 April 2010: Seattle, Bill's Brunch
AJ: went on a roadtrip with Bill down to Mexico, and continued down Central America to Costa Rica, where he helped his friends set up an organic farm. Out of work architect, thinking about starting a dog toy business.
Matt: drunk from the party the night before, got on a bike and decided that he didn't want to go home but wanted to get laid. Rode around looking for a party (bound to have girls, right?), heard commotion coming from a house with a 50-something year old man sitting outside it. Asked, "Can I come in? I have a beer." Presented the beer. Man nodded approvingly. Walked in, everyone was middle-aged. Sat down and played the bongos for them.
Spike: works for Amazon.com. His girlfriend Sara looks a bit like Mel from Flight of the Conchords. Used to work in cloud computing but now works on discussion boards, trying to write programs to automatically remove bad posts. I asked him about any interesting books or discussion boards, and he brought up Anita Blake, this character who has to have sex with as many werewolves and vampires as she can or else she'll die. People can discuss all the details of the books, but he has to remove all posts about the author's personal life, apparently. Apparently, Spike's dad was way into mushrooms and believes that some of the hallucinations he saw while high were signs from divinity. Spike is atheist.
Brad: tall, friendly, boisterous Navy guy. I wanted to high five him the entire time. Kept forgetting pear-shaped girl's and Jim's names, to their chagrin. I chortled in my head.
That one girl who kept playing crappy techno music and dancing with no shoes on. That's all I remember about her.
Matt: drunk from the party the night before, got on a bike and decided that he didn't want to go home but wanted to get laid. Rode around looking for a party (bound to have girls, right?), heard commotion coming from a house with a 50-something year old man sitting outside it. Asked, "Can I come in? I have a beer." Presented the beer. Man nodded approvingly. Walked in, everyone was middle-aged. Sat down and played the bongos for them.
Spike: works for Amazon.com. His girlfriend Sara looks a bit like Mel from Flight of the Conchords. Used to work in cloud computing but now works on discussion boards, trying to write programs to automatically remove bad posts. I asked him about any interesting books or discussion boards, and he brought up Anita Blake, this character who has to have sex with as many werewolves and vampires as she can or else she'll die. People can discuss all the details of the books, but he has to remove all posts about the author's personal life, apparently. Apparently, Spike's dad was way into mushrooms and believes that some of the hallucinations he saw while high were signs from divinity. Spike is atheist.
Brad: tall, friendly, boisterous Navy guy. I wanted to high five him the entire time. Kept forgetting pear-shaped girl's and Jim's names, to their chagrin. I chortled in my head.
That one girl who kept playing crappy techno music and dancing with no shoes on. That's all I remember about her.
10 April 2010: Seattle, Bill's Friend's Party
Note to self: Missoula, MT is supposed to be cool?
So said the pear-shaped softball coach with stringy & wavy, black-dyed hair (she grew up there).
And so agreed Jim (?), the hobbit-like former Microsoft employee (hard times!) now considering returning to school for medicine or the culinary arts.
Which was enthusiastically confirmed by Justin (?), the political campaigner from Syracuse who once worked on Capitol Hill but made his way through Montana and now lives in Seattle. He bought an outdoorsy vest to fit in with the Pacific Northwesterners.
So said the pear-shaped softball coach with stringy & wavy, black-dyed hair (she grew up there).
And so agreed Jim (?), the hobbit-like former Microsoft employee (hard times!) now considering returning to school for medicine or the culinary arts.
Which was enthusiastically confirmed by Justin (?), the political campaigner from Syracuse who once worked on Capitol Hill but made his way through Montana and now lives in Seattle. He bought an outdoorsy vest to fit in with the Pacific Northwesterners.
10 April 2010: PDX -> SEA
Matt. Fresh-faced, curly blonde hair, baseball cap, smelled like last night's beer and cigarettes. Cargo pants, heather grey gym T-shirt. 26. Thought I was 30 (damn it!).
I had intended to read Out during the train ride, but we started talking because we wanted to look out the window, but we were in an awkward row that faced the space between windows. We cleverly finagled the drapes, voila, kept talking.
Matt is from a suburb of Detroit and went to school in the Upper Peninsula, majoring in outdoor recreation (I was not aware of this major's existence). His mother is a nurse in OB/GYN and hearts delivering babies. He moved out to Oregon after he and his girlfriend of 8 years broke up; she moved to Boston, and he wanted to physically get as far as possible from her within the continental United States.
He eventually moved up to Washington state (working in Olympic National Park), and from there to Alaska, where the job he thought he had secured fell through. After venting at a bar, the bartender hooked him up with her husband's work in fishery. He has been counting salmon 7 months out of a year for 4 years ever since, from 5:30am to 9pm. His company is his iPod (on it? "indie" rock).
He really loves the town he works in, which has about 1,500 people. He says, because it's so small, everyone is held accountable. The whole town relies on the fishing industry, and everyone knows and respects each other. Surprisingly, it's a democratic town.
For the other 5 months out of the year, he does impulsive things, like follow a girl he slept with for less than 2 weeks to Athens, GA, where he found temp work in the botanical garden and decided that he hates her. He stayed there for about two months before traveling back West, slowly making his way back up to Alaska for the start of the season.
Matt wants to get a graduate degree someday. Sees himself counting salmon for at most another 4 years. Hopes to move down to Hawaii. In the meantime, he's delicately dodging his Inuit friend's handsome sister's sexual advances.
I had intended to read Out during the train ride, but we started talking because we wanted to look out the window, but we were in an awkward row that faced the space between windows. We cleverly finagled the drapes, voila, kept talking.
Matt is from a suburb of Detroit and went to school in the Upper Peninsula, majoring in outdoor recreation (I was not aware of this major's existence). His mother is a nurse in OB/GYN and hearts delivering babies. He moved out to Oregon after he and his girlfriend of 8 years broke up; she moved to Boston, and he wanted to physically get as far as possible from her within the continental United States.
He eventually moved up to Washington state (working in Olympic National Park), and from there to Alaska, where the job he thought he had secured fell through. After venting at a bar, the bartender hooked him up with her husband's work in fishery. He has been counting salmon 7 months out of a year for 4 years ever since, from 5:30am to 9pm. His company is his iPod (on it? "indie" rock).
He really loves the town he works in, which has about 1,500 people. He says, because it's so small, everyone is held accountable. The whole town relies on the fishing industry, and everyone knows and respects each other. Surprisingly, it's a democratic town.
For the other 5 months out of the year, he does impulsive things, like follow a girl he slept with for less than 2 weeks to Athens, GA, where he found temp work in the botanical garden and decided that he hates her. He stayed there for about two months before traveling back West, slowly making his way back up to Alaska for the start of the season.
Matt wants to get a graduate degree someday. Sees himself counting salmon for at most another 4 years. Hopes to move down to Hawaii. In the meantime, he's delicately dodging his Inuit friend's handsome sister's sexual advances.
8 April 2010: Portland TriMet
I got on the TriMet with a box full of French pastries from Saint Honoré Boulangerie. I must've looked disoriented from inefficiently walking several miles to the transit stop. An older woman (again, in her sixties) eyed my box and said, "Ooh, sit next to me! Sit next to me!" I shrugged. "Okay."
She asked to see what I got, and we chatted briefly about the bakery. I said I was visiting from Chicago. She visited once, long ago, back when there was a Riverview Amusement Park. Before she alighted, she quickly went through a timeline of her life -- from being born in Texas to eloping when she was 17 and moving to Portland, where she has lived ever since. She showed me a ring her friends had gotten her from Fiji and said she'll write a book someday.
She asked to see what I got, and we chatted briefly about the bakery. I said I was visiting from Chicago. She visited once, long ago, back when there was a Riverview Amusement Park. Before she alighted, she quickly went through a timeline of her life -- from being born in Texas to eloping when she was 17 and moving to Portland, where she has lived ever since. She showed me a ring her friends had gotten her from Fiji and said she'll write a book someday.
8 April 2010: ORD -> PDX
Totally don't remember her name. Older (sixties?) woman who works in biomedical consulting and started extensively traveling for work in her forties. Last business trip was to Denmark, but most recent memorable trip was to Korea, where she ate raw octopus and an assortment of fried insects. Wants to travel to Africa with her sister, who lives in Eugene, OR, for her next big, personal trip. Currently lives in a Chicago suburb and studied chemical engineering as an undergrad, way back when.
Headed to Portland for her daughter's birthday. Daughter (environmental engineering, Northwestern) spent two years working in the Peace Corps as a water engineer in Nepal, where she was incredibly frustrated that the local villagers didn't help out in implementing cleaner delivery systems. Plane Buddy was amazed that when she and her daughter tried to play catch with the villagers, the children did not reflexively catch the ball or duck out of its trajectory; rather, they let balls hit them and fall to the ground.
After Daughter returned to the States, she bought a pickup truck, packed all her belongings, and headed West to find a place that felt like Home (Chicago wasn't doing it for her). In less than three months' time, she was robbed a couple of times while she slept in the truck, but she finally settled in Portland and has been there for 15 years.
Headed to Portland for her daughter's birthday. Daughter (environmental engineering, Northwestern) spent two years working in the Peace Corps as a water engineer in Nepal, where she was incredibly frustrated that the local villagers didn't help out in implementing cleaner delivery systems. Plane Buddy was amazed that when she and her daughter tried to play catch with the villagers, the children did not reflexively catch the ball or duck out of its trajectory; rather, they let balls hit them and fall to the ground.
After Daughter returned to the States, she bought a pickup truck, packed all her belongings, and headed West to find a place that felt like Home (Chicago wasn't doing it for her). In less than three months' time, she was robbed a couple of times while she slept in the truck, but she finally settled in Portland and has been there for 15 years.
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