So, friday was my going-away party. We met at the Foundation restaurant, and proceeded later to the Cambie. Dinner was excellent; I had a creamy, spicy curry. Meaghan gave me a teddy bear and a bag of silly straws. The Cambie was a bit difficult, not so much for us who arrived with the first group, but those who arrived later had to bear an ever increasing line-up. High points of the Cambie included drinking Beer straight from the pitcher with straws.At about ten, Milan, Alana and I decided to do something about it and moved to Subeez, coercing others to follow. Subeez was truly excellent – dark, loud but sparse music. Most important though – the people. Unfortunatly Jordie and I were not able to get one last chess game in, but it was good at least to see him before I take off. It was also excellent to spend time with Alana, something I always find much more enjoyable than I would expect. Maddy is always a total blast – the last time I hung out with her was right after Stina and I split – it was halloween and I drank a 26 of rum (amoung other things), ending up at the dirty house. I also saw Christine for, the fourth time, although we both feel like we’ve known each other for much longer. As friends go, she is really quite a find. Also, it was great to see Neal – always an interesting person with which to converse. Sonny, Jeremy, Emily and Andre came aswell, but I didn’t speak with them as much as I would have liked. They did not follow us to Subeez – a relocation which in retrospect was at least a bit rude. (But, it’s not like we were going to get back into the Cambie after going outside to say Hi to others who were never going to get in). I did however learn that Jeremy and I share many of my new musical interest, and I had written on my hand a song which I absolutely had to download. I think it was called “the hardest walk”, by Jesus and Mary Chain.
At the end of the night I crashed at Meaghan’s friend Thomas’ house. Rising at an exteremly late hour, we found the most cliche english diner, had mediocre fish and chips (the cook, in all fairness, was very authentically english – the same cannot be repeated for any of the staff). We proceeded to go down to Wreck Beach, picking up make shift beach towels on the way (actually coorperate auto advertising banners, rolled up conveniently for our use). Wreck was fun – the first time I’ve been to wreck in the summer with naked people, also a first for the whole public nudity thing. 5$ Stella was well worth it, complemented by some watery Gin provided by Thomas. Spontaeously, we all decided to all go to Marsha’s Pig Roast in Cloverdale. 2 hours later (ag, the bus, which I love but also wish it were faster). Oh, and on the way I ran into Sasha W. at Broadway Granville, which was a very pleasant encounter. Sasha is spoken of highly by Milan, and for good reason. She wishes to become a high school teacher, because she believes that we do not give young people the credit they deserve, and that we would all be better off if we did. I think she will make a wondrous highschool teacher. It would be an honourable task to go down that road myself, if I had the patience. I’m simply not interested, however, in teaching those who are not there to learn. I’ve never seen myself as a muse, as an inspirer – which for a highschool teacher is just as important as competently presenting the material. I would much rather intereact with students in a less Hegelian (Master/Slave) capacity, something which I think is made all the more possible when class is truly just a group of students, professor included, confronting a text. (Highschool class certainly doesn’t have to be simply master/slave teacher/student, but the relationship knower/learner adult/child is much more of a barrier to breach when expertise is so disproportionatly allocated.)
Bringing unknown guests to the Pig Roast went very well, especially because I didn’t know too many other people there. Mairin and Marie were interesting to see. I’ve always found Marie to be a pleasant person to interact with. We always got along fairly well, as far back as grade 10 when we worked together on the Theory of Knowledge “Utopia project”. That said, we never really became friends. Something I would regret if I did not have so many other excellent friends – a fact the previous night firmly re-inforced.
Oh, I use to be a farmer and I made a living fine….
