I hate Queing in Canada

Excuse the “British” English in the title (I don’t think anyone in Canada actually queues, we just line up)… I think travelling for a year has made me become conscious of using English that most people worldwide can understand. Such as, “winter hat” instead of “toque”, “mobile” instead of “cell phone”, “sms” instead of “text”, “soda pop” instead of “pop”, “toilet” instead of “bathroom”, and so on…

Anyway, I wanted to vent about a situation I run into all too often in Canada when I go to Tim Horton’s or McDonalds. Walking through the door, I see two cashiers each helping one person, and then a line of 2 more people forming behind one of the customers.

I have two choices. Do I:

a) Be a jerk and form a new line behind the customer with no line? There’s a risk of being yelled at by the other people already waiting, though it’s extremely low, since most Canadians want to avoid conflict.

Or, b) Line up behind the 2 people, knowing full well that the next person to walk into the store will do a)! And without fail, before anyone in my line can comment or change lines, somehow a big group of people will all enter the store at once, forming a new line behind asshole. Then I fume while having to wait an extra 5 minutes longer than I should.

Times like these make me wish we had Sweden’s ticket dispensing system.

Better to continue late than never…

I really recommend traveling for a long period of time, or if that’s not possible, at least slowly. When I took a week hiatus from Sweden, I spent the entire week in Barcelona, as opposed to a few of my friends who “did” 9 countries in 10 days. Not to say that there’s anything wrong with it, but it’s not for me. I realize that because North Americans work so much and only get 2 weeks vacation per year (assuming they have a semi-decent job – otherwise you get none), we want vacations that cram in as much as possible in the short time we have off. Over time I realized that it’s not the “must-see” sights or museums that that you necessarily remember (although I did see some fantastic ones in Barcelona that changed my views), but the people you meet, and the conversations you had.

Even better, I highly recommend living in another country from your own (for Canadians, I would say besides the US, since we already know so much of their culture and are very similar in many ways). I remarked earlier about Australia the culture shock I felt was sometimes greater than in China or India because my expectation was that Australia (or any other western country) would be the same as Canada. I was constantly surprised and shocked every time I found out that Sweden did things in a different way than Canada.

Living in another country makes you realize that the way you think is just a product of the environment and country you were raised in. I wish I could take credit for this nugget, but it was Mikey who made me realize this during our travels in Bangladesh and India. Actually, I learned a lot from Mikey, and looking back now, I feel like I could have learned a lot more had I asked him more questions and been more open. (I think I need to send him a thank you letter.)

I feel that travel opens you up to new ideas, attitudes, experiences, and ways of doing things, but living in another place opens you up to new values and ways of thinking that you may never have considered. I kind of wish I could do my year off all over again, as I would do things much differently. Now that I’ve been drawing again, being older this time around, I see a lot more in the act of doing art. When drawing, after stepping back and looking a second time, I see and notice where I went wrong. And in noticing this, if I were to restart the drawing again, I would approach it differently.

Every week I look forward to my figure drawing class. No matter how tired I was, I would get a second wind in class, and come home barely able to sleep because I was excited to show my drawings to Per. I had no idea I would enjoy the class as much as I do! I enjoy it so much that I’m signing up again for the next set of sessions next month. I’m psyched to try out and experiment with some different techniques I’ve been learning about. I’ve taken out drawing instruction and art history books from the library and have been reading furiously. Certain drawing books excite me more than others – not so much the ones that are less “step-by-step” on how to draw a dog, but ones that suggest how to develop your creativity.

I’ve discovered some artists that I’m nuts over, and I can’t wait to try copying their style.

Liu Ye, an artist from Beijing:

I love his paintings – bold, innocent yet dark, and an east /west mix. He studied industrial design in China, and then painting in Germany and the Netherlands. His father was a children’s book illustrator when he was growing up and he discovered his father’s secret stash of (banned in China) children’s books of fairy tales and books on drawing the female form. I would love to own a painting by him, but his latest paintings sold in Hong Kong for $500,000 to $1.5 M. Doh!

Egon Schiele:

Looking at his work, it looks so fresh and contemporary, yet these were done just after the turn of the century (the last one – not this one ).I love how he uses just a few contour lines (rather than a lot of shading) to express the figure. Apparently he died very young too at 28 years old. His wife died of the flu, and then he died of the same flu 4 days later, back in 1918!! Gee… He sure developed his talent and accomplished a lot in a short period of time. Wish I had his talent at my age, though guess I have the rest of my life ahead of my still!

I feel recharged and itching to get back on the road again…  In some ways, I’ve fallen back into my old patterns of doing things, though I think what I need to get out of my year off is that I don’t NEED a change in scenery to create new and fulfilling experiences for myself… It’s just more difficult (for me) to do so when the surroundings are familiar.

New guilty TV viewing pleasures

I am loving America’s Best Dance Crew 3! I do get into the TV watching game late, as I usually avoid wasting time watching TV – and have been watching episodes online. I’m in love with Quest crew, and even more so because I have to support my fellow Asians. But it’s a close call with Beat Freaks, a group of strong females (one of who was Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku girls – how fun is that?) who don’t skank it up just in the name of dance. Really wish I could dance!

Not only have I fallen for one guilty TV viewing pleasure, but two – while watching ABDC3 on muchmusic.com, they aired a commerical for RuPaul’s Drag Race – a reality show about a competition for the next Drag Queen. A cross between two of my favorite shows, Project Runway, and America’s Next Top Model, except twice as fun! How could you not love a show with challenges such as “Drag on a Dime” and lines such as, “The time has come… For you to lip-sync for your life!” So campy, but love it!

On top of that – I am extremely envious of how fabulous the drag queens are! Man… after watching that, I feel like I need to use the freedom I have to act, dress, and look extremely feminine, especially being able to get away with it much more easily in mainstream society than they do. It’s safe to say that I (probably – knock on wood) won’t be shot at while outside a (gay) bar dressed exaggeratedly as a woman. I often think gay people have a lot more fun than straight people do, because they’re free to completely be theirselves and not worry about what others think of them. (Of course, I hardly know the dificulties they also have to go through.) Still, I think I can take something away from this.