My apartment in Ottawa is nice, a little humid sometimes due to the fact that we are in the basement and not all the windows open, but nice. I share it with two people, one in Law and male, the other in Arts and female.
Here we are ready to go out to celebrate my birthday and our first week completed. I have yet to have any critical situations (à la Evamu) and I am very grateful for that...though Law still owes me 10$ but it's also my turn to get milk and potatoes, so I might just ask him to use that...and get me a coffee to even it out.
My real stories lie in my travels on the bus here in Ottawa. I live on the outskirts of the lesser fortunate area known as Vanier. The further in you get, the sketchier it can become. So, it stands to reason that the bus coming out of the heart of Vanier, heading towards the university will sometimes have people of interest on it...and that is the bus I take to school.
Bus tale #1-The Surfer Savant
It was a warm September morning as I waited for the bus to take me to school at 7:45am. The sidewalks were relatively deserted, except for two men walking towards me. One was round (he was like a giant circle) and wore headphones to a discman that he carried in his hand, he was arguing with the other man who had a stack of 14 books in his arms and wore a hiker's backpack.
Upon their arrival at the bus stop, the book carrying one asked me if I could help them settle their argument, I replied that I could try my best seeing as it was 7:45 in the morning. He then asked me if I knew the root of the word Origenism. Now, I suggested Latin, because I felt that it was the safest bet. Truth be told, I was expecting their argument to be over something a little more mainstream...such as ...well anything other than the root of a word that I had never heard of until that point.
Circle man decided to walk to school, thus leaving me alone with the hiker. I was looking through my purse discovering that my mp3 player wasn't there, when I was once again invited to converse with him. He deduced I was a student not just because I wore a school bag, but because I was drinking from a student association mug and when he found out I was in education he said, "Then, like, you MUST know, like, the root of the word pedagogy!"
Of course...that's exactly what we cover in education...no such thing as strategy for teaching elementary students..we study linguistics instead!
For those interested, it comes from Greek words meaning To lead children...or so I was told.
At that point I decided to ask some questions of my own, so I inquired about the large stack of books he was carrying...well quite the interesting story:
"Oh these? Yeah, it like really sucks, man, because here the library only lets me take out, like 75 books at a time. so I have to bring some of them back if I want to take out anymore, so the rest are in my bag. It's such a drag, because, like, back home they let me take out over a hundred."
I am not exaggerating with the overuse of the word "like" as this guy sounded like he came straight out of a surfer movie. But, 75 books at a time?? These weren't Dr. Seuss, they were philosophy!
Thankfully the bus came before I would have to make anymore friendly banter...and to think, this all could have been avoided, or missed had I remembered to bring my mp3 player with me.
