Spinning Wheels

Day 5 – Halifax

Although I left my computer logged into Skype all night, Aryaena wasn’t able to get in touch. She DID manage to get my A. Ann, however, at some ungodly hour. I don’t know why I didn’t hear the ring but got a copy of the text message.

I woke up at 7 frustrated that I had missed her call and had hours to wait until I would hear from her. Although 12 hours away, she was out for dinner with a friend and wouldn’t be in until noon my time. I got online and waited to hear from A. June after 9am about places to meet later in the day. Since I had a lunch date with my lady, we agreed to meet at the Coburg Coffee shop where I could get wireless and a bowl of soup or something at lunchtime.

After hanging up with A. June I headed down to the Mediterraneo Cafe on Barrington for their yummy all day breakfast, only to find a Vietnamese noodle shop there instead. I popped into the cigar shop next door and confirmed that the change had happened, and to ask for a recommendation on a cheap, filling breakfast in its place. The clerk recommended the Bluenose II Restaurant just down from Scotia Square. I headed down the four blocks, making mental notes of the shops I wanted to stop into on the return trip back to Spring Garden Road.

Breakfast at the Bluenose II was delicious and filling, but the service wasn’t very good.

More yumminess.

The add-on fishcake on the menu was a bit pricey ($2.99), but such a tempting taste of home that I couldn’t resist. It was certainly delish. Likewise the Western Omelet special was great and the homefries perfect. It was certainly good to be home. Sadly, however, I had to wait for a really long time for a coffee refil, and even then had to ask another waitress (not even mine) for some, although my waitress promised to bring some around when she brought my plate. Too bad the tips couldn’t go elsewhere.

Anyhow, from there it was a quick stop into IdealBikes on Barrington with questions about bike locking security and regulations in the city (don’t want a $120 ticket for not wearing a helmet, thanks). More shopping along Barrington before dipping down to MEC to pick up the pants and rack I left on hold along with another set of panniers for the front, some fenders, water bottles (doh!), and a camping knife. They weren’t able to find the smaller panniers I wanted although there were supposedly 4 in stock (only 1 on the rack), so I went with some slightly larger alternatives. I didn’t realize until I checked my receipt that it was noon and I was late to meet Aryaena online for our first chat since Sunday. I busted it up from Granville and Blowers to Coburg and Henry. By the time I arrived I was a sweaty mess. I grabbed an Italian Soda and a chair while I started up my computer. Aryaena was waiting, and I popped in my headphones.

After about 5-10 minutes A. June showed up, but let us talk for a little while. Trying not to be too rude I eventually said farewell to Aryaena and A. June and I headed down to Quinpool to look for greeting cards that weren’t produced by Hallmark and to get my bike assessed at Cyclesmith. Cyclesmith took my bike to the basement and the manager agreed to write a letter to Air Canada about the damage, although they warned me not to hold my breath on any compensation. I expressed my agreement that it was unlikely, but you don’t know until you try, and so I’m trying.

I then headed down Quinpool to meet A. June at Duly Noted where I picked up some greeting cards made by NSCAD students. From there it was out to A. Net’s where I picked up my stuff from A. Bev and we all had a little visit together. We then headed back to pennisular Halifax where we went for a walk n talk around the Public Gardens. I was impressed how good the Gardens looked despite the recent damage. I was really sad, however, that I couldn’t plop myself down on the grass and take a much-desired nap on the lush lawn.

We finished at the Gardens and I repacked my bag for an evening out while A. June went for dinner with some former coworkers at Athens on Quinpool. I was dropped on Barrington and am now at the Wooden Monkey, where I have been enjoying their wonderful food and beverage. They specialise in organic, and here’s what I’ve been having:

Propeller Extra Special Bitter Ale. It's as good as it sounds.

Sesame encrusted haddock on a bed of organic brown rice

Garrison Amber Ale. Tasted literally sweetened after the bitter. Very smooth.

Organic, vegan blueberry pie with maple whipped cream.

Just as my pie was arriving the Critical Mass ride passed the restaurant. If I weren’t the owner of a useless frame, I’d have been on it:

Critical Mass June 2009, Halifax. Really wanted to be there.

Now I’m just enjoying a coffee before heading down the hill to meet A. June for pickup and ride back to Pictou. Will keep you up to date!

Day 4- Halifax

Nannie came into check on me at 5am to see if I was up for my 5:45 departure that she was expecting. I was already awake but not rushing out of bed yet, as I was sure I wasn’t supposed to leave until 6:30. I got up and had breakfast, got the bike ready to go and waited.

At just before 6:30, A.June showed up with the trailer in tow to get J and I before heading into Halifax. We loaded up the car and headed into town, stopping at Tim Horton’s at the Treaty Connector for a morning shot in the arm. From there it was on to Halifax where we dropped the trailer in Bedford and headed in to drop Jamie off at home before continuing on to Fall River for A. June’s appointments. After meeting some of her cycle-touring friends, and another who works for Air Canada, I left A. June behind and took my bike to the airport to start the claims process.

Claiming baggage damage involves getting an appraisal of the damage, receipts where possible and calling the Air Canada claims center. The men at the baggage desk were kind and as helpful as they could be, but they told me it could be months before I hear anything. *sigh* I figured as much.

From there it was back to Fall River to pick up A. June and take her to her appointments. Following that I went over to A. Annette’s place to wait for my laptop to arrive with Purolator, and to meet A. Bev with my junk Mom had brought in for me. Aunt Bev was a little later meeting me at A. Annette’s place than anticipated, so A. June left for her other appointments while I waited for Bev in the lobby.

Instead of Bev walking in the door, I was met by A. Annette, U. Tim and A. Janet. We said hello and made our way up to Annette’s apartment for a little while. A. Bev showed up a few minutes later and we all sat around chatting for a few minutes until J&T had to take off. A. Bev and I sat around chatting while Annette took a nap and eventually moved to Bev’s place for dinner (yum!).

After dinner we chatted for a while before A. Bev & A. Annette went back to Annette’s place and U. Glen drove me downtown in search of a case for my contact lenses and something to occupy myself before heading to J’s house for the night. I got dropped at the new Shopper’s Drug Mart on Spring Garden, but they didn’t have any contact lens cases. They had a lot of junk in there, though. From there I headed down to MEC thinking they may have something suitable in their small travel cases collection. No dice. I did find some pants and bike stuff, though, so I put some things on hold for the next day and headed back up to the Second Cup on Spring Garden for drinks and WIFI access until J got off work at 9pm. On the way to J’s place I stopped in at Lawton’s in the Lord Nelson and managed to get some cases for my lenses and made the trek across the South End.

My original plans for the evening were to meet my host on Tuesday, RCF for drinks and Funk at the Seahorse Tavern but RCF wasn’t feeling well. I was bushed and not regretting the cancellation at all. I hiked across town, my bag heavy with my books and new laptop, and found my way to J’s house. Her roommates welcomed me into the house as J was running a few minutes behind. Once J got home she got me set up with WIFI and a towel for a shower. It was another night to bed by 11.

Day 3- Lyons Brook

I woke up in Lyons Brook Wednesday and puttered around with Nannie and Grampie and Ann. It was a mostly down day of reading and resting, although my jetlag hasn’t been too bad so far.

I got around to assembling my bike only to find a huge crack in the downtube of my frame near the joint. It looks as though the tube got banged or compressed and gave where the solid joint meets the hollow section of the downtube.

Crack!

So, the next step was to talk to mom in Edmonton as I thought she had a physical copy of the ticket, including the limitations and responsibilities for damage. No dice, but she searched the website and got the process started. Since Aunt June was heading back into Halifax the next morning and I had to take the bike back to Halifax and get the process started, we made arrangements to take both the bike and box back to town.

From there it was early to bed with the jetlag starting to set in hard and a departure of 6:30 looming for the coming day.

Day 2- Halifax

I got into Halifax at 2am, which served to completely mess up my sense of which day it was when I woke up. All day I was convinced that it was Wednesday when in fact it was still Tuesday.

Tuesday was a day of great food. My host, RCF, made waffles and eggs for breakfast, grill cheese and tomato soup for lunch, and this for dinner:

Welcome home.

and dessert:

Yum!

After dinner I called around to talk to Aunt June and learned that Jamie was leaving to head up to Pictou for a few days. I managed to get a hold of her and  we headed up to Lyons Brook together. I arrived in at about 11pm, had tea with Nannie and Grampie and headed to bed.

Day 1, Travel

I got away from Daejeon at just before noon on Monday, marking the beginning of my 26-28 hour trek halfway around the globe.

At the airport I met my friends H and Nugget long enough for a bite to eat and well wishes for a good summer. We headed out to the new terminal at Incheon International Airport (the World’s Best Airport) where I boarded after a short time.

I thought when I booked the ticket I was going to fly directly to Toronto, but I found out later that we had to stop and do immigration and customs procedures in Vancouver. So, I deplaned and headed to immigration with my customs card. On my way through the line, I was stopped and asked if was carrying a Canadian passport. When I affirmed this was the case, they asked if I wanted to try the new auto-immigreation service kiosk. I agreed and stuck my page 2-3 spread on a passport reader (the same as the border guards do), put in my customs delcaration card, punched in the answers to a few questions about having HINI and then was on my way to the baggage carosel. I was honestly finished in about four minutes.

After I picked up my baggage, I handed my customs card to the official, walked through the door and put my bags on a belt to be loaded back onto the plane I just got off of to continue to Toronto.

By the time I got in to Halifax at 2am local time, I’d been up for 32 hours and was in need of sleep. My couchsurfing host met me at the airport (bless him) and I went to his place and promptly crashed.

What I’ve been up to lately

I’ve been spending a lot of time shuffling back and forth between Daejeon and Jeonju to spend time with Aryaena. On a couple of recent trips we’ve had the fortune of being invited over to M&K’s place for dinner.

Heading out to dinner

K is quite a good cook. She’s made us a fair bit of food, including turkey soup with the scraps from Thanksgiving. She’s my type of person. Both of us sat through dinner thinking the same thing- Someone’s gotta take home that carcass! Thankfully she lives local and was able to take care of it. I would have been so sad to see it go to waste. Oh, and another thing about K-she’s from The Valley, and with so much in common we hit it off instantly when we met last summer.

Homemade tacos with lots of salad and stuffing options.

M&K are a lovely couple, and M isn’t shy to share dishwashing and cooking responsibilities. I’m not sure K would let him get away with things otherwise!

M washing up

While in Jeonju we went to get a back massage and facial for 30,000 won at a local esthetics shop. They had the cutest little puppy in there by the name of Tanbi. Tanbi weighs less than nothing and is made of rubber in place of bones. This dog couldn’t bounce more if he had springs for legs.

Cute overload.

Then, back in Daejeon we came across this car while out shopping and looking for books:

Stealth

Anyhow, it’s not that a whole lot has been going on personally, just day-to-day life keeping me busy. These are just a few things I’ve been wanting to blog about but haven’t had the time to post on, so this is a quick post just to get things online.

New Tires

My Surly Long Haul Trucker’s stock WTB Slickasaurus tires were finally retired last week after thousands of kilometers on (mostly) Korean roads. I’ve been riding on these tires since October 2007 almost daily (I have a 5km commute each direction), along with many other social rides, day trips and extended vacations of dozens to hundreds of kilometers each.

These tires have endured more glass, metal bits and other debris than I think the designers ever intended, and they certainly passed muster. During the bulk of the time I was using them, I rarely got a puncture (don’t really remember any specific situations, although there were a few), but after getting three over a couple of weeks I knew it was time to put them to rest.

I have on this time a set of Panaracer Tserve 26×1.75 tires and so far I’m quite impressed. The surfaces I ride to work include asphalt, spongy multi-use trail surface (like a running track), gravel, dirt, paver-stones and concrete. That’s all one single route. The Slickasaurus tires stood up well, and the new Tserve tires are making me happy by getting quite a bit more traction in the few slippery mud puddles I ride through in one short stretch.
Although the Panaracers are wider and therefore run at a lower pressure, I’m not finding them to be much slower at all. Their shape is really nicely rounded and they run a minimal contact line in the center of the tread.
All in all, I’m happy with the new tires and I’ll post again when I’ve had more time with them.

Something Better

Well, things are going better already this semester, and I’m not completely sure why. I’ve had more student interaction outside of the classroom in the first two weeks than my previous years working with university students combined. Additionally, my students are out-performing their upperclassmen. They’re more active, more attentive, and better at getting homework done. I’m flabbergasted.

Part of it I credit to some lessons on classroom management from Aryaena. She’s a trained K-12 educator, and I’m not. I’m also working in a situation where there has never been professional development offered to staff. I ended up taking it upon myself to get some lessons in the areas I knew I needed help with – namely, getting my students to respond.

I work in a less-than-ideal situation. I teach conversation skills to groups of up to 50 students, in classrooms that are dirty, in disrepair and more beige than any I’ve ever seen. The students all know each other and have a type of cultural group cohesion that leaves out people they don’t know- including me. They all take this course because they have to, not because they want to be there. And, I only see them once each week for two hours at a time. Somehow, I’m supposed to help them improve their English speaking ability.

Anyhow, this semester I’ve started using some  simple tips from Aryaena ranging from modified organization and body language to even more simplification in language and instant reward systems. It seems to be working. I’ve also taken the time to set up an online segment to the course through Moodle, and I’m really enjoying being able to provide my students instant feedback on grades, assignments, attendance and a host of other bits of information to help them in their progress.

I’ll have to look back on this at the end of the semester and see how it went. Wish me luck.

Stuck in My Head

So I’m almost done working this camp at KAIST and I’ll get my life back in a little over 48 hours. Thank goodness.

Anyhow, today at the end of class I got this little song from back in the day stuck in my head. I thought I’d share it with you because, unlike a lot of songs that get stuck there, I actually like this one. Krista, Kelli- this one’s for you guys. It makes me think of dancing around the living room with you so many years ago.

King of Spain

Cooking up a Storm

I’m much better at cooking something nutritious and balanced if I’m cooking for someone other than just myself. However, I realized that with what I hope will be a busy few weeks of long days teaching, I should probably eat better than simply eggs and toast to get me through the days. So, I’ve got the oven and the stove going preparing some good eats for the coming week.

In the oven I have a ham baking with some carrots and potatoes. It should be done in a few minutes and that’s tonight’s dinner. The ham was a pickup at Costco and I promised to cook it for Aryaena when she came to visit. Thing is, she hasn’t been up to visit me for more than a few hours each time in the last month or so, and so the ham has had to wait. Now that she’s home in the US visiting family I’ve decided I’ll cook the one I had in the freezer and just buy a new one when she comes back to this side of the Pacific.

Also at Costco, except only yesterday, I picked up a roast chicken, picked off the meat and put the bones to broth. I put some of the meat back in and now it’s simmering to become a yummy chicken soup which should warm up the cool nights we’ve been having as of late.

Not as bloody as it looks

My happiest food, however, is something very simple, but something I haven’t eaten in a very long time. In fact, I don’t remember the last time I had any. It’s something I didn’t think was available in Korea, but I see that it is locally-grown. I was so excited to show Aryaena, but she didn’t seem to share my affinity for root vegetables.

I suppose it’s not her fault that a simple beet isn’t so exciting, but it makes me think of dinners at my paternal grandparent’s house when I was young. They had a garden at one time and we would go pick fresh beans and they would always have beets and new potatoes on the plates as well. In fact, my grandmother has a recipe for pickled beets I can’t wait to make again when I’m living back in Canada. I hope to be living somewhere where I can have a root cellar or basement or SOMETHING where I can keep preserves.

So, here’s to good eating. What’s on your plate tonight?