I drove my Mother to the Rotary Book Sale. It is a big event held a few times a year. People come out of the sale site, the Victoria Inn, with shopping bags full of books.
I saw Fathet Oliver there. The second time, thanks to the grace of God, that i have “run into” him. I asked him for a recommendation of a used Bible i could purchase.
I ended up buying five poetry books, a book about French verbs, a book about baseball for Tony, Nine Stories by JD Salinger, and the Bible.
They don't have this in China.
I’ll have to avoid this at the time of the day next time.
At 7:00 AM, there is heavy rain and thunder and lightning. This will present some logistical difficulties for this day.
I knew of Charlie Kirk. Turns out, my son knew a lot about him. He saw videos of Kirk answering questions from political opponents and ising logic to demolish their contentions.
Tony said he was sad to see what hsppenrd to him.
The plan this morning is to take my Mom to the annual Rotary Book Sale being held at thr Victoria Inn.
And i just uploaded this:
Already, I have extended my Duolingo streak to 2054 and I uploaded the video below to my YouTube channel:
In a few minutes, I’ll wake my son so he can go to school.
I went to have coffee with an acquaintance at the Tim Horton’s by the #1 Highway in Brandon. After I parked, I saw this vagrant sitting on a ledge of sorts on the outside wall of the restaurant. He greeted us in what I thought was a sullen manner. The man being so near my car made me nervous so I sat where I could see my car.
I then noticed many of the customers were giving him money. One man even gave him a donut he had bought in the restaurant. This inspired me to give him some cigarettes from the pack that my Chinese neighbor had given me. Especially seeing how I misjudged him.
So when we finished coffee, I walked out, opened the pack. Do you smoke? I asked him. He said he sure did. Do you want to try some Chinese cigarettes? He said he did. I looked and saw he had ten cigarette butts in the ground in front of him. I gave him two and told him how I came to acquire them.
I then walked to the car. I saw the man smoking one of the cigarettes. How is it? I asked. He said not bad.
As we drove off, he waved farewell to us.
Things that I hadn’t seen in China:
Railway tracks on which you can walk
Dirt roads.
Stop signs.
Tree lined residential streets.
Back lanes.
Signaled railway crossings.
Old trees.
A Keystone Center Selfie.
This morning at 10:00 AM, I had a meeting with the ladies running the RCIA program. If all goes well, I will be baptised a Catholic at Easter.
I sent off two job applications.
I extended my Duolingo streak to 2053 days. I am sixty days away from tying Lou Gehrig’s streak.
I uploaded this video:
Watch the video and buy me a coffee!
How I got such a primo stopping and waiting spot (I wasn’t parked) was beyond me. It seemed so good to be true that I thought I was breaking a law.
I then took Tony to get his first haircut in North America. It was also the first time he got his hair cut by a girl!
Tony spent the day at school; I spent the day on the computadora, looking for work; chercher pour le emploi.
I wonder if I have skills for anything in a work where I am told many people have bullshit jobs where they couldn't tell an intelligent person what exactly they were doing at their "job" and their "job" probably didn't serve any useful purpose. Someone, for instance, has a job where they write questions for surveys. I've almost made five bucks doing that.
I'm in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada
I taught English in China. I want to tutor English here.
My time in Canada has been wonderful and stressful. It’s been wonderful to meet nice people and attend masses. But I still don’t have a situation. And as long as I don’t, doing this blog will feel like playing hooky: as does attending Church.
Still, at times I feel strong enough to conquer.
This blog has now had 1,000 views. Andis Kaulins in China, if the stats provided by this site are correct, has had over 2,200,000.
I attended the Festival of Joy that was put on by the Saint Augustine Church here in Brandon. I mingled and meet a lot of interesting people. Some of them were believers that I had read about and seen on the internet but had never met in person till yesterday. The attendees were very multi-cultural. I tried to take my son to it but met with stiff resistance. The most poignant moment of the day for me was having my intentions prayed for by Father Oliver and several others.
It's Sunday. I'll attend a 19:00 mass tonight. I like the fact that they hold three masses at the church on a Sunday. Sunday mornings will be hard for me because I have a standing date now to have beer & smokes on Saturday night with my neighbor who is from Beijing and whose wife is from Nantong, a city in Jiangu which I was able to visit earlier this year.
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I was able to find it in my Mom’s attic.
I went to check out the end-of-the-school-day-picking-up-of-students-by-their-parents at thr elementary/middle (grades 1-8) school near my mother’s home. I did so because I could say I had a sociological interest in it, having participated in the ritual for eight or so years in China, picking up my son Tony.
The ritual was an absolute zoo in China. There were so many cars, so many parents, and so many children. To be fair, the authorities did what they could to control it, but it was a nightmare. I would get to the school very early to get a parking spot. I would angle park the car against the curb because people would double park otherwise — that’s how crowded it was. I would then stand at the security gate of the school and wait for Tony’s class to be marched out. And when I was able to get him to the car, I had to gradually back into traffic and then be stuck in a jam to get away from the school.
At the school near my Mom’s, it was busy, but not as busy. I didn’t see the kids marched out of classes. I did see the street in front of the school packed with parallel parked cars. It being a school zone, the traffic plodded along, but China, there was no need to enforce a 30 kmh speed limit. It was slow enough to begin with.
I choose my son's high school based on its location. So I choose a school close to my mom's place. The idea being that Tony would walk to school.
But the first day, it is cold and raining, and thus I drove my son to school. As I type this, I hope that he is making friends and fitting in nicely. But we'll have to see....
It’s the first day of school near my Mom’s house. The school is a primary/middle school teaching grades 1 to 8. (High School is grade 9 to 12).
My son Tony starts his grade 12 tomorrow.
When I went to school, many years ago, the schools were divided into elementary, junior high, and high school levels: 1-6, 7-9, 10-12 grades. Now it is 1-8, 9-12 grades. China still has the primary, middle, and high school levels.
In China, the beginning and ending of the school days were traffic nightmares as parents dropped off and picked up their charges. I’ll have to see what happens here before I can compare.
There does seem to be a lot of traffic at the primary school near my Mom’s house this morning.
Yesterday, I was able to get an appointment for this afternoon. I had had an appointment for October 1.
Yesterday afternoon, I practiced my parallel parking in the downtown of Brandoon.
Wish me luck!
Tony's first day back to school will be on Thursday, September 4.
Today, Tuesday afternoon, he will see a counsellor at Neelin High School who will tell him what exactly he will be studying in his grade 12 year.
I will be trying to make money and find a job.
I have a few students for online tutoring but it is not earning much income at the moment. I have meet some interesting people from all the over the world. I appreciate how they are not as shy as the Chinese students I taught all these years.
I will be going to the Manitoba Public Insurance office to see if I can get an earlier date for my road test. Currently, I am booked to take it October 1, which is very annoying.
This is the video I uploaded to YouTube this morning:
This video gets added to my Simone Weil playlist. Be sure to visit and help pad my stats! I thought I give the old NGD a rest for a day.
This year’s September Day is Labour Day in Canada.
It’s a holiday for people with jobs.
