The Move Out??

I have to be careful about what I post on my blog. Turns out some of my aunts, uncles and cousins as well as, of course, my grandma are reading this rag. I guess I should be impressed that so many people i) care enough about me to check out my blog initially and ii) like it enough to keep reading it. I can't let you all know who I really am. I don't want to destroy the image of myself I have carefully sculpted for you all over time. Really, the issue of who you are versus who you want people to think you are could be extended ad infinitum and I will spare us all from that discussion at this point. Although my roommate Paul (currently writing his M.A. thesis in Philosophy) says you could write an entire thesis on the topic. Again, I will spare you. However, in future I may spare some gory details of my life. After all, as Julie pointed out, I wouldn't want anyone (especially my grandma) to think poorly of me.

The Germans and I decided it would be a good idea (in hindsight don't tell me how we concluded this) to go sightseeing in downtown Detroit. I told the customs agent this on the way over and he almost laughed at me. I should have seen it coming. For a city of its size downtown Detroit is laughable. The interesting sites included the Riverfront, GM headquarters, and the Detroit "People Mover" monorail. We basically saw everything there was to see in about three hours. You can't see everything in downtown Vancouver in three days. Thorsten left his credit card at home in case he was robbed. It really wasn't a terrible idea. The only reason downtown Detroit is safe is because there is almost a cop per street corner. God help you if you venture outside of downtown proper.

In three hours we were hit up for money by literally a dozen people of all shapes, sizes and colours. At one point this black couple said "hello" as we passed them. I said, "hi" as we passed but we didn't stay to chat or anything. I figured they wanted money like the previous dozen people who took the time to talk to us. They proceeded to yell, "F&%$ing white people!" at us because we didn't stop. I don't know what their problem was. We weren't rude. We just didn't stop. The fact they were black had nothing to do with it. Call me crazy, but twelve consecutive people asked us for money. I had no reason to believe these guys were any different. They could have been purple and I wouldn't have stopped. Well, that's not true. I would have taken a photo if they were purple. They were the ones who turned it into a racial issue. I'm jaded: I grew up next to asian kids, african kids, chinese kids, native kids and, yes, boring old white kids. I don't understand this black/white race thing that America has going on. It's as foreign to me as Mandarin Chinese. Actually, that's not true. I grew up in Victoria; Mandarin is far less foreign to me.

I've settled into this routine of coming home from work, running forty minutes, showering, making dinner, wasting time on the internet and then going to bed. I ran with a serious headwind today and it wasn't a problem. I'm motivated by not wanting to permanently suck wind and vomit while playing soccer with my labmates on wednesday evenings. As I was finishing my run today these three girls came onto the path ahead of me on rollerblades. I decided I would try and catch them in my final three minutes. I blew past them after about 2:45. I was quite proud of myself. I'm waiting for the IOC to call about my gold medal. Nobody's called about my Nobel Prize recently, either.

There's this cute girl (well actually there are lots of cute girls, but this one in particular) that works at Shoppers Drug Mart downtown. We always see her when the Germans and I are buying bus tickets. She must think we're gay. Thorsten decided that he would go in sunday to see if she was there. Apparently they had quite a stimulating conversation about sunscreen and shave gel. Downtown has thus been dubbed as "Hot Shoppers". Unfortunately Thorsten didn't get her name. I did. Her name's Olivia. It was on her nametag.

Thorsten, at the end of the day, vegetables are always an option.

Thanks again to all who tune into my blog. Please give me your feedback on the writing, the content, the wit (or lack thereof), or just tell me something interesting about yourself. No photos please.

Congratulations to Sean and Rebekah on their engagement! Rebekah and I worked at the church and went to El Salvador together last summer. Sean's the coolest computer scientist I've ever met. Really I just pity him because he's an Indians fan. He and Rebekah are two of the awesomest people I know.

My cousin Drew asked me a while ago when I was going to get married. I just laughed. I need to permanently move out of my parents house first.