Tears of Disappointment, Shame, and Pride

A week and a half ago I took a train into downtown Vancouver. I went shopping at a downtown mall and picked up omiyage gifts for U's family at the iconic Hudson's Bay store. It was a bright warm sunny day, although the mountains were hidden behind clouds, so I decided to walk along the waterfront to the Olympic fountain - which I heard had been re-lit to celebrate the Canucks and their run for the Stanley Cup.


Then I walked back to downtown, stopping at the big London Drugs to pick up snacks, and met a high school friend to watch game 4 of the Stanley Cup finals. She had camp chairs and we set them up right in front of her office building, in the huge crowd gathering in the middle of the street in front of one of the huge screens. As we got closer to game time more and more fans streamed into the area, and it was an AMAZING atmosphere. Everybody was in Canucks blue and green. We regularly got wiffs that proved BC weed was being consumed but there were no displays of public drunkenness or violence. There were families with young children, high school students, older couples, I could hear conversations around me in nearly half a dozen languages. It really seemed like the entire city had turned out to celebrate together. Just like I did during the olympics, I felt so lucky to be able to be in Vancouver to witness it.


While I enjoyed the atmosphere and the moment in general I didn't enjoy the game so much. Our boys lost, and lost badly. But the fans were good natured. A group of guys behind us started good-naturedly heckling those who were leaving early - ribbing them for being fair weather fans - but everybody was laughing and smiling. We had lost two games badly but in a few days the team would be back on home ice and we had confidence that our team could do it.

A week later and it was the final game of the series, winner takes all. An even bigger crowd is in the downtown area, near the arena where the game is underway. Tens of thousands of miles away a nagging fever has kept me home from work for much of the week and so I'm able to watch the game on a much smaller screen, all by myself.

Unfortunately, the hometown team disappoints once again. A record-breaking season ends in disappointment and the hopes of a city, of an entire country, dashed. It has been 17 years since my team has gotten this far, and I (along with much of the city of the Vancouver) was sure that this was our year.

But my tears of disappointment quickly turned to those of shame and shock as the TV coverage moved from that of the Boston Bruins celebrating on the ice to car fires and throngs of thugs rampaging through the streets. The live coverage was raw and shocking and I couldn't believe it was actually happening, not in the city that I love so much. But there it was.

Rioters smashing the big show windows of the Bay and making off with expensive bags and jewelry. Police cars being flipped and set on fire. Clouds of pepper spray filling the air and plumes of smoke rising to the sky. The tv announcer says in shock "Vancouver is burning!" The rioters move down the street and the windows of the London Drugs are smashed in as the rioters make off with armfuls of potato chips and electronics. I was sickened but I couldn't stop watching, disparing as a city I love was ransacked. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2011/06/15/bc-stanley-cup-fans-post-game-7.html)

I almost couldn't watch my regular Canadian news the next day - ashamed at what the Toronto-based program would have to say about Vancouver. But that was when my tears turned to those of pride as I learned about hundreds of volunteers - regular people from all walks of life and all ages - who turned out with brooms and dustpans, garbage bags and plastic gloves. They began to clean up the city and in doing so attempting to reclaim it as their own, not willing to let it be claimed by the thugs who had rioted the night before.

This outpouring has continued and grown. The windows of the Bay were boarded up and then the boards were covered - in handwritten messages. Messages expressing shame, shock, support for the team, and support for the city. Police cars parked nearby and throughout the downtown area were covered too - in post-it note messages of support and thanks.

That is the city I love. That is Vancouver. And I'm still crying.

TILT

- cool evenings under our new Queen-sized duvet
- getting to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in SEVENTEEN YEARS!!
- realizing U has (a bit of) hockey fever too
- fresh homemade bread
- experimenting in the kitchen (and having it turn out)

Things I love Thursday

With today being the first day after a string of holidays, the museum was closed today so I had the day off. I was looking forward to sleeping in, and had a long list of things I was planning to get accomplished, and was really looking forward to actually watching a playoff hockey game in real-time. I woke up this morning with a pounding headache, however, and barely made it through two periods of the hockey game (Vancouver was down and ended up loosing) before having to crawl back into bed in the hopes that a short nap would help the tylenol do its work. That ended up being the story of my day - try and do something, then need to curl up for a nap until the pain in my head subsided enough for me to get up and do something, only to need to crawl back to bed again.

So not really a great day for a Things I love Thursday, but still, here goes...

- the new shawl I've started knitting - I cast on last night (and then ripped it out and cast on again when I realized I had done so with the wrong needles... ugh) and after doing a few rows I decided that the pattern just wasn't working with the yarn. So I hit Ravelry, found the perfect pattern and started learning how to knit entrelac - a type of pattern that looks crazy confusing as you have little squares going in every direction, but once you get the hang of is very straightforward. I love the way it is working, as the yarn is variegated and instead of spreading the colour out into long long stripes and mixing it all together, the little squares mean that the colour is in blocks, and it looks incredible. Since the shawl is for me, I'm even more excited about it!

- my coworkers - one of the best things about my job at the museum is the other part-time people I work with. They are fun and we tease each other a lot. A new girl has just started and seeing the workplace through her eyes has been a reminder of just how much I like my coworkers (as was how lonely it was being the only one there on Tuesday!)

- my virtual support network - posting the other day about how nervous I was about meeting U's family, and having family and friends, as well as virtual friends I've never met, there to reassure me and give me advice.

- cooking experiments - since I'm allergic to tomatoes I tend to make a cream/cheese sauce for pasta. It is one of my quick meals, normally I'll cheat with a package sauce that I augment with fresh veggies and perhaps some meat as well. One of the things I did accomplish today was to make up a big pot of home-made sauce. I didn't have a recipe, just experimented and ended up with a delicious spinach cream (with skim milk) sauce with three kinds of mushrooms and onions and pork. I'm looking forward to being able to freeze it and have quick home-made meals.

- having a microwave! U was given one by a friend/collegue who recently got married. U had agreed to take it, figuring we could use it when we move in together (yup, watch this space...) but in the meantime suggested that I have it at my place as he doesn't have a kitchen. I still haven't gotten used to having it, and so am not using it all that much, but I love being able to easily warm up the milk for my morning latte!

Things I love Thursday

A rather random list this week, but here goes...

- seeing people take the time and effort to do something for strangers, like the freight train driver who rang the train bell for the little boy waving from the overpass. It was a small thing, didn't take much effort by the driver but it thrilled the little boy to no end!

- my new hair cut - I decided last summer not to cut it and instead to keep growing it out so I could do a do for grad and my hakama wearing. That now behind me I went to my hairdresser on Monday. He's known for months that this day would be coming and was almost excited as I was to chop! I ended up getting new bangs too. I'm really happy with the result. Ask me again in a few weeks when the novelty of having to blow-dry a "style" and not wimp out with a pony-tail has worn off, I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune but for now I love feeling light and bouncy.

- classes - I'm sitting in on the grad class my prof is teaching this term as there is only one actual student. I love taking classes - learning and discussing - and not having any grades to worry about means its fun!

- ice hockey - Not that this is a new thing, I've loved hockey (or rather one particular player) since elementary school. But I've been getting a lot of hockey recently. Its playoff time in the NHL, and my Vancouver Canucks just made it into the second round. I've also gone to a couple of my university's games. They are one of the better teams in the top Tokyo league, but after a few disappointing years of third place finishes, have made it into the finals (TONIGHT!!) for the spring tournament. I'm doing my best to turn U into a hockey fan too, and he's been a good sport about heading out to the arena to watch games and shiver. I think his favourite part is still watching the Zamboni, but he's figuring out the game bit by bit.

Hockey 'n Nan

In high school my friends and I went to hockey games a couple of times a year. We would take the bus across town and get to the arena hours before the game, before even the players had arrived. We would hang around the player's parking lot, waiting for them to arrive so we could get autographs. We would then spend an hour or so in the gift shop before watching the pre-game warm-up and then hiking up to the rafters to watch the game. Buying nosebleed seats was about all we could afford, so we would normally smuggle in snacks instead of paying the exhorbitant rates for the food at the arena. Back then I associated hockey games with red licorice and all-dressed chips.




My uncle's workplace has long had season tickets to the local NHL team and I was lucky enough to occasionally get to go to games - either with my family or with a friend. With good lower level seats and increased security measures smuggling in cheap food was no longer an option, so I began to associate hockey games with hot dogs, nachos with liquid cheese sauce, and frozen chocolate malts.



I went to see my university's hockey team in their semi-final game last week with a friend from school. It was a great game, hard fought and very evenly matched. Unfortunately my boys lost in overtime when they had a momentary lapse on defense. As my friend and I left the arena and headed to the train station I asked her if she wanted to grab dinner before going home. She assented and said "well since we've come to the hockey game, now we have to go for Indian!" Of all the cuisines that come to mind in conjunction with the sport of ice hockey, I have to say that Indian would be one of the very last I'd have come up with until recently. Now, well, it makes perfect sense. My favourite Indian restaurant in Tokyo (the curry is good, but the nan is exceptional!) is on the opposite side of the city from me, in an area I don't go to often. In fact the only time I do go through the area is to and from hockey games. That particular restaurant has thus become our favourite spot to celebrate wins and nurse losses.


Ice hockey and spinach curry - a match made in Tokyo!

Oh Canada - Oh Meiji!

I may live in Japan and my friends may often comment that given my likes and mannerisms I must have been Japanese in a previous life, but I can tell you that I am definitely Canadian in this life! I've had a couple of (good) reminders of this over the past few weeks.

A few weeks back I attended the Tokyo Canadian Club's annual Thanksgiving dinner. A somewhat strange Japanese guy aside, the dinner was good fun. We ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes... the whole works! A Japanese friend who came with me wasn't quite sure about sweet cranberry on savoury turkey, but she enjoyed the meal (as you can see in this photo) and it turns out that most of the rest of my Japanese friends were disappointed I didn't invite them too. I'm going to have to make a reservation for 10+ people next year as it seems that having told friends about the traditional Thanksgiving dinner I've apparently fostered a huge following!

I've also inspired interest in another Canadian tradition - hockey. While I have been listening to as many Vancouver Canucks games as possible over the internet I miss actually watching games, especially in person. I found out in the spring that Meiji University has a mens ice hockey team but only recently discovered that that team is in the top Tokyo college league, having won the league championship 33 of the last 69 times, including the past three years running. Perhaps not the level I'm used to watching, but then again my 'Nucks haven't been playing at that level recently either! So, I dragged along a Japanese friend who had never watched a hockey game before, and headed out to a small and rather cold arena to show our school spirit. We had a great time! The game was fast paced and with the exception of a lack of effort on the part of the Meiji team in the first half of the third period (which was the reason the game ended in a tie instead of a win for the purple and gold) mostly well-played. The soundtrack included all of my favourites, especially 'Cotton Eyed Joe' and I had a great time explaining the vital role of the zamboni. There were a few differences - after the game ended and the two teams had lined up on the blue lines and bowed at each other they lined up in front of each section of the stands and bowed to their fans; the opposing team's goalie didn't bang his stick on the ice to advertise the end of a penalty, instead the announcer came over the PA system to let all in the arena know that (insert name and number here) was being released back onto the ice. Oh, and after 2 hours of sitting in a freezing arena I've never enjoyed hot can coffee or heated toilet seats more! The friend I took to the hockey game and the Thanksgiving dinner is the same person and is certainly getting her does of Canadiana! It appears that I've converted her into a hockey fan too, she bought herself a program and promised to read up on the rules for the next game!