Walking, shopping, and more unintended walking
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2004
1
10
35
Trip End
Mar 08, 2005
Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada
Sunday, September 12, 2004
Saturday was really boring, by Sunday we were feeling even more cooped up so when we were invited to shop at Value Village, we jumped at the chance to get out of the house. The Ukrainian girl who invited us, made her way to our place and we all jumped on a bus, just excited to have something to do. I thought I had a pretty good idea of where we were headed, but we ended upwalking around for quite awhile and asked for directions twice. We did eventually stumble across it.
The girl who had joined us, I sitll haven't pegged her. She is from Ukraine, has the worst level of English and doesn't try. She is also married, her husband will be one of our supervising bosses in Ostroh when we go there. I get the feeling she feels invincible and above the regular rules. I dunno-- at times I feel sorry for her, at others, she just rubs me the wrong way. Sometimes I think she understands more than she lets on and plays the "oh, I'm sorry" card just a little too often.
Anyway, Value Village was ok, but we were there far too long-- but I managed to find a few things, including a couple of harcover books in great shape. Then they wanted to walk to the mall. They spent along time in Zellers, I was getting so hungry I felt bitchy. When I finally convinced them to leave to check out the rest of the mall, everything was closing.
We headed to the bus station, no snack placed in site, to wait the 30 mins until the bus home. There are times when I miss my car so much, this is one of them.
Later, about 25 mins later, a man walked by an pointed out that being Sunday, buses stopped running at 4pm, over an hour earlier. We walked back to the mall to use a pay phone to see if we could get a ride home, but there was no answer.
We started walking home.
Half an hour in my books started feeling really heavy and I was starting to rethink my purchase. My stomach wouldn't stop growling. Yulia felt bad, so she offered to carry my bags. But I figured, it wasn't her fault, and since I bought them, I ought to carry them.
She was sniffling, and asked if I had any tissue, "I have to blow-up my nose."
I laughed so hard, the books felt lighter. It took me awhile to quiet down, being delirious with hunger didnt help, but I had to explain the difference between 'blow' and 'blow-up' before she realized why it was funny that she had a cold.
Finally we found a small pizza place open that sold by the slice. I wouldn't have made it otherwise. We got home after walking for another hour. I was exhausted."
