-- Keep Moving Because --

I spent today dealing with Canadian immigration bullshit. Not that the Canadian government did anything wrong, but I put in 6 hours trying to compile documents together in a desperate effort to convince the Canadian government to let me come back in 2007, in spite of the fact that I have legally lived, studied, and worked in British Columbia for ten years, PLUS I've already applied to become a permanent resident. The Schengen (i.e., Austria, the Netherlands, and some 13 other countries) visa application was bad enough as it was, but it pales in comparison to applying for an extension for my temporary visitor status.

As I told Joanne, the problem is that I inherit my attitude towards travel from my friends. Most of my friends are Canadian. Which means to undertake the same journey I'm about to do, they would not had to apply for any visa nor deal with ANY consular office. Period. Which is at least $100 and 30 hours less than what I've put in so far. If you have a Canadian (or American or EU or...) passport, give thanks to whatever higher being you believe in and trust that the sort of bitching you're getting from me right now is completely justified.

Saw the Fugitives at Cafe Deux Soleil tonight. I suddenly remembered what it was about their music that I liked so much, or about drinking somewhere listening to a live band. I spoke to one of their members who is an old friend of mine from SFU. They're going to be going to Europe again, I think. Thankfully, I was too thrilled with their performance to launch into a getting-a-visa-to-enter-a-Schengen-state-is-fucking-annoying tirade.

Posted by Diego at 2:19 AM | Permalink | Comments

These are good days. My parents are alive and I'm getting more chances to talk to them, my sister has a good job in New York (but I really ought to call her more often), and I get a chance to tell them that I love them. I just finished two months of paid work as a dance artist. I'm eating okay. I feel uneasy and nervous about my relationship with the world, which is probably a sign that I'm ripe for a big change, but I have the means to educe it. Okay, let's scrap the euphemisms. I have enough money to go to Europe and then to the Philippines to "rediscover myself." God I hated those ten soul-sucking months of corporate slavery... but hot diggity damn the money was good.

Some of the youth that I've gotten to know in Vancouver are extraordinary. I'm thinking of one in particular right now who seems to be on some sort of wonderful path. She isn't talented in a flashy sort of way, but there's something about her that leads me to believe that she's going to do some very good things in the world. I don't know her too well. (At one point, she was studying acting at Methodica. And she's involved with social justice work in one form or another.) But the little I've seen of how her mind works suggests... I don't know, that there's a seed of remarkable ancestry germinating in her.

Lately I've been making the familiar world of Vancouver strange for myself, and I've been learning a lot from it. I guess it's a little like Verfremdungseffekt applied to an audience of one and the proscenium of the world. Judith ([or rather]/[and] the youth whose words were used in Earth = HOME came) hit this right: "We live for that one moment when everybody is together." Vancouver is a sparse, sprawling, beautiful city where every idea seems to come around as if for the first time. It's as gleaming and sanitized as an operating table. It's high time for some blood and guts. The only question that remains is whether we have the courage to do what is necessary to bring this city to life, or are we going to be forever blinded by the sun setting over English Bay.

Posted by Diego at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments

I bought a camera today. Sort of. I'm buying Sarah's digital camera from her, unless I can find a better deal. This week I realized (partly because of a comment that Dan made), that I should have taken more pictures. Suddenly my Dad with his constant photographing snapping seems less ridiculous to me.

I have lived in British Columbia, Canada for the past 10 years, most of them spent in the city of Vancouver (which is unceded Coast Salish Territory). I am going to Vienna, Austria, to study dance for a month, gallavant around Europe for another month, and finally head to the Philippines for another 4 or 5 months. This blog is and will be an account of those months.

Posted by Diego at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments

A: Some people have Swiss cheese memories and cannot remember the simplest things.
B: What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget.
C: For some people the simplest things are too painful.

Posted by Diego at 6:51 AM | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Diego at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments